“The early bird gets the worm” seems to summarize my morning pretty well. Too bad I wasn’t considered an early bird. Saturday and Sunday schedules are planned out differently compared to weekday. Breakfast is available in the lobby of the dorm building from 8:30 to 10. Now when they say that breakfast is available until 10, one would assume that one could actually find food to eat for breakfast until 10. Well if you think that would be true, you’re actually mistaken. Julia and I went down to breakfast at 9:30, only to find three trays with plenty of crumbs, and platters with a stray strawberry or lost melon chunk. I was so sad looking down into what could have been my food for the morning. Julia luckily snagged one of the last cinnamon-roll-looking things and some coffee, but it didn’t look all too appetizing. So my idea was to go to the café by my class to get a pastry and a hot chocolate. Again, to my despair, I found the café closed. Both my original plan and my backup plan had failed. Plan C was to rush to my dorm and grab some chips ahoy and Ritz cheese and cracker packets to eat in class. Thankfully, this plan followed through, and I made it to class in time.
Class was only from 10 to 12 today. We reviewed the homework last night, which was the reading of sections of the Qur’an. In this holy book, God, technically Allah, is intimidating, compared to other depictions of God, like in the Bible, where he is shown to be more of the forgiving type. The Five Pillars of Islam which is: 1) the testimony that there is no god but God, emphasizing that Muhammad is only a messenger, and idolatry is strictly forbidden; 2) giving generously to those who need it; 3) daily prayer; 4) fasting during Ramadan; 5) and a pilgrimage to Mecca. Islam is an interesting religion, in that it specifically mentions that they believe Christianity is not valid, because they say God has no son. I have never seen a holy text specifically invalidating another’s belief. But Islam is welcoming of all faiths, and all who do good deeds and give faith to only Allah, are rewarded.
For the rest of class we watched a Comedy Central performance of four Middle Easterners. They were telling stories of how the bombing of the World Trade Center changed their lives. Through their comical stories, including interpretations of George Bush, and mocking the opinions of both Americans of Middle Easterners and Middle Easterners of Americans, they showed us how one event can alter an entire group of people’s life, and how differently and unfairly they are treated, even by those closest to them. One Italian/Arab comic said, “The night before 9/11, I went to bed treated as White man, and the next morning I was Arab”.
We had free time/sign out time from 1 to 4:45. Julia, Grace, and I went shopping for cosmetics and bathroom supplies, and then headed back to the dorms to watch a playing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. It was a good refresher, since we were going to see the brand new, super cool, awesome, intense, fantastic, spectacular Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 just a few hours later!! Julia, who has never read any of the Harry Potter books, and has only seen about half of the second movie, read summaries of all the books in about an hour online, and I filled her in on all the rest.
Vanderbilt actually rented out an entire showing room of the theater just for VSA kids, all 133 of us. We loaded onto some buses, and drove to the nearest theater. Some people dressed up in full out Hogwarts costumes, others had makeshift costumes, like one kid who taped a golf ball over his eye to look like Mad-Eye Moody. Our proctor group dressed up like Gryffindor students, and some even drew on scars and glasses to look like Harry Potter. We put signs on our back over the V-House logo, so it read, Gryffindor House.
Let me just say, that this movie was phenomenal. I cried (way too many times), I laughed, and I jumped. We’re all sad that the movie series is finally at an end; although it needed to end sooner or later since Daniel Radcliffe is already over 20, and is way too old to be a Hogwarts student.
I like the amount of relaxation and free time we are granted on the weekends. It’s a nice change from the rest of the week.
Aiyana,
ReplyDeleteYou have to imagine yourself in the shoes of someone who has never read a Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies. Now imagine yourself seeing the fanatical reactions to these movies--and especially this one which is winning major praise from all quarters.
It's one thing to become excited at seeing the movie on opening weekend but dressing up as one of the characters to see it is something altogether different.
It almost makes me want to see it but then I would have to watch all eight of the movies to make sure that I understand it all.
I'm glad you had a good time. I'll be sure to tell the ILC sponsors that their money was well spent. :-)
By the way--will you be laminating and saving that ticket stub to show your grandchildren? And what's with that $10.75 price tag? Did they jack up the prices special for this showing?