QWC

QWC ++
Saturday, October 25th, 2009
Location: Middlebury College (Yes, they founded Muggle Quidditch), Vermont

Friday night++
Remember my roomie's French friends arriving? Then I went to a friend's rez to sleep because the bus leaves 5am and the freaking metro isn't open that early for me to go to campus from my rez. It's a morose fact that I brought my math notes along with me to study- ah, in a life of a university student.. Anyways, my friend's rez was a MORE house, which I've never gone to before! I'm making it a goal to visit ALL of the McGill rezes- I'm missing the Greenbriar apartments, and that's it =) The MORE house was really interesting- it looks like a tall house on the outside, when inside are stairs stopping every so often at a narrow hallway, or door, and omg the stairs were SO narrow it rivaled the ones in my grandparents' house in Taipei. Then my friend and I chatted and ended up Youtubing random videos and songs, and then we studied. I ended up going to bed at almost 2am in the morning- what's the point, if I have to wake up at 4:30am? I slept anyways.

Saturday 4-freaking-30-AM.++
I stagger down University Street (wow, how original, given that it's the long street bordering the right side of campus) in the dark, punctuated by the yellow of the streetlights filtering through the trees, which were not yet bare. It's dark, and so of course I'm a little paranoid.
Arrive at the Milton Gates, and I see just ONE person standing there. I'm thinking, where is everyone, it's 5am already.. I hesitate, but decide- to hell with it! - to ask if she's here for the Quidditch World Cup too. Thank god she said yes and all was good (my hesitation was, I didn't want to be the crazy fool who, at 5am in the morning, goes up to random people on the street and inquire, "'Scuse me, but are you going to the Quidditch World Cup?" and watch them run away thinking "Wtf is Quidditch?!")
Funny thing is, she wasn't even from McGill, let alone the team! She told me she came all the way from Carleton University (Ontario), which instantly made for interesting conversation. How did she end up at McGill at 5am in the morning? She is a HP fan who goes on Mugglenet.com ....and couldn't find a way to get to the QWC (it was actually impossible without driving there yourself), and the only way was to go with us.
Then my Chocolate Factory Rez buddies arrived by taxi (one of them was my roomie), and more ppl showed up. Just when I thought everything was being as normal as possible and we were going to board the bus and be on our merry way, a hamster showed up. Or more specifically, Hamtaro. Seriously. This girl wearing a hamster suit (like a halloween full body costume) came up and when asked why she was wearing a hamster suit, she replied, "It's 5 in the morning, so I'm allowed to wear anything I want." I was the only one who piped out, "Hamtaro!!" though.. and she said she had a Pikachu suit too! Hahaa.

Bus Ride++ Mtl, Quebec - Middlebury, Vermont ++
Most of everyone talked, then slept all the way to the border. Then the border guy came up and checked our passports (wish we could go back to the days a Canadian citizenship was sufficient), and then the hamster girl was called down. Took a while; we were wondering/fearing/worrying, and then she came back in the bus and said, "Does anyone have $6? I'm Dutch..... so apparently I have to pay?" Hahahaa so weird right? She was made to fill in some paperwork and the money was some sort of processing fee. *sigh* Border security is really anal sometimes.
The sun began rising then, and when I woke up again in Vermont, it was breathtaking (earlier post).
Arriving in Middlebury, I finally saw... people! cars! houses and a college! ...but still the trees were there =)

It was crazy. When we got off the bus I could see the throng of people, and it was obvious they were Quidditch teams from other colleges. All the teams had capes. McGill had the red t-shirts, white cape colour scheme, and we all paraded into the field, walking past a lot of spectators, some reporters, and picture-takers. Excitement! P.s. the campus was beautiful.

By the way, in case you were mistaken- I did NOT play. I came as a spectator, because I didn't try out of the team that will be playing at the QWC. Anyways, we were the only Canadian team- but the farthest team that came (when they did the welcoming speech and intro of the teams) was Texas A&M!! I'm not entirely sure how they came all the way up here..

"Oh, CANADAAAA, Our Home And Native Land..."
We probably stood out a lot, since we were the only Canadian team (they joked, international, out-of-the-country..) but much of it was probably due to us. Especially when we (I'm going to refer to the McGill group as "we" although I wasn't playing) start singing the Canadian national anthem in the pre-game.

What I found the most ridiculous, comical thing ever- the McGill team, they were chanting,
"Où est le fromage, OU EST LE FROMAGE!"
It was so ridiculous I couldn't quite understand them at first. But it was catchy. Really catchy. Alluring. So much that I sort of fell in love with it. I will occasionally say it under my breath. (Wonder if we were playing on our Canadian pride with all that French?)

We did VERY well- even better than last year, I was told. Here are the college teams who participated, although Yale, for some reason, decided not to show. Boo.

Boston University
Chestnut Hill College
Emerson College
Green Mountain College
Harvard University
Ive's Pond Quidditch Club
Lafayette College
Louisiana State University
McGill University
Middlebury University
Moravian college
St. Lawrence Univeristy
Syracuse University
Texas A&M University
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
University of Pittsburgh
University of Vermont
Vassar College Villanova University
Virginia Commonwealth University

The final game was between Middlebury and Emerson. Guess who won? Middlebury. They've won every year, and they won every single game this QWC. We could have made it so much higher, if only we hadn't had to play Middlebury before then. Because we lost to them, and we were out at that point. But we were on a winning streak too! We didn't get to play Harvard, but they were out of the game before us...

Quidditch was intense. The program brochure had on it "Third Annual intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup"- man, and the logo underneath. My eyes bugged out when I saw it. It was very much muddy and wet and slippery and rugby-like and rough and intense.

There were fields A, B, C, D, but the two main fields had these two most amazing, hilarious commentators ever. They weren't Lee Jordans, but they were epic on a Muggle scale. Seriously, I don't know how I can show this, so I won't, but just youtube Quidditch World Cup commentators or something, and listen! I had a lot of laughs listening to them banter.

There was a capella -"Mamajamas A Capella" among the intermission performances. I was SO upset when the girl from Carleton came up to me near the end and asked if we heard them sing "The Mysterious Ticking Noise". My heart shrivelled up and stuffed itself in a walnut shell when I heard that. If only I had heard it! AAAAAAAHHH I curse myself for missing it. She said they were amazing, (I heard their earlier performances, and they were good) and that they sounded JUST LIKE it. Here's the link, in case you haven't heard this AMAZING vid= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4
It would've made my WEEK. No, it would've made a whole MONTH, if I had managed to hear it! *cries* It would've been the most epic..... (trails off mournfully)

We had free lunch AND dinner at the Middlebury Cafeteria. Let me say this: After having experienced their cafeteria food, I can feel the weight of the tuition they must pay in my tummy. It was all fresh, cooked food in a buffet style. At McGill, the meal cards are used and each individual item has a cost, whereas this, this was basically all-you-can-eat with wonderful variety. Of course, someone's comment was met with "Well, that that's why they're obese and we're not" during the line-up for food. By the way, there was ice-cream too. Self-serve. XP They had pretty much everything-including "Teas of the World", hot chocolate, and an array of toppings for your icecream, which I didn't use..
They have an amazing Vermont view from their cafeteria too. It truly is a beautiful campus and the buildings were quite unique- they exterior was some kind of patterned stone and the architecture made the buildings box-like. Sounds ugly, right? And it was strange, when I saw it, but it actually succeeded in looking good.

It was on the way home that it wasn't so fun. Ugh. It was cold. And I was tired and it was dark and at the freaking border more than one person got called down and I swear were were waiting for an hour. The biggest problem was that this girl apparently didn't have her study permit and they were going to make her go home !? which was just stupid and ridiculous. Anyways, problem was resolved in a strange and unexpected way and everyone on the bus was allowed to pass. Stopped at a convenience store for a break and this guy bought back a bunch of American "wonders" that he said we had to try. Then it got a bit more lively and strange things and conversations happened, including man-on-man action (it is what it is and what you think it is and what you don't want to think it is all in one), lunch porn ("let me undress your sandwich"), and other unmentionables.
It was past 11pm when we arrived back at the Milton Gates. Ugh, it was very bad timing. And we had to metro back too! (only us with that long-distance rez, but we love it anyways)

It was an adventure, all right! =)
Travel List cross-off- Vermont.
Next stopppp...... ___________
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Here are the rules of the game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidditch
The article the girl I met from Carleton wrote for her school paper (the article was her other purpose for coming to the QWC)- http://www.charlatan.ca/content/taking-quidditch-air-field
I was watching one of the final games when they went to take the picture.