It's me again with another update; I've been procrastinating a little so I am covering two events at the same time. I hope you don't mind, and I know I've been promising that I'd get around to it, and ya' know- I never did till now.
With my apologies said; lets get down to business, yes?
Holiday Hetalia Meetup Dec 05 2009
Like normal I ended up not getting any sleep before this event; My sleeping schedule really is screwed up. Despite the exhaustion Jon and I got ready for the event rather quickly and headed out for our meeting place; Westfield Mall in SF. I suggested this mall for the meetup due to the fact that I didn't feel that people would really want to hang out outside in the chilled air the entire time. Everyone seemed to agree that Westfield would be a good place to meet at and so it was settled that we'd go to Westfield and then head off to Union Square for a nice group photo infront of the Christmas tree there.
In any case; I was a little late, as we were waiting for a friend who was going by the BART as well- but that's small potatoes really. After arriving at the BART to wait for Gloria and her friends (the ones we were waiting for) Jon and I decided to let the others know that we'd be up there soon... Needless to say; I always, always get missplaced in this mall and we failed to meet up with everyone so we went back down to the BART- by this point Gloria had arrived and our entire little group headed up to the Bloomingdales Dome rather than the Nordstrom Dome like I thought it was originally supposed to be at. We ended up losing the mother of France that was with us at the time... *sighs* that was a bit mess.
Security came and found France after we all had finally met up with the rest of the group. For a while everyone; including the others that had met up earlier here and those who followed in after our small group; all got together and took photos. We then went out to get food... Jon, myself, a very cute England and America couple, France and a few others ended up losing the main group... We finally found where the majority went- they went for PASTA! I didn't want any and instead ate hot yummy oatmeal from Jamba Juice. America and England decided to eat at this other place and then caught back up with us once we were all done eating.
We then all went back to the Bloomingdale's Dome and I finally was able to get ahold of all the cosplayers; which seems to be like coralling wayward sheep (hehe teasing guys)... Finally I was able to get everyone to stop looking at my fake boobs (As I was cosplaying Christmas!Ukraine) and focus on me. We then all went down to UnionSquare with people staring... Jon (Prussia) lead the group and I headed the back. We all got to Union Square in one piece! We met up with a group of people giving free hugs! Which of course as you all know; Hetalia people love free hugs for some reason... And finally we went to take our group photo... Once this was done we ended up mauling the Grinch since we could not find Santa (the one at the mall was busy) and took a few photos with him.
Afterwards we were all going to go to Westfield again but I was told by the mother of France that we were "unofficially" kicked out of the mall. Apparently they did not like us "loitering" there, so Jon and I attempted to grab everyone who was heading back but the main group just wanted to split ways and go shopping... Which was a good idea. So with a small group of our own, we managed back to Westfield to find anyone who else would like to go down to Embarcadero Center... We found people and decided to do just that. So Jon and I gathered our group and headed down to the center; which was like normal; abandoned. We all took photos there and ended up on Pier 1, the Ferry Building, and walked around a little until I had to take Sailor!Italy back to her parents and Mafiso!Italy and Lichtenstein to their's. I then went back to our ever thinning group and we decided to go down to Pier 39, Red!China decided to head on home; and we decided after a little while to do the same rather than go down to Pier39... And so our group headed on home parting ways at the BART.
I zoned out on the BART and fell asleep promptly when I got home.
Pros:-Getting together with people that I got to hang out at WorldHetaliaDay with.
-Receiving the weird stares and smiles from the norms.
-Going to the Embarcadero Center and Pier 1
Cons:-Getting kicked out of the mall
-Splitting ways with everyone pretty much two hours after the meetup gathered.
Overall: I enjoyed myself; maybe not as much as World Hetalia Day but enjoyed myself none the less. Next time we will look elsewhere to cosplay at and not Westfield as the security were rather rude with some people apparently.
**** Stars: Would have given it more considering the situation with the mall security and the small amount of time we all hung out.
Hetalia Holiday Meetup Photos
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Holiday J-Town Meetup Dec 12 2009
Again another event I did not sleep before; though despite this I enjoyed myself.
Originally this meetup was supposed to be at Golden Gate Park; however rain doused the plans and we all had to end up at Japan Town; calling was made a day before the event and sadly enough it was a very rainy and damp day to the point that Jon and I were planning on backing out if not many people showed up. It's been quite a while since it had rained this much in San Francisco.
Jon and I decided to cosplay Prussia and Ukraine again because of the rain; knowing it would only damage the cosplays if we were to do Spirit and Stein. It also sort of "rained on" our plans, pun not really intended as we couldn't really bring food to J-Town being that it is a business area. So Jon and I decided to put our RiceCrispyTreat sushi in little treat bags and hand them out... That was a great success and a lot of people loved them.
We were again; late to this event as well thanks to the Bus being late and the BART being late and the Muni being late... Everything runs slower on rainy days in SF. But we finally got there. We met up with Gloria and a few of her friends, and I got to see the cosplayer/judge who cosplayed Death the Kidd at Yaoi-con and of course got to see EBK. We all took photos infront of a Christmas tree that was set up inside and afterwards went and did some group shots; rain let up just enough for that... Afterwards we all went to lunch and well... The group ended up doing the same thing the Hetalia Group did; and split up and went our own ways.
Once we were done eating we returned to the main area where we met up; talked with a few people then did the Purikura booths; which I still need to upload. After that we went to the bookstore, picked up copies of the photos and returned home. I again proceeded to pass out when I got home.
Pros:-Got to take some very awesome photos.
-There was a very cool Captain America cosplayer which I ogled the costume of- very well made.
-Hung out with Gloria and other cool cosplayers.
-Got to talk with EBK and a few of the other photographers there.
Cons:-RAIN~! RAIN! RAIN!!!
-Cosplay meetup was very short and I didn't really get to talk to many of the others as everyone really just wanted to take the photos and go home since it was such a rainy event.
-Did not take place at GoldenGate Park as I would have hoped; thanks to weather.
-JapanTown was rather small and I've been there a lot so it's nothing new to me.
Overall: The cons above really had nothing to do with the host BARTBoy; he did what he could with the situation that he had. None the less I still have to pretty much grade the event with my overall experience. Other than the cons, I did enjoy myself it wasn't the strongest event that I've been to- but that's because of the weather and I feel it could have been better if it wasn't raining and it was at GoldenGate but again the host couldn't do anything about this. I will be attending another meetup by BARTBoy however as I did enjoy my time.
*** Stars: Would have given it more if the situation was not how it was. None the less the event itself was fun.
J-Town Holiday Meetup Photos
Next Event/Convention: Animation On Display; Hotel Kabuki- San Francisco CA
Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Season from Foxberry Studios!
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