California Dreaming...

Dearest Students,

I've returned from my research excursion to California and have come back with souvenirs for my Potter and Star Wars fans.

A visit to Grauman's Chinese Theater revealed the magical hand, foot and wand casts of our favorite trio. You can see the video of last year's event here.

This particular cast was difficult to photograph, as it was always surrounded by tourists, which made me sad for the Dick Van Dyke cast which no one seemed to care about. Yours truly was surprised to learn that Dan Radcliffe has tiny, tiny hands, and that Emma Watson is clearly a size 7 shoe.

Rupert Grint's foot cast and I shared a moment:



Shortly afterwards, I got the mother of all foot cramps, which leads me to believe that Grint cast the crampicus footiosa spell from a distance. Either that, or I was wearing inappropriate footwear for the long walk around Hollywood.



A few days later, at a Muggle diversionary park called Disneyland, I witnessed a Jedi training session, part of which I recorded for you:




Younglings were selected from the crowd for the training, and soon found themselves embroiled in a lightsaber battle with a pair of Sith. I happen to think Hogwarts is a better educational experience, but that's neither here nor there.

Unfortunately, students, there was nothing even remotely Twilight-ish to be found in California, the vampires avoiding the incredibly bright sunshine, I'm sure. Speaking of Twilight, our own V is on an excursion of her own, on something Muggles call a "cruise," so the Twilight blogging will be light (or taken over by me if something good comes up).

The trip was quite educational overall, so I am scheduling a field trip back to Los Angeles for the entire class. Permission slips due Tuesday.

Yours,
Professor H.