Quidditch world cup

One of the best weekends of my life.

The Quidditch World Cup was in New York, so we took a 4 hour bus ride to get there.

We walk into hostile, up the stairs to our floor and... the plumming has burst and water is gushing from the bathroom, covering the hallway, and dripping from the celing on the floor below! And, on the door next to our room is cardboard sign taped to a door saying "Do not disturb. I will call the police!"

We sloshed through the water into our rooms, and fell asleep looking out

onto our barbed wire view of Manhattan.

The next morning we showed up at the field along with 47 other teams from around the USA and Canada. Everyone had flags and banners and we had a parade before the games began and gathered together in a circle getting pumped for the game (Picture #1)

We were told we had to win two games to move on to the next day, and having not won any games last year, we were all nervous.

The first game was against University of Richmond, and we won!!! Our seeker caught the snitch and we went crazy! We boosted him onto our shoulders and ran around screaming! (Picture #2) The press all got pictures, and in fact, it was the most publicized picture of the entire Quidditch World Cup 2010!

Second game was against Vassar, and within 1 minute, Vassar caught the snitch, and we thought we had lost, but they called the grab invalid and the game restarted. Within 1 minute, our seeker caught the snitch and we won!! But it was a rough victory as the game was so short and contested, and we ended up all getting into a circle and singing Kumbaya in the middle of the field.

We had made it to the semi-finals!

In between all our games, we had tons of press interviews, and I even got in CBS!
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7052587n

Finally, we played University of Vermont, and we were winning! We were so excited, because hardly any teams had won all three games! But then, out of nowhere, Vermont caught the Snitch, and we lost :(

We left, being told they would text us about when we were playing the next day, and we went out to Olive Garden to celebrate.

However, the next day, we got a text saying we didn't make it to the next day. We were pretty bummed! But, we went to Central Park and to a big breakfast, and showed up late to the second day just to watch, but as soon as we walked in everyone started shouting at us "Where were you guys?" and "You just got disqualified!"

Turns out, they sent us the wrong text, and we had qualified! Then, they told us we had 5 minutes to get ready and play.

We threw on cleats and uniforms, and played McGuill University. Unfortunately, we lost, but it was fun, and we were so surprised to have made it to the semi-finals. Out of the 48 teams, we were ranked 18th. Pretty good for a team that lost all their games just last year.

One of the best weekends of my life.

Also, if you need a refresher on Quidditch rules, check out my previous post http://lauras365days.blogspot.com/2010/10/quiddich.html