EF 17: fuck yeah.

[balinares]

I've noted this weird thing about EF.

For some reason, the even-numbered ones always seem to work better for me than the odd-numbered ones. For instance, take this year: compared to last year, it was only super awesome.

There are worse fates. :)

So! Highlights.

- No crap, the staff keep one-upping themselves year after year. I noted and appreciated the significant improvements in the scheduling, with less event-heavy evenings and more time between the SIGs, and the Pawpet Show has once more raised the bar to entire new heights. I mean. Guys. We're talking of a sci-fi techno thriller played live with puppets. And they made it work. Kudos for the new puppet designs, and the balls to drop long established and well-loved characters.

- Everything went so fast. So many people I didn't manage to sit with and talk a bit, unciaa, shinigamigirl, even my own roommate thewerewolf! Crazy. Take Saturday evening: I accidentally blinked, and suddenly it was 5am. The earliest I went to bed all con was 3:30am, and even so it feels like I didn't have time to do one tenth of what I wanted.

- So many missing people. chipotle, 2_gryphon, garrwolfdog, kefen, even a few familiar faces from old times that I don't know as well... It feels like an incomplete EF without you guys.

- The food in Germany is so much better and cheaper than my daily fare in Paris. The steakhouse next to the hotel is AWESOME. Thank you so much, footpad. :) Now I owe you a dinner, and it will be my utmost delight to make good on it.

- Soooo many ponies. Everywhere. On badges, on tee-shirts, coming up in SIGs and in the art auction and more. I made myself a conspicuous brony badge and subsequently found myself spending the rest of the convention giving brohoofs (brohooves?) to cartloads of strangers. We're taking over something major, guys.

- MADE ART FOR BEER! Heck yeah. The ever adorable delph_bunny got me beer in exchange for a pony line art. I'm THIS CLOSE to actual artist, I swear. Also I spent quite a bit of time just sitting and drawing (ponies, yes, and IN PUBLIC, yes), which makes me feel cool.

- Met new people. EF is still so surprisingly good for meeting people. :) So, thanks to Shironeko for being awesome and making me proud on his first ever game of Chairman Mao, thanks to XEvoNex for the pizza and the company, thanks to Mister Coontail for generally being a laid back guy and nice to hang out with, thanks to Kurano for being fun conversation and letting me try his weird Chinese violin thing, and I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

- In Germany, liquor comes in ORAL SYRINGES. I'm not even kidding. Unlikely circumstances earned me a shot of delicious raspberry liquor for a measly 1€. I kept the syringe. It shall soon see more service, yeeeees...

So, yeah. Great times. The return home is being pretty rough, though. I'll have to be patient. It will get better eventually.

Comments

[footpad.livejournal.com]

Pshaw. Feeding steak to dragons is just a sensible public-safety initiative. Your steak was actually funded by the Campaign for Real Virgins, and not by the European taxpayer as I may have incautiously implied.

But you're most exceedingly welcome and I shall gladly accept the prospect of a meal in return.

[balinares.livejournal.com]

> Feeding steak to dragons is just a sensible public-safety initiative.

This made me laugh and bit straight into the solid chunk of PCD I've been fighting all day. :)

But awesome as the steak was, really, it was nothing compared with the pleasure of your company. <3 I'm sorry about the initial communication failures; I've not practiced my English in waaaay too long (well, about a year, coincidentally) and your lovely British accent momentarily overwhelmed my untrained French ear. I really really need to find a way to keep in practice.