Sun. Oct. 25, 2009

 

10:18 a.m.


 

We arrived right at 9:00 a.m. and those on the bus who were playing had to sprint to make the opening parade. The parade was amazing — so much energy from everyone! McGill is the only team from outside of the United States but a number of teams have travelled quite a ways to get here. There’s a team here from Texas.


 

The first games started right away and McGill was on one of the four fields.


 

Quidditch is truly an amazing sport to watch. Though based on the sport form the Potter books, muggles have added their own unique twists. There are three bludgers, not two for starters. And the snitch is worth 40, not 150 points. A commentator from a Middlebury improv group exaggerates: “In Harry Potter the snitch is worth, like, 6,000 points. That just makes the rest of the game wholly uninteresting.”


 

But muggle Quidditch is far from uninteresting. The elusive golden snitches can be seen riding by on bikes, chasers and beaters tackle each other to the muddy ground and the fans are going nuts.


 

McGill won its first game by a huge margin — 100 to 40. Unfortunately for me, the memory card on my camera filled up before the game had ended (I got a little too excited at the opening parade). I had a connecting cable in my backpack and have been loading my 337 photos onto my computer for about half an hour now — 146 to go! I managed to find a power bar behind the concession stand and am sitting on the wet ground with my laptop and camera. Oh, the joys of being a journalist!


 

There are a few security guys here giving me strange looks — they are part of the auror force according to their jackets. There is an owlry (owl roosting spot) directly behind me, which is not yet in use but I am hoping to see owls later on!