Camping and My First Anime Convention!
The camping trip for a week was okay! Its getting very dull for my brother and younger cousin though, since our families have been routinely camping at the same resort for the past 6 years, but apparently that resort is a lot cheaper than others due to the (still nice) cabins being older, and our families really like the area a lot to meet and hang out, so I don't mind. I find the camping trips pretty relaxing XD (Like...the only younger-family member who likes the trips *kinda lame*) I ended up playing "The World Ends With You" and re-reading D-Gray-Man manga throughout the week, as well as swimming a huge amount.
After that I went to Vancouver with my mother and stayed with grandparents for two days. I went clothes shopping and visited the Vancouver Art Measuem during that time, which was showing a gallery on Anime, Manga and Videogames. So that was cool!
I was pretty lucky since a Mion Sonozaki cosplay that I got for the Anime Evolution convention arrived just in time, and I managed to buy a cheap green wig at a costume store near my grandparents place. However, the wig was a rats nest when I pulled it out of the bag, and it got really bad (Like, a ponytail looked like a ball of fuzz bad) when I tried to de-tangle it, and I didn't want to spend anymore money on the cosplay to buy another wig, so I didn't cosplay Mion in the end. That really sucked, but at least I can use the cosplay for next year? (still kinda sad over it thoooo T__T)
As for the convention itself, the first two days kinda sucked, but I found the last day to be very fun!
I got really sick during the first two days and very little sleep (Like 2-3 hours, due to sharing a room with five club members who got to the hotel room at 12:00am) so...I was totally out of it during them, and had like...zero braincells/interest in hanging out with anybody. (Club members and other people) I ignored it and tried to do as much stuff as I could, but I still...felt like crap XD So instead of hanging out with people, I just tried to just shop like crazy on those days, and quietly go to panels by myself/with Jesse, who was in a similer state as I was. The "walk-off" cosplay battles, opening ceremony, AMV Hell panel and the 4chan panel (Yeah XD But the girl I went with to that with was hilarious) were my favorite.
As for the venders themselves; there were alot of hand-made The World Ends With You stuff being sold, despite the game just coming out, so it was awesome! I got abunch of TWEWY pins and bookmarks, as well as a replica of Shiki's hat (Which I was hoping I could wear in public, but now I'm not too sure XD), a "I'm Communism" shirt, some D.Grey Man and FMA merchandise and some hand-drawn FE fanart that an anime club member bought for me (I liked her alot, but didn't think she liked me that much/didn't have much in common, so that was really really nice! I hanged out with her alot on the last day/when driving, and she's awesome.)
On the second day the group all cosplayed in Kingdom Hearts "Sleepytime" costumes, which was the entirety of Organization 13 wearing their uniforms with pajamas and stuffies (for some of us). I'm pretty sure it was a KH-fandom joke, from listening to some KH-cosplayers chat with some of us. The costumes were entirely made by one person, so that had to be a lot of work for her! That was really nice. It was abit embarrassing infront of non-KH fandomers though, since I think it might have looked like we just got out of bed and put our costumes on top of our pajamas, but I was waaaay too tired that day to really care, and I'm pretty sure Jesse didn't care at all XD
I was really really really tired and out of it on those days though, so I hope the people I met on those days don't totally hate me. XD; (Although I really wouldn't blame them ~__~'' It was embarrassing)
Even though the third day was shorter then the others, I actually got about 5 hours of sleep the night before, and the sickness was going away at that point, so I had a lot of fun on that day! I made a point of hanging out with people on that day, and it was great. I chatted with a girl in a vendor-lineup for about an hour who really liked Higurashi No Naku Koro ni and Shions story a lot (While I liked Rika-Hanyuu's plotline), a girl cosplaying as Chi who helped me out with what kind of Japanese candies tasted good, a bunch of anime club members who I never saw outside of the club, and a guy cosplaying as Peanut-Butter-Jelly-Time Banana-Guy, who knew a lot of Club members from earlier years! The main reason why I wanted to go to the convention was to hang out with people as dorky as me, so I had a lot of fun that day!
Overall, the last day gave me a good impression of conventions, and I will totally go to AE again next year, but next time, I need to obsessively take care of my health before the convention (eat lots of onions, Vitamin C, ect) so that I don't get sick!
TL;DR: Week-long camping was very relaxing and good! Afterwards, I went to Vancouver for two days, and went to the Vancouver Art Gallery, which was showing Anime/Manga/Videogames and was very fun. I got my Convention Mion Sonozaki cosplay in time, but I didn't cosplay as her due to a /really/ /really/ crappy impossible rats nest nest wig that I got. During the convention itself, I got sick and little sleep (2-3 hours) on the first two days of the Convention, and so those days sucked due to my brain dead-ness. However, I got better and the last convention day totally rocked! I bought a lot of TWEWY merchandise there, talked to a lot of people on the last day, and I will go to a convention again due to the awesome-ness of the last day, but next time I will obsessively take care of my health before going so that I don't get sick again!