Anyone go to an Internatinal Convention????

by VeniceIT 20 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  VeniceIT

  I know I've posted about this in the past, but there are so many new people, and sooooo many lurkers I thought I'd bring it up again. I went on 2 Convetion tours and have to admit we had a WONDERFUL time. I also made some really good friends from all over that I haven't been able to keep in touch with. I'd be so great if some of them were out as well so I just thought I'd ask

  I went to the one in Hungary in 1996
  and Brisbane AU in 1999.

  Did anyone here go to either of these???

  Anyone else want to post some as well. I know Mulan went to Poland in the early '90's.

  ven

  "Injustice will continue until those who are not affected by it are as outraged as those who are."
• 

  Beans

  I went to a convention in Montreal in 1978 but I can`t remember if it was an international one or not. BUT IT SUCKED!!!

  Beans
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  Room 215

  Hi Venice,

  It's interesting how one has to be vetted these days to be allowed to join a JW worldtour of assemblies. If you don't pass muster with the WT scrutinizers, you don't go.

  Years ago, most all one had to do was ante up the money. They've ratcheted up the control everywhere they can, it seems.
• 

  Scully

  Beans writes:

  I went to a convention in Montreal in 1978 but I can`t remember if it was an international one or not. BUT IT SUCKED!!!

  I was there! It was an International Convention at the Olympic Stadium. You're right, it totally SUCKED!

  Love, Scully

  
  
• 

  safe4kids

  Hey Ven ,

  We went to one in New Orleans, LA in 1978. It was kind of cool, actually, as our entire congregation chartered buses and we all stayed in the same hotel. We even took group walks around the area in the evenings. The most memorable (I was almost 13 that summer) was when our elders took all of us for a walk down Bourbon Street...we saw a hell of a lot more than they bargained for! And those poor elders, frantically trying to herd us all back towards the 'tame' areas once they realized their mistake...ahhh, the memories!

  Dana
• 

  NeonMadman

  I went to three International Conventions (or International Assemblies, as they used to be called) during my JW career; Yankee Stadium in 1969 (at which I was baptized), Detroit (Tiger Stadium) in 1973 and Pittsburgh (Three River Stadium) in 1978. Yankee Stadium was eight days crammed into seven, the latter two were five days each.

  After that, they only had District Conventions.

  It's interesting how one has to be vetted these days to be allowed to join a JW worldtour of assemblies. If you don't pass muster with the WT scrutinizers, you don't go.

  Years ago, most all one had to do was ante up the money. They've ratcheted up the control everywhere they can, it seems.

  I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that what you have to be approved for is, not to go to an international convention itself, but to go as an official delegate of the Society in one of its tour groups. The conventions themselves, after all, are open to the public, so if you want to go to one in another country, you just book your flight and go there.

  Tom
  "The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan
• 

  Bodhisattva

  1996 - Poland and Estonia. Met lots of neat folks, lost touch with all of them.

  Best experience:

  Brother CO, Sister CO, and family (father, mother, barely adult daughter) from flyover country are sitting in lobby of the Hotel Notnamedhere in Tallinn. They are drinking liquor, green liquor, from a bottle on which the only writing is Estonian, or possibly Finnish. Brother CO has been rather insistent that Bodhisattva should drink the wine provided with the trip's included dinners rather than order water.

  Brother CO: Brother Bodhisattva, please come and join us for a drink.
  Bodhi: No, thanks, I think I'll take a raincheck.

  Following evening. Bodhi is with several other younger folks taking a walk with local young superbrother. They enter a convenience store

  Superkid: This is the only 24-hour convenience in the Baltics!
  Bodhi, barely used to convenience stores carrying beer, much less hard liquor, marvels at large, large bottles and high, high proofs. Superkid points out several products.
  Superkid: And this is very good; (points to same green liquor CO & co. were drinking prior evening, but then points to cans next to it) but here it is pre-mixed, 4:1. You would never want to drink it straight!
  Bodhi wonders how CO and co. could walk upright that morning.

  Bodhisattva
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  Kaethra

  Yup...Poland, 1989, while it was still behind the Iron Curtain. It was a great experience. (Except for the boring convention itself...conventions were boring as it was but when you don't even understand the language and you still have to pretend that you're paying attention, it's even worse!)

  Then my parents and I spent a month or so touring the rest of Europe. It was wonderful.
• 

  Princess

  Hey Kaethra,

  My mom (Mulan) was at the same convention. Neat-o huh?

  Princess
• 

  Kaethra

  Princess - Cool!

  I still have the picture of my family sitting there in the heat with our water bottles that looked like beers!