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6th grade is 11-12 years old. Your "friend" sounds horrible! Although to be fair, I got SO much crap my first year here. It really upset me because about a week after my parents had left, someone took a stab at me and my American-ness. It wasn't like it was a really horrible thing they said, but it's the kind of thing where it's like, consider the situation? I'm living in a country I've never been to before now, I don't have any plans to see my family for at least the next year, and as excited as I was to move to England, it's still an enormous change in life. So for someone to be so thoughtless has stuck with me, even to this day. I'm sorry this person says that to you. They're seriously out of line.

Post a thread calling dibs, haha! DO IT! Just go watch loads of True Blood and you'll be fine.

Uh oh, a confederate girl! I guess you'll just have to be a Yank, haha! I actually used to have a grey civil war military cap that I got in 6th grade when we studied the Civil War. 6th grade, we had this teacher who literally spent half the year talking about the Civil War and the other half entirely on the life of Andrew Carnegie. How learning every aspect of the life of Andrew Carnegie has helped any of us is completely beyond me. At least the Civil War is generally relevant. Anyway, we did this simulation Civil War in our class and set up this enormous board with hills and trees and stuff, and the class was separated into Confederates and Yankees. Then somebody was assigned the role of Robert E. Lee and another the role of Ulysses S. the rest of us were assigned roles and given titles of real soldiers/commanders/whatever and we spent two weeks doing this mock Civil War. For some reason, this involved wearing the hats. Even though we were on separate sides of the classroom, apparently we still needed distinguishing? I have no idea why this anecdote was necessary to post, haha!

I'm lucky because several of my friends really want to go out and do karaoke. We just haven't had the time, unfortunately. We'll get you up there Jazzy, and you can let it all out! Ooo, we should do a power duet! PLAN! I agree, Friday night would be great as an ice-breaker. If they do it Sunday, it won't be nearly as busy. The Sunday party is always the quietest. Saturday is usually when the guests are there so that could be really fun if they were really out there and did some karaoke for us! That would be so fun!

Ooo, getting political there! There were more than four other tribes, but the Cherokee were probably the most interesting. Loads of division there. Really sad stuff. I don't think I'm going to dress up, to be honest. I didn't at ET, sort of did at ET2, and I'm just not that into dressing up. So I think I'll either meet halfway or just do my own thing all together. Ray_Ray, YES! Where are you getting your costume? Are you going to have the beard too? Agh, so exciting!

Yes Jazz, that's what I like to HEAR!!! Woo! *gets really excited like Catherine Hardwicke...*

Love it! haha, ours looked exactly like HS graduation robes because it was a small university. I got to get blinged up though because I was President of Honours Society and got Honours cords and stuff. They gave everyone on Honours Society committee these huge medals to wear...I felt very gangster, haha! I'm on the far right. O to be 18 again. Without the braces. And the glasses. Geekdom at it's best, haha!

They took your measurements? Nice! Were they the mortarboards or the cool looking caps that look all Renaissance-y...that literally made no sense. I think they're velvet? Maybe that's for a Masters. I don't remember. Anyway, got to love graduation and the fact that nothing ever fits right. You got to throw your caps? I'm so jealous! We all wanted to but they said we couldn't!

If there is karaoke, I will get up and sing without the aid of alcohol, just because I missed it at both ET1 and ET2 and had REALLY wanted to do it! Who's with me? Let's start a karaoke revolution!

I've got a graduation gown from high school and a graduation gown from my first uni degree, but they're both back in the US! One of them was blue, the other was bright red I've never heard of yellow graduation gowns though! I don't know what they make those gowns out of, but good LORD are they warm! It's like this weird synthetic fabric that traps heat in. The ceremony is always really long and they get about a zillion speakers in and even though you're sitting there, there's a lot of you, so it gets really warm and you're kind of impatient wanting to get the diploma and get the gown off...the worst was my uni graduation. By some fluke, I was the very first person called and there were about 500 graduates, so I had to sit there for about 45 minutes absolutely DYING from the heat. It's funny now, but at the time we couldn't help but whisper about how warm it was and try to fan ourselves with the programmes. The cap is so frustrating! Be warned now, it says "one size fits all" but it's more like "one size won't fit anyone, no matter what!". It gets all saggy in the back and messes up your hair and generally will fall off if you don't pin it, haha. Graduates aren't allowed to throw their caps anymore either. Something about it being a health risk because it's square and pointy and COULD hit you in the eye *gasp shock horror*. So the whole "Wooooooo, we GRADUATED!" montage at the end of cheesy high school films? Can't happen anymore. It's tragic.

I am Really? Don't string me along here! That's BRILLIANT! I request a photo with you here and now. LEGEND! Well, as an American, I can say it's quite funny. Especially if you put on an accent. Brits doing American accents...it's highly entertaining. And usually sounds REALLY Southern or REALLY Valley Girl. Either way, brilliant! At least they don't get the "You Americans are just bastardised Brits" comments. It's very difficult to come up with a reply to that except "You're just upset that we kicked your asses.", haha!

Anyone looking for a creative way to go Civil War without really dressing up...have a think about this (finally...12 years of being forced to study nothing but US History will be of use!): * Civil War doesn't have to be really limiting to JUST military uniforms and enormous hoop skirts. Whilst the Civil War was taking place between the Union and the Confederates (1861-1865), there was a lot going on elsewhere in America. * Think of the Wild West. That's a pretty iconic thing to be inspired by, and so easy to dress for. * Railroads and cotton were hugely important at the time. I have no idea what on earth good that does, but who knows. People are creative. * Looking more closely at the civil war and going beyond the normal military identity, the Civil War was about slavery. The South wanted secession from the Union to become their own country. This was the time of the Underground Railroad that brought slaves from the deep South to freedom in Canada. There's rich culture there of freedom songs and folklore. They used secret codes and songs to spread messages, and it was just really interesting. * Even more basic about the Civil war is the identifying colours. You can't get much simpler than just wearing the colours of the Union (North) or the Confederates (South). The Union colour for uniform was blue and the Confederate colour was grey. * Ironically some Native American tribes kept slaves and chose to support the Confederacy. Tribes of Native Americans had their own civil war whilst the American Civil War was being fought over allegiances to the Union v. the Confederacy. * If somebody dresses up as Abraham Lincoln, you will be my hero for life.

Hmm, information on US graduations: * The cap and gown are only worn at the ceremony. Nobody is caught dead wearing them at the graduation party. * Basically it's just party clothes. Pretty standard, haha! *Think homecoming dress, and you're good to go. If you're going to the Gold reception, it's perfect because you can dress nicely for the reception and go straight to the party.

Jason and Mark, Thank you very much for both of your replies. I honestly did not post this for any more reason than to allow others to comment or disagree with me. I only wanted to create a sort of dialogue so that you could see how more of us are feeling rather than just how I'm feeling. Obviously I'm just one person. I could be totally on my own in my opinion, and the thread was just giving everyone the option to disagree with me and have their own personal say so you can gauge how we're feeling. I tried to keep it as diplomatic as I could whilst still expressing my concerns, so as to keep others from feeling I was having a go and to join in and cause a massive problem. I definitely didn't mean to belittle your efforts, I assure you. Thank you for all your hard work. I know it takes a lot to put together an event as big as one of the Twilight conventions and we're obviously a pretty picky bunch, haha! I think mostly we just wanted to hear from you. :) Thank you for letting us know where things are. I know we're all looking very forward to the weekend for seeing friends, making new friends, meeting some cool people from the film, and just enjoying the experience. Mark, I'll give you a call tomorrow. Thank you so much for your help, my friends and I really do appreciate it! ~Jen

I think that's how most people I've spoke to are feeling, like ET3 is being pushed to the back-burner and ET4 is the main priority with ticket sales beginning much earlier than they usually do. Paired with the impression we get that there are a lot of loose ends that need sorting out (or so it appears because we haven't heard anything differently), it just seems like ET3 is almost being abandoned for ET4. I know that it's not been abandoned, it just feels a bit that way when we haven't heard anything about ET3 in a while and ET4 tickets go on sale pretty quickly. So yeah, what everyone has been saying: communication, communication, communication.