Snape Kills Dumbledore

I think that pretty much sums up my life right now. I'm catching up on Harry Potter, and it's about the only thing I'm accomplishing. My parents brought me the first three, the family they were staying with has the rest, and I only have until next Friday before my semester's over and I start traveling for the summer. All the rest of the kids in my program are getting sad because they're leaving China soon; I'm just getting nervous that I might not be able to finish Harry Potter.

After last night, though, I think it's possible. I had my one day of language class Tuesday, try to get a bit of studying done yesterday, but spent most of it spending money and reading. I bought a sweet backpacking backpack (bright orange since I am a Florida Gator, even no one here has heard of Florida). I went to a going-away party at a Turkish restaurant for a guy who has to leave tomorrow.

And I read Harry Potter. The sixth one is by far the most exciting. I am continually amazed at how planned out J. K. Rowling had everything. It's not as apparent in the first few books, but the further you read, the more stuff there is to tie in, and everything works out perfectly. And then out of nowhere, Snape kills Dumbledore! I'd heard, of course, since I'm two or three years late reading the book, but I completely forgot until I read it.

I finished the sixth book late last night, then went to sleep in which I had a nightmare where I woke up (I'm pretty sure I screamed as loud as I could when I woke up, too, but one of my roommates was sitting outside on her computer finishing a paper and she didn't react, so maybe I didn't) and was convinced that the little red light coming from my power strip was the eye of some kind of monster Voldemort was going to attack me with.

I sat there in my bed, rigid, trying to figure out what to do. I figured that if I were Harry Potter, I'd be able to send a spell at it and blow it to smithereens, and even tried a spell in my mind to see if it worked. Unfortunately, it did not send my power strip reeling. Now, I knew that I wasn't really Harry Potter, but I also knew that Voldemort wouldn't bother with me if I wasn't powerful, so I just sat there, hoping it wouldn't notice me. After a few minutes the dream setting wore off and I remembered that I did have something in my room that always sent out a little red light.

On the upside, we just learned in this chapter how to say "nightmare." And, most helpful, I learned that in Chinese you don't "have" a nightmare, you "do" a nightmare. So now I'll be able to impress my language partner with a discussion about what happened to me at 4 am last night. I don't know the right adaptation of Harry Potter, though... maybe Ha Li Pa Da.

So now I have a week to read the last book. I don't have class until Tuesday, which means if any of the other people in my program had any money left, we could do a little traveling. If not, I might actually study Chapter 4 more and marvel at how useful my orange backpack is. And shake my head... Snape killed Dumbledore.