AGDQ 2019

So my trip to AGDQ 2019 is now over, and man what a great trip that was!
I was pretty anxious for this trip (both excited and worried kinds of anxious), but all of it went pretty smoothly and was as fun as I'd hoped it would be! I'm writing this on the ride back to Canada while things are still fresh in my mind, so it will be all over the place as usual ;P

It was really cool to meet several sprash bois, people I know from other communities, and some new people. To my surprise most of the interaction this week still felt very natural despite it being in-person for the first time for me. And most people acted the same as online.

I was able to teach some people stuff in my speedgames, which is wayyy easier in person without stream delays lol. Also, I did many crash races with friends which were really fun. Something cool with this is you can just look over and see where exactly your opponent(s) are without asking where they are in a call lmao. One of these included a TWoC race with like a dozen people that was really sick to see begin.

I got to try out some new restaurants i'd never had before during the week including chipotle, smash burger, five guys (shoutouts to the 1545 folk), TGI Fridays, some pizza place, and probably others I can't remember. All of these were pleasant experiences. I found that McDonald's tasted pretty much the same as in Canada.

My birthday (Jan 9th) happened to be during this week. It was really fun to spend my birthday doing stuff involving my favourite hobby and with great friends. On this day it was revealed that some friends of mine all pitched in some money to buy me a front loader NES with cables and controllers included! This was a very pleasant surprise as I am planning to run mario games some more this year and will save me a good chunk of money in 2019! Thanks again so much guys :)

Something I just realized was really nice about this trip was just being out of the house. Since I do online college I don't go out as much as most people, which takes a small toll on me.

I was told that you learn a lot during your first GDQ, and they definitely weren't wrong. Things I learned include:
- Bring a water bottle, didn't know these had water dispensers in all the event rooms.
- Deodorant in the morning like I usually do isn't enough because the rooms with dozens of CRTs get hot as fuck and make me sweaty.
- Bring ear plugs to block out people's snoring. My room's wasn't bad and it's outta people's control ofc, but it was there at times.
- Bring more games next time. Shouldn't be an issue if I have a good NES/SNES setup by then.
- Maybe say hello to more people outside of the people I know next time. I'm a very shy guy but I think I felt more comfortable as the week went on.


There are too many names to shoutout but those who made this trip awesome and helped out know who they are. And as for those who I know that couldn't make it, I really hope to meet you at future events!