I ran out of posts in Lalita so here I am in Laurels. Guess I need to renew my subscriptions eh? Anyway, where was I. So the Orient's first 6 months was largely buoyed by Sankira's enthusiasm and talents, our citizens who were really regular citizens from other worlds come avisiting when they made the time, and our first springfest and goldfest kept us all busy. By then we had many established groups and alot of really interesting discussions were happening all over our rather huge world. Actually, our world was almost TOO big. If you think of it, even Rome with it's massive empire, here in AW it's still largely concentrated in Rome. Germania has Germania, Meso is rather large but stays tight in focus groups. Americas has alot of ground to cover and timelines and at this time there were no hoods so they too were feeling the crunch of keeping pace with their citizens demands I'd imagine. We did too. My true interest lie in both imperial China and in India. But during those 6 months I was out of commission for 90% of it due to a bad back issue and surgery. Sank carried most of it. Finally, when it was clear Ningyo had gone on due to rl issues, we were asked to cast around for a possible replacement. Aria had this fantastic website going called Asia center.net. Beautifully decorated with alot of researched articles. Plus she was active. Best yet in our opinion, she was of the Orient almost exclusively. She wasn't in the Orient on an occasional basis like most of our members. What followed was Lunar Festival. Just an amazing creation, still to date my favorite festival ever. So many fun things to do, Aria and Sankira schemed into the wee hours and came up with some stunners. Alot of work went into it and it drew alot of people into this world, some ended up even staying finally! The Orient isnt' made up wholly of scribes so enough about what we did. Over the next year lots of really interesting discussions came about, threads created, groups begun and fostered, arguments raged on, well it was alot of fun! A very productive year. Haiku threads and groups garnered alot of interest, a few groups really stood out with growth and fascinating content like Dynastic China, Bharat Mata, Clouds of Legend, many others. Shanti Ashoka won the best homes contest and it wasn't just her pavillion, there were 6 or 7 total stunners on the nominated list. The Orient had, seemingly overnight, become this absolutely beautiful world! Highly decorated, interesting, multi-faceted. It exceeded all expectations I think. In that summer the hoods were seething with work and plans, to be released that autumn. I learned SO MUCH, I can't even put into words how much was crammed into my brain that summer! Then autumn came, and it was time to take my leave. But I can never truly leave. The Orient sunk it's way into my brain on such a level I'll never forget it. I know all these things about the king Ashoka the Great, Setsubun beans, water throwing festivals, Japanese drums, Angkor Wat, prehistoric China, the Taj Mahal. And I met so many great people, or got to know a different side of those I'd seen around the site for years. I could never have forseen what a dynamic contribution everyone would bring to this world.