Tintintin! Jes, Darcy pravas! :-) La "Suda Vico" estas loka nomo por la strio de novjorkaj konteoj laŭ la sudokcidenta bordo kun Pensilvanio, ĝuste sude de la pitoreska regiono de la "fingrolagoj". Tio estas apud mi!
Dingdingding! Darcy's got it. :-) The "Southern Tier" is a local name for the string of New York counties that lie along the border with Pennsylvania, just south of the scenic Finger Lakes region. That's near me!
Malachi: I'm not sure about groups in Elmira or Corning, but we do have a group up here in Rochester. We're not that close to you, but if you wander out this way we do have a free course coming up in the Fall semester at UR, and there are occasional get-togethers. You can learn more at: <
http://esperanto.lodestone.org>.
If you haven't done so already, definitely join Esperanto-USA. Among other things, you'll get a membership list you can use to find local speakers, and they have mailing lists you can use to network with others -- both locally, and far away. <
http://esperanto-usa.org>.
Finally, NASK is coming up in late June at William Peace University in Raleigh, North Carolina. It's a prestigious week-long set of courses for various skill levels, with students and instructors from around the world. Each year it moves to a different host city; typically it's on the west coast, but this year it's (relatively) nearby to us. If you want to dramatically improve your speaking skills (and have a load of fun doing so), I strongly recommend it! <
http://esperanto.org/nask>.
Finally -- if you have any questions while learning, I'd be glad to help.
Amike,
- Hoss