Fanmar

I couldn't help but notice your conversation with PMJ about Mawile, and I thought I'd clear up what he meant by OU. OU stand for Overused, one of the tiers commonly used in competitive Pokemon battling. Pokemon in OU are normally some of the stronger ones, so they're seen a lot more frequently then those in UU (underused), RU (rarely used), and NU (never used). I hope that wasn't too confusing!

*Chips in on 'Thena*
And then I joined in!

Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun with your Halloween. :3 I did get candy this year just in case kids came by, but no one did. We didn't have anyone in St. Martin's Day either! Maybe someday it'll catch on; it does seem to be getting more and more coverage each year.

I like doing cosplays of characters I like because I find it fun. I've done Digiko, Franziska von Karma, Miwako, and Terezi. Usually I pay people to make costumes for me because I'm a horrible seamstress. xD I haven't been to any cons over here because I don't know any, though. ^^; I used to do anime cons in the States (complete with staffing a few times), but nothing since I've moved.

The Pokémon challenge runs are, indeed, fun. There's a few different types, but I was immediately attracted to Wonderlockes because I love the Wonder Trade feature. And giving it a theme was just something silly and fun I decided to do to make writing it more exciting.

sure for pokerus.

what did it do btw?? hahahha
i'm online now

I like dressing up in costumes and drinking, so maybe I should start celebrating Carnival. Not so much on the singing and dancing bit, but maybe if I get enough liquor in me...

In America for Halloween, there's definitely a point where most people stopped dressing up for Halloween, and then start again as adults later. It's typically around ~10-12 when they stop, and then they might start up again in college for Halloween parties or whatever. I, however, never stopped, and neither did most of my friends. We would host our own parties, or sometimes to house-to-house singing Christmas carols (yes, Christmas carols on Halloween, we were silly ) and just make our own fun. I just love dressing up! I've done cosplay at anime conventions and the like, too.

You bring up a good point about the Sinterklaas songs. I guess they would probably have to either change the lyrics or make up new ones for at least some of them. That really is a shame. :\ I guess maybe they could keep the old ones and just make a bunch of new ones and kind of use both, but it might be weird. I guess we'll just have to see what comes of it. ^^;

Also, very cool about the Pokérus, and nice of you to share it around, too. I hope you enjoy my little story if you find the time to read it; I just started today, but it's been a lot of fun so far.

have to go back to finish my 4th year. I would like to work in Japan after my studies, though. You should do your best for your studies and work hard! It would be bad to have another unfinished study program!

Just take it slooww. hahaha. It took me 3 weeks till I finished my game. And my cousin, sister and brother help me when I'm too busy.

Not many things to do after finishing game, I tried shiny hunting now, but probably will bored soon and reset my game.

Check this
http://www.pokebeach.com/forums/safari.php

Yes, safari is different for each player, depend on their 3ds friend code. If won't change except you change your console.

Being a teacher is nice! What do you want to teach?

The people here are extremely friendly and super polite!

Ooh, thanks! Party House is right by me, too.

Yeah, I've heard of Carnival, but I've never really done anything for it. My husband doesn't celebrate it at all, so we've never done anything for it. I'm always happy to have an excuse to wear a costume, though! Silly costumes are just as popular in America for Halloween as scary ones, especially for adults. Adults will also dress in sexy costumes, and kids often dress up as characters and stuff nowadays, too. I remember when I was little, my mum was always disappointed because I never wanted to dress up as scary things, only fun things. One year I got to be the pink power ranger!

I actually do think a Halloween party would be fun. :3 Maybe I can put something together for this year. We can get Drohn to come down and visit with us too, and maybe even some more people. I don't think my husband would object terribly, since he knows I miss Halloween, too.

Also, I totally think it's super cool that your village did its own Halloween thing! I really want to share that with my mom, now, because Halloween is her favourite holiday by FAR and she was super-bummed when she found out that it's not celebrated over here. I know she would support my decision to have a party 100%.

I think most people in America don't celebrate St. Nicholas, but some do if they still hold onto European traditions and such. As a kid, I always liked it because it meant double presents. Of course, the traditions themselves are different, like we never did poems or anything. Since I've become more of a part of Dutch culture, I've becoming sharing some of these things with my family and they really enjoy it, too. For this past Sinterklaas, my parents mailed gifts for me and my husband and his family, and she even wrote poems! And when we go visit my family for Christmas, I always bring speculaas and chocolate letters for everyone. :3 Of course, Americans now know something about Sinterklaas because the Piet debate became news even over there, but it's unfortunate because they only really hear about the bad/sensational stuff and nothing really about the holiday itself. :<

Also, I'm super happy to answer any questions you feel like asking. I don't bite too much, I hope. And I know I'm in kind of a unique position living here like I am.

PS: Thanks for the Pokérus offer, but unfortunately I'll have to turn you down. :< I recently started a Wonderlocke (you're welcome to follow along if you'd like, I'm posting updates in this thread) and because of the restrictions, I can only trade Pokémon via Wonder Trade. If you still have any Pokémon with it left by the time I'm done, I'll probably take you up on it, though. :3

Fanmar, your friend safari. once you beat the main story and get all the badge you will be able to visit a city where you can access friend safari to hunt some pokemon you usually can't find in game.

People have safari that lock to their friend code. You have Dragon Safari with Fraxture and Noibat. I can't access your 3rd pokemon in safari, everyone have 3 pokemon in their safari where their friend can access, but I can't see your 3rd pokemon yet, cause u not beat the league yet.

fanmar, are you beat your league yet??

Just asking cause I can't see your 3rd pokemon in your safari. I remember we even trade before. hahaha

Maybe if I ever get to know enough people in the city, I can throw a Halloween party myself here! After all, I have insider knowledge. The hardest thing might be for people to get costumes, but I know there are some shops around here that have some adult costumes at least. Would be fun! :3

I didn't avoid your Sinkterklaas question, just forgot about it, lol. My family in America actually celebrated St. Nicholas Day already (my maternal grandmother is a first generation German immigrant, and that's one of the Germanic traditions we still follow), so the only thing surprising about it to me, really, was the scope and how big of a holiday it is here, since most of my friends and such weren't familiar with the holiday.

The whole "Zwarte Piet" controversy, of course, gained a lot of traction this past year. My husband and I went to walk around on... oh, I can't remember the name of the day, but the day when Sinterklaas formally arrives in Amsterdam, and there was a line of protestors on Dam Square because "omgracism." I can't help but think the whole thing is blown out of proportion, honestly. At the same time, I really liked one of the ideas that I read about online where someone suggested the Piets should become rainbow Piets and there were still be Zwarte Piet, but also Rode Piet and Blauwe Piet and Paarse Piet and all sorts of fun colours.

Also, I'm super glad you're having a great time here. I think PokéBeach is a wonderful community and I'm glad to help out with it.

Ja, het worden steeds meer! Wel leuk! Blij dat je erbij gekomen bent.

Dank je! Wat studeer jij nu? Ik zit in het derde jaar. Ik doe mijn stage nu in Japan. Mijn study abroad deed ik vorig semester in Spanje.

o/ Hallo!

Wooo, I've never been to Edam yet (though I do enjoy your cheese x3) so I'll have to take you up on that.

There aren't all too many (worthwhile) holidays that we celebrate in the States that you guys don't have over here, but Halloween is the big one, and I do really miss it. ^^; It was always one of my favourite holidays, so I still try and celebrate it myself a bit. This last year, now that we had our own house, I put up some window decorations and I also dressed up a bit myself during the day. When I moved here in '12 it felt like no one had even heard of Halloween, but last year it was a bit more common, so maybe it'll continue to gain traction.

I know what you mean about the direction thing, haha. When I was taking my Dutch language courses, I walked through a very touristy part of the city 2 mornings a week (starting from from the Rokin and heading through and past the Rembrandtplein) and I was asked questions by tourists at least once a day. Even now, living in a rather touristy part of the city, I help tourists a lot and stuff by my house. They're usually pretty polite, though, so I don't mind. And now that I've learned the city well, I can actually help them out pretty well.

I'm glad I've helped you to feel welcome here, and I do hope you enjoy our website. :3

Fanmar,

You are most welcome!

"Welcome to OU."

PS: I totally understand the language thing. My Dutch isn't so great (I'm kind of at a point where I need to talk more to get better, but I'm too shy to talk a lot...), but I do enjoy making very bad Dutch-English related puns.