I met a fellow BDer!!

[Aganzir]

A few quick comments, a more elaborate post on our Downer meetings will follow when we have more time. Suffice to say everybody is awesome.

Originally Posted by the phantom

Friday- Aganzir skipped off into the woods to explore, wearing no shoes at all! I am still uncertain how she managed it given the stickers and poison ivy that carpets the forest.

We don't have poison ivy in Finland so I was obviously not aware it might be dangerous. Anyway either it doesn't affect me or I'm even better at walking barefoot in forests than I thought.

Originally Posted by phantom

(Funny quote- At one point Greenie said that something Agan had done caused her to look suspicious, and Agan dismissively responded, "Well, that's really not my problem."

If the village decides to lynch innocent!me, it's their problem, not mine. I'm only helpful as long as they want my help!

Originally Posted by phantom

Not surprisingly the unsuitable parts were mostly all in the same hand-writing, but I won't point any fingers (and I'm sure you can figure it out anyway).

We're quite unanimous there was more than one family-unfriendly handwriting!

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

Sooooo curious.

X stands obviously for xyzzy.

Originally Posted by Folwren

In the two hours they were there, I managed to embarrass myself extremely at least once...

We at least didn't notice anything.

Originally Posted by Folwren

Nogrod and company, I have a question to ask you all sometime so that a matter between me and my Camp friends can be settled...

Sure, go ahead!

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

We don't have poison ivy in Finland so I was obviously not aware it might be dangerous. Anyway either it doesn't affect me or I'm even better at walking barefoot in forests than I thought.

Good thing that you have good skills; it's either that or good luck that helped you not step on the shattered glass in the forest in Washington!

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

Sure, go ahead!

Okay, this may sound ridiculous to you, but it wasn't my doing, it was their's...

You had not been gone for two minutes before Janie, Zhenya, and Justin withdrew into a clump apart from Chad and I and when I began to pay attention to what they were saying, what I heard was, "Yes, it was definitely a Brittish accent."

"You guys!" I said, bursting in on their bubble. "They're from Finland - it was a Finnish accent!"

"No, no," they said wisely, turning towards me. "We obviously heard an English accent in there."

"How on earth could it be an English accent when they grew up and learned English in Finland?"

They tried to convince me that it was a Brittish accent and a reason that it might be that is because that would be the closest English speaking people near you, so you would take up their accent. I tried to explain that it didn't matter if the Brittish were the closest to you, you all learned English in grade school, so your accents would be Finnish, since you learned it from childhood AND you learned it from Finnish teachers, not from Brittish ones.

So....prove I'm right, and tell me that your accent is not a Brittish accent, but a Finnish one. er...I mean, tell me what accent you would consider yours to be. When you see a person from Britain, is their accent different than yours? I know that looking back, for instance, the way Aganzir's proper name is pronounced by you all is very different from how we pronounce it here in America, and again different from how it would be pronounced in Britain. I could not think of any other examples than her name off the top of my head, but I know it wasn't a Brittish accent.

I ran after you all to try to get your opinion on the matter, but you had just started down the hill and didn't see me running like a mad person behind you.

Hope your trip back home is safe.

-- Foley

[Kath]

So....prove I'm right, and tell me that your accent is not a Brittish accent, but a Finnish one.

Easy as pie! Come over here with your friends, bring Agan ... and have the two of us talk. The difference will be clear.

So I will post here soon about my adventures, I'm just struggling to get my photos off my phone at the moment!

[wilwarin538]

I had the Finns at the same time that I had Kath, and it's clear to me that their accents are really different. Definitely not British. And then I found that Agan has a slightly different accent then Nog, Lommy and Greenie do, even though I believe she grew up in the same area as they did. And if you were to talk to Rune I find his accent sounds very British, though he is from Denmark. I guess it depends on how/when/from whom, they learned English. I just think they all sound really awesome.

edit: wow, x'posted with Kath, haha

[the phantom]

Originally Posted by me

Not surprisingly the unsuitable parts were mostly all in the same hand-writing, but I won't point any fingers (and I'm sure you can figure it out anyway).

Originally Posted by Agan

We're quite unanimous there was more than one family-unfriendly handwriting!

Oh, I meant my comment to be taken as plural, but without actually giving a number. But since it came up, there were primarily two offenders, with an occasional third thrown in.

Originally Posted by Wilwa

And then I found that Agan has a slightly different accent then Nog, Lommy and Greenie do, even though I believe she grew up in the same area as they did.

Ha ha, yes, that's one of the first things I said to the Finns after they arrived. "Um, Maria's accent is different from yours. Why is that?" They answered, "It's just a Maria thing".

And Folwren- you should know that one of the differences I heard in Agan's accent was a slightly Brit flavor that popped up here and there. Every once and a while it really stood out. On one occasion she said "Thank you" and I started laughing due to the fact that it sounded amazingly like Kath (we had just mentioned her in conversation). So while her accent certainly was not that of a Brit, I can perhaps understand where your friends got the idea from- if it was Agan they had in mind that is. The others never sounded anything other than Finnish to me.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by wilwarin538

And then I found that Agan has a slightly different accent then Nog, Lommy and Greenie do, even though I believe she grew up in the same area as they did.

Mr. Ibrin and I noticed the same thing, but then, we've known others for whom English is a second language who had rather British-like accents because of where or from whom they learned it, so it didn't really surprise us. We were quite delighted by the fact that all of the Finns speak English better than a number of supposedly well-educated Americans we know. As both of us have journalistic backgrounds, it just proved our belief, as Henry Higgins says, that "in America, they haven't used it for years."

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by wilwarin538

And then I found that Agan has a slightly different accent then Nog, Lommy and Greenie do, even though I believe she grew up in the same area as they did.

So I wasn't the only one who had that perception. Interesting.

Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel

We were quite delighted by the fact that all of the Finns speak English better than a number of supposedly well-educated Americans we know.

I would certainly second that. They are more well-spoken in English than many people I know who are native speakers.

[Encaitare]

Just popping in to say that I had an awesome two days with Rune and Kath recently! Those two always know how to make me laugh.

**The links in this post are photos. Those of you who are Facebook friends with me may have already seen them.

The first day, we went to the beach and I was really excited about it. Rune, on the other hand, was very rugged, and Kath was just her usual lovely self! We took a nice long walk down the shore. I got accidentally soaked by a wave while investigating a strange piece of buried metal. And I attempted to explain the geography of Long Island to Kath. Our conversation was something like this.

Kath: So is Long Island actually an island?
Me: Yes, it's not a faker like Rhode Island. There's the bay to the north, and the Atlantic to the south, which is where we are. You know this ocean personally.
Kath: Actually, I don't live on the ocean side of England.
Me: Whoops.

That night, we cooked dinner and went to see Toy Story 3! It wasn't Rune's first choice of movie, but Kath and I wanted to see it, so we flipped a coin and that was that. Rune was a perfect gentleman, however, and bought us cotton candy, yum!

The second day was very laid back. We played some overly complicated nerdy board games (the best kind!) and went minigolfing. On the minigolf "course," there was a big Yankees themed cow sculpture. Tackytown! Of course we had to take pictures with it. We also tried our hands at the batting cages. I regretted to note that my skills have steadily declined since my days of All-Star Softball. And we had yummy Thai for dinner!

How can I help but love those two? I'm looking forward to seeing a Brinn and some Finns next week!

[Mnemosyne]

So, I spent a lovely 6-ish hours in the company of the House of Nog + Agan.

Things got off to a bumpy start when it turned out that their phone had no minutes left. I was asleep in my room when they got to the cafe we'd planned to meet at, having been up till 2 in the morning driving a kid to the ER (she's fine). They IMed and PMed me, but to no avail... till I woke up and saw I had a waiting IM on my comp.

I dashed over to the cafe, taking a call in the meantime from Sally who had been called by phantom who had seen the Finns' panic-stricken plea on Facebook.

All the Finns, needless to say, were lovely. We hung out in the cafe for a while, while deliberating what exactly we were going to do for the day. Eventually we settled on driving to the local public gardens and strolled around until we found the Epic Magnolia of Epic.

Agan and I immediately set to climbing it (me in tights and boots, which is a very idiotic thing to do in NC weather), which I only later found out was against park policy. Many photos ensued--apparently we both looked very elvish from the ground. Then Lommie joined us in the tree for a bit, there were more photos, and a discussion of various school organizations and things.

Afterwards we camped underneath what was dubbed Young Man Willow and played a rousing game of Apples to Apples (Sally's magnanimous gift). We were going to play Munchkin as well but ran out of time.

Dinner was at a Greek restaurant, in which we discussed such things as climate, tabletop RPGs, and linguistic tastiness. I have decided that all accents need to be IPA'd, and decided that what made Aganzir's accent sound more "British" was because she made her o's a diphthong.

All in all I found my visitors to be august company--a real delight to speak with, especially after being surrounded by pubescent nerds for the past three days. There was surprisingly little Tolkien talk, but when it slipped in it was natural as breathing.

I'd offer photographic evidence, but I'm afraid the pictures that I took were intended to be supplemented by the ones that everyone else did. So await their massive posts for illustration.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I tantalize you with a hint of what is to come:

Rune is currently lodging at the Casa de Feanor, and though he will shift from the house to a hotel later today, he will continue to interact with my family until Wednesday.

In preparation for his tale, one should remember that Mirandir warned him - only slightly exaggerating - that there is a gun in every room and that he should be scared.

He shall let you know what transpires.

[Mithalwen]

What? You mean if he lives long enough?

[satansaloser2005]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

I tantalize you with a hint of what is to come:

Rune is currently lodging at the Casa de Feanor, and though he will shift from the house to a hotel later today, he will continue to interact with my family until Wednesday.

In preparation for his tale, one should remember that Mirandir warned him - only slightly exaggerating - that there is a gun in every room and that he should be scared.

He shall let you know what transpires.

Bugger. I can't rep you again yet.

Rune, please survive (if only to tell us cautionary tales for future Fea visits)!

[Keeper of Dol Guldur]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

I tantalize you with a hint of what is to come:

Rune is currently lodging at the Casa de Feanor, and though he will shift from the house to a hotel later today, he will continue to interact with my family until Wednesday.

In preparation for his tale, one should remember that Mirandir warned him - only slightly exaggerating - that there is a gun in every room and that he should be scared.

He shall let you know what transpires.

Psh like I'd ever exaggerate about how Fea's older brother (one of them at least) would want to kill him in his sleep. Oh, and did I mention he sleeps with a gun?

But ya know, I'm sure he'll be fine. The demon dog who hates everyone will keep him safe.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Wilwa, Rune wants to know why you're jealous of him for being with me, but not jealous of me for having Rune here.

[Keeper of Dol Guldur]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

Wilwa, Rune wants to know why you're jealous of him for being with me, but not jealous of me for having Rune here.

Obviously because you're way cooler. Even though you accuse me of dating your brother. haha love you, sis!

PS. It was less of a passing comment, more of a flat out "DUDE YOU CAN'T POST ANYMORE! blah blah blahstoppedlistening"

[Aganzir]

I was finally going to post my impressions on people I met during the second part of our trip, but then I was assaulted by a couple of Downers on various IMing programs and now it's quite late so it will have to wait. For a few weeks.
However I did add some photos into my first post.

Originally Posted by Rikae

Agan, who I always found a bit intimidating on the 'downs, I felt as though I could especially relate to

That's exactly what I could say about you! :>