DH Skies
November 20, 2016 8:13 AM
Fair sign ups by DH Skies
Enough staff volunteers had been rounded up to supervise the groups for the fair. Overall, there had been a fair amount of shrugging of the shoulders, and not-really-minding. The suggestion box from the students had also remained conspicuously empty. And so, the staff had more or less politely carved up the world between them. A few too many had tended towards Europe, so Selina had stepped back and allowed her colleagues to take their first picks. At first she’d drawn a blank on what to do, but inspiration hadn’t been too hard to find. She’d consulted a few bottles of wine that she kept in her quarters, and come up with a reasonable second choice.The list of countries was posted before breakfast at the start of the week, with a reminder of the rules.
Fair Sign Ups
Please sign up with your name, year and house in the group that you would like to join.
Each group can take a maximum of six participants. First come, first served.
If all groups are full, please speak to the leader of the group you would like to join.
To underline the point, there were six numbered spaces under each group’s heading, which listed the country and the professor running it. She had debated it leaving out the professors, to push students to really evaluate the countries they were most interested in, not just who their favourite (or least favourite) teacher was, but she had reasoned that there were bound to be some students who clashed with certain professors, or were intimidated by them, and there was no point trying to throw them together. This was about making a nice fair, not resolving those sorts of issues, though of course she hoped the groups would get along, work well and it would build team spirit and all that kind of thing. The students would have a week to think about it, talk to their friends and add their names, if they were interested.
OOC - hello, to show dedication to the project and to prevent people just spamming the lists, we do require site rule (200 words) sign ups to be posted in response. Whilst, IC, sign ups are just up for a week, OOC I will give you two.
Subthreads: Ethiopia (nm) by Isis Carter with Raine Collindale, Nevaeh Reed, Joseph Umland, Tess Whittaker, Tasha DuBois
Israel (nm) by Sophie O'Malley with Caelia Lucan, Winston Pierce, Simon Mordue, Sawyer Matheson, Kira Spaulding, Alistair Johnson
New Zealand (nm) by Liam Ammon with Clark Dill, Arne Reinhardt, Farrah Welsh, Kellen Mormont, Georgia Kirkly, Lauren Song
Brazil (nm) by Nathan Xavier with Jozua Sparks, Wu Peizhi, Jemima Wolseithcrafte
Chile (nm) by Selina Skies with Aislinn Nicolls, Tobi Reinhardt, Makenzie Newell, Chaslyn Brockert, Isaac Song
France (nm) by Edward Perrault with Madeleine Dautin, Florence Newell, Ayla Tremaine, Gwen Fintoc
Poland (nm) by Rory Taransay with John Umland, Barnaby Pye, Sutton Nicolls, Louis Valois
South Korea (nm) by Edda Eir with Ginger Pierce, Amelia Layne, Jake Manger, Kit Reid, Emerald Brockert, Kir McLeod
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DH Skies
Fair sign ups
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DH Skies
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Isis Carter
November 20, 2016 8:15 AM
Sophie O'Malley
November 20, 2016 8:16 AM
Liam Ammon
November 20, 2016 8:17 AM
Nathan Xavier
November 20, 2016 8:17 AM
Selina Skies
November 20, 2016 8:18 AM
Edward Perrault
November 20, 2016 8:18 AM
Rory Taransay
November 20, 2016 8:19 AM
Edda Eir
November 20, 2016 11:10 PM
Madeleine Dautin
November 21, 2016 12:47 PM
Table for two. [tag: Sébastien Évreux and Louis Valois] by Madeleine Dautin
Madeleine hadn't cared much about the fair that was coming up. The ball had been much lovelier than she had originally anticipated. In fact, part of her thought the decoration to be far more splendid than anything she had ever seen in France. But, it had been created primarily by Americans and so she had turned her nose up at the whole thing because who was she to admit that perhaps Sonora had gotten something right after all?She had skipped the extra-fair announcement before dinner and only through the rumor mill (and the tacky suggestion box at the front of the dining hall) heard about the idea of a world fair. This captured Madeleine's imagination and she was excited to attend. She was sure that Flora could investigate into some high-profile international cases and try the local delicacies that sprouted up as she travelled the world kicking butt.
And then the Charms professor suggested to head a table on France. Madeleine was outraged. Professor Perrault was her elder and a teacher at the school and so she obviously had to show him the respect that was due. But what did this québécois think he was doing, leading a table on France? It was absolutely ridiculous. Québec was like the annoying little brother of France who was the cool older sister and probably the best in the world at everything. It was asinine to think that he could do a good job and so, as a considerate citizen, Madeleine had to step in and right this terrible wrong.
That night after dinner, she marched up to the fair sign-up board. No one had written their name down just yet--not even Bastien but perhaps he was just behind on the news? He could be rather slow, Madeleine conceded. So, she took it upon herself to sign both of the second-year Frenchies up for the task.
Madeleine Dautin, 2nd year, Aladren
Sébastien Évreux, 2nd year, Aladren
It was only as she was walking away that she realized there was another Frenchman at the school. Louis Valois... Did she want to go back and sign him up too? Loathe as she was to hang out with the older wizard, he was French and a Valois. It was only logical that he help her and Bastien stop the travesty that was sure to be Professor Perrault's French table. However if she went back to the sign-up sheets then everyone would know she had written down multiple names and she wasn't quite sure she was allowed to do that. Additionally, Louis was older than her by a couple years and even though she was pretty sure Bastien was older too, it was only by a couple months. She just couldn't take the same liberties with Louis Valois that she could with Sébastien Évreux.
And then she saw Louis sitting at a table. She grinned and marched over to him. "Salut," she said, sitting down with a smile. "Je pensais qu'il sera amusant de faire la table française tous ensemble--toi, Bastien, et moi... Qu'est ce que tu pense?"
OOC: This is not a true reservation of two spots on the list. Sébastien will still have to write his 200 words to truly sign-up for the table so if for some reason the French table fills up before he can write the 200 words that's okay, we'll come up with an IC reason to explain why he's not at the table. In other words, I don't want to dissuade anyone away from signing up by taking two spots.
French in this post:
"Salut, je pensais qu'il sera amusant de faire la table française tous ensemble--toi, Bastien, et moi... Qu'est ce que tu pense?" =
"Hi, I thought it would be fun to all do the French table together--you, Bastien, and I... what do you think?"
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Madeleine Dautin
Table for two. [tag: Sébastien Évreux and Louis Valois]
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Clark Dill
November 23, 2016 10:00 AM
Hobbits, unite! by Clark Dill
Clark wanted to be part of the Fair. He hadn't had any brilliant ideas or preferences toward any particular country so he hadn't submitted any to the suggestion box. As such, when the sign-up sheet did go up, he looked it over, not really hoping for anything more than for one of the countries listed to jump out at him.One of them did.
New Zealand leapt off the page and tackled him with visions of hobbit holes. Grinning, he pull out his pen (quills were a great aesthetic, don't get him wrong, but pens were just all out more practical in every respect, so always he kept one of those close at hand for any quicker writing such as this that needed to be done) and wrote down his name.
Clark Dill, Seventh Year, Aladren
He kind of hoped the school's other muggle fantasy geeks might also be drawn to the filming location of the Lord of the Rings movies, but even if they didn't make up the group's majority, Clark was looking forward to learning more about a country literally on the opposite side of the planet from everything he knew best. If nothing else, he knew it looked breathtaking.
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Clark Dill
Hobbits, unite!
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Jozua Sparks
November 23, 2016 1:00 PM
Adventure Awaits! by Jozua Sparks
Jozua was not particularly inclined to work on a Fair booth. For one thing, he'd have to do extra work that might cut into his play time. For another, if he was working at a booth, he'd have less time to look at the other ones. So when he saw the sign up sheets go up, he went over to it, intending only to find out which countries were going to be featured and maybe, if one of his friends was already signed up, he might consider joining their group.That was before he saw his Head of House was running the Brazil booth. Many of Jozua's favorite stories took place in the Amazon rainforest. He'd read dozens of biographies about real explorers who had braved those jungles.
He wasn't quite sure how it happened, as he didn't remember actually putting nub to parchment, nor did he know when he started carrying a quill around with him to dinner, but when he walked away, his name was left behind at the top of the list for Brazil.
Jozua Sparks, Second year, Teppenpaw
With any luck, Lily or Finn would see it and join him. Failing that, he hoped the rest of the group that joined him would be more Finn like than Lily like. He had one Lily in his life already. Another one would probably kill him.
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Jozua Sparks
Adventure Awaits!
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Ginger Pierce
November 23, 2016 4:14 PM
Roomies? by Ginger Pierce
Ginger looked over the list of countries, eager to join one of the fair booths. She wasn't quite sure what country she wanted to work on, but when she saw South Korea was an option, she stopped looking at the rest. While Ginger herself had limited interest in the country itself, Lauren had family there and Ginger was keen to make an effort to know more about a country so important to one of her best friends.Ginger Pierce, 5th Year, Teppenpaw
She wasn't sure if Lauren or Jemima planned to sign up, but she would suggest it to them as a roommate activity, and maybe even a Teppenpaw fifth year group thing. Owen might want to join if Jemima did and from there it was just a short step to encouraging Andrew to be a part of it, too. Of course, with only six people to a group, that might crowd out anybody else wanting to showcase South Korea, like maybe Lauren's brother or Jamie Park, and their friends, which might be bad, but she wasn't quite sure how to resolve the potential conflict and hoped it would all work out for the best.
Though, Jamie might be too busy with RATS to want to be involved and Isaac could have an unexpected draw to New Zealand instead and it would all be a non issue anyway.
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Ginger Pierce
Roomies?
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Lily Spencer
November 27, 2016 3:52 PM
Being a follower. by Lily Spencer
Lily wasn't keen on doing extra work for a Fair, not unless she got something good out of it. These Midsummer activities just seemed to put extra burdens on the students. Last year with the ball most of the student body had been scrambling to find themselves a date. Luckily she hadn't needed to worry about it - not that she would've worried about it at all, really - but this year required more work on her end.As she browsed through the different countries listed, it seemed a little interesting. It looked like they were supposed to do research on these countries and present foods and cultural idiosyncrasies at the fair. At least, from what she could glean from the signup sheet.
Lily had never been much of a traveller. None of her siblings were, really. Her dad had gone all over the world multiple times because of his job, but he was always tired and had hardly spent any time with them until he transferred to the mediwizard department at the hospital. Adam liked international relations, but his trips weren't very long or very often. Lily, for her part, would be happy staying in London for the rest of her life - she didn't feel the need to even visit other far off countries, except America now that she had friends here.
However, part of the extra work for the Fair meant choosing a distant country. Lily was unfamiliar with all of them except for France and a bit of Poland. It was easier just looking at the professors and deciding which one she wanted to work with. Luckily, however, she saw Jozua's name on the signup sheet already and was signing her name under his before she even took a good look at the country.
Lily Spencer, Second year, Pecari
Brazil. That could be a good one once she learned something about it. She wasn't even sure which continent it was on. Geography had never really been her strong suit. As long as she was working with her friends it didn't really matter to her. It would've been nice to work with Madeleine as well, but it seemed like Maddie was working with her French counterparts and Lily didn't want to get in the way of that.
Brazil it was!
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Lily Spencer
Being a follower.
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Raine Collindale
November 28, 2016 8:11 PM
Signing up by Raine Collindale
Raine wasn’t totally sure about the idea of the fair. She wanted to learn about new places, definitely. That part sounded great. But she couldn’t quite trust the school not to suck all the fun out of it, and for it to basically turn into a voluntary homework assignment. She wasn’t good at putting ideas across the way an academic setting expected her to. But it seemed that the booths weren’t just going to present essays. They could show things from the different cultures, like food or art. That seemed better… And besides, Raine was feeling a little left out lately. She knew it was her own decision not to attend Spirit Club but it felt like a lot of people were getting behind this thing that she just felt unable to be a part of.She scanned the list, wanting very much to choose based on country, not professor, although it was hard not to worry about which staff member would be running things. She was pleased, however, to see that her favourite professor was running a country she knew utterly nothing about. Raine had decided before seeing the list that she would opt for such a country, because the whole point of this exercise was to expand her horizons. To be truthful, she wasn’t very worldly, for all that she’d travelled very widely in America, so many of the countries would have ticked this requirement for her. Still, ‘Ethiopia’ was definitely way up there, and Professor Carter was someone she could be excited rather than nervous about working with.
Raine Collindale, 3rd year, Teppenpaw.
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Raine Collindale
Signing up
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Sébastien Évreux
November 29, 2016 1:30 PM
Soothing my pride by Sébastien Évreux
Madeleine Dautin had dared to sign Bastien up for the international fair, and he was furious. He was perfectly capable of making his own decisions, and what right did she think she had to decide for him? However, Madeleine Dautin had decided that she wanted to work with him, and Bastien felt victorious. She hadn’t chosen to write Lily’s name, or Léo’s (not that Léo was here, but the principle still applied), or even Louis’s name. No, Madeleine had publically stated that Sébastien Évreux was the ideal partner, even if it was only for a silly little fair. As he stood in front of the sign-up sheet, Bastien felt incredibly torn as to what to do next.It didn’t help that Madeleine had casually informed him in passing, not bothering to wait for his indignant reaction. That was probably a good thing, as being indignant would get him nowhere, but Bastien expected more recognition than that. A question, at the very least, could be expected, if not pleading and even a little bit of begging…okay, maybe he couldn’t picture Madeleine begging. But what was he meant to do now? Should he cross out his name, and retreat in high dudgeon? Sadly, that reaction would have no long-term benefits. Should he leave the sign-up sheet as it was, and let the whole world see that Sébastien Évreux let someone else make decisions for him? No, that would be a blow that his pride could not take. Undecided, he narrowed his eyes at the paper as if it had committed the offense, and started to think carefully.
With a long-suffering sigh, he settled for a compromise. Taking a quill from his bag, he neatly crossed out his name as Madeleine had written it (she hadn’t even got his house right!), and rewrote it underneath.
Sébastien Évreux, 2nd year, Crotalus
There. Now everyone would see that Madeleine Dautin wanted to work with him, but also that he was perfectly capable of making his own decisions. Really, it was a win-win situation, and he felt satisfied as he walked away from the sign-up sheet.
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Sébastien Évreux
Soothing my pride
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Nevaeh Reed
November 30, 2016 12:22 AM
Oh boy by Nevaeh Reed
Lunches with Barnaby were her absolute favorite thing. Nevaeh loved her girl friends, of course, but there was something about spending time with an older boy that made her feel so cool. Even if Barnaby wasn’t necessarily popular--which was a darn shame, since he was so smart and nice. And though she could barely see, his was her favorite blur of a face.“Hey,” she commented idly, a thought occurring. “Where’s that sheet about the Fair?” She’d heard mentions of it but hadn’t had opportunity to investigate yet. “Can we check it out?”
Nevaeh made her way over to the sheet with Barnaby, leaving Scout by their table. “Can you read it to me?” she asked her friend. The Aladren had gone her entire life being legally blind, and while there were a lot of things she could do her own way, some things were just easier with another person’s help, and she was not too proud to ask for it when the need arose.
She asked for the countries, the professors, and any students who had already signed up. The answer horrified her. Ethiopia was Isis’s group… and Raine had signed up?! That was horrible! Nevaeh had about a thousand different feelings about Isis Carter, which cycled through and varied by the day, but she knew for certain that she did not trust a situation where she would be spending extra time with Raine. Or any of Nevaeh’s friends, really. Keeping their connection a secret had been Isis’s idea, supposedly to keep people from sending odd glances at Nevaeh, but she took it instead to actually mean that Isis didn’t want to be looked at, to have people counting back ages in their heads and realizing what it said about her. Isis was the one who was embarrassed. After all, what did Nevaeh care if people looked at her funny? She’d never know it anyway.
“Can you put me down for Ethiopia?” Nevaeh asked Barnaby kindly, keeping the internal freak out completely separated from her voice. There was almost nothing she wanted to do less than be in Isis’s group (especially when she personally found New Zealand more interesting), but she wanted to moderate this interaction between Isis and Raine. Like it or not, she had to be there. “Thank you, Barnaby.”
So there. In the fifth year’s handwriting, an addition was made: Nevaeh Reed, third year, Aladren.
OOC: All godmodding of Barnaby was approved by his author. Given the format of the sign up, I wasn’t sure how to do it for Nevaeh without another person, and Barnaby’s author is very nice to allow me to borrow her character.
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Nevaeh Reed
Oh boy
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Aislinn Nicolls
December 01, 2016 1:24 AM
Choosing by Aislinn Nicolls
Aislinn wasn’t the type to sign up for group activities, but as with Book Club, she needed to be able to put more than classes on her academic resume. Not to mention, she hoped that it would perhaps take her mind off those that should not be named or in this case, thought of. She had been making a consistent effort to bury her feelings. Sutton thought it was a terrible idea, but she thought it was better than the alternative. Though, that depended on what day it was to which she thought was better.The Aladren looked over her options. She didn’t want to choose one that she knew absolutely nothing about simply because she didn’t want to get herself involved in something so time consuming when she had other things to focus on. At the same time, she wanted to be sure to choose something that did peak her interest. She thought that one of the South American countries might be a good option. She thought that most people would choose an European country since it seemed to be the one that people in general knew the most about. She wasn’t an exception to this, but she didn’t want to pick a country that she felt at ease with. She wanted something in between. So, it was between Chile and Brazil. She thought that she might like to go to Brazil someday, but maybe she would like to go to Chile too? Perhaps, she should choose Chile to see if she would like to travel there. That decided, she added her name to the list for Chile.
Aislinn Nicolls, Fifth Year, Aladren
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Aislinn Nicolls
Choosing
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Arne Reinhardt
December 01, 2016 3:21 AM
I hate how my brother is always right. by Arne Reinhardt
Arne Reinhardt, 4th year, CrotalusArne had known from the moment the world fair was announced that tribes were going to be overlooked—they always were. Why should now be any different? He had remarked as much to Tobi when he’d heard his older brother was participating in the fair. He’d been full of anger until Tobi pointed out that they were probably the only two at the school that would think of something like that and neither had put anything into the suggestion box which meant that they were just at fault as everyone else.
But that didn’t mean indigenous people everywhere had to go unnoticed, Tobi had pointed out and Arne had begrudgingly admitted his brother’s point. Tobi was signing up for Chile, he planned on researching and bringing to light any of the indigenous groups from the South American country. Arne was welcome to join him, Tobi had said, or he could join a different group.
Arne had mulled over it, not entirely sure which country he wanted to pick, taking his breaks in the library to actually research each of the countries that had been listed. In the end, he settled on New Zealand, having decided that the Māori people intrigued him the most.
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Arne Reinhardt
I hate how my brother is always right.
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Arne Reinhardt
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Tobi Reinhardt
December 01, 2016 3:27 AM
*Insert Penguin Sound Here* by Tobi Reinhardt
Tobi Reinhardt, 6th year, TeppenpawTobi had always been a rather mild mannered boy. He didn’t have strong opinions on many things aside from two particularly Native rights and the humane treatment of animals. The rest didn’t matter to him. A world fair was not something high on his list of things he cared about though he was curious about the world, he was more than content to stay put in his little area of woods near the house. But he didn’t mind learning about other cultures and in fact he loved learning about the indigenous people from other countries. That previous year when he and his family had driven up to Seattle for the Daybreak Star Indian Days Pow wow, he had been utterly enthralled by the Aztecs who had come up from what was now Mexico to perform. It had been so beautiful, so captivating.
Mexico wasn’t on the list of countries for the fair and so he’d have to learn more about the Aztecs on his own time, but Tobi didn’t mind. Another group he’d had a fondness for were the Taiwanese aborigines who were, obviously, from Taiwan. Taiwan was also not a country he could choose from for the fair. But Chile was there and Tobi had always heard that there were several different groups with very interesting cultures in Chile and so he signed himself up for one of the South American countries, excited also because he had heard that Chile was home to four different species of penguins. And who didn’t love penguins?
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Tobi Reinhardt
*Insert Penguin Sound Here*
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Caelia Lucan
December 01, 2016 4:02 AM
A bold move. by Caelia Lucan
Caelia,Say hi to Matthew for me next time you write him—I can’t write enough times how glad I am you two are friends again. Nice guy…
Things are going well with me and Charlotte I think. We’re not allowed visitors, they really want us completely focused on our studies, but I get a break for the holidays and I was thinking about having her come visit. What do you think? I already wrote to Mom and Dad to see if you guys might want to come. Mom was completely into it but Dad didn’t think Grandmother would be.
I have to keep this one short because I’m in the middle of a research project on a dig site in Israel. I’ll tell you more about it next time. It’s real neat but my group is a little intense and—well, Gavin’s yelling at me to finish up already, we have a floo call with the head archaeologist from the dig in about five minutes, he wants to go over all our notes and stuff, make sure we’re prepared, so I’ll write again when I have a chance.
Love you to pieces,
E.
It was after receiving this letter that Caelia Lucan, never one to be curious about things she had zero interest in such as non-European countries, marched herself over to the world fair sign up sheets and put herself down for Israel. After all, if Emrys was studying it, it had to be interesting. Stepping back, she felt her name looked a bit odd, the sole sign-up for the booth with the curly letters and the minuscule heart over the ‘i’ of her name which really only looked like a heart of one was staring quite, quite closely. She never usually wrote her ‘i’s like that so she wasn’t sure what had possessed her this time but there it was… Caelia Lucan, 5th year, Crotalus, plain as day.
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Caelia Lucan
A bold move.
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John Umland
December 01, 2016 4:02 PM
Joining in. by John Umland
The Fair was not something which John had thought a great deal about so far. Or, to be more precise, had been aware of, but had kept thinking of as something to think about in depth later, when he was finished with some other thing. Between his ever-erratic sleep schedule, heavy work schedule, established projects, and new project of tracking the phases of the moon in some detail so he could figure out if his roommate was a werewolf, it had just kept getting pushed further and further down his list of priorities.The appearance of sign-ups, therefore, took him by surprise. He had not even realized how late in the year it was, really; he knew Advent had begun, but it was always a surprise how short Advent really was, especially when so little changed around him at Sonora to mark the season. He and Joe had looked over the list together, sipping Ceylon tea and examining the countries and professors.
“Guess you’ll do Chile,” remarked Joe.
“Why would I do Chile?” asked John.
“Skies is running it.”
This was true. John liked Professor Skies better than he did most of the teachers. He did not find Chile particularly interesting, though, as far as he could remember. Joe had liked studying the Americas, but they had never really caught John’s imagination. He loved his own country, but everything south of it was just sort of…there to him. He was not actually sure he knew anything about Chile.
“They speak Portuguese in Brazil,” he noted, following a thought. Joe shrugged. “And Poland’s interesting.”
“I’m not sure we’re allowed to do Poland,” observed Joe. John frowned at him, confused.
“Why not?” he asked.
“John, our last name is German,” said Joe, his voice a little muffled by the rim of his mug. “German people, you know, kind of invaded Poland…historically recently.”
John thought about that for a moment. There were a number of good logical arguments against that mattering, but…most people did not use logical arguments. “You might have a point,” he admitted. “But Taransay’s running that one. I need him to like me so he’ll let me cut up his pets next year.”
From the sounds and bending over clutching at his face, John guessed Joe had aspirated some of the hot tea when John made that comment. “I…was exaggerating,” he added.
“Yeah, you should stick to understatement,” gasped Joe.
John did, however, aspire to doing slightly more interesting work than usual next year, research instead of just facts and skills, which meant he needed to cozy up to the professor. John’s social skills had never allowed him to bond with any of the professors before, so this was probably his only chance. Maybe Taransay didn’t know about the Germans invading Poland; wizards could be extremely ignorant of what went on outside their own community….
John Umland, 6th, Aladren.
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John Umland
Joining in.
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Barnaby Pye
December 01, 2016 4:23 PM
Let's see what we can find. by Barnaby Pye
When Barnaby had gone up to the sign-ups with Nevaeh to help her read off the list. His attention had been occupied by two names that appeared there so when she asked him to sign her up for Ethiopia, he had written it down rather distractedly, and stayed a moment longer after she had already started back to their seats. It was only after he realised she was no longer next to him that he started and moved to continue their lunch.The confusion stayed with him the rest of that day and bothered him as he ate breakfast the next morning. Caelia Lucan was an airhead, she wasn’t very clever despite making passing marks due to her natural abilities with magic, and it didn’t make sense to him why she would pick Israel out of all the countries. Actually, it didn’t make sense why she would pick any country at all, but if he had to guess she was the sort of witch who would go with something a little more…predictable. Like France. Didn’t all pureblooded witches want to go to France? Or, rather, Paris, their idealised version of the country. It was an anomaly and Barnaby liked anomalies.
However, John Umland had signed up for Poland. And even though Barnaby was of the opinion that most of the students in the school weren’t worth their brains, he distinctly remembered that John Umland was a very clever individual. He had overheard him in class before and he had quietly observed him from the sidelines over the past couple of years. He was interesting and Barnaby had never any excuse to converse with him before…until now. Plus, he was Jax Donovan’s new roommate and while Barnaby normally didn’t like to make decisions based on emotions, part of him wanted to know if Jax ever talked about him to John. A very small, disgusted with himself part of him, that was.
After lunch that day, he made his decision and under Poland, he wrote Barnaby Pye, 5th year, Aladren.
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Barnaby Pye
Let's see what we can find.
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Barnaby Pye
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Makenzie Newell
December 01, 2016 4:46 PM
Not super sure what I'm doing by Makenzie Newell
She ended up staring at the sign-up list a bit longer than she meant to, scanning over the professors, the options, and who else had already signed up. Makenzie found herself staring the longest at the group for Chile, a country she’d never really thought much about before she saw the names beneath it. Having her Head of House, a favored professor of hers, as the professor running it was almost enough reason in and of itself, or at least enough excuse if she were questioned on it later. But it wasn’t her name that had her so interested.The redhead was trying to figure a lot of things out. Her whole world had been rocked last summer, and now even more things felt different here. Tobi Reinhardt was a great source of many things for her these days: confusion, excitement?, intrigue, anxiety. Makenzie struggled to determine how he felt about her, if he was just literally that nice or if he felt something additional for her. And how she felt about him in return was no clearer answer.
Makenzie Newell, sixth year, Crotalus.
“Curious” was not a word one might have attributed to Makenzie in the past. She did not particularly seek out anything new because she felt that she knew enough, understood the things that would benefit her and things that would not, able to sort through them quite rationally and logically. Either she was losing that talent or the world was a whole lot more complicated and interesting than she’d thought before. There were things she wanted to work out, people she needed to understand. Even if other people would be around, extra time with Tobi might help her get some sort of answer.
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Makenzie Newell
Not super sure what I'm doing
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Makenzie Newell
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Joseph Umland
December 01, 2016 5:34 PM
This should be fun. by Joseph Umland
Joe found the list of countries…strange, really. France seemed too common, Israel too political, Poland and two South American countries just a bit…out there (who, besides Polish people he guessed, even thought about Poland except in the context of its various partitions?) He suspected the professors were deliberately messing with them, but also supposed that was fair enough, since he knew he, at least, hadn’t put anything in the suggestion box and he was pretty sure that his roommates hadn’t either.Since they were what they were, though, he thought about all the lessons he’d had at home that touched on at least their parts of the globe. Chile would probably be the easiest for him, all things considered; he had taken an interest in the Inca when he was younger and still remembered a good bit of it and could read up on the rest quickly. For some reason, though, Ethiopia just sounded appealing. He had enjoyed studying Africa at home, but didn’t think he’d ever really done much with Ethiopia specifically. Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria had been the areas his social studies lessons had revolved around, and he was curious how Ethiopia would compare.
By the time he got to the sign-up sheet, his Teppenpaw side was given some help in agreeing with his Aladren tendencies that it would be fun. He didn’t know Nevaeh or Raine as well as some others in his year – which was, he thought, a real shame and probably further proof that he wasn’t really a very decent sort of person deep down in Raine’s case; she was in his House - but he liked them by reputation and liked the thought of getting to know them better and liked Professor Carter to boot, so he signed up.
Joseph Umland, 3rd year, Teppenpaw.
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Joseph Umland
This should be fun.
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Joseph Umland
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Wu Peizhi
December 02, 2016 5:06 AM
Deep breaths. by Wu Peizhi
As an international student, Wu kinda felt like she owed it to the school to participate in an internationally orientated event like the fair. Even without her own homeland of China as a selected country for study and presentation, she still felt inclined to sign up to help. And as nervous as things like this made her, it did feel sorta nice to be involved in things.She had been very disappointed that Laila didn’t seem to have time for it (not that she could blame the Crotalus, who had her own club to run as well as being an active member in a handful of others), mostly because she made Wu feel far more comfortable in most settings. And really, she mostly just wanted to be in a group, be told what to do, and deliver. She was very good at following orders (usually), so the Teppenpaw considered this a good utilization of her skills.
Fortunately, even without Laila to keep her steady, Wu was not entirely alone: she’d gotten friendlier with her roommate Abby last year, and Abby seemed far more interested in participating in the fair. They had talked it over and decided that Brazil was their preferred option, and she was glad to see it still available when she approached the list. Abby had not signed up prior to this moment, but Peizhi was hopeful, since adding her own name left three more spaces, that this would not go sour.
Wu Peizhi, fourth year, Teppenpaw.
Personally, she didn’t know or care much about Brazil in particular, but she thought joining up with their Head of House was a good way to go about it. Her other favorite staff member, Professor Skies, also had a group, but Wu didn’t want to risk hurting Professor Xavier’s feelings by signing up with a different Head of House. Plus, the three names beneath Professor Skies’s were all upperclassmen, which was a bit intimidating. So Brazil it was, and now it was too late to take it back.
Wu swallowed. Hopefully this wasn’t a huge mistake.
OOC: Minor godmodding of Abby approved by her author.
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Wu Peizhi
Deep breaths.
316
Wu Peizhi
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Florence Newell
December 02, 2016 5:16 AM
Hon hon~ by Florence Newell
Flo looked over her options, tapping her chin with the end of her quill in an act of intellectual curiosity. The idea of the fair was delightful, and, to a little nerd like her, the opportunity to learn about a country was not something she could easily pass up. She knew bits and pieces about some of the countries, and absolutely nothing on others, but there were many factors to consider when choosing one.Florence Newell, first year, Aladren.
She settled on France in the end, for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, the other names on the list were actual French people, which to her suggested a more authentic learning experience, even if it probably meant that it would demand less of her. And she did know a touch of French from her tutoring, although her understanding of the language paled in comparison to her brother’s, as Dustin was basically fluent and could only have improved thanks to his actually French roommate.
Moreover, Florence was a young lady, and young ladies had a tendency to romanticize France, or at the very least Paris. She pictured a romantically candlelit image, a softly glowing street view with the Eiffel Tower in the background. It would be interesting to see how that imaged compared to the reports of Madeleine Dautin and Sébastien Évreux.
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Florence Newell
Hon hon~
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Florence Newell
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Winston Pierce
December 02, 2016 10:22 AM
I can't think of a reason not to by Winston Pierce
Winston knew he wanted to be part of the fair. He had very little actual interest in foreign countries, particularly any of the ones listed out on the sign up sheet, but he hadn't offered any suggestions of his own so he really only had himself to blame for that. Though, truthfully, he didn't know what foreign countries he might have any interest in, which was why he hadn't. He just felt knowing about other places in the world was something a well rounded gentleman should find interesting.So here he was, standing in front of the sign up list, quill in hand, hoping to be inspired as a well-rounded gentleman to have any interest at all in any of the countries before him. There was France, he supposed, but there were real live French people in that group and he didn't want to look ignorant in front of them. As for the rest ...
He supposed he could choose based on people but none of the people he knew had signed up. Well, Arne had, but Arne was older and his Quidditch captain, and Winston didn't want to look ignorant in front of him and an Aladren seventh year, either.
Maybe the designated teachers could help him decide then? Except Winston had no strong feelings one way or another for any of his professors. Skies was his Head of House so he gave Chile a moment of consideration, but, as with Arne's group, the other people all looked intimidatingly older than him, including his House's Keeper. Winston didn't want to look ignorant in front of her either.
Potions was a good class, he liked that one and Professor O'Malley's group only had one person signed up so far. Also older, but Winston didn't know her personally so the stakes were lower. And there were a lot of open spots left there so maybe his name would encourage other underclassmen to join it. And Isreal was a country that came up a fair amount in history lessons, so he knew a little bit about it already, and it might be a useful thing to know something about someday.
It seemed as good a choice as any other, and better than some, so he added his name on the second line.
Winston Pierce, Year 1, Crotalus
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Winston Pierce
I can't think of a reason not to
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Simon Mordue
December 02, 2016 10:23 AM
Taking the lead. by Simon Mordue
Simon was slightly wary of optimism, especially when it didn’t look like either of his roommates had signed up before him, but he actually thought the Fair project might be fun as well as practical to participate in. There was always the old undercurrent of nervousness, the worry that he would prove inadequate in some way, but to his delight, Simon thought he was actually doing fairly well in school. People seemed to like him well enough and he had yet to injure himself or shame the family name in front of an assembly. Each new thing seemed a little less intimidating than the last in light of those facts.There was, however, still one problem: what to sign up for? Without Winston or Victor to set the path before him, he couldn’t be sure of his company or how well what he was going to do would be received by his roommates. Simon, this time at least, was going to be the leader.
He looked over the list and his eye fell on one group that was still very small. He knew little about the country in question, but he knew it was one of great antiquity, the sort of thing a gentleman could study. The team’s head was Professor O’Malley, the Potions professor, and the other member was one of his own Housemates. A much older one of his Housemates, but still. Seemed respectable enough. He’d sign up for that, he decided.
Simon Mordue, First Year, Crotalus House.
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Simon Mordue
Taking the lead.
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Simon Mordue
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Amelia Layne
December 02, 2016 10:35 AM
This should be fun! by Amelia Layne
Since the first year girls had all breakfasted together, Amelia had been looking forward to Fair sign-ups going up, her head full of visions of all of them dressing up beautifully together and bonding and becoming like a huge family of sisters and being friends their whole lives. It was with some disappointment, then, that she saw that the country that Kit had suggested they work in wasn’t on the board.She bit her lip, practically able to hear her granddad in her head, reminding her that those who wanted something should take measures to make sure they got it. Those who did not take such measures would never improve. She should have suggested it just to make sure.
Still, though – she was sure there were plenty of other opportunities to do something similar in the options before them. She scanned the list eagerly and lit on South Korea. That was in the same sort of part of the world as the country they had thought of doing, she was pretty sure anyway (Asia was big. She hadn’t learned much else about it in Social Studies in her Muggle elementary school), and the other person already signed up for it was Ginger Pierce, who Amelia had gathered was one of the more popular girls in school and a Teppenpaw like Ayla, who was super-nice. That would work.
Amelia Layne, 1st!, Aladren.
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Amelia Layne
This should be fun!
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Amelia Layne
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Tess Whittaker
December 02, 2016 11:36 AM
Ooh, me too! by Tess Whittaker
The midsummer events were always, for Tess, a great end to the term, and this year’s event looked set to be no different. The bonfire in her first year had been lovely, and had helped her get closer to her best friends, and then last year’s ball had been an amazing night. This year she would get to learn about lots of different countries, which was equally exciting! Tess immediately knew she didn’t want to choose a European country, and especially not France, because surely the whole point was to go wild and pick something completely new?However, that didn’t help her narrow down her selection much, as there were only two European countries. The remaining six countries all seemed equally interesting, and how on earth was she meant to decide?
Her indecision meant that Tess left it quite late to sign-up, which actually helped her. Standing in front of the sign-up sheet, pen in hand, she was still trying to make her final decision when she actually paid attention to the names already on the sheet. Both Raine and Nevaeh had signed up for Ethiopia, as well as Joe, which was definitely tempting. They could have so much fun all working together! Decided, she put her name down for that country.
Theresa Whittaker, 3rd Year, Pecari
Hopefully Nat would sign up for Ethiopia too, and maybe Ben, and then things would be even better!
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Tess Whittaker
Ooh, me too!
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Jake Manger
December 02, 2016 3:53 PM
Anything in the name of... by Jake Manger
To put it gently, Edda Eir was a terrifying woman. Jake was just about the epitome of Teppenpaw niceness, but Sonora’s medic was, if it was possible, the anti-Teppenpaw. When he approached the fair sign-up sheet, he hadn’t even expected to see her hosting a group, and the fact that she was somehow only scared him more. But here he was, putting his name beneath South Korea, that very woman’s group.Jake Manger, seventh year, Teppenpaw.
Why was he doing this to himself? Well, love, of course. For whatever reason, Ginger had picked that group. She must have had a genuine interest in South Korea over the other countries, he supposed.Personally, Jake thought New Zealand sounded the most interesting, although he was also tempted to Israel just based on the fact that the professor affiliated with it was his sister-in-law. But he went faithfully with Ginger’s pick, fine with the country itself even if he was a bit nervous about Medic Eir.
Jake sighed. Well, at least he’d be with Ginger. That would make it all worth any stress that Medic Edda Eir could cause him. He didn’t have a lot of time left at Sonora, his freshly mailed college applications a testimony of this fact, so he was excited to spend what time he could with his girlfriend. And who knew? Maybe he’d actually learn something cool about South Korea along the way.
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Jake Manger
Anything in the name of...
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Farrah Welsh
December 02, 2016 4:53 PM
Reluctantly signing... by Farrah Welsh
Farrah hadn’t originally been interested in partaking in the International Fair Festival thing because she hadn’t had much interest in learning about other countries. Perhaps that was a little bit selfish of her to do since her family liked to take summer vacations to new places and she really ought to be interested in other cultures, but Farrah was a sheltered girl from an uppity town in Vermont. Those things just never occurred to her before.Plus, Farrah didn’t really know how well she would get on with some of the other students in the group and that made her nervous. She had seen Madeleine’s name under France and she already knew that that country would be out because she was certain that her roommate would have just taken it over anyway. She thought that maybe Poland could work because she wasn’t entirely intimidated by John so much anymore, but the other older boy was more unknown to her and thus, too scary for her to be a part of. The list went on from there.
The only thing that changed her mind, however, was a conversation she had with Kellen. Farrah was trying to become more actively involved and she thought that maybe her friend was too because he seemed interested in joining the fair. It took a while, but eventually Farrah agreed to do it as long as the people they were going to be stuck with didn’t seem too terrible. They ended up deciding on New Zealand. Clark was fun when he ran his Science Club, so Farrah thought he would be okay and she had no idea who the other boy was. It was the safest choice to make.
Quickly so that she couldn’t change her mind, Farrah pulled out her pen and jotted her name down.
Farrah Welsh, Second Year, Aladren
She better see Kellen’s name there soon.
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Farrah Welsh
Reluctantly signing...
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Farrah Welsh
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Ayla Tremaine
December 02, 2016 4:54 PM
Oui oui by Ayla Tremaine
It was kind of a no brainer when it came to Ayla choosing her country. Over the past few months she'd really discovered a secret love of all things French. This went beyond French toast, French fries, and berets,(though she did feel like she looked pretty cute in them). She’d always appreciated the fashion, and how pretty the language sounded. Now, though, she loosely knew some French boys, and that seemed like a compelling enough reason to sign up.Ayla scanned the list, and though she didn't see Louis’ name anywhere, she figured he would eventually pick his native country. If she signed up first though, no one would catch on to the real reason she chose it. The first year was glad to see that Flo had signed up as well, and she'd worked with Sébastien in Defense, so she would at least know some of the people in her group. Not that that was an issue for her, given that she was a bit of a social butterfly by nature.
She took her quill from her bag and neatly wrote her name beneath Florence’s.
Ayla Tremaine, first year Teppenpaw
Even if Louis didn't end up signing up for this group, (but why wouldn't he when the other French students had?) Ayla figured this would be a good opportunity to get to learn more about his country. You know, incase she ever worked up enough nerve to actually talk to him.
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Ayla Tremaine
Oui oui
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Ayla Tremaine
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Kellen Mormont
December 02, 2016 5:09 PM
You have my sword... by Kellen Mormont
Kellen Mormont, Second year, AladrenKellen felt a little sick as he lowered his pen. He couldn't believe he was actually volunteering to be social. Had he not been interested in any of the countries offered, he definitely wouldn't have, but of course professor Ammon had selected New Zealand. Home of Middle Earth, Flight of the Conchords, and the kiwi. He wasn't about to go it alone though, so he was glad that he was able to convince Farrah to sign up with him.
It was a little bit of a relief to see she'd already made it to the list, and Clark was a cool guy, if not part giant. Maybe this would be ok after all. He wasn't super familiar with the other name on the list, but Kellen figured that three out of four nerds made for pretty good odds. He'd also heard that Professor Ammon was kind of nerdy himself. Now this just left research, as if Kellen needed another reason to visit the library. He was sure that people would be interested in more than just the literary lore behind the Peter Jackson films made in their country.
They could probably work that in somewhere though... as long as it wouldn't require Farrah to wear an elf costume. Kellen wasn't sure he'd be able to handle that.
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Kellen Mormont
You have my sword...
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Kellen Mormont
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Kit Reid
December 02, 2016 6:47 PM
Here I am! by Kit Reid
Decisions. Decisions. Kit looked over the signup list. Ayla had signed up for France, but Amelia had signed up for South Korea. Flo had also joined Ayla’s group. France sounded wonderful. They were the go-to for anyone interested in fashion and culture, however, South Korea was up and coming in skincare and cosmetics. Oh, what to do? She wanted to explore further into each country plus spend time with friends, but they were split up. She frowned in thought. If she really considered it, Ayla and Flo would have each other, so she decided she would join South Korea and work with Amelia. Not that she thought Amelia was incapable of going alone, but Kit thought it would be fun for them to work together on this project. That decided, she added her name.Kit Reid, 1st Year, Aladren
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Kit Reid
Here I am!
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Kit Reid
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Sutton Nicolls
December 02, 2016 7:22 PM
This should be interesting by Sutton Nicolls
Sutton hadn’t originally been planning on signing up. Joining things just wasn’t for her, but she had decided that it might be interesting to learn about another country, especially because she wanted to travel. Looking over the list, she saw Aislinn had signed up for Chile. She made a face. It wasn’t that she was against the country, but she thought others sounded more interesting like New Zealand. But there was also Poland, which had the benefit of John Umland. She wondered what interested her sister so much about him. To her, he seemed rather uninteresting. He wasn’t even what she would consider attractive. Though, it had nothing to do with his looks. It was purely personality based. There were others that she found to be much more interesting. However, she figured the only way to know was to see what John was about. That decided, she added her name.Sutton Nicolls, Fifth Year, Pecari
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Sutton Nicolls
This should be interesting
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Sutton Nicolls
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Chaslyn Brockert
December 03, 2016 5:02 PM
Cuz I have to. by Chaslyn Brockert
Chaslyn's shoulders had drooped at the sight of the Fair Sign Ups. Obviously, that meant she had something else to do. Of course, her shoulders were also drooping based on the fact that she was super excessively tired and had basically reached zombie mode. In fact, she'd probably reached energy levels comparable to that of sick people. Or Amity. Actually her sister likely had more energy than she did right now, given the Aladren alumna didn't actually do anything now.And Chaslyn felt a bit envious. At least, until, she remembered how much Mother disliked Amity and what a major disappointment she was. It was much better to keep plugging on. She might not get credit and praise from Mother, but recieving nothing was better than being yelled at and criticized.
So that meant signing up for the fair. Something maybe she'd have liked if she had a choice but she never knew what she'd have liked, other than dance, because Chaslyn wasn't given said choice. Besides, Amity had always liked other cultures-with their food and languages-better than her. She'd shown a natural talent for linguistics while Chaslyn's had been for dance.
She looked over the list of countries, first considering France, where ballet was a big thing. However, there were a lot of French students so she was certain they'd take over and tell she wasn't doing it right. And of course, Chaslyn had to do everything right. Or Else.
So she kept looking and decided on Chile. Tobi Reinhardt was among the group and after her own cousins and Liac, he was probably one of the better people to work with, so she placed her name on the list.
Chaslyn Brockert, seventh year, Crotalus
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Chaslyn Brockert
Cuz I have to.
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Chaslyn Brockert
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Tasha DuBois
December 03, 2016 5:37 PM
Signing up by Tasha DuBois
When Tasha had first seen that their midsummer event was going to be an International Fair, she couldn't help but squee like a little girl on Yuletide morning. Between this and the orchestra, things were looking up for her this year and she couldn't be happier.Not that things were really all that terrible before. She'd always loved learning but it was kind of hard getting used to being at school instead of travelling the world. Being around other people her own age rather her parents, their friends-Mother had friends all over the place-and her tutors. Now instead of Jeff, who'd taught her trumpet her whole life, all she had was paintings in the music room and fellow orchestra members,of which only Nevaeh was a fellow trumpet player.
Maybe it would have helped more if she fit in better. She knew it wasn't all her fault or theirs. Even had they been other society pureblood children, they still didn't grow up the same way what with all the travelling she'd done. Actually, the ones who came the closest in terms of travel weren't Angelique or Daniel, but probably the Collindales, even if theirs had been primarily within America from what she gathered whereas her own had been international.
She looked over the list of available countries. Aside from France, they all sounded wonderful. Not that Tasha had anything against the European country per se, it was just that she was part French and so she wanted something different and while she technically identified as half French, half American and had dual citizenship, she often privately considered herself of a girl of the world. Not that Tasha said so out loud at the risk of sounding snobby.
The Aladren noted that a lot of her own yearmates were signed up for Ethiopia. She decided to give it a chance herself and put her name down on the list.
Tasha DuBois, third year, Aladren
Maybe she'd become better friends with them now. Or rather friends with them at all. Nevaeh and Raine were among them and they were two she'd like to know better in particular.
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Tasha DuBois
Signing up
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Tasha DuBois
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Tobi
December 03, 2016 5:39 PM
Not on my watch. by Tobi
It wasn’t that Tobi thought Chaslyn would have made a bad Head Girl, it was just that she was doing so many other activities that he wasn’t sure if she could devote the time or energy and still be healthy on top of it. So, he had voted for Lena Westley. He didn’t know much about the quiet Aladren, but she was dating Clark Dill who was a very responsible sort of person and besides that, he figured that as an Aladren she would have some level of competency and therefore be able to handle the role.It seemed, however, that not everyone shared in that opinion and Chaslyn Brockert had been made Head Girl. It was ridiculous and kind of made Tobi upset. Chaslyn was a member of every single club Sonora had to offer and on top of that she was enrolled in every single class RATs and non-RATs alike, aside from Muggle Studies. Additionally, she was a Crotalus prefect, and was it just him or did she look rather ill most of the time? Who on earth had thought it would then be a good idea to promote her from prefect to Head Girl?
There wasn’t enough time in a day to accomplish all of her activities, and Tobi was starting to get suspicious that something else was going on. And he was starting to get frustrated that no one else seemed to notice or do anything about it. Didn’t Chaslyn have hundreds of cousins at the school? The Brockerts and their relatives probably made up a decent population of the student body not to mention the two relatives she had on the staff. But since no one seemed determined to do anything about it, Tobi had resigned himself to Chaslyn watch.
This meant keeping careful tabs on her as much as he could over the few weeks leading up to the fair sign-ups to try and keep her from doing something stupid like signing up for that, too. Unfortunately, he was late to breakfast one morning, having stayed up late the night before to complete his homework—homework he hadn’t finished because he’d been obsessing over Chaslyn’s schedule. He would have felt like a bit of a creep if he had stopped to think about it, but the only thing currently on his mind was Stop Chaslyn Brockert.
By the time he arrived, it was too late. Chaslyn had already signed up for the fair. He lingered in the Hall until all the other students had left. He would be late to class, but what did that matter? He was on Good Samaritan duty. Once he was the only person left in the room, aside from the praire elves who were now clearing the tables from breakfast, he walked over to the sign-up sheet and raised his wand, casting tergeo, a spell meant to take dried, spilt ink off an already-written letter, to erase her name from the sheet. He didn’t care about her reasons for taking more on, he didn’t care if she hated him forever for this. All he cared about was keeping her from dying of exhaustion. And maybe there were other ways, but it was important to know when to stop, and Chaslyn didn’t seem to know when to say enough is enough.
OOC: I’m being purposefully vague on how much Tobi knows about her situation because I don’t know how open Chaslyn would have been regarding the pressure her mom puts on her. If Tobi knows, then the post should be read as Chaslyn not knowing when to tell her mom stop. If he doesn’t know, then the post should be read as Chaslyn not knowing when to tell herself to stop.
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Tobi
Not on my watch.
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Tobi
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Emerald Brockert
December 03, 2016 6:44 PM
Signing up by Emerald Brockert
At the first year girls' luncheon, they had discussed the fair and while Emerald was far from a big joiner-Book Club and Library Helper were the only two things that had really excited her-she thought the fair could definitely be enjoyable. After all, she would learn something as there weren't a lot of countries she knew all that much about. Okay, she was a Brockert which meant money which meant some of it was spent on travel. Of course, Emerald might have gotten to do a bit more travelling had their not always been a blasted baby around. Small children made travel difficult and if she was lucky, she got to go places with Angelique and her parents.She gazed over the list, eliminating Brazil right away. There was no way Emerald could stomach Lily Spencer's presence any more than she had to for the duration of class, and that meant that the girl was in the same room as her, no interaction involved. As for France, Ayla and Flo were down for it but she figured that the French students would take it over and put her in the role of grunt work, as place that as a Brockert and an oldest child she was not accustomed to.
She noticed however that Amelia and Kit were signed up for South Korea. After all the point was for them all to sign up together though it wasn't working out that way. Granted, there were more than six of them in the first place so it wasn't as if they could be all be in the same group even if they all did sign up.
The Aladren placed her name under that of her two roommates, as well as Jake and Ginger.
Emerald Brockert, first year, Aladren
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Emerald Brockert
Signing up
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Emerald Brockert
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Kir McLeod
December 04, 2016 5:57 AM
Squeaking in by Kir McLeod
Kir liked the sound of the international fair. It seemed a good chance to learn about a new place, as well as meet some new people. His room-mate Sawyer was really nice, and he also really liked Kit, but it felt a bit like everyone else was making firmer friends than him already.He knew he should pick based on country, although he justified his reasoning based on the fact that he was sure all countries were very interesting, and he just knew more or less about certain ones already. That was why, in spite of never really thinking about South Korea as an option, and much preferring the idea of New Zealand, he signed up for the former nonetheless, because Kit already had, whilst the New Zealand group was full of older students. Ok, Farrah and Kellen were only the year above him, but they already had a super tight friendship, so he didn’t fancy his chances there. By the time he signed up, there was another first year girl on the list, so he crossed his fingers and hoped for her being nice too, rather than cliquing with Kit and leaving him out.
Kir McLeod, first year, Teppenpaw
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Kir McLeod
Squeaking in
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Kir McLeod
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Jemima Wolseithcrafte
December 04, 2016 6:01 AM
Carnival! by Jemima Wolseithcrafte
This was turning out to be the best but also worst year. There were so many exciting options at Sonora, and Jemima kept telling herself she wasn’t going to do any more of them because of her CATS but then caving in and signing up. Although the fair had been announced before spirit club, so had been on her radar for a while - it had, in fact, been her reason for hesitating over spirit club, but now it was actually time to sign up the sensible little voice in her head was reminding her that she didn’t have to and she should think about her studies.When Ginger suggested South Korea, so they could learn more about Lauren’s family’s home, she was sort of torn. She wanted to show her room-mate that she was interested but she was enticed by some of the other countries too… She really liked Ginger’s idea of making it a fifth year Teppenpaw project too, but by the time she came to look at the lists, that wasn’t an option. That had sort of sealed the deal for her… She already spent lots of time with Ginger and Lauren by being room-mates, and she and Ginger ran art club together. With all her activities, she was worried about Owen getting squeezed out - and if she and both her room-mates went for South Korea, they’d be no room for him. When Ginger had floated her idea, Jemima hadn’t made a firm promise, and had checked that her signing up for something else wouldn’t upset or offend her room-mates. She would definitely spend a lot of time at the South Korea booth. As it happened, when she finally put quill to paper, South Korea was full anyway, and it didn’t look anyone would be joining Ginger, unless all the groups filled up. She felt a bit bad about that, but was sure her room-mate would get on great with her group regardless - she was a Teppenpaw, after all. All the groups seemed interesting, but Brazil particularly appealed to her, as it conjured up images of bright and elaborate carnival costumes that would be fun to make.
She signed her name Jemima Wolseithcrafte, 5th year, Teppenpaw, and went straight to find Owen and let him know, in case he wanted to join her.
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Jemima Wolseithcrafte
Carnival!
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Jemima Wolseithcrafte
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Georgia Kirkly
December 04, 2016 6:09 AM
And my... um, and me? by Georgia Kirkly
Georgia wasn’t a massive joiner. She wasn’t really in many clubs, just baking. She was really fine with that on the whole, she preferred just kind of hanging out than doing a lot of activities. However, it was hard to just hang out when her friends were the type to sign up to a lot of activities because it limited the free time they had to spend with her. She had taken care to keep her mouth shut about the fair, unlike her disastrous incident with spirit club, and wait and see what her friends thought first. She thought it sounded ok. A bit like doing geography class voluntarily, but that was at least a Muggle school subject she had actually somewhat enjoyed. At least it wasn’t a maths fair, where participation would have basically been torture.When she looked at the list, she was more interested in finding her friends’ names than looking at the countries. Farrah and Kellen were both signed up for New Zealand. She hesitated. They seemed… close. Not that she and Farrah weren’t but in a way where Farrah’s vibe with Kellen was different than when she was with her. Did they want to spend time together as just the two of them on this? Would she be crashing? Ultimately though, it was going to be a group thing. It wasn’t like Farrah and Kellen expected it just to be the two of them - especially as two older students had signed up before them. And also, she didn’t want to risk being left out.
Georgia Kirkly, second year, Teppenpaw.
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Owen Brockert
December 04, 2016 8:05 AM
We know why I'm here by Owen Brockert
Owen didn't have a lot of activities. He was in Art Club to support Jemima-and to a lesser extent, Ginger-and had joined Fundraising Committee because he really, truly believed in helping others. Plus, while it wasn't his main reason for being a part of it, he figured that if there was something he could relate to his probable future in-laws on, charitable causes were his best bet given he couldn't play Quidditch and while intelligent enough, was far from an intellectual.However, when Jemima approached him about the fair, he didn't need to be told twice. She had a lot on her plate right now, and he wanted this opportunity to spend some time together and was really glad she'd chosen Brazil rather than joining Ginger by signing up for South Korea. Nothing against South Korea or their people-Lauren, though was in actuality Korean-American, was a very nice person though Owen felt he was closer to the other Tepp fifth years than her- or the people signed up for the group which included Ginger, Jake and Emerald, but he spent way more time around Medic Eir than he would have liked. Actually, that would be true even if he didn't think of her as basically the second scariest person he knew after Theodore Wolseithcrafte. Not that he wanted to think of Jemima's brother that way but he did.
So he placed his name on the list under his girlfriend's
Owen Brockert, fifth year, Teppenpaw
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Abigail De La Garza
December 04, 2016 2:26 PM
Big smiles. by Abigail De La Garza
Abby had been keen to get involved with the international fair from the moment it was brought to her attention. She was in her fourth year now and she wanted to start taking a greater role in school life. The Teppenpaw knew a lot about Mexican culture and tradition that she could’ve shared with her peers, but Mexico wasn’t one of the chosen countries. That didn’t discourage her, however, as she knew that it would be a good learning opportunity and also a fun experience to do a country she knew nothing about.The only decision to make was which country to choose as Abby favoured none of them over the others. She decided to approach her roommate with the matter in the hopes that Wu would surprise her by already having planned to sign up, that or she could take a little persuasion to do so. It would be nice if they could do this together. The fourth year was really happy with the way their friendship was finally developing and this seemed like an activity they could enjoy doing as friends.
After discussing it with Wu, the two of them reached an agreement that they would sign up for Brazil, which happened to be run by their Head of House, Professor Xavier. He was a nice man and never seemed intimidating like some of the other professors would sometimes come across as.
Abby smiled when she saw her roommate had signed up ahead of her. It was good to see that Wu was enthusiastic about this too.
Abigail De La Garza, 4th year, Teppenpaw
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Big smiles.
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Gwen Fintoc
December 04, 2016 4:38 PM
Who let the frogs out? by Gwen Fintoc
Gwen thought the idea of helping out with the fair seemed like a nice idea but she let herself think on it for a few days before committing herself to anything. She was encouraged when she noticed that some of her classmates had signed up, meaning that it wouldn’t just be run by the older students who would no doubt be far better at this kind of thing.It would be a fun opportunity, she thought, and so she made up her mind. It wasn’t difficult to select a country. France had a lot going for it. She had always grown up having a very romantic idea of what France was like, everything she’d heard about it sounding so wonderful. Gwen had also seen that Ayla had signed up so it would be nice to have a friend in the group. There was another first year girl, Florence Newell, and the Teppenpaw was keen to get to know her.
Friendships seemed to develop slowly at Sonora, perhaps because of the house divide, so it was good that there were opportunities like this to work with students one mightn’t usually interact with. Gwen looked at the two French students’ names with interest, already knowing who they were since she shared classes with them, and thought how fabulous it was that they had actual French students to take the lead.
Professor Perrault was the group leader, a lovely professor who she knew had taught at Ward’s school in Québec for his first year. No doubt he also knew a lot about the country that Gwen was so excited to expand her knowledge of.
Gwen Fintoc, 1st year, Teppenpaw
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Louis Valois
December 04, 2016 4:42 PM
Something new! by Louis Valois
When Madeleine had suggested working together on France for the fair, Louis had been veering on the side of saying yes. He had been undecided anyway, and working with his fellow French students just seemed like an extra reason on the France side, even if he wouldn’t get to learn as much. However, Emmy had then shown an interest in the conversation. When Louis had explained what he and Madeleine had been discussing, Emmy had pointed out that, surely, they were going to work together?Louis would never turn down a chance to work with his best friend, but he also felt bad at the idea of saying no to Madeleine when she had asked to work with him. However, that problem was easily solved. He and Emmy could both sign up for France, right?
Wrong. Annoyingly they were too late, and there weren’t enough spaces for both of them. Still, Madeleine had Sébastien to work with, and some first years too (he noted with interest that Gwen had signed up for France), so he didn’t feel too guilty as he apologised to Madeleine and, after a brief discussion with Emmy, signed up to Poland. It was a European country but not one he really knew, and he was excited to have the chance to learn something new.
Louis Valois, 4th Year, Aladren
OOC: God-modding and conversations approved with the relevant authors!
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Something new!
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Emilia-Louise Scott
December 04, 2016 5:16 PM
It feels so right to be here with you! by Emilia-Louise Scott
Emmy-Lou had a lot going on in her life right now. Not only was she trying to give her all to running her two clubs at school, she was also making big steps in her business life outside Sonora. It was a difficult job for a fourteen year old student at boarding school but fortunately her mother had always been very supportive of her fashion endeavours and had essentially assumed the role of “momager” right from the beginning. Emmy knew she needed to let go of the reins a little and relax with it all but the older she got the more she wanted to be involved in the whole process of having her own fashion lines.She was, however, determined not to let any of this detract from her performance at school. Emmy-Lou was aware that at the end of term, the professors would be deciding on the prefects for her year group. The Aladren needed that position, she just wanted it so badly. Emmy had always strived for as much power as she could get but not for the reasons that so many others did. The fourteen-year-old could be accused of many things but she was not selfish. The reason she wanted such influence in all parts of her life was because she had very strong beliefs and a passion for helping others. Being prefect, and what that then may lead on to, gave her a position within Sonora (a large part of her life) to help her peers and be a good role model and that was really important to her.
All of this meant that she needed to show her dedication to the things that went on at Sonora. Of course, Emmy being Emmy meant she was interested in signing up for the fair anyway. She loved increasing her knowledge about all sorts of things and working with others to organise events. But any manner of doubt about her current workload (which was only a concern of hers because of how close she was to launching her brand new collaboration with Daisy Queen) was erased by the greater concern about what kind of message she wanted to send out to the rest of the school, and particularly to her professors.
She had been relieved when Louis agreed to sign up for the same country as her so that they could do it together. Hopefully that meant they could also look at the other countries’ stalls together at the fair. For a moment it had seemed liked Louis was going to be stolen away by a little French girl but fortunately he had his priorities right and opted for some quality best friend time.
Emilia-Louise Scott, 4th year, Aladren
It hadn’t escaped Emmy-Lou’s attention that John Umland was also signed up, but the fourth year realised with a sigh that maybe it was time to just bury the hatchet there too.
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It feels so right to be here with you!
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Sawyer Matheson
December 05, 2016 1:05 AM
Better late, then never by Sawyer Matheson
Sawyer didn’t know which country he wanted to sign up for. There were many to choose from. He considered signing up for France since he knew Ayla, but at the same time, he felt like it might be a little weird since there were two other first year females. Not that he wouldn’t like to get to know everyone better, but girls in groups tended to lean towards talking about girl things. He decided against that. Most of the other choices involved older students, which had the possibility of him being left out simply for being younger. The other two choices were South Korea or Israel. South Korea would have been fun since Kir was there, which would make him less the odd boy out. However, the group was full, which left Israel. It already consisted of two other first years. Plus, he had already met Winston. This would give him a chance to get to know the others better. Decided, he added his name.Sawyer Matheson, First Year, Teppenpaw
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Better late, then never
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Kira Spaulding
December 05, 2016 11:28 PM
Why am I doing this? by Kira Spaulding
Usually Kira avoided signing up for any sort of school activity. She didn't belong, wasn't wanted, would probably suck at whatever activity it was. Even if she didn't-which she would unless there was a magic ability club-the other students wouldn't like her, wouldn't listen to her opinions, possibly openly mock them and exclude her.There was a reason after all that she wasn't in Book Club despite being a voracious reader. Because her opinions didn't matter and as Kira's mother was in a woman's book club she knew they were supposed to be about discussing books-of course, the one her mother attended usually involved pureblood ladies drinking a lot of wine and complaining about their husbands and in-laws and gossiping a lot. Kira usually was the only one who'd read the book all the way through but like these adult women would listen to her opinions-or be able to even contribute anything of their own.
She expected the school book club was only slightly better but she couldn't imagine John Umland respecting her opinion since he seemed to have as much contempt for those of her social class as Kelsey did for those of his. Maybe when his sister or Melanie or Henny had been running it, it would have been different, but they still probably wouldn't have listened to Kira . Plus she didn't want her opinions and interpretations being run down. Which would not be something unique to John.
However, when it came to the International Fair, Kira's first instinct was to do what she usually did-ignore it and expect to have fun-presuming she could find someone to hang around with-walking around with the booths. However, Sophie had approached her about doing the Israel booth she heading up, mentioning how it was just Caelia and some first years in her group as of now and even contributing some bad Sophie jokes like about it was ""This israeli good opportunity for her" Which admittedly made her chuckle.
The thing was that even if Kira signed up, there'd be one slot left and who knew who'd take it? What if it was someone mean and horrible who made fun of her? Still she could tell Sophie really wanted her in the Israel group with her, so as not to hurt her cousin-in-law's feelings, she placed her name down, in shaky script.
Kira Spaulding, fourth year, Crotalus
OOC-Godmodding of Sophie approved by author. Also, credit for bad joke goes to her as well.
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Alistair Johnson
December 09, 2016 11:25 AM
Last but not least. by Alistair Johnson
Alistair wasn’t sure if he would have signed up for the fair or not under normal circumstances. But given the unexpected turn of events right at the start of term, he was determined to prove that the snub had been a huge mistake by those from on high.The fifth year scanned the names already signed below each country. He didn’t feel overly concerned about where he went but he was leaning towards one of the two European countries. A quick look at the students in those groups, however, was enough to put him off.
Caelia Lucan. Now that name was far more pleasing to his eyes. Looking at the way all the other groups had filled out, it seemed that Israel was the country that held potential for enjoyment.
Kira was also in the group. And his two favourite little first years. Although he tended not to spend much time with his teammates outside of practise, it probably wouldn’t hurt to get to know the kids a bit better. They were the future of his team after all.
So Israel it would be.
Alistair Johnson, 5th year, Crotalus
He felt quite happy to be the filling the last available spot in that group. The fifth year couldn’t help being content with the knowledge that a certain someone would not be able to break up the party, even if they so desired.
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Alistair Johnson
Last but not least.
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Isaac Song
December 20, 2016 6:28 AM
Deciding on something different by Isaac Song
When the signups had been put up for the fair, Isaac knew he definitely didn't want to do South Korea. Even though his dad was a full-blood Korean citizen, Isaac was a born and bred American through and through. He didn't like associating with whatever cultural things his dad was always trying to push on them. Instead, Isaac took a good look at the other countries, trying to decide which one he would enjoy researching more. There was something romantic about choosing a European country--he was sure his sister was going to choose one of those if not Korea--but it didn't really interest him that much.South America had a cool ring to it, and maybe Manny, one of his best friends from home, could teach him a little Spanish to go with it. Isaac wrote his name down under Chile and then looked at the other people in his group. He didn't know any of them, but that was okay; it would be cool to make new friends even if they were all a lot older than him. Hopefully they wouldn't mind either. After signing up, Isaac felt a little more excited for this fair. Chile sounded like a cool country, and Isaac did like spicy food even though he was sure the two weren't related...maybe.
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Deciding on something different
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Lauren Song
December 20, 2016 6:35 AM
Just because... by Lauren Song
When Ginger had suggested they sign up for South Korea for the fair, Lauren had been open to the idea. She wasn't particularly attached to the country, but she did like being a little different from her roommates and her dad lived there still so it made a little sense. She imagined Isaac being repulsed by the idea, but at least that was a guarantee they wouldn't be on the same team.But Lauren had waited too long and now that country was filled up. Rats! Lauren felt bad for not signing up sooner, but it looked like Jemima had chosen a different country too with Owen so that was okay. She looked at the other countries curiously and rubbed her cheek, a little distressed. Was this going to require a lot of work? Would she have enough time to study for her CATS on top of her other schoolwork? At least she didn't have added Prefect duties like Jemima--she would definitely feel overwhelmed then.
Finally, Lauren decided on a country she barely knew anything about. France had been really tempting, but then Arne had signed up for New Zealand--not that that had anything to do with Lauren's decision--and New Zealand sounded like a cool country. Apparently they had filmed The Lord of the Rings there so it had beautiful scenery and a beautiful ocean: two things that Lauren loved.
Lauren Song, 5th year, Teppenpaw
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