My Jedi Journal
Catch up on previous installments of My Jedi Journal!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.
Dear Diary
So I wrote about Fred and my wedding last time, and I thought I'd just write next of when we went off to do research on Nundus. But then, I realized that I'd be missing a small piece of time which ended up being oddly important. What happened is that Fred was still at the end of his apprenticeship with Dad and he really wanted to finish it. We knew it wouldn't be for a long time, and we also knew that me being there wouldn't necessarily be the best thing for his studies and also there were some things I really wanted to get done before going off to Africa. So that three month period of time, between the wedding (and our honeymoon in Paris) and going to Africa was spent a lot with us not together, except for the bi-weekly trips I'd take to where he was and his trips to Scotland. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it'd be because we hadn't lived together yet, so there wasn't that routine, that new developed sense of living together, for us to overcome. We were seeing each other more often than we had before we were married, so it all worked out.
Basically, it was fine. I stayed home and tended to some remaining business that I had to do. I wanted to study a bit on special things of Africa before going there. I wanted to research what I needed to take in the way of food and clothing and supplies. I wanted to study the geography of the area in which I'd be living and I wanted to study the languages of the people who live in that area. Yeah, I had a lot to do in those few months!
However, the thing that was oddly important, which was a spur of the moment decision on my part, was that I decided to watch a lot of Muggle movies. I would go with some Harpies buddies to the theatres where they played, or would watch them on the Muggle machines. I was able to 'rent' a television and player of movies and also rent movies. It was wonderful! I had a Muggle battery that I could use to make the machines play. (I only broke it twice while learning how to work. Fortunately, this was in the Muggle store, where I learned how to use it, so they were able to fix the machines quickly.)
I watched all kinds of movies — things that I'd heard and read about. Some of them were really really good and some of them, I'd start to watch them and 'nope' and turn them off! The imaginations of Muggles are incredible! I found it really funny to watch vampire movies, and the movies which had magic in them. Sometimes, they were so wrong it was hilarious and I'd watch with tears of laughter rolling down my face. Others seemed oddly spot on and I wondered just which witch had been their advisor!
Now we get to why the movies were so important. First off, before I'd watched the movies, I'd not felt much, one way or the other, about Muggles. They were a fact of life, and something to be cautious of and always on the alert for. But after watching the movies, I had a larger respect and admiration for them. What imaginations they have! What would happen if one of them, with the imagination of things that are possible, was to be a witch or a wizard? Just think of all the things which would be new in our world!
With having watched the movies, I also gained something of a sense of wonder about our world, which was new to me. Sure I knew about magic and all that, but the world of Muggles is filled with magic too, even if it is not of the kind that 'we' live. How wonderful!
I think my favorite movies were those of a show (a show is a series of short movies) called Doctor Who and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. There was a thing in Willy Wonka which pretty much summarizes my whole movie experience:
After I saw that movie, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, somehow I felt so much more enthused about life and also about going off to Africa to study Nundus. Fortunately for us, Fred loves the movie too, as I figured out a way to play it in Africa too (along with some others). He likes the Fast and Furious and Die Hard movies.... which is really weird because the guy who plays the villain in the first movie looks so much like Professor Snape!