Muggle Quidditch

As per request, I am going to attempt on writing in a more frequent fashion. Only problem: I often feel that I don't have anything worthwhile to write about, or, that the current topics being assessed in my head are of no importance to you, the reader. So where does that leave us? Well, it leaves you a bored reader and me, a writer who needs to pay more attention sometimes and write about better things. But today, I have something that might just blow your brains out. I just love it.

So thursday night I got sick. It was just super. I spent the entire weekend (with few exceptions) sitting in front of the tv, on the couch, in our apartments living room. Some may think that would be a horrible way to not only spend your weekend, but also spend being sick, but honestly kids, I could barely make it from my bed to the couch. A grand total of about 12 steps. ANYWAY, while watching MTVU, there was an interview with some college kids at Middlebury College. Just ordinary students looking for new inventive ways to have some fun on campus. Their solution? Quidditch. Thats right. Straight up Harry Potter quidditch. Ok so what about the whole brooms and flying part? They've got it all figured out, with official rulebooks, competitions, competing schools, and even their very own Quidditch World Cup.

I want to give you guys an idea of how this is played by mere muggles. On an ovular shaped field, the quaffle and bludgers are placed in the center of the field dodgeball style. When the game starts, teams run towards to balls and commence their attempts to score. But what about the whole flying thing? Oh they've got that one covered. Every individual must have a wooden broom held between their legs at all times. And no I don't mean you can go play with the broom you use (or at least I hope you use) to sweep your place, but a straight up wizards broom. AWESOME! Also, each player must wear a cape and safety goggles. Then of course there are three hoops placed at different heights at each end of the field, protected by the keeper, there are chasers who take the quaffle (a white volleyball) and try to score, and there are beaters to take their bludgers (red kickballs) and hit the chasers. If hit, the chaser must drop the quaffle. And last, but certainly not least, comes the snitch and the seekers. I don't know much about the rules for the seekers yet, but I can tell you about the snitch. Now in the books, we are told that the snitch is a very small, gold ball with wings that flies so fast you can hardly see it. How in heavens name are we supposed to translate that into the muggle world? Well one solution would be to throw a tennis ball or golf ball far away from the match and make the seekers go find it. That would be but childs play. So in true Middlebury fashion (it is said that Middlebury also began the wonderful game of, yes, frisbee), the snitch is a person, dressed in an all-yellow and gold outfit, who must, once the game has started, take off running. Running anywhere and everywhere. They can come back to the pitch as many times as they please, as their one objective is to simply not get caught by a seeker. One word: genius.

What would you think if you saw someone running by dressed in an all-yellow outfit, wearing safety goggles, followed by two individuals, with capes and their own pair of safety goggles, holding brooms between their legs chasing after the yellow blur? At first, I would probably be very confused and assume they were insane, until of course I found out they were playing quidditch. And it's not just Middlebury doing this. Princeton, Whitman, Marlboro, Bucknell, and Vassar all have teams.

Watching these kids on tv looked like one of the coolest things we could be doing with our college time. I mean, they call us college kids for a reason. As the Middlebury snitch explains...that's what we are - kids thrust into adulthood.

Moral of the story: Dont loose sight of your child-like qualities. They make our lives interesting.

If you would like to watch this video and get involved, maybe even start you own team, visit http://www.mtvu.com/video/?id=1584212&vid=219383.

happy flying