Harry Potter premiere week

Another week, gone. Three weeks from today I’ll be flying back home to spend a few days in KC before going back to school. It’s ridiculous how fast this summer has gone by.[1]

Sometime in the next couple days I’m going to put up a post about Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Fair warning: it will be long, complicated, and in-depth.[2] Anyway, here’s a brief recap of the week I just had:

Monday I met up with a friend I met abroad, Kate Henry. She lives in Maryland but is interning in DC this summer as well. It was great to see her and catch up, and hopefully we’ll hang out again before the summer is over.

Tuesday in class Dr. Jim Zogby, founder and president of the Arab-American Institute came to talk to our class. He gave an interesting lecture about what he does and the state of lobbying when it comes to international interest groups. We also read some of his book and discussed it. Essentially, he is mad with pretty much everyone because no one takes the time to understand problems from an Arab point of view.[3] Needless to say, we had an interesting discussion.

Thursday our speaker was another Davidson grad, Eric Rosenbach, who is deeply involved in cyber security.[4] Essentially we learned that from the moment anything leaves your phone or computer there are thousands of places it can be intercepted, hacked, tapped, etc. If I didn’t have to use my computer to write this, I probably would have given up technology. He had a very aggressive lecture style. This is how class opened:

-Eric: “I have an aggressive style of lecturing, so don’t be intimidated and I hope you aren’t turned off. Also, I always pick on people in the back row with computers first.[5] Ok, so…you. With the black macbook. How does the internet work?”
-Me: “Ummm…” I glance around. “I have absolutely no idea.”

At any rate, I didn’t make the best impression, but I was able to recover and ask a good question or two later in class. After class, Katie Lovett picked me up and we went to her house and ate dinner and took a nap before the Harry Potter premiere. Around 11:30 we headed to the theater (Katie, her roommate Whitley, and myself).[6] If you didn’t read it, my initial reactions to the movie can be found in this blog post.

Friday at work was a little tough, but I made it through and came home and took a nap. Eventually I went and met some Davidson friends at a place in Dupont named Front Page, which was actually really fun. There I ran into Katherine Kilroy, a friend from my days of playing tennis daily at Woodside in KC.[7] It was really fun to see her and to catch up with someone else who lived in the KC area.

Saturday I didn’t do a whole lot until the evening when our class was invited to a cookout at a Davidson alum’s place in Georgetown. Dr. Menkhaus wasn’t allowed to tell us what he does – even though he’s three years out of school – so apparently he’s reasonably important and well off. He was very kind and made hamburgers and steak for all of us (even though only 7 people showed up).[8] After the cookout I met Katie Mixon at the Georgetown theater and saw Harry Potter for the second time in 48 hours. It was, however, better the second time around, because I was able to enjoy it as a movie rather than critique it based on its accuracy to the book.

Saturday night I stayed in because Paul went to New York City over the weekend and Harry Potter had set me behind on sleep. Sunday I went to a banquet at my Aunt Carol and Uncle Rick’s church, watched the Women’s World Cup final,[9] and then went and played tennis with Lauren Ivey (she graduated this year) and Gerard Dash (on the Davidson program with me and is a rising senior as well).

Paul is supposed to be home in a couple hours, and I will likely be asleep. Three weeks to go – I may as well be rested and ready to take them head on.
______________________________________________________________
[1] Though I guess in all fairness to “this summer,” I have done a lot since being here. But still, three weeks?

[2] And there probably won’t be pictures.

[3] Maybe not mad. Probably frustrated is a better word. But that’s likely because he’s seen it happen for so long that his anger has worn off.

[4] I skipped Wednesday because the only thing interesting that happened was me doing laundry. And that isn’t interesting.

[5] It should be noted that our class is seated in the shape of a horseshoe. However, on this particular day I was in the left-hand corner with my laptop – essentially the back row in Mr. Rosenbach’s view.

[6] The Georgetown theater had showings at midnight, 12:20, and 12:40. We had tickets to a 12:40 showing.

[7] I know way too many people whose name begins with K. Or K-a-t for that matter.

[8] Fun side story: On my way there, I ran into Kellyn and her roommate Keeley. (Sigh, see footnote 7 about names.) We were talking about the Harry Potter movie, and Keeley started humming the tune from the soundtrack. After apologizing she said, “I was in Harry Potter land this week, so it’s just been stuck in my head.” I laughed and let it go, mostly because I sort of was as well. However, about five minutes later she said something about one of her favorite Harry Potter rides – which I foolishly blew off. Shortly afterwards, when I said I was going to see it again and said that I guess I was still stuck in “Harry Potter world,” Keeley stops, turns, and said, “No, my job actually flew us down to Harry Potter World in Orlando this week.” Not only did I feel like an idiot, but I was also extremely jealous.

[9] Which was a great story for Japan, but unfortunately very sad for the US team.