Asylum Europe Report - FRIDAY
Okay…. I lied. I had to write this report RIGHT NOW, or I never will. I know myself that well *clears throat* So, where to start? At the beginning, I guess.
F R I D A Y
I was packing until 2am on Friday morning while simultaneously squee-ing and sort of panicking with kittyfaelis on MSN. Is there anyone in the WORLD who actually likes packing? Me, I hate it. I always fear I’ll forget something important, and in this case? Meeting six of my favorite people in the world? I’d have kicked myself. Good thing my dad let me borrow his car to drive there. He has a very spacious Mercedes, so I ended up packing pretty much my entire apartment except for the furniture. I kid you not. I had one GIGANTIC suitcase full of clothes for all occasions (and I used almost all of them *ahem*), a shoe bag (and guess how many pairs of shoes I wore all weekend? Yep, 1 LOL), a toiletry bag, a makeup bag, a hair products bag and a food bag. Yep, a food bag. I brought so much candy, you could have fed the whole con. But hey, gotta come prepared, right? As my dad would say - “Women! Taking the entire cave with them since 10.000 B.C.!”
So after a first taste of the huge adrenaline rush of the next few days, I somehow managed to get three or four hours of sleep before getting up at 6am and leaving at 7 in order to avoid holiday traffic jams. My GPS said I’d get to Bad Neuenahr in about 3 hours, so I crossed my fingers for that. Lucky for me cars are more or less sound-proof so I could make dolphin noises all the way without embarrassing myself too much…..… I picked up Kat (kittyfaelis ) and Christin (germanjj at Bonn airport and then the three of us headed on to the hotel. We arrived at noon and were even lucky enough to find our room ready, so we moved all the luggage there, then wandered around for a bit because registration didn’t open until 2pm.
This was our room:
Some pictures of us exploring the venue:
This awesome car belonged to the lady below - which we didn't know when we groped it, lol. We thought it was a staff vehicle or something.
Christin, Kat and myself (left to right)
I have to say, the location was absolutely BEAUTIFUL and the weather was just AMAZING. I’m a little patriotic, you know. I wanted our guests to like Germany, and it may seem like a triviality to some, but I think that if you go somewhere and the weather is shit, you just don’t enjoy your trip QUITE as much. I hoped our guests would get to see this little slice of our country at its very best. And they did! I mean, check this out:
While Kat and I talked to Kati (one of the Rogue stewards), suddenly Mark Pellegrino came strolling into the lobby, looking for someone named Nadia (?) about going horse riding with his wife. HOLY CRAP, that man is GOOD-LOOKING! I liked him before, but I wasn’t a huge fan, which has now of course changed. I am proud and pleased to say that I did not stare or do anything embarrassing. Kat and I did wish him luck, though, and kindly asked him not to fall off because we still needed him for later. Mark smiled and nodded, then someone found that Nadia person’s phone number and then Mark’s wife showed up and they left. We also met Will from Phoenix Copper art who makes these AMAZING journals. Get one at the next con if you can!
Kat and I then went outside to sit in the sun for a bit and take some notes so that we’d actually remember anything to write about in the report, lol. So we’re sitting there on a bench in the park when two guys come running past us and one of them goes “Hi!” to Kat as I’m talking to her. Guess who those two were? Jason and Misha! Sweaty! In shorts! Mhmmmmm, that’s what I call a perfect start of a perfect weekend ;-)
Later on, I wandered around by myself a bit and ran into Traci on one of the bridges across the Ahr river. Well, not really running into her. I actually didn’t see her there at first because I was busy taking pictures of the beautiful landscape (just like Traci was, funnily enough) until a group of girls approached her for a picture. We were told not to do that, which Traci pointed out as well, but she was in a good mood and shrugged and then took the picture anyway. Then she ventured on further down the river. I wanted to go that way too, but I didn’t wanna look like I was following her, so I turned around and headed back to the hotel.
Later in the evening, I had the meet and greet with all the guests. GOD, I was absolutely TERRIFIED! In fact, I was so terrified a few days before the convention that I almost didn’t go, but Kat talked me back into it. I’m not even sure why I was so afraid. Maybe because it’s such a surreal experience to watch these people on your screen for so long and then meet them and while they are of course just people, they are still so awesome that you feel so very much put in your place, lol. So yeah… as I showered and did my hair and makeup, I was freaking out. Kat couldn’t come with me because she had an emerald package, so that didn’t help. I honestly dreaded going in there all by myself.
When I got there, it was just the attendees at first and I joined two Danish girls in the far corner, just observing. Then suddenly I saw Misha and….. froze. The actors spread out, approaching a table each, and well… the girls and I were still standing there in the corner, all equally petrified. So then one of the Rogue ladies came over to us and encouraged us to join a table so we wouldn’t miss out on all the fun. I said, “But I’m scared!”, so she told me I shouldn’t be. Then grinned wickedly at me, pointed outside towards the terrace and went, “There’s Misha. GO!” lol, uhm…….. okay ^^
So, clinging to my drink (orange juice, btw), I slowly approached Misha’s table (lilhellsangel , her mom and sis were there too). He was standing sideways and saw me coming, which didn’t help AT ALL, haha. I smiled and went, “I was ordered to come here by that nice lady over there, sorry,” which made Misha chuckle and go, “Oh, so you don’t wanna be here?” And I said I did, I just wanted to work my way up and not start with him right away, which made him chuckle again. Misha then asked us where we were from and of course everyone said Germany. However, when I said Germany, Misha went, “No way!” I blinked, then went, “Uh, yes way”, and he went “No way!” again and so on until I was ready to get out my passport to prove it. We both laughed and he asked about my accent and where I was based (we have a lot of Americans near Stuttgart) because he said I didn’t sound German at all. So I told him I’d lived abroad for a few years and he asked when, where and how long (Ireland for 1 year in 2002, England on and off for 1 year in 2004-2005, Australia and New Zealand for 1 year altogether from 2006-2007 and America in 2009). Misha then nodded and said that explained things.
Now, there were rooms above the place where the meet and greet was held, so of course people were out on their balconies taking pictures and eavesdropping. Misha suddenly had this huge shit-eating grin on his face, and next thing you know he took a handful of peanuts from the bowl on the table and started throwing them at the people on the balconies, mumbling “trespassers”. He (non-verbally) encouraged us to help him, so we did - and then he stopped and went, “Okay, let’s all act mature, shall we?” LOL. There were a few SPN related questions as well… about Cas coming back ‘new and improved’, for example. Misha also said he doesn’t know any more about the show or plots or anything than we do because they don’t tell him a thing. Sadly, time was up too soon, but of course there were 5 other fabulous people to meet, so it wasn’t too bad. I can’t remember the order in which the others joined us, but it doesn’t really matter. I’ll just summarize.
Traci said it was her first time in Germany and that she was excited to be here because it was so amazingly beautiful. She visited the Goethe Haus in Frankfurt and was impressed with his clock, haha. She was thrilled that she got to come back onto the show as Pamela and she’s a huge fan of the show as well as being in it. About Traci in general, she is one of those people that you are just helplessly drawn to. So beautiful and charismatic and charming and disarming and…. I could go on for hours. Besides Sam Ferris, she really is one of my super hardcore girl crushes. I told her I’d failed to get her a hang drum so far, but I’d keep trying. She was very touched that I was trying at all and also asked the others that if they somehow came across this drum she really wants, they should let her know.
Chad was also stoked that the fans petitioned to bring Ash back. He said he’s missed the set and that the Js were the classiest guys you’ll ever meet and that he had a total blast when he was back on set. I skyped with Chad last year when he auctioned himself off on ebay for charity (Haiti, I think?), so he remembered me when he came up, which was nice. He loved the costume Ash wore during his grand entrance. Oh, and he had green nail polish on! Very funky.
Sam was super fucking GORGEOUS as well. Seriously, that woman? Hawt, hawt, HAWT!!! We talked about female characters on the show and why they’re often not well-liked (because forced love interests are bad), and more things that I sadly can’t remember. Someone asked her who her favorite character was when Chad threw a peanut at her from the table next to us. So Sam scoffed and was like, “Pfff, I was gonna say Ash, but now you’re not my favorite character anymore” haha.
When Jim came over, he greeted us in German, which was incredibly cute. I proceeded to ask him why in the world he would choose to learn such a difficult language as German, and he said it was because his granddad was German and that he wanted to talk to him in his own language. Unlike Misha, he didn’t bombard the people on the balconies but just waved and said hi. He also spoke a little Japanese with one of the women at our table, which made the rest of us go, O____O, haha.
Last but not least…… MARK FUCKING PELLEGRINO. My God. I think I may have to join Lucifer’s Legion after all… He has INCREDIBLE blue eyes (don’t ask me why I remember that in such detail, ahem…) and he was so TOTALLY chillax it was almost weird because I’d expected… well, I don’t know. But he was great, very calm and composed, but not in a stuck-up way. His voice is so soothing and mesmerizing (and sexy, of course) and he’s extremely well-spoken. He could honestly read the phone book to you and you’d breathlessly hang on to every word. Mind you - that’s MARK. When he turns on Lucifer, which he did in his panel and which he can do just like that *snaps fingers* he is a completely different and quite terrifying guy. But like I said, at the meet and greet, he was the most pleasant, charming man I’ve ever met. Sorry, Misha…. We talked about German fans being only in season 3 due to TV shows being dubbed in Germany. Mark made this hilarious face, tilted his head and went all squeaky like, “So they give you someone else’s voice? WHAAAAAAAAAATTT?!” lol. When asked about which show he enjoyed working on more, LOST or SPN, he said SPN because shooting on Hawaii isn’t as great as it sounds - lots of mosquitoes! He was also really sad that they killed him off and hopes that maybe somehow they can bring him back for a cameo sometime, which would of course be great. Oh, and he also didn’t believe me I was German. My little anglophile self was starting to develop an ego, tehee. It’s never anyone’s fault to have a specific accent, but me personally, I don’t like German accents a lot, so I’m always glad to hear I don’t have one.
Well, and before you knew it, the meet and greet was over and we had to leave. Misha shouted after us, “Yeah, yeah, GO! We have to clean everything up now,” which tempted me to make some extra mess on purpose, but I didn’t because I was pretty sure it’d backfire on the poor Dorint Hotel staff, and… yeah. I don’t like to draw negative attention to myself, especially not on purpose.
After the meet and greet, I found Kat and Christin again and we found two other lovely girls (whose names I sadly forgot) to join us for a round of Supernopoly. While we were playing in the foyer, a few people came over to have a look. Those that stopped were really impressed, which made me very happy because a lot of time, effort and nerves went into making this game a reality. It’s fantastic to know your work is loved and appreciated. However, we didn’t finish the game because it was getting late, so we decided to finish some other time. Which then didn’t happen because there was so much going on all weekend, but I’m not complaining! Pictures coming soon - Kat has them on her camera!
Even later, when it became evident that all the adrenaline just would NOT let me go to sleep, I joined Ines (camui_zuuki ), Kat, Christin and a few others in one of the hotel bars. There was a live band playing and Jim, Chad & girlfriend and Jason as well as the Rogue team were there, dancing and drinking and having a blast. One of the singers held Ines to her promise to initiate a polonaise as they sang Viva Colonia… SO FUNNY!!! We polonaise through the bar and Chad even joined in. Chad who was very intoxicated later that night, but he’s so adorable when he’s had a bit too much. He tried to sexy dance and all, haha. At around 2am or so, he started saying epic goodbyes to everyone in our corner. I laughed and said, “Dude, we’ll see you in…… what, five hours?” He groaned and went, “God, I know… SHIT!”, lol, and then pulled me in and gave me a huge hug before he left. Kat and I stayed behind a bit longer and talked to Doug about past cons and how much A4 and this one had improved and that we were pleased, etc etc. It was really interesting to hear about some things from the organizers’ point of view. For example, a lot of the chaos that happened at A3 that got Rogue so much bad press was REALLY out of their hands. So I’m really glad that the changes they made for A4 and AE worked, because except for some slight delays, everything went near perfectly.
4 or so hours of sleep later, it was already Saturday!
F R I D A Y
I was packing until 2am on Friday morning while simultaneously squee-ing and sort of panicking with kittyfaelis on MSN. Is there anyone in the WORLD who actually likes packing? Me, I hate it. I always fear I’ll forget something important, and in this case? Meeting six of my favorite people in the world? I’d have kicked myself. Good thing my dad let me borrow his car to drive there. He has a very spacious Mercedes, so I ended up packing pretty much my entire apartment except for the furniture. I kid you not. I had one GIGANTIC suitcase full of clothes for all occasions (and I used almost all of them *ahem*), a shoe bag (and guess how many pairs of shoes I wore all weekend? Yep, 1 LOL), a toiletry bag, a makeup bag, a hair products bag and a food bag. Yep, a food bag. I brought so much candy, you could have fed the whole con. But hey, gotta come prepared, right? As my dad would say - “Women! Taking the entire cave with them since 10.000 B.C.!”
So after a first taste of the huge adrenaline rush of the next few days, I somehow managed to get three or four hours of sleep before getting up at 6am and leaving at 7 in order to avoid holiday traffic jams. My GPS said I’d get to Bad Neuenahr in about 3 hours, so I crossed my fingers for that. Lucky for me cars are more or less sound-proof so I could make dolphin noises all the way without embarrassing myself too much…..… I picked up Kat (kittyfaelis ) and Christin (germanjj at Bonn airport and then the three of us headed on to the hotel. We arrived at noon and were even lucky enough to find our room ready, so we moved all the luggage there, then wandered around for a bit because registration didn’t open until 2pm.
This was our room:
Some pictures of us exploring the venue:
This awesome car belonged to the lady below - which we didn't know when we groped it, lol. We thought it was a staff vehicle or something.
Christin, Kat and myself (left to right)
I have to say, the location was absolutely BEAUTIFUL and the weather was just AMAZING. I’m a little patriotic, you know. I wanted our guests to like Germany, and it may seem like a triviality to some, but I think that if you go somewhere and the weather is shit, you just don’t enjoy your trip QUITE as much. I hoped our guests would get to see this little slice of our country at its very best. And they did! I mean, check this out:
While Kat and I talked to Kati (one of the Rogue stewards), suddenly Mark Pellegrino came strolling into the lobby, looking for someone named Nadia (?) about going horse riding with his wife. HOLY CRAP, that man is GOOD-LOOKING! I liked him before, but I wasn’t a huge fan, which has now of course changed. I am proud and pleased to say that I did not stare or do anything embarrassing. Kat and I did wish him luck, though, and kindly asked him not to fall off because we still needed him for later. Mark smiled and nodded, then someone found that Nadia person’s phone number and then Mark’s wife showed up and they left. We also met Will from Phoenix Copper art who makes these AMAZING journals. Get one at the next con if you can!
Kat and I then went outside to sit in the sun for a bit and take some notes so that we’d actually remember anything to write about in the report, lol. So we’re sitting there on a bench in the park when two guys come running past us and one of them goes “Hi!” to Kat as I’m talking to her. Guess who those two were? Jason and Misha! Sweaty! In shorts! Mhmmmmm, that’s what I call a perfect start of a perfect weekend ;-)
Later on, I wandered around by myself a bit and ran into Traci on one of the bridges across the Ahr river. Well, not really running into her. I actually didn’t see her there at first because I was busy taking pictures of the beautiful landscape (just like Traci was, funnily enough) until a group of girls approached her for a picture. We were told not to do that, which Traci pointed out as well, but she was in a good mood and shrugged and then took the picture anyway. Then she ventured on further down the river. I wanted to go that way too, but I didn’t wanna look like I was following her, so I turned around and headed back to the hotel.
Later in the evening, I had the meet and greet with all the guests. GOD, I was absolutely TERRIFIED! In fact, I was so terrified a few days before the convention that I almost didn’t go, but Kat talked me back into it. I’m not even sure why I was so afraid. Maybe because it’s such a surreal experience to watch these people on your screen for so long and then meet them and while they are of course just people, they are still so awesome that you feel so very much put in your place, lol. So yeah… as I showered and did my hair and makeup, I was freaking out. Kat couldn’t come with me because she had an emerald package, so that didn’t help. I honestly dreaded going in there all by myself.
When I got there, it was just the attendees at first and I joined two Danish girls in the far corner, just observing. Then suddenly I saw Misha and….. froze. The actors spread out, approaching a table each, and well… the girls and I were still standing there in the corner, all equally petrified. So then one of the Rogue ladies came over to us and encouraged us to join a table so we wouldn’t miss out on all the fun. I said, “But I’m scared!”, so she told me I shouldn’t be. Then grinned wickedly at me, pointed outside towards the terrace and went, “There’s Misha. GO!” lol, uhm…….. okay ^^
So, clinging to my drink (orange juice, btw), I slowly approached Misha’s table (lilhellsangel , her mom and sis were there too). He was standing sideways and saw me coming, which didn’t help AT ALL, haha. I smiled and went, “I was ordered to come here by that nice lady over there, sorry,” which made Misha chuckle and go, “Oh, so you don’t wanna be here?” And I said I did, I just wanted to work my way up and not start with him right away, which made him chuckle again. Misha then asked us where we were from and of course everyone said Germany. However, when I said Germany, Misha went, “No way!” I blinked, then went, “Uh, yes way”, and he went “No way!” again and so on until I was ready to get out my passport to prove it. We both laughed and he asked about my accent and where I was based (we have a lot of Americans near Stuttgart) because he said I didn’t sound German at all. So I told him I’d lived abroad for a few years and he asked when, where and how long (Ireland for 1 year in 2002, England on and off for 1 year in 2004-2005, Australia and New Zealand for 1 year altogether from 2006-2007 and America in 2009). Misha then nodded and said that explained things.
Now, there were rooms above the place where the meet and greet was held, so of course people were out on their balconies taking pictures and eavesdropping. Misha suddenly had this huge shit-eating grin on his face, and next thing you know he took a handful of peanuts from the bowl on the table and started throwing them at the people on the balconies, mumbling “trespassers”. He (non-verbally) encouraged us to help him, so we did - and then he stopped and went, “Okay, let’s all act mature, shall we?” LOL. There were a few SPN related questions as well… about Cas coming back ‘new and improved’, for example. Misha also said he doesn’t know any more about the show or plots or anything than we do because they don’t tell him a thing. Sadly, time was up too soon, but of course there were 5 other fabulous people to meet, so it wasn’t too bad. I can’t remember the order in which the others joined us, but it doesn’t really matter. I’ll just summarize.
Traci said it was her first time in Germany and that she was excited to be here because it was so amazingly beautiful. She visited the Goethe Haus in Frankfurt and was impressed with his clock, haha. She was thrilled that she got to come back onto the show as Pamela and she’s a huge fan of the show as well as being in it. About Traci in general, she is one of those people that you are just helplessly drawn to. So beautiful and charismatic and charming and disarming and…. I could go on for hours. Besides Sam Ferris, she really is one of my super hardcore girl crushes. I told her I’d failed to get her a hang drum so far, but I’d keep trying. She was very touched that I was trying at all and also asked the others that if they somehow came across this drum she really wants, they should let her know.
Chad was also stoked that the fans petitioned to bring Ash back. He said he’s missed the set and that the Js were the classiest guys you’ll ever meet and that he had a total blast when he was back on set. I skyped with Chad last year when he auctioned himself off on ebay for charity (Haiti, I think?), so he remembered me when he came up, which was nice. He loved the costume Ash wore during his grand entrance. Oh, and he had green nail polish on! Very funky.
Sam was super fucking GORGEOUS as well. Seriously, that woman? Hawt, hawt, HAWT!!! We talked about female characters on the show and why they’re often not well-liked (because forced love interests are bad), and more things that I sadly can’t remember. Someone asked her who her favorite character was when Chad threw a peanut at her from the table next to us. So Sam scoffed and was like, “Pfff, I was gonna say Ash, but now you’re not my favorite character anymore” haha.
When Jim came over, he greeted us in German, which was incredibly cute. I proceeded to ask him why in the world he would choose to learn such a difficult language as German, and he said it was because his granddad was German and that he wanted to talk to him in his own language. Unlike Misha, he didn’t bombard the people on the balconies but just waved and said hi. He also spoke a little Japanese with one of the women at our table, which made the rest of us go, O____O, haha.
Last but not least…… MARK FUCKING PELLEGRINO. My God. I think I may have to join Lucifer’s Legion after all… He has INCREDIBLE blue eyes (don’t ask me why I remember that in such detail, ahem…) and he was so TOTALLY chillax it was almost weird because I’d expected… well, I don’t know. But he was great, very calm and composed, but not in a stuck-up way. His voice is so soothing and mesmerizing (and sexy, of course) and he’s extremely well-spoken. He could honestly read the phone book to you and you’d breathlessly hang on to every word. Mind you - that’s MARK. When he turns on Lucifer, which he did in his panel and which he can do just like that *snaps fingers* he is a completely different and quite terrifying guy. But like I said, at the meet and greet, he was the most pleasant, charming man I’ve ever met. Sorry, Misha…. We talked about German fans being only in season 3 due to TV shows being dubbed in Germany. Mark made this hilarious face, tilted his head and went all squeaky like, “So they give you someone else’s voice? WHAAAAAAAAAATTT?!” lol. When asked about which show he enjoyed working on more, LOST or SPN, he said SPN because shooting on Hawaii isn’t as great as it sounds - lots of mosquitoes! He was also really sad that they killed him off and hopes that maybe somehow they can bring him back for a cameo sometime, which would of course be great. Oh, and he also didn’t believe me I was German. My little anglophile self was starting to develop an ego, tehee. It’s never anyone’s fault to have a specific accent, but me personally, I don’t like German accents a lot, so I’m always glad to hear I don’t have one.
Well, and before you knew it, the meet and greet was over and we had to leave. Misha shouted after us, “Yeah, yeah, GO! We have to clean everything up now,” which tempted me to make some extra mess on purpose, but I didn’t because I was pretty sure it’d backfire on the poor Dorint Hotel staff, and… yeah. I don’t like to draw negative attention to myself, especially not on purpose.
After the meet and greet, I found Kat and Christin again and we found two other lovely girls (whose names I sadly forgot) to join us for a round of Supernopoly. While we were playing in the foyer, a few people came over to have a look. Those that stopped were really impressed, which made me very happy because a lot of time, effort and nerves went into making this game a reality. It’s fantastic to know your work is loved and appreciated. However, we didn’t finish the game because it was getting late, so we decided to finish some other time. Which then didn’t happen because there was so much going on all weekend, but I’m not complaining! Pictures coming soon - Kat has them on her camera!
Even later, when it became evident that all the adrenaline just would NOT let me go to sleep, I joined Ines (camui_zuuki ), Kat, Christin and a few others in one of the hotel bars. There was a live band playing and Jim, Chad & girlfriend and Jason as well as the Rogue team were there, dancing and drinking and having a blast. One of the singers held Ines to her promise to initiate a polonaise as they sang Viva Colonia… SO FUNNY!!! We polonaise through the bar and Chad even joined in. Chad who was very intoxicated later that night, but he’s so adorable when he’s had a bit too much. He tried to sexy dance and all, haha. At around 2am or so, he started saying epic goodbyes to everyone in our corner. I laughed and said, “Dude, we’ll see you in…… what, five hours?” He groaned and went, “God, I know… SHIT!”, lol, and then pulled me in and gave me a huge hug before he left. Kat and I stayed behind a bit longer and talked to Doug about past cons and how much A4 and this one had improved and that we were pleased, etc etc. It was really interesting to hear about some things from the organizers’ point of view. For example, a lot of the chaos that happened at A3 that got Rogue so much bad press was REALLY out of their hands. So I’m really glad that the changes they made for A4 and AE worked, because except for some slight delays, everything went near perfectly.
4 or so hours of sleep later, it was already Saturday!