Let’s hope for the best! 
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Of all the questions, that’s the one you choose?
That’s the one that leapt out at me 
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Helo pawb! Keren dw’i. Dwi’n bwyu yn Boston, USA. I started my SSIW journey in 2011, doing the Gog courses. I finished course 3, of the original series, ages ago, a while before the new courses were created. I meant to do the new versions, too - in fact I had planned to do the new series over the past few months, in preparation for this weekend- but, ha ha, somehow that hasn’t yet happened. I’m sure this weekend will reinvigorate my efforts. I am not very active on the forum. I joined it in 2011 or 2012, though my account shows 2017 as the year i joined, for some reason.
I did a bwtcamp in Tresaith in 2013. It was a Cymraeg Deg one, with Iestyn and the other Cat, because Aran and Catrin weren’t able to run a northern Welsh one that summer. It was a joyous experience. Between that and my faithful (untill this year) Pobol y Cwm ymarfer gwrando habit, purely for educational purposes, of course, you’ll find I flagrantly cymysgu northern and southern dialects. Anyhow, the Boston Welsh convo group that used to meet monthly dissolved, so you’ll find my speaking skills are not as strong as my listening comprehension. I am passionate about SSIW, it has changed my life. I evangelise about it to anyone I meet who is interested in languages. But I could not really compete in the contest because though people are always intrigued when I tell them about the program, I don’t think any of them has pursued Welsh. If I lived in Wales it would be a different story. In any case, i have no Welsh connection of my own, just wanted to learn a Celtic language that had enough current speakers that i could actually used it. And I had visited Wales once and liked it rather a lot. And now it is up there with Italian as my favorite language.
I arrived yesterday and was warmly welcomed by the warm e lovely Kay Pitt and her equally warm and lovely husband, who gave me a hearty Welsh welcome. Today I got to use my Welsh in the wild - such fun! A mam iaith Gymraeg speaking attendant (in America we call them docents) in Plas Mawr gave me his little orange Cymraeg badge. I was delighted because I lost the one i got during bwtcamp, and have missed it.
Ok, I don’t know if this is surprising, but I used to be an avid Lindy hopper (a form of swing dancing). In fact, it’s when I tore my calf muscle and had to give it up that I started learning Welsh. I!t burns far fewer calories than dancing perhaps, but I adore it.
I can’t wait to meet everyone, especially Aran and Catrin who have taught me Cymraeg. And my fellow dsgwyr(iaui?). And to see Iestyn and Cat again. Here is a picture of me with my niece Logan, who shares my hearty appetite.
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Hi Glynis.
It will be great to meet you both at the party. There will be a good few of us from local areas attending, so will be great to have a chat in Easy Welsh or Valleys
Anyway, great to here that you have settled in Ammanford/Rhydaman. It’s such a nice and friendly neighbourhood. I know what you mean about finding local Welsh speakers; I popped into Tesco’s recently at night and it sounded mainly Cockney 
Actually, there are loads of Welsh speakers near to you. You just have to catch them unawares and find out who they are.
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O, no weeeeeê, I was just round the corner in the Bar Bach - if I’d had wi-fi I’d have noticed! Wela i chdi fory…
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Hi Theresa dw i. I live in Radnorshire Mid Wales. I’ve been learning Welsh with SSIW on and off for about 8 years and am currently on level 2 challenge 22. This is my second birthday party as I was at the 3rd birthday in Aberystwyth. I’m really hoping my Welsh has improved since then. I’m driving up tomorrow and looking forward to meeting everyone.
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- usually in perfectly good Welsh, in my experience…
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I’m John, one of the Oxford group of SSiWers. My Welsh-speaking grandfather died when I was baby and my father knew only a few words of Welsh, but I’d wanted to speak Welsh since childhood. Tried unsuccessfully in evening classes in London in my 20’s. After a rather frustrating Open University sylfaen course a few years ago I had another go at a sylfaen course in Nant Gwrtheyrn where I first heard about SSiW - since then I’ve completed Level 3 of both the old and new North courses
Apart from that my one small claim to fame is having a word I’d invented for ‘comfort eating’ at the behest of Bethan Gwanas during a course, i.e. ymsiocledi, tweeted by her, and Aled Hughes and Aneirin Karadog, as well - doesn’t seem to have caught on though!
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That. Is. Superb.
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Hello!
I’m Mark - I grew up in Warwickshire and I live in Coventry. I’ve completed the course up to the end of Level 3 (Northern), and am actively forgetting it in preparation for the party, following Mackie’s excellent example.
I’ve only ever learned Cymraeg through SSIW (over the last 7 years or so). I’ve done two proper bootcamps and the same ‘unofficial’ week as Rob Scully - all on the Llŷn peninsula - and a long weekend mini-bootcamp in Tresaith. I get to meet and chat with other dysgwyr a couple of times a month locally, sing yn y Gymraeg most weeks with a few other Welsh-speaking/learning guys (and one Hungarian woman), and have had an hour’s weekly Skype-chat completely in Welsh for four or five years with someone with rather better Welsh than me.
If only I read books, watched the telly, or had managed to get past Beca’s introductory sgwrs, I might speak and understand Welsh pretty well by now…
Having said that, I’m a community worker and teacher, who fairly often gets to work in quite multicultural situations, and every so often I’m involved in trying to make English a little less dominant in those situations, usually by getting people to voluntarily do short bursts of upfront interpretation into a family language of theirs (this slows down the native English speakers, who have to wait for interpretation; makes other languages visible; and gives non-native English speakers a chance to catch up and/or catch their breath). As with much in life, this goes better if the person encouraging it to happen is willing to do it themself, and so one thing I have become quite confident at is interpreting on-the-spot from English into Welsh, in front of sometimes quite large groups of people, as long as no one who actually understands Welsh can hear me … 
I looked quite a lot like this, earlier today:
Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow night 
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And no mention of juggling? Really, sir?!
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Oh balls! 
- I knew I forgot something …
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Hi I am Steve, still at work in Milton Keynes at the moment but heading to the parti by lunchtime. I’m looking forward to meeting people as I’m not so good at the technology 
Where and when are people meeting this evening?
See you later
Steve
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Ooh, I lindy, too! Or did, in the 1990s and 2000s…
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I love lindy, but can’t say I’ve done it - I can do a couple of very basic steps, but I wish I could do it properly!
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Im on my way from Swansea, A470, Welsh route
. For some reason everyone is parking diagonally then reversing into the traffic 
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Hi I’m Amanda, I started learning Welsh with SSIW when I was about to move to Wales in 2014 having had a bit of a mid life crisis about not fulfilling my childhood dream of having a small holding and trying to be at least partially self sufficient. I went to boot camp in 2017 which I describe as a life changing experience and very scary as well as making some really good friends. I look like this
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Hi pawb, Stine dw i. I’m originally from Herts, but moved up to Gwynedd 7 years ago with my husband Ben so that he could work on the local steam railways. I did the ‘old’ Northern course and through that met Aran & Catrin when they were looking for a learner prepared to chat to Hywel G of Radio Cymru. [I’ll talk to anyone, me ]
Look forward to seeing everyone over the weekend. Here is a pic of me & Ben:
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Bob ydw i. I did the old courses 1,2 and 3 back in 2015, together with the new (current) Level 1. I have also done Level 2 when it became available and quite a bit of Level 3 more recently. I have also been a regular at the Saith Seren in Wrecsam since Spring 2015 and have found that the flying start from SSiW and the ongoing development from regular conversation sessions were a winning combination. And all this was done whilst living in Greater Manchester (and buying a lot of petrol for cross border travel!)
Since before Christmas I have been fortunate to live in Arfon, in a community with 88% Welsh speakers according to the last Census. So basically I live my live almost entirely in Welsh now
As you can see, my Beard is about a decade behind that of @gruntius in terms of development!
And I used to be a Rocket Scientist! (Well I worked at a University doing research into data communications by satellite …)
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Just a word of warning. My hair colour this weekend may not be quite what some of you were expecting from my photo/hangouts/real-life meets!
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