The bond of summer Bootcamp 2016 is unbreakable! Thanks to @AnthonyCusack and lovely Emma for coming to stay, and joining me for our latest catch-up on Skype. It was like the Eurovision Song Contest - first @brigitte joined us from Germany, then a full of cold @tatjana popped up from Slovenia. @Isata leaped in while packing for her holidays next day, and just as we were all falling asleep, @lynne_freudigmann woke up and showed us round her house in Australia!
Thanks to you all - I get a huge kick from seeing how you are all progressing with your Welsh, especially (say it quietly) at times when my own progress has stalled. I’m going to crack on now, so as to be ready for our next mini-Bootcamp. You’re welcome here, of course, but I’m happy to travel to Bavaria, Brisbane or Bled…
And a belated thanks to @Iestyn, Cat and the girls, who flung us all together, mixed us up (me especially) and threw us out speaking Welsh!
Thank you for hosting us Bronwen! It was so lovely to see you and the others again!
Emma said “Bronwen’s Welsh is better than she thinks it is. Learners are too rough on themselves to become 'fluent” - so there you go! We’re looking forward to coming back to see you again and finish off Cader.
Thanks to you, Bronwen, for bringing us together once again! I’m definitely up for a mini bootcamp somewhere, and happy to join the volunteer host roster. (Not sure I can compete with Bavaria, Brisbane or Slovenia, though!)
Thank you @BronwenLewis for gathering us all again. It was great to catch up with you all. The July 2016 bootcamp was something unique and I’m always delighted to catch up with you all.
I can’t promise me going anywhere but you never know. But welcome to Slovenia … my little green country.
Yes in deed! Thank you @Iestyn, @anon86454181 and your charming girls. It all was unforgetable and that’s why 2016 July bootcamp bonds just can’t be broken. [quote=“AnthonyCusack, post:318, topic:7601”]
Emma said "Bronwen’s Welsh is better than she thinks it is.
[/quote]
I said this to her already at the bootcamp but she just didn’t want to believe me. Yes, Bronwen, your Welsh is better than you think it is. Do you believe it now?
It was nice to see you both @AnthonyCusack - you and Emma and I’m happy to hear you’re still devoted to singing among all other things too.
And @Isata my husband heard/saw us talking and afterwards I’ve explained to him who is who. “Ooo, yes, Isata is the one who laughs a lot!” he said cheerfully. So, you know … you’re already enwog hefyd. Oh, and, happy holidays!
Despite I chat with you every Saturday @brigitte, I’m always glad to see you again so I was happy you’ve managed to be with us.
And you, @lynne_freudigmann: I’ve heard just great things about you - that your Welsh has drastically improved, that you were on Bootcamp in Tresaith after so many “I can go/I can’t go” problems and when you finally poped in the day just ended perrfectly for me despite my bad voice and quite strong cold.
So, once again. Thank you all. I hope to see you again soon.
Late but (hopefully) not too late a big Thank you Bronwen for organising this Skype chat.
It was nice to see a part of the Bootcamp July 2016 crew again.
This year’s holiday in the Isle of Man and Caernarfon and Y Bala was great and interesting, but I really miss Tresaith, the ap Dafyd family and the “bootcamp feeling”.
So Bronwen, maybe we’ll see us next year. I might pop into your house on my way from Tresaith to Manchester.
And now back to my chronologicaly aimed thank yous. This time I’d like to thank yet another of those people who were with me in the beginning of my Welsh journey so my fourteenth thank you in my chronology goes to @Seren - the woman who gave me so much inspiration. Not just that she’s the one who speaks quite some languages but what makes her special is her love toward Welsh language in particular and the passion of gatherring as many information about the culture, literature, music etc as she can, not only for herself but for other people around here too. She is the one who made all those interesting and useful stuff for Welsh learners in one handy list and made all resources even more reachable and easy to use. She was the one who inspired me not only to learn Welsh more passionately but also to try and revive some other languages I once was able to speak but forgot them afterwards, especially Italian. She was kind enough to chat a little in Italian with me although nowdays my knowledge of this language is almost totally lost and my speach is very rusty. We also spoke quite some time in Cymraeg too and I was always awed with with what ease she uses Welsh shortenings which I even now often think I’ll never be totally able to use.
Stella, although you don’t post on hre anymore, you have to know that you’ve helped me a lot and inspired me to go on more than you think and I’m always very happy when I see your posts on here. So I really want to express my gratitude for all this and more.
Diolch yn fawr iawn! I hope you come back at some point if only for saying helo and telling us how’re you doing and now your Welsh improved in this periode of time.
I’m usually a very private person and not very good at public announcements but I felt this one had to be done
We’ve just fulfilled a huge dream of ours and bought a caravan on the Llyn Peninsula , an area full of special memories from over 26 years. This was only made possible because of my share of the sale of my parents’ house following the death of my mother at the end of last year. We’ve had an extremely difficult couple of years with family health problems and then Mum passing away. Llyn has always been a place we have found peace so it is just what we need now. I don’t like the 2nd home idea (not that we could afford this anyway) but a caravan feels acceptable and we try to support local businesses for things in the caravan and our food. The local milk is fantastic.
Prior to the caravan arriving we stayed in cottages close by. The owner invited me to attend her church with her on the Sunday and I was given an amazingly warm greeting by all including Catrin’s mother (a lovely lady like her daughter) who I discovered also attended this church! I enjoyed a lovely Harvest Festival there last weekend which was just the right level for me - I could follow the service quite well as it was geared towards the small group of children there! This Sunday was a bit trickier to follow as it was more traditional but I was helped by Catrin’s mother who invited me to sit with her so she could guide me through the service!! I then realised it was Catrin’s father who was taking the service! It was Catrin’s father who introduced me to SSIW when I made my first tentative step at speaking the language to him a few years ago at the Lloyd George Museum where he was working.
So I want to say a huge thank you to Mum for helping to make the dream come true, an enormous diolch o galon to Aran, Catrin, the SSIW team and forum members for my Welsh that has opened up so many amazing experiences for me and introduced me to many wonderful people and a massive thank you to the extraordinary people of the Llyn Peninsula (with an extra special mention to Catrin’s parents!) who have been so welcoming and helpful in my learning of this beautiful language.
A, a … you won’t … no, I mean, please don’t. Your story is just so great and you presented it so well. Warmth comes out of it … So, thank you for sharing this with us.
And now, when you feel like writing something, asking something or whatever … please don’t hide into your hole but rather come out. There’s sun shining out there, you know … and we’d like to share it with you.
Thank you for your kind words Tatjana I do come out of my hole quite often really, I’m just generally not a big user of forums and social media. But I know from past experience that people on this forum are very friendly and helpful.
Let’s do some more chronology of my Welsh path, shall we? Here we go …
The storyteller, the “wild racer” through the SSiW course with her two horses - Levels and Courses one of them green the other red both eager to win the race. The woman who doesn’t (didn’t) hear well but still accepted the challenge of learning welsh through SSiW audio course. The woman who inspired me in more then just one way, to make me go further and who showed whatever disability is not the opstacle to acheave (almost) everything you can imagine in your life. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m taking my hat off and saying huge diolch this week to @MarilynHames. Number fifteen is special for who knows what reason to me so the fifteenth thank you goes to this special woman.
You all probably think I’m doing my graphics and such stuff just for my own fun but what inspires me to do such things in connection with this community and learning Welsh is people like Marilyn. She didn’t just inspired me to go on with my own, more slow walk then race, learning Welsh through her story. It kept her moving on and it kept me moving on aswell.
Marilyn I have to admit I didn’t read absolutely everything you’ve posted on here (this is still the task to be completed) but what I’ve read (and it was a lot of everything) was like little kind and nice fairy-tale to me. I bet you inspired many others on here to go with their own learning on too and we all like(d) to read your posts. I almost imagined those horses of yours running across the SSiW land leavnig fire trail behind them and it was magic to read how you’re progressing in the process.
I wonder what are your horses doing now. Do they rest and will run another race again or they’re in constant movement in the wish of acheaving more? How are you doing and how’s your Welsh. Whenever I’m stumbling upon my own walls on my learning path I’m often thinking of you and how you raced your own way through so I just have to thank you for every single post you’ve posted here, every single inspirational thought and every help you’ve delivered through this.
Diolch yn fawr iawn and all the best. I can probably freely say that we all miss you and hope one day you come back with fresh and as positive stories as we were accustomed to read in the past. You are true inspiration to me and I can’t probably be mistaken to say to many of us all!
I was inspired to do these cover pages for Marilyn’s two stories, two wild races through the Courses and Levels simultaniously.
You have always been such an inspiration and help to me, and the horse races were (still are) such fun!!!
Actually, I have been on the Forum with a pseudonym for the SSiW Eisteddfod, but of course I cannot admit to what I did. Also I spent quite a bit of time revising SSiW prior to a trip to Wales and enjoyed hiking in the Brecon Beacons so much that in two week’s time I am joining a similar group and heading to Patagonia–maybe to hear and use some Welsh, certainly to hike in their Springtime.
On the strength of what I learned and enjoyed here, I began a distance-learning MA in Celtic Studies in January 2016, had a great time, but for work-related reasons (volunteer work demands) I had to take a year off, so just resumed the course a week ago after------yes, again doing some major review with SSiW. I only have to listen to the introductory music and I am back amongst old friends again.
We also had the joy of a brief visit from another member of the SSiW clan who was visiting Vancouver recently and she certainly did SSiW proud by seeming fluent to the rest of us in the Welsh Society here.
So I continue to beaver away (nice Canadian expression that) and as part of my MA am studying Welsh. One day I dream of attending a Bootcamp, or meeting up with you at the Eisteddfod, but for now must be content to sit here in sunny Vancouver (miraculously) letting the miles melt away as I think of you.
You are definitely one of those ‘angels’ who make all the difference.
Diolch yn fawr iawn, @tatjana, @henddraig and everyone here who still remembers me. The times we spent chatting in different languages were wonderful and I miss them. I remember that @tatjana was the first person to welcome me here, and I also remember that when I had, at times, lost confidence, you were also one of those people who helped me and inspired me to go on. I am doing very well, teaching English and Italian in Belarus, and speaking or listening to Welsh every day now:) I also try to read as much as I can, and I finally got my hands on a T.Llew Jones book, which someone (@AnthonyCusack, I think) had recommended to me a while ago. It’s wonderful, thank you:)) I would love to take part in the weekly chats again, if possible - is @ramblingjohn still doing them?
YAY! I’m so happy to see you here and I’m so happy to hear that you’re doing fine. Welcome back!
We didn’t have any chats yet but might happen. Well, at least I didn’t read of any, however the Autumn is here and Winter will be here soon so might be a bit more time to do other things than going out into the nature and explore. I’m waiting for those chats too.
And thank you for these lovely words. I often remember you and I’m glad to see you. I’m extreamly glad if I could help or inspire you in any possible way. You did the same for me.
S’mae @seren l am so glad to see your name! I keep thinking we’ve lost you! I do hope you are fit and well and still trying to find ways to get to Wales. I might even manage a trrip further than 2 miles if you manage to get all the way frrom Belarus despite foolish visa department robots!__
I’m certainly looking forward to chatting with last winters gang (and maybe some new members as well), at the moment i am just to busy with work,
anyway, December if not before and i will open the old thread giving details and asking who wants to join in nearer the time.
I do come out of my hole quite often really, I’m just generally not a big user of forums and social media. But I know from past experience that people on this forum are very friendly and helpful. 
