I met a fellow BDer!!

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Brinn! Your hair! I like it.

One of the few things I regret post-college about my college years was that I spent time in Brooklyn and never quite managed to even instigate plans to meet Encai. Knowing what my schedule was like, it never actually would have worked out, but I still regret not really trying. Mind you, I'd gone dormant at that point, as had she, and when I was in the city my only form of communication out was a cell phone. No computer for four weeks... So it would have been a nightmare trying, but I do still feel bad that I was that close and never managed to find the time.

What I make a point to do now is if I know I'm traveling, I stalk the 'Where do you live?' page to see if anybody is in that area, and then I meekly and shyly PM them, sometimes with the help of others (it was Formendacil that convinced me to PM Pio when I was traveling a few summers ago and I was too shy ("But what if she doesn't like me and doesn't want to meet me?) to do it myself). In some cases it doesn't work out (Pio was going to be out of town the weekend I was nearby, but she recommended some places I should go, to which I went), but there's a solid chance it might, so the tactic shouldn't be discounted.

Since travel can be prohibitively expensive (or I'd have flung myself beseechingly at the Finns by now), one thing to definitely consider really is to just look and see who's conveniently near wherever you're already going to be.

[Lush]

Hello again everyone.

So Squatter actually visited me and my family in Ukraine last month, and I just haven't had a chance to post properly about it.

I was, and continue to be, buried under a solid, immovable mound of work and personal problems (Lush's advice to all children: "Kids, love is not like they say it is in the Disney movies") so it wasn't as cheerful of a visit as one might have hoped. I had to spend vast swathes of my time chained to my desk, while Squa was being looked after by my assorted crazy relatives and the cat. He did, I am delighted to say, live to tell the tale.

Here's what is probably my favourite picture of Squa from the visit:

http://nataliaantonova.wordpress.com...8/p1010073.jpg

He's pictured here at the Monastery of the Caves, or Lavra as we call it. We did actually go down into one section of the caves, and barely escaped alive. It was a week-day, but I hadn't counted on the vast amount of tour groups that would be jammed in there, under the earth. The funniest part of our excursion was when we were whispering quietly in English about getting out, and all of a sudden, the girl in front of me (who was also wearing a traditional scarf like I was, because that's what is required - and I only wish I had a picture of that), turned around and whispered, also in English, "OMIGOD, where is the EXIT?!?!?!"

Well, we did eventually find it. Otherwise, I wouldn't be typing this message now, would I?

And Squa looks pretty darn fine in the picture, if I, a spoiled jezebel, may say so myself.

We celebrated my birthday at this little Hungarian place I like. Some cool people came, there was both English & Russian conversation. I don't remember how much was drunk but, at the very least, Squa and I did not have to be carried out of the premises, which is a testament to our fortitude. Or something.

Squa brought us amazing presents - one is presently immortalized on my neck (while its twin is in the jewelry box), one is hanging up on my brother's wall, one I am presently trying to read, one is stoppering a bottle, and one is tucked into an Umberto Eco book.

The pendants that Squa made for me bear my initials - N. A. This is so I never forget who I am, Squa has said. And I'll try not to. I'll really try.

I wish it wasn't such a tumultuous visit and I wish I'd had more time to properly hang out with my friend, but I'll never stop being grateful for our friendship, and that makes all the difference.

Thanks to the Downs for introducing us.

[Nogrod]

Nice post Lush!

Well, we will be saturating this thread pretty soon I'm afraid with pics and what-not.

But we've had a nice 'Downer meeting going on the last few days here in Finland - and it is still continuing even if Skip left back home in the morning.

So basically Legate moved into Helsinki on Saturday two weeks ago. Rune came last Saturday, Skip Spence on Sunday and Kath on Monday. Then we left for our cottage in the countryside for a few days. Now back in Helsinki we have been hanging around with Spawn as well (this odd "we" being Aganzir, Lommy, Greenie, Volo & myself on top of those already mentioned). Sadly I have now basically daily choir-rehersals (premiere is on the next Wednesday) and can't take part in all the fun but I'm sure the others will fill you up with enough details...

So look out for the "ten-Downers in a same picture" -event! (Sadly we couldn't make it into 11 as Annunfuiniel couldn't reach us)

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

It was an interesting stay in Finland, even though Nogrod declared that I would loose an ego fight against The Phantom.

Anyways I will provide a longer post and photos in a few days, first I have a wedding to attend and then the premier league starts.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne

It was an interesting stay in Finland, even though Nogrod declared that I would loose an ego fight against The Phantom.

Was that something you were ever doubting?

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

Was that something you were ever doubting?

It was never something I gave much thought. . . I cannot remember the topic of the discussion, but all of the sudden Nogrod said something like "It would be interesting to see what would happen if you and The Phantom met. . . No, no, you would loose" (The word "ego" might have been in there somewhere)

Anyways, i guess it will have to be a quest of mine to meet the phantom.

[Aganzir]

Some time last spring I was IMing with Rune, who told me he and Kath had been thinking about a possible Finland get-together (that's how it started, really!). We hadn't really been planning anything, but none of us had anything against it, so it happened that Rune arrived on the 8th, skip spence on the 9th, and Kath on the 10th of August. Volo's family kindly let us borrow their house again, so we spent most of the time there. At times the main group (the aforementioned, plus Lommy, Greenie, Nogrod, Legate, Volo, and yours truly) was joined by dancing spawn and our friend Annina. Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet Annunfuiniel, who is also a Finn.

When I arrived at Nog's place last Saturday, Nog, Lommy, Green & Legate had already picked Rune up from the airport. I can't remember how exactly we spent that day, but I (and Annina) left around 1 am and the others saw us to the bus stop.

On Sunday Lom & Green took Rune to Seurasaari (Rune, Green, spawn), which is a small and pretty island with old Finnish houses and lots of tame squirrels. I was busy so I didn't come along but went straight to Nog's place later, where I met him and skippy. Soon the others arrived as well, bringing Volo and spawn with them. We played some Paper Telephone, wrote stories the same way, ate, and left for Volo's house. There we played Twister, which was lots of fun. The photo features Legate, Greenie, Volo, and Lommy. Nog and skippy slept in a bunk bed. It looked funny.

Kath arrived on Monday. Annina, Rune, Greenie and I went to pick her up, while Nog, Lommy, Legate, skip, and Volo were in another car, ready to head to Nog's family's summer cottage. We were half an hour late because we thought her plane would land later, but luckily she didn't have to wait for too long. And poor Kath had no time to get used to Finland when she was taken straight to the wilderness! Fortunately she wasn't too shocked. Even the weather was (mostly) good and the water in the lake was warm.

This year we hadn't planned any RPG, so we just spent our time doing whatever you can do at a summer cottage. We had a sauna, swam, played cards, rowed on the lake (skip, Nog & Annina), cooked (Nog, Agan, Kath, Volo, Lommy), wrote more stories, went to pick mushrooms and berries, made crepes, enjoyed small, moderate, or large amounts of alcohol (depending on the person), and talked, talked, and talked about topics such as politics, history, religion, the Downs, animal rights in Denmark, sauna clubs, and whether Rune is Ron Weasley or not. It was lots of fun.

We came back to Helsinki on Wednesday and went to eat in a small pub/restaurant (the (mostly) blonde side: Volo, Rune, Green, Annina. The dark side: Lommy, Legate, Kath, skip). Spawn came over to Volo's place as well, so I think we broke the previous record since there were ten of us (Volo, Green, Lommy, Legate, Agan, Kath, Nog, skip, Rune, spawn. Sorry for the bad quality, but it's impossible to get 10 Downers to stay still and smile at the camera at the same time. Here's a better one which also includes Annina). It was a fabulous evening. Kath taught us a cheerleading thing (can't remember what it was called. Volo is held up by Rune, Annina, skip, and Kath herself). Then we wrote more stories (the point was that everybody writes two lines, and the next writer can only see the latter line before writing her/his own two lines. In the photo: Rune, Nog, spawn, Kath, Green, Agan). There were some darn funny ones, and we might post one also here at some point. First we must find a family-friendly one, though. One of the highlights was a real-life werewolf game with 11 players (almost as many as in the first BD WW). Of course we couldn't do much in-depth analysis or anything, but it was very interesting nonetheless, and I think we all agree that skip should start playing werewolf! For the record, three people in the photo (skip, Rune, Nog, Annina, Green, spawn) are werewolves. Can you guess who?

Poor spawn left around 4am, and we others went to sleep. Nog and skippy had to wake up terribly early since skip was going back home on Thursday, but we others could sleep a bit longer. A bit longer varied from 11am (Green) to 2.30pm (Volo). We didn't do very much that day - Lom & Green visited their home to get some more clothes, Kath, Rune & I went to grocery, and then we just played cards. In the evening we made food ourselves since our favourite cook Nogrod was in his choir rehearsal - pasta, a mushroom-blue cheese-onion sauce, and a bolognese sauce. At least the former was quite good, if I may say so myself.

Then we went out with spawn. We encountered some difficulties since Greenie is still underage and several bars don't let under 20-year-olds in anyway, but we found a nice enough place to sit for a couple of hours. But we left in a hurry because we wanted to catch a bus, and we had walked good 200 metres when we realised we had forgotten Volo! He had gone to the toilet, and although he was there for maybe a minute or two, when he came back the table that had previously been crowded was completely empty. Whoops.

From the bus stop we decided to walk the 30+ minutes it took to Volo's. Kath looked like she was cold, so the gentlemen Rune and Volo lent her their coats (in the pic: Volo, Lommy, Kath, Rune). It made her more comfortable - until we had to walk uphill.
Back at Volo's, we ate the delicious blueberry-raspberry pie Greenie had made earlier that day, and Volo dressed in leather pants and a pink t-shirt. Then we went to sleep since everybody (except for me) was tired.

Rune left on Friday. We saw him off to the airport and went back to Volo's just to find that his family had returned from their holiday a couple of days earlier than we had thought. So we packed up and went to stay the last days at Nog's instead. We watched Monty Python and played cards.

On Saturday we took Kath to the Suomenlinna sea fortress. We walked around and ate candy, and Greenie and I went to swim. The others thought the sea was too cold. We also visited our old haunts we've taken every Downer to see - the so-called Barrow-Downs (Volo, Annina, Kath, Legate, Lommy) and Dead Marshes (Agan, Legate, Lommy, Greenie, Kath, Volo, Annina). Then we found a couple of Downer-appropriate photographing sites: a hole in a wall and a gravestone look-a-like. Also, Kath stuck her head in a cannon.

Later at Nog's we entertained ourselves by watching the participants of the Helsinki City Marathon, who ran right past his balcony. From his flat it's about 1.5 km till the finishing line, so they were quite tired. Then we watched more Monty Python, and when we got tired of it, we went out to a park and introduced Kath to Mr Théodred, whose face has been painted black recently.

This morning everybody slept over, and we woke up half an hour before we were supposed to leave when Annina called me and told she was leaving home now. We managed to get to the airport in time, though, and said goodbye to Kath.

It was a lovely week with amazing people, and I miss them all already. They're so sweet and funny to spend time and talk with. Thanks so much for coming.

♥

(The photos included in this post have been taken with my, Volo's and Legate's cameras, so most of them are consecutively taken by us, but thanks to everyone who took pictures.)