ETA 2: ASKDHALJHFDKJFHDSJFKHDSF!!! In trying to fix my screwed up cut tag thing, I accidentally deleted the whole part of the post where I talk about the exhibition. Excuse me while I go kill LiveJournal.

ETA 3: I think I fixed it. There might be more bolds or italicizations that should be there, but I'm too lazy too read through the whole post and find them.

While writing this post, I found out that one of my friends, Ankoor, was chosen to be an extra in the Nightmare on Elm Street movie! He'll be doing his filming on Wednesday morning, so I'll be sure to ask him about everything. I also learned on Wednesday that one of our teachers is going to be cast as a history teacher for the movie. Unfortunately, I don't think I know any of the teachers who tried out. During World History, everyone was asking why our teacher didn't try out, but he said that the teacher is supposed to be boring, and he was incapable of being boring. :-) 

ETA: My friend Josh (yes, matt_writer, our son!) is in the movie too!




So the exhibit was AWESOME. tenth_bananas and I skipped school (with our parents permission) so we could go to it opening day! We got to the museum about half an hour before we were allowed in the exhibit, so we wandered around for a bit. We got into "line" (it was really just a mass of people outside the entrance, but whatever), and waited for our turn (you have a certain time slot for when you are allowed in, but you can stay as long as you like), while British people (or people with fake British accents; I have no idea) were announcing when the next people were going to be let in and sort of talking with some of the people. Some guy asked what houses we were in and was surprised when I said Ravenclaw because I was wearing a Slytherin sweatshirt (I couldn't find any Ravenclaw sweatshirts!), so I told him I was spying. Because I am lameeeee. Some woman asked us who our favourite characters were (both of us said Remus, she said Wood), and when she asked some girls next to us and mentioned that Cedric was really popular, they started dissing Twilight, which made me happy!

I was also convinced to buy a five-dollar audio thing, so if I type in the number next to the item at the exhibit, it'll give me some boring information about the stuff.

So we went in - no photography allowed - and there was a woman there waiting to greet us as if we were first-years coming into Hogwarts. The Sorting Hat was sitting on a stool, and she asked for a volunteer who was then sorted. She sorted three of us, and I was the second person to be sorted! It was a little lame because she asked us what our favourite house was, and then the Hat sorted us into whichever house we chose.

From there, she opened the doors and we went into a dark room where there were eight screens on which they basically made a collage of all the movies. The way they put it together was actually really cool and made me want to have a Harry Potter marathon! When the movie finished, there was suddenly a bright circular light just before the real lights were turned on, and there was the front of the Hogwarts Express, complete with someone dressed as Hagrid beckoning us through to the exhibit.

It was amazing.

There was a TON of stuff. Harry and Ron's beds, the animated portrait of the Fat Lady trying to break a glass with her voice (from the third movie), a bunch of outfits, a bunch of wands, the Marauders' Map (including the misspelling of "Moony"), a few dementors, Mandrakes that scream when you pull them up, a mini-replica of Umbridge's office, a game where you can play Chaser, a model of Dobby (naked!), a wall with a bunch of Education Decrees (including my favourite, "Boys and girls may not be in within eight inches of each other"), Dumbledore's wand (Kate and I seemed the only people to realize that that's the Elder wand! or at least the only people who were excited to be standing next to the most powerful wand in the world), a mini-replica of the inside of Hagrid's hut, and a ton of other stuff!

At the end of the exhibition, there was a gift shop. OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING. There were t-shirts and candy and snow globes and movie posters and book cover posters and snowglobes and time-turners and Marauders' Maps (with "Moony" spelled correctly!) and wands and dolls and EVERYTHING! But it was so expensive! The Marauders' Map cost fifty dollars. For a big piece of paper! I didn't buy anything, but Kate bought a box of Fudge Flies. They were delicious. :D

What tenth_bananas and I figured out about our parents

They don't care about us! After her mom dropped us off at the train station, we took the train to Chicago by ourselves. Then we took a half-hour bus ride to the museum without really being sure where to go after we got off the train. We then spent the whole day in Chicago without any parental supervision. This is pretty cool, of course! But most kids my age have parents who would NEVER let them go downtown without any adults. And I'm fifteen right now. We first started doing this when we were thirteen and had never even ridden a bus before. And we were going so we could meet strangers we met on the Internet (it was for a Harry Potter club, but we were still going alone to meet strangers from the Internet). And it turns out that the bookstore we were meeting at was sort of in the ghetto. D=

There was also Terminus, a week-long Harry Potter convention in Chicago. tenth_bananas, our friend Anna, and I wanted to go, but none of our parents would chaperone us. They probably would have let us stay in hotel by ourselves for the week, but you need a chaperone if you're under eighteen. So they let us stay in a hotel room with some random lady from our book club who they had only met twice. T_T

I'm totally glad they let us do all this stuff, of course! But it doesn't seem like they're too concerned about our safety. =/

Mr. Captain Justice Hero and the fight on the train

On the train back from Chicago, two guys sitting a few rows behind us started arguing really loudly. One person, whom we shall call Mr. Ignorant, was talking on his cell phone. The guy sitting next to him, whom we shall call Mr. Peace and Quiet, was reading a book. (Don't let the names fool you! I side more with Mr. Ignorant, though Mr. Captain Justice Hero - who shall be introduced later - is the real hero.) Mr. Peace and Quiet started freaking out because Mr. Ignorant was apparently talking very loudly on his phone, which was causing Mr. Peace and Quiet to not be able to concentrate on his book. But as several people in the train attested, Mr. Ignorant was not being loud. Mr. Peace and Quiet got VERY angry and insisted that Mr. Ignorant was being, well, ignorant. I'm not sure exactly what he was ignorant of, but I think Mr. Peace and Quiet just liked how it sounded because he used that word a lot. Eventually, they started getting really loud, and a conductor had to come in and make sure they didn't kill each other. He basically just let them argue and only interfered when Mr. Peace and Quiet started swearing. This whole time, tenth_bananas and I are torn between laughing at how they're acting like high schoolers and being terrified that Mr. Peace and Quiet is going to pull out a gun and shoot up the train.

Eventually, Mr. Captain Justice Hero stood up and said that he was going to leave and move to another car so one of them could change seats. Sounds like a good solution, right? Mr. Captain Justice Hero was awesome and trying to keep the peace. But then Mr. Ignorant and Mr. Peace and Quiet started arguing about who should switch seats. After more yelling and more swearing, the conductor convinced Mr. Peace and Quiet to move. But as he was going to the next seat, the conductor (or maybe it was Mr. Ignorant? They were behind us and I didn't want to be starting too openly) said something about Mr. Peace and Quiet being a punk, so he got very offended and was basically doing exactly what I think "getting in someone's face" is. He was saying things like, "What did you call me? Who's a punk?" in a very macho manner. It was at that point I honestly thought they were going to start throwing punches, but thankfully they settled down and there were no real further issues. Except when someone else in the car got a phone call and was very loud, repeating everything the other person said. "So are you going to come over to my house to see the game? Oh, you're not? You're with your friends?" which I'm sure he was doing on purpose to annoy Mr. Peace and Quiet. :D


And so ends what was probably the most awesome day of my life since Terminus!