jeannette

Harry Potter; a decade of my life

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What can I say about the success of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling? It’s simply mesmorising and a dream come true for her, the readers, and anyone with an imagination. So needless to say that the English release of the final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the event of the summer. Instead of going down to the Bloor Street party in Toronto I decided to hold off and be the cool, calm, and collected buyer as I normally am. Always rational, always patient.

And so the at about 16.00 on the 21st of July I set off to the bank to deposit some cheques, and then to the local Chapters here to get my copy. Mother was complaining about there not being any books there and that they’d be sold out and stuff, and I said to her “Are you serious? The largest book release in history and you think the Chapters in Newmarket isn’t going to have any? You’re ceinle” And who was right? I was of course, as we walked into Chapters it was super-calm, no crazy lunatik fans around as she expected, and boxes, and I mean boxes of the books being unloaded. I reached down into the pile and got my copy and cooly walked to the cashier.

It was a staggering $45.00 but apparently there is some Harry Potter sale, so I only had to pay $38.95 taxes included, I thought it was a good deal, especially because everyone who pre-ordered it paid full price. Mwhaha! Okay I’m done. Can I believe that it’s been 10 years of my life, and that I was even able to read this when I was 11 years old? It’s shocking me this much to know that Harry Potter has been in my life for that long, and that I will never forget it. I can even remember where I bought my first book: It was at the book fair and I was curious so I bought it and everyone laughed at me!

Needless to say I came home and began, tout de suite, as I was dying to read it. I’ve never read so much, or as quickly (whilst still retaining all information) as I did in the following 48 hours. I perched myself on my bed, laptop meters away and I read, and I was capitvated for approximately 1.5 days. I know some people can read faster, but I’m a slow reader and I’m content in doing it. And I finished, all sleepy eyed Monday (early) morning and after having drempt of the story, I’m happy to say that I’ve read the entire series!

Don’t worry, no spoilers, I’m too awesome for that. Above you can find the area in which I was perched for a day and a half, with minimal interruptions so that I could engulf myself in the world of Hogwarts and the Muggle Irreality.

In happier news I’m going to South Carolina this weekend to visit Jean. That means a Northwest Airlines flight from Toronto to Coumbia, via Detroit is in order. Now I just need to figure out how to get to the airport at 09.30 in the mornig!   

Sickness

Apparently since Wednesday things haven’t been so exciting. And why would this be you ask; because I’ve fallen ill. I thought that I could escape it and keep myself healthy while here, but I suppose it was inevitable! Thursday morning I woke up and was feeling a slight scratch in the back of my throat, but I thought it was just some dryness since the air here is really dry, but as the day progressed I found my sinuses going crazy and then getting excessive nosebleeds. It turns out I have a cold, but of course this didn’t stop me from going out on Thursday night, the night of parties in France since everyone goes home for the weekend. So Nic and Sarah send me a texto saying that they are going to the Salamander at 23.00, so I think, fine fine I will suck it up and go have a good time just becasue I was bored and stressed from school a bit.

I got ready, and we all were late that day, but I was mostly just a bit irritated becasue my teachers aren’t being really clear about when something is ‘due’ and when it’s ‘due’ to be handed in. Apparently we are supposed to read their minds, regardless I managed to get everything handed in and nothing too crazy was happening. Right, so getting ready and then we were all late and we walk over to the Galia after visiting Zara and Matthieu who were going somewhere else. We said hellos and then left for the party, and of course as always Nic has his huge entourage with him. Whole bunch of Americans were there, lets see if I can remember their names. The were Sara from Rhode Island, Jessica from Syeracuse, Sarah from Maine, Lisa from God-only-knows-where, and then some random girl who I don’t even remember being around us that night. Anyways, we get to the disco and Ginette’s mom calls her mobile so she ditches us for awhile and we go in and it’s lame to the max. Apparently it was Economics night, and everyone there was weird, and it was mostly guys just sitting around, but the most disturbing thing was the fact that they were playing 80’s funk. When I say funk, I mean serious funk that it’s impossible to dance to, so after ‘attempting’ and clearly the rest of them not being drunk enough to continue they go and ask the DJ to change it and he says ‘I’m not allowed’ so we are all thinking ‘lame!’

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