An American Furry in Germany

I can't believe I'd forgotten about it for so long. I used to read a lot of Ranger Rick--an educational magazine about animals, for kids. I also remember "Your Big Backyard" (a magazine by the same people, aimed at readers younger than 7 years old), which places my age at the time at around 7 years old. Anywhere between 5 and 10, actually--I must have read them a lot, to remember it even now. It's so strange, remembering things from so long ago. It feels like they happened to a different person--I have no memory of actually experiencing it, just the basic details and emotions.
Anyway, now that I remember being so into Ranger Rick, it's no surprise that I turned out furry. Just look at the bottom of that website: "Which animal would you want to be?" Notice that "A frisky black-footed ferret." is the top-voted choice. I'll bet Ranger Rick is responsible for the big furry boom in this generation. That and the internet.

Whew. What a day. Yesterday I got up at around 8 am, and very shortly was off to the Hauptbahnhof to meet furries, and catch a train to Hamburg to meet more furries. As it turns out (from a glance at some of my pictures), it looks like there were at least 30 furries there, along with 11 more in fursuits. That's a lot of people.
When we first arrived, there were already about 20 people there, and not a bit of fur to be seen. So I took out my tail and ears, which cheered everyone up, and served as a sort of beacon. :P (I had taken them with in a duffel bag, I should mention, because I wasn't quite ready to have to explain it to my host family.) We were meeting in a parking lot underneath the Radisson, a giant hotel right next to the Hbf. in Hamburg. Apparently this was where a lot of people were arriving, as we found out when great double-decker buses full of tourists drove by, pointing and taking pictures. More so when the fursuits were finally put on, and they started thumbing for rides and waving at the tourists. Then an hour or so later, we set off.
The weather didn't quite cooperate--it was raining, although only lightly. So the actual fursuit walk was relatively short--just an hour or two. We went through the Japanese Gardens, the fursuiters horsing around, the rest taking pictures, and me somewhere in between. We ran into our fair share of tourists, and I took pictures of the looks on their faces. We didn't get a single negative reaction, unless you count the dog at the train station that wasn't prepared to deal with a new species today. It was quite encouraging. The children were especially delighted, when we ran into some. Adults felt the need to figure it out, and worried a bit for our sanity, but the kids didn't care. "That man has a tail!" was an explanation in itself. That probably says something about the reason I was there in the first place... funny, I usually don't like kids.

And here are the fursuiters...

And here's me trying to smile for the camera, but failing as usual.


After walking around for a bit, the fursuits were taken off (the people inside were literally steaming as they hit the cold outside air--it was amusing), and we went to go get something to eat, before a rendezvous at 5 pm at the Dom. For those of you who don't speak German, "Dom" (pronounced "dome") means "cathedral". So naturally I was expecting a cathedral, and not an amusement park. How naive I was...

Apparently the old cathedral used to be a safe haven for transients and street performers during harsh weather. When it burnt down, the city gave them another area kind of close by, which used to be a field for animals. They kept the name "Dom" though, apparently. Unfortunately this was explained to me right before I saw the sign, or I would have laughed more. :D
So our numbers had dwindled by then, but there were still about ten of us going through the fair, having fun and winning prizes. (We saw a furry tiger head hanging from a prize booth--about an hour later, one of the lost furries came walking back holding it. Apparently it wasn't for wearing, as it had first appeared... but I'm sure it will be modified.) I bent my tail on the Airwolf ride, but it was a lot of fun, and I bent it right back. Oh yeah, and then there was "No Limit", which cost €5 (too much for me...), but looked like a lot of fun. I don't think the video really captures the sense of height, though.


After that, we rode the Ferris wheel, and I got a bunch of pictures of Hamburg from above. Then we began to depart. It was about 8 pm, so I had been on my feet for 12 hours. There were about ten of us by that point, most living in Hamburg, and only one other going back to Bremen. Three of us went off to the train station, where we arrived about 10 minutes late for the train, and had to wait there for an hour. We found another furry also waiting for the same train back to Bremen, so the four of us ate at Pizza Hut, which was very delicious. Three left on a one-hour train ride back, two of us walked out of the main station, he ran off to catch a train, and there I was, finally back in Bremen, a little dazed, all alone at last, and still wearing my furry tail and ears. I had decided by that point that I would go all the way to the house in them, rather than keep it a big secret, but when I got home at around 11:30, everyone was in bed. And now it's Sunday.

It was quite a day.

Apparently there are furries who fursuit, and there are furries who don't... and I'm either a third category, or in a transitional period (also known as college). I have a big fuzzy tail and ears, and I do enjoy them. And I suppose if I could afford a fursuit, I would wear it to go shopping, go into airports, or go to the bank, etc. :P Unfortunately they're terribly expensive, and I'm something of a perfectionist. I would love to get a fursuit someday, but I'll wait until I can easily spare enough funds to make something that looks nice, but isn't all bulky and restrictive (and hot, if I can get around that). Somewhere between the mascot look and the human-with-prosthetics look, but closer to the latter. In the meantime, though, I've made the difficult decision to take my tail and ears with me to Germany, for two reasons.
1. The last time I went home for vacation (after already having shown up before while wearing them), a lot of people kinda expected me to bring them, and were kinda disappointed when I didn't. :) I have a pretty great family.
2. The host family I will be staying with has taken in students from other cultures before, so if anyone in Germany is going to be open to new people with new ways of life, it ought to be them. I suppose in the worst case I could create an international incident, but if you get right down to it, I could do that anyway.
3. Germans tend to be a private people. I think as a result of that, most German furries are somewhat closeted... those that I've talked to don't really know the others very well, and they seem to be pretty scattered. Maybe a stroll down <insert popular street in Bremen> in furry gear will attract sympathizers.
Besides, wasn't Bremen founded by four talking animals? Or so I have been led to believe.

Anyway, to my main point. And keep in mind that I have never worn a fursuit before, so some of this is just speculation. Wearing the tail and ears out in public is, I think, much harder than fursuiting. I'm ignoring the physical trials--of course I'm not going to be overheating, I won't have to worry about communication problems, and it's only moderately difficult to sit down. But I think it's much more confusing for the general public. Fursuiters fit into an understood, if not necessarily "acceptable" niche. When trying to explain it to a plebe, eventually you're going to get a response of "Oh, mascots." But a person just wearing furry ears and a tail, for no apparent reason? Confusing. No less confusing/amusing than a fursuiter, if not more. But in a fursuit, you have the privilege of anonymity. You're inside a suit, and your headspace and the image of yourself that you present to others is entirely of your choosing. Without the full-body costume, I manage to attract everyone's attention to me, not to a suit. Even without worrying about people I know recognizing me personally, there's still the direct feeling of having the attention of everyone in the room, and having to do something with that.
If there's anything I'm not, it's an extrovert. I strongly dislike making eye contact, any sort of confrontation, or just generally being paid attention to. Walking around in public for any amount of time (at one point, a 16-hour trip back home via public transportation) as the complete center of attention is nothing short of a trial. I guess you could call it a crucible, because so far I've always managed to come out of it better for the experience. During the 16-hour bus/train/bus trip I just mentioned, I became comfortable with it. I didn't know that was possible. I faced my demons, I guess.

I have the advantage of having easily-faceable demons. :P You might wonder why I wear them in the first place if it makes me so uncomfortable. I do it because I like it. Philosophically, I like doing what makes me happy in the face of pointless opposition. Viscerally, I like the feeling of a big fluffy tail hanging behind me (although it could stand to be more limber...), and being at least partly soft and fluffy. :) And I guess I just enjoy bringing a little strangeness into people's lives. It makes them happy--sometimes they laugh at me, sometimes they laugh with me, and sometimes they want to pet me. :) But so far I've only met one or two people who didn't respond to my unusual appearance with some form of delight (and that was because he had to be seen around me in public). Also the chicks dig it.

I just realized that I'll be buying Smash Bros Brawl about 10 days before I leave for Germany. Presuming I can get my Wii to work in Germany, I'll have it there quite a while before it's actually released in Europe. Just another reason, besides being a furry and a foreigner, that I might be more popular in Germany than here. :P

I commissioned a portrait last year, along with a badge for FC. I got the badge before FC, but it took about a year for the portrait to be finished. I got it now, though! :D And on the plus side, now I actually have somewhere to put it! I've got to frame it and put it up on the wall, and I don't think I would have done that in the dorms, or living anywhere with non-furries.
Soon I'll get a scan up here, and it will be pretty. :)