Muggles!

I emitted a very excited squeak (in a public place with a crowd) when I saw the 4th entry listed below in my KTdict Chinese-English iPhone dictionary.


我是麻瓜。
Or is it 我是一个麻瓜。?

I'm trying to say "I am a muggle."

I'd like to be able to say: I am a muggle, but I'd rather be a wizard.

Unfortunately, my Chinese is far too elementary.

Now I want to get a copy of Harry Potter in Chinese. (Or maybe I shouldn't. I bought a copy Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone in Spanish in high school when I was attempting to learn Spanish in my sorry excuse for a language class. I don't think I ever made it past the first few pages.)

Ooh! Maybe I'll just use my "studying Chinese" time to look up Harry Potter words. Like, how would you say pensieve? Or boggart? Or Snape? Or Blast-ended skrewt?!

And what about hobbit? Legolas? Bombadil? Fool of a Took!? Figwit?! (Though considering Figwit is a product of fangirl frenzy and not an actual written character, I doubt there's an official Chinese rendition of his name.)

What about Middle Earth?

I vote 中国.

That is, Middle Kingdom/Country.

That is, the official name of China.

Look! I'm thinking of going to Middle Kingdom/Earth this year!

Last year, I went to Middle Earth under the guise of New Zealand (hehe).

I sense a trend here.

I've been geeked. Travel geeked.

Now how do you say "Fern, get your travel-geeked butt back to work." in Chinese?

Hobbiton!, In pictures

Cousin Ben was our driver from Rotorua to Matamata/Hobbiton. He was an extra in LotR as an orc! And he made it into the LotR location guidebook too. He's on the left and his brother is on the right.

He told us that they were paid crap wages at first. $40 a day, no breaks. Then someone had the bright idea to call up the local union. They all signed up (or however that works) and lo and behold their pay jumped to a decent $140 (or something) per day with breaks. It was interesting to hear how unglorified the job was, especially when Scott and I would gladly jump at the chance to be extras in the Hobbit for no pay at all.

Hobbiton! In the toilet. HAH.

Hobbiton is located in the middle of a large sheep farm.

I'm a huge fan of SHEEPIES!


At the beginning of FotR, Frodo's reading under a tree... this does not show that tree. However, when Frodo jumps up after reading and runs to Gandalf riding along in his cart... yes, it was in this grove of trees...

Wheee!

Sheepies like Hobbiton too.

 

Potential hobbit holes for The Hobbit? (Click for larger view!)

Our tour guide Benji with a lazy storytelling voice told us his boss has revealed nada.

Remember the field where Bilbo had his massive birthday party?

Benji: Would anyone like to dance on the party field?
Group: (awkward silence)
Fern: (chortling) I do!!!

Another girl, there with her sister and mother, decided she wouldn't mind making a fool of herself either, so we walked out into the party field and stood there holding hands while we tried to figure out what dance or dance pose to do. The result is as follows:

Dancing beneath the party tree with the lovely gal Lily. =)

Moments later...

Benji: Would anyone like to hug the party tree?
Group: (awkward silence)
Scott: Wanna?
Fern: (pause) Yeah!

Hugging the party tree. We likes the party tree.

Next we see locations of former sets that only have colored posts to hint at their existence:

The red marks the bridge, the blue the mill and the yellow the town. It's crazy how these locations seem so real and permanent in the films but in real life, they're polystyrene and quickly dismantled. Apparently they never completed the "stone" work on the back side of the bridge since they weren't filming from the other side. Smart move.

The left side of the above lake:

When Sam and Frodo journey out of the Shire, Sam halts in the middle of a corn field and says "If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest away from home I've ever been." Well, that was filmed at the red line in this picture. Sam really didn't travel far did he?

I'm in Bag End!

I'm not in Bag End!

The red post is where the oak tree stood that Bilbo and Gandalf smoked next to overlooking the party field...

Peter Jackson went and found his desired oak tree on another farm and had it brought over to this farm. No big deal right? Well, not really. They took a picture of the tree, cut a branch off, numbered it, took a picture of it, took a picture of the tree again, and repeated the entire process until the entire tree was cut down. They reassembled said tree at the location of the red pole but since the tree was now dead, they had to import leaves from Taiwan to individually attach to the tree. And after all this tedious work and money, how much time did this tree get in the movie? 20 seconds. 20 whole seconds. 15 in The Fellowship, 5 in Return of the King. Does the good the Lord of the Rings movie does for humanity really justify the cost of creating those movies? I don't know.

SHEEPIES! Did you know that lambs have rather long tails? (Just hit the end of lambing season so there are oodles of them around!)

Sheep shearing time. How awkward does this look? Poor sheepy.

Naked sheepy =(

Feeding little lamblets!!

It's still hungry... Sucking on my finger!

Aww...

Then they gave us this deelicious snack at The Shire's Rest.

Scott has more detail: http://theyearofthehalfautumn.blogspot.com/

I must get ready for Mitai, a Maori cultural show and hangi dinner, hence this very brief post!

(edit: Two days later brings a lazy night so I've gone back and added stuff. It probably isn't good blog etiquette to not indicate what has been changed, but whatever. I rebel.)

On Socks

I'm sitting in LAX, waiting for my flight to Auckland, and all I can think about is a pair of socks. A pair of fluffy, warm socks.

Flights can be chilly. And since my feet have mimicked my personality in liking freedom and wiggle room, I kindly outfitted them with a pair of flip flops. A nice pair of cool, breezy flip flops.

And now my toes are chilly and have nowhere to hide.

I feel a bit like Arthur Dent without a towel. Samwise Gamgee without his rope. Maybe we'll visit Lothlorien (whose river scenes were filmed in Fernside, New Zealand) and Galadriel will give me a pair of socks. Magic elven socks!

Come to think of it, I don't even have real rope or a real towel. My towel is a tiny speck of quick dry REI goodness. Not a fluffy wrap yourself like a burrito towel. My rope- well, I have a twisted clothesline, sewing thread and floss.

And my socks? Stuck with my speck of a towel and rope excuses in my check-in luggage.

Oh, how I miss thee fluffy warm socks! How it won't be the same when we are reunited 13 whole hours from now! For I will have closed toed shoes then and your warming properties will no longer be needed. In fact, my feet will scorn you for the extra layer of confinement you will then provide.

But for now, and for the next thirteen hours, I and my feet will miss you.