Booooom! Caaaaw!

The First Ever Western Canadian Muggle Quidditch Game


It sounds so much more dramatic than it really was. Actually, no, it was pretty dramatic.

To begin, we woke up at 6am. Really it was 5:30... and it felt like 3:30. The shower I took was probably the most comforting thing I have ever experienced, second only to the shower after returning all muddy and sore.

The night before, César and Anaïk both planned to join and be our fans, but in the morning, Anaïk was the only one to wake up; I knocked on César's door like no other, and I heard a shuffle and a groan, but no answer (we finally got a response when we reached Victoria. At least he got his sleep.). So, it was just Anaïk and I rushing from Totem to the bus loop early in the morning in super dense fog (the fog was getting really intense. The day before, there was an actual wave of fog that hit the campus. I was outside when I turned around to see it come crashing down over the buildings of Totem. In my head, because speaking to myself out loud is weird, and I never do it, I was screaming, "no!! Don't take me!! Ahhhh!" ––I may have over-dramatised this).

We were in the US!

With our excitement muffled from lack of sleep, we boarded that first bus as a mostly complete team–the rugby guys, as we once knew them (they are now Lindl, Daniel, and Lewis... phew, finally got those names),  were not there. Complete with our brooms and new shirts, we sat down and forced away sleep. A bus, a skytrain, and another bus later, we met up with the rugby guys and boarded the ferry, which, to be quite honest, was super exciting–it was foggy (sweet, fog!), on the ocean, boarding a ferry, going to my second city in Canada ever; for a desert rat, it was awesome.

Probably the best sign on the ferry (food)!

Besides my overwhleming hunger and the vacuum noises that arose when I ate my food, nothing of note really happened on the ferry. There were some beautiful cliff faces and islands and much water, but that was all. It was when we got on the double-decker, Victoria-bound bus that got interesting.

UPDATE: My bad, there was something interesting on the ferry: we crossed United States waters on your voyage. That was fun.

See me peeking out?

On the bus, standing in uncomfortably close quarters with Johanne and Russel, we began our trek from Swartz Bay to University of Victoria. –Before I tell the next part, it is important to note that I have pretty bad eyestight, but have not found a decent pair of frames as of yet (yet meaning four years)– As we are making small talk and bonding a bit, my teammates look to me and see a face that I can only describe as pure intrigue followed by enourmous dissappointment. They all looked at me in blank confusion until I told that I swore I had just seen a cow when, in fact, it was really a brown bench with a dog next to it. Yes, I mistook a bench for a cow. It was at that moment, precisely, that we began our earnest search for cows on Vancouver Island. We arrived downtown with no luck, but we did see alpacas, which Johanne mistakenly referred to as alcapis, and some boulders... boulders that resemble sheep that resemble boulders OR a sheep mixed amongst boulders that resemble sheep so that it is not alone OR a flock of sheep... our team still debates whether those were sheep or boulders. My argument is that is is one amongst boulders because I am pretty sure I saw one move, but this is coming from the guy who thinks benches are cows.

On Victoria lines, you "request" a stop.

Map of UVic

Once downtown, we needed to hop on the bus to the university. On the first bus, we paid for our tickets, but were surprised to find that rather than a ticket-like ticket, it was a newspaper-paper print ticket-thing. It was weird. Anyways, on the second bus, which resembled our native Vancouver buses, except with the "stop" light saying "stop requested" (it felt so polite), Michelle, Johanne, Lashmir (spelling is all wrong most likely, story on that later), and I decided to bus surf, yes, bus surf. The Victoria busses are actually so much more fun than our Vancouver ones, they twist and turn and bounce all suddenly, it was great. I swear everyone on that bus thought we were the coolest people around, hootin' and hollerin' and jumping and twisting and falling.

See Erica eating sushi with chop-forks?

We decided to put on our maturity hats once we arrived...which lasted a whole fifteen seconds before we started singing a rousing rendition of several of the "A Very Potter Musical" songs. Aw well, we were having fun.

UPDATE: ...blah, blah, blah, it is late, I am forgetting details, and I am kicking myself for not having this written days ago.

So, we began to play UVic! Exciting stuff. Being frontline beaters, Erica and I were out there first. Let me tell you, our confidence was so, so high, unimaginably so. In other words, we were ready to have our asses handed to us. Yes, the first few minutes following "brooms up!" were crazier and more hectic than Los Angeles during rush hour, but once we got the hang of playing another team, somewhere else, in the day light, we were actually pretty good. Speaking only for myself, I know that I had several moments of stationary ball-holding with a look on my face like "what the hell am I doin-- oh, shit, quaffle!" Also, it is beyond tiring. I, personally, did not want to look weak and ask for a sub after maybe running five times up and down the field, but, hell, it was tiring. I was panting just after the intial bolt to the centre-line; I am not out of shape, but the added boost of adrenaline did not help matters.

They looked so legit.

"Brooms up!"

Once we really got the hang of the game, our team stayed strong. We ended up losing our first two games (no real surprise), but the scores were close. Excluding the snitch points, the first game was 60-50 in our favour, with the second 60-40 in theirs. We were holding our own against them quite well. For the third game, we substituted Zach in as our new seeker, updated the beater strategy to an on-and-off-the-snitch play, and kept it strong. By that point, we all had our positions set, there were some amazing plays had by every single one of our teammates. Actually, Lashmi (spelling - Oh God, I am probably way off), one of our beaters, had at least one awesome shot. First, though, once she got possesion of the bludger and was just ready to throw it, she slipped (perfectly) in the mud. It was probably one of the funniest moments (we all laughed together afterwards). But, after her stumble, she managed to peg the sole chaser on a very-depleted-of-our-own-players-by-our-hoops side of the field, giving possession to Russel, our keeper. It was awesome. In the end, with Erica and I successfully communcating on bludger movements, the chasers and keeper doing something very right, and Zach as our seeker, we won the game 60-50 (90-50 with snitch points). I will always have the memory of our entire team, muddy, torn up, fatigued beyond measure, running, brooms in hand, to tackle Zach for the best snitch grab in all of Muggle Quidditch history (there is no hyperbole in that statement).


Coming off of our first win high, UVic and UBC mingled through a scrimmage against ourselves, which rocked. It got at least one person to play for the first time, and we got to talk to the other team personally, and, let me tell you, they are the friendliest and nicest people ever. The scrimmage was fun and a great way to end the day, and there were some great, great plays during the game. In fact, one chaser from UVic dove through a hoop, almost effectively winning ten points for his team, only falling short because of a perfectly-placed bludger. Also, our team, as of this game, has broken five brooms, three solely at UVic. Probably the best break at UVic (because the best break is the first one for our team as a whole, in which the broom shattered into three pieces like the sword in "Lord of the Rings") was with Russell's broom: Russell was tackled at his leg, which caused him to flip and land on his broom, effectively snapping it. Being a rockstar, he shot up, got a new broom, and ran after that quaffle. It was such a great moment.

And the snitch is released!

Anyways, we got pizza as a team and headed home, which was a terribly long schlep. Muddy, sore, and tired, we stumbled home around 22:30 and promptly fell to a well-deserved night's sleep.

It was one great day. 

Everyone together.

Great coaches and refs!

Oh, and as for the title of this post, we created a new team chant/call-thing. It happened when we shouted-out "THUNDERBIRDS!" and Johanne, jokingly, went "boom-caw", which instantly became a success. We soon began to thunderously yell "BOOOM!!" then followed with a bird-like "CAAW!!", the sound of the ever-so-tough Thunderbird.