On December 10, 2005, Winter Shoppingland took place in Hayward. Traveling Valentine BARTed down to the East Bay city in hopes to get some Christmas shopping out of the way (malls are way too crowded!) and meet up with friends. We were first greeted by BART Boy dressed up as an abused BART ticket. We entered the hall and had our hand stamped. Winter Shoppingland was simply a hall with dealer's tables and a screening area. Advent Children decked the halls.

We ran into Eurobeat King who gladly did a photoshoot for us. There was a room adjacent to the hall where tables and a small Christmas tree was set up. These are some pictures that both Eurobeat King and Bart Boy took with my camera. Of course, being the silly theif Lupin is, security caught him!

Otherwise, the holiday event was all about relaxing with friends. We ran into the likes of Mike, Chris, Cassandra, Luna, Nando, Tony, and others

Tom and I decided to enter the cosplay contest. We came up with our skit earlier in the morning, say 1AM? Some highlights of the cosplay show included a very Christmas Talim, Riku and Yuna figuring out what Paine wants for Christmas, Nando and his hair, Chris doing his Power Ranger thing, the BART ticket soliloquoy, and others.

I do not have any pictures of the cosplay contest. The pictures did not turn out well, but I do have a video clip courtesy of BART Boy of the Traveling Valentine skit.

Download the AVI file here. (20 megs)

Congrats to the winners of the cosplay show!

After the cosplay show, Tom and I bought some things from the tables. Miko (aka Luck in Spades) gave me my birthday present. Thank you very much! Tom and I scored some pencil boards. The next big event was the raffle. While waiting, a bunch of us gathered together with what games we had and made the gaming room. I had my cell phone on Tetris and Tom had his cell phone on Metal Slug. The raffle was interesting. When Miko did her hat raffle, Chris Tang was purchasing tickets. "Give the girl his tickets!" Whoops! Gender confusion again (I get it from my parents).

Winter Shoppingland was a rather small and mellow event. Thank you Winter Shoppingland staffers and organizers for putting on a small, but sweet event. Happy Holidays!

Pictures are copyright by Victoria Erica December 2005. If I took your picture, feel free to use it on your site or cosplay gallery. If you want me to remove something, kindly email me. While you're here, do sign the guestbook. Please let us know what you think of Traveling's new layout. This site was brought to you by the font Nine. Lots of thanks go to Eurobeat King for the main title image.