You're a wizard Harry!

So I really only want to blog about one thing…the HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR, but first we need to get there. So.

May 3^rd was the last class of my sophomore year! After GST was over, there wasn’t much to do! Being lazy on my first day of summer vacation is okay though…Eventually we made it out to go to the Ice Bar! This was just one of those experiences that I had to do. You wear your coat and everything in, you’re given a warm poncho and gloves, and you’re only in for 40 minutes. It was -5 degrees Celsius, or 23 degrees Fahrenheit. You also get one free drink which is in an ice glass. The bar was smaller than I expected, and you just hang out until your time is up. It was a cool experience to say the least.

Thursday night, the roommates, Ginna Claire, & I headed to London Bridge to play London Bridge on the Bridge! This was something on GC’s bucket list, so we indulged her in that. It was actually a lot more fun (and more entertaining) than expected. After that we met up with Tim after work and eventually headed home.

Friday, May 4^th was nothing special until we got on the bus to go to the WARNER BROTHERS HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR. Those three hours definitely make the cut for some of the best hours of my life. After a video and introduction, we wandered through the STUDIOS- 2 soundstages and a backlot. So so much to say…

 Everything set up was real sets, real costumes, and real props! It was well…magical…to see it all! You also learn a lot about the secrets of making the movies, like when green scenes are used, how Quidditch is made, Hagrid’s head, Dobby… a lot of the “magic” is actually mechanics and not just special effects so I appreciated that. The amount of hard work and detail that goes into every single prop and scene, even props you see once or scenes that are 15 seconds long, is remarkable!! I always loved the books, but now I have an even better appreciation for the movies! It was SOO worth it. I wish I could just talk on and on about it…but it’s hard to put it into words. One of the last rooms of the tour was a model of Hogwarts. This castle model was actually used to fill in the backgrounds from green screens. It was HUGE (not life-size or anything but so large!) and SO DETAILED. I almost found myself choking up because of the amount of sheer dedication and hard work that had to have gone into that model! It’s remarkable! And of course we got to try Butterbeer (cold though, not hot). It was awesome.

Soon after I got home on Friday, Amy & Lauren arrived at the flat! (A & L are the girls I met up with in Holland who were studying abroad in Austria- in case you forgot.)

Saturday, May 5^th: Happy Cinco de Mayo! After having a fantastic Mexican lunch at Café Pacifico, Saturday was about taking some last minute photos and showing the girls around. So we basically just walked through the city showing them the main spots: Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Westminster, Parliament, the Eye, Big Ben, & Buckingham Palace.

Today, Sunday May 6^th started with Mass and was all about packing to go home (or to move out of the flat in my case). I took Amy & Lauren to the train station, talked to the parents, and packed! That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far. The plan tonight is to go back to Warrington, where we had our first night here, so that’ll be nice! It’ll be sad to say goodbye to everyone else tomorrow morning, we’ve all gotten so close. A lot of these people I won’t see again until August, since I am not going immediately back to Elon when I get to the states. Flat D will always have a place in my heart. : )

Who knows how many blogs I have left….but I’ll be sure to talk about my parents and Liz’s visit here in London. So excited to show them what has been my home for the past 3 months!

The Final Countdown

I haven’t missed a single day yet, and I’m not going to start now!

This will be one of my last blogs, seeing as I only have 4 days left in the program & 13 days left in London!

Right where I left off…April 28^th: After lunch, I went on a Harry Potter walking tour with Lindy & Michael. I was kind of expecting you know seeing Diagon Alley or the Gringotts Bank. And it wasn’t quite like that… instead we saw actual London sites that were in the movie! I actually really ended up enjoying it. Richard was a great guide- an older guy who is clearly obsessed with all things Harry Potter. Some scenes we saw were just Big Ben & the Eye that make for background scenes in the movie. Other things were the building where the toilets were to get into the Ministry of Magic or where the phone booth was for the guest entrance! My favorite part was this picture below…do you recognize it? It’s where Ron staked out to knock out the woman (I’m blanking on her name!) to pull out their hair to make the potion… I can really see this scene in the movie so that’s cool!

A little later, we went back out to eat at Ed’s Easy Diner, a “real American” old fashioned diner. Cheesy fries, chicken nuggets, and a milkshake! A little taste of home : )

Sunday, April 29^th did not have that much in store, just Mass and then work, work, work all day. Final exam due Thursday, art presentation due Wednesday…we all had some last minute work to do.

April 30^th we did not have our practicum since we finished that part of the London experience. Instead we finally made it to Abbey Road to take the traditional Beatles picture! It is only about ten minutes from our flat, yet it took me three months to go! The crosswalk was so busy. It was a beautiful day out so there were lots of tourists there trying to take the picture not to mention the locals just trying to cross the street AND all the cars…. It provided a lot of humor watching people try to walk the right way yet pose and get the picture taken all at once! Haha but we eventually got pictures that were good enough! The studio is right there too, and the concrete wall in front of the studio is full of graffiti from everyone who has come and visited the studio. So of course we added Elon to the wall!

HAPPY MAY

May 1^st: We had our final Theater class so we said goodbye to Patricia. When we got home, a few of us finally got sandwiches from Vickie’s. Vickie’s is just a little local restaurant right by our flat that apparently has great food, especially the hot sandwiches. Maybe it’s a good thing it took us this long to try it, because it was so good!!

Jumping to dinner…I finally got to go to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub: the oldest London (maybe even England) pub still in its original location! The food was great of course, but the pub itself was so cool! On a Tuesday night, it was still really busy. It felt like a maze going through all the different side rooms trying to find a table or booth for us. Low ceilings, tight hallways, but so so many rooms!

May 2^nd: Another class over with our Art presentations! We all did a great job with that too!

Wednesday night I went to Roxy with some girls where we met up with Tim & his friend. It’s a fun bar scene at night just to dance with the girls! Wednesday nights out aren’t a frequent occurrence for me, but hey, my final exam was submitted so I was on summer vacation!!

The Worst Pies in London

Okay so at this point, things are wrapping up. The last major assignments are coming up, the last grocery runs, and the last opportunities to run around and do everything in London! So some of the days are a little boring, but we still have some great adventures left! I’ll do a quick run through of the week, focusing on the fun stuff!

Monday, April 23^rd: LAST PRACTICUM. Sad to say I don’t think the teachers, or the students, really noticed when I was there or not, but hey- it was still a good experience.

Tuesday, April 24^th: Just class. Nothing special, until…SWEENEY TODD. So most people don’t like the plot, which I understand- the Demon Barber on Fleet Street that makes meat pies out of his victims. Not the most upbeat plot, but I still love the music. Plus after being in it my junior year at Marist, I had to go see the West end production. I’m so glad I did because it was PHENOMENAL. Up there with Billy Elliot quality, easily. Michael Ball, who played Sweeney Todd, was the original lead in the musical Les Mis if that gives you any idea of how talented he was. Ms. Lovett is played by Professor Umbridge from the Harry Potter movies.

I came out of the theater speechless, mind blown. The talent was absolutely remarkable and it made for a great production! I wish I could explain it better than that, but I’m so glad we went! (I went with 2 girls in the program, Sarah & Dorothy.) It’ll probably be my last musical in London (probably), so it was a good one to end on! Now I just really want the cast recorded CD…

Wednesday April 25^th: For art class today Lisa led us on a Street Art tour! The rain initially made us all hesitant, but it ended up being really interesting. Lisa knows a street artist (“Don”) who met up with us during the tour. We ended up seeing more of his work then anyone else’s, but I really like his. I probably like it because we had a chance to sit down and talk to Paul (aka Don) about his technique and his thought process behind his art. He was a bit spacey, enthusiastic, and hard to follow with his train of thought, but he did have some great lines.
 

“Graffiti is all about me, me, me, but street art is more thinky thinky.” (a great explanation of the difference in my opinion)

“Street art is about putting your soul out on the street.”

He was going to paint a piece outside for us to see!! Sadly though, the rain didn’t let up enough for the walls to dry.

Thursday, April 26^th:

We didn’t have class today because our GST research paper was due so it was a final work day. To reward ourselves for finishing our papers, KJ, Neenz & I (who Dr. Hall has named K cubed) went to the Kew Gardens! We all LOVED it!! It was raining earlier in the day, but it cleared up, so our weather was gorgeous! The Garden itself are huge, and we got lost a few times walking around. (Oh by the way they use the word garden for what we would just call yard).

We went into a palm house (like a green house) for our very own Costa Rica adventure…or so we said. We climbed a tree, took flower pictures, walked along the Xstrata Treetop walkway, and went into the Kew Palace. The Kew Palace ended up being great because it is where King George III & his family lived. Since we studied him in Theater & saw The Madness of King George III we could really appreciate where we were!

Thursday night we had our last Theater play: The Conquering Hero. This was a theater in the round, which means that we sat all around the stage. It was a really small theater; so small I had to pull my feet in a couple of times for an actor walking in front of me (I was in the front row). I was really impressed by the play too. It was really intense, all about a family during World War I. It was a serious note to end on but definitely well done!

Friday, April 27: Day 2 of our 5 day weekend.

First stop was Harrod’s for some final souvenir/gift shopping (I’m almost done…almost).

Then we (Kj, Neenz, & I) went to the Kensington Gardens to go to the Kensington Palace. This is the palace that Will & Kate have decided to make their permanent residence. The palace is huge, and we were able to tour an area that has been set up to honor some monarchs (Monarchs I believe that lived in the Palace)- Princess Di, Queen Mary II, Queen Victoria, King George II. I’m curious as to how much will change once Will & Kate have officially and completely moved in..I guess we’ll see!

The countdown is down to 10 days. For most people that’s a countdown to go home; for me it’s a countdown for the end of the program but also for my parents’ arrival in London!

real Dutch

There were so many potential titles for this blog…

Sheep!

bikes on bikes on bikes

bread on bread on bread

4 Masses in 40 hours

Women’s Retreat

…to name a few.

My weekend in Holland started very early on Friday, April 20^th. Actually, it should have started early on Friday, but really it started late on Thursday because I couldn’t fall asleep! At 12:45 I gave up on trying (I had been trying since 10:30), hung out with some flat mates, and took an hour nap at 2. My taxi driver picked me up at 3:45 sharp to take me to the coach to get to the airport… After a worker had to direct me to the bus stop, my morning went smoothly.

On the other end, Elske picked me up in Eindhoven, Holland where we wandered around until it was time to pick up Amy and Lauren from the train station. 

I know these 3 girls all from my summer as a missionary at Covecrest. Elske was a year round missionary, and Amy & Lauren were doing the same 6 weeks as me. So, after we were all reunited we headed to Odiliapeel, Holland where Elske and her roommate live in an old rectory connected to a church. We went grocery shopping and had our first Dutch meal: bread and bread and bread! For multiple meals we ate this dark Dutch bread with some sort of spread: either peanut butter, nutella, or butter. Most of the time, on top of the spread, we put these chocolate sprinkles! Real Dutch.

From there we went and saw a WINDMILL, went and met a cloister nun (Sister Bernadette-I’ve never met a cloister nun before) who Elske knows, and headed to her parents’ house for another dutch meal in Uden, Holland.

Dinner was a sausage dish and a potato with onion and carrot dish: it was pretty plain but really good. For dessert we had some sort of vanilla, caramel cream that was really really good, even though I don’t really know what it was. And then we had ice cream-sort of in the style of a Carvel’s ice cream cake (her dad has quite a sweet tooth). Neither one of her parents spoke any English, so Elske was our personal translator. It made conversation a little awkward, but her dad was really funny! Maybe the language barrier added to the humor, but he would say something, either one English word, or something Elske had to translate, and he had us all laughing!

After dinner we went to church for daily Mass and then back to Elske’s for a girls’ night. We feasted on snacks, baked these delicious chocolate muffins (cupcakes), painted our nails, and did face masks.

Saturday, April 21^st was an early morning as Elske was singing in the Cathedral in s'-hertogenbosch, Holland for Mass for a Power of Fire festival for confirmation teens. We hung out a little, and then Elske and her brother Frank gave a talk to the teens. 

The whole festival was really cool to witness, even though we didn’t understand any of it. We were meeting Elske’s friends all day long, and some could speak English better than others.  After visiting the “Shroud of Turin” exhibition in the Cathedral, we headed to Utretch, Holland, to meet up with more people! Here we met the Brothers of St. John (Brother John Mary Jesus, Brother Clements), a visiting Sister from France, and three teens that have been helping with Life Teen in Holland (Roberto, Caroline, and another girl). Brother John Mary Jesus celebrated a vigil Mass for us, the Brothers provided us dinner, and then we all headed to the Michael W. Smith concert: Symphony of Life!

The concert was unbelievable! I really had no idea what to expect, but it looked like it was in a conference center with 10,000 people there and a full orchestra to play with the musicians!! There were 3 Dutch musicians, and then Michael W. Smith. The first three all spoke Dutch so someone helped translate for the three of us, but they sang in English, so I found that interesting! The concert was really something else!! 

After that we headed back to the Brothers’ community for some drinks before we headed home. They served us beer out of their own personal keg- such a different experience! By far Holland is the most culturally unique place I’ve been…with the food, language, and everything!!

We didn’t get to bed until two that night and had to be up early on Sunday, April 22 to take Amy & Lauren to the train station. My flight was until later so we headed back to Uden for Mass, which ended up being a First Communion Mass, so that was another cultural experience! Then we had lunch with Elske, Frank, and his girlfriend back at their parents’ house. Another cultural food item: bread, cream cheese, salmon, & lettuce. Another one is how they eat boiled eggs: they hit the side with a knife, cut off the top, and then scoop the egg out with a special spoon! They were amused with my attempt to cut it, but I did it!

After that my weekend in Holland was over! At the airport I bought slippers that look like the wooden clogs, some delicious stroop waffles to take back to my roommates, and before I knew it I was arriving back in London! It was a relaxing, religious, whirlwind of a weekend!! I didn’t know if I’d ever see Elske again once she left America, and there I was, visiting her in her own home!! Holland was such a great, and different, experience!!

Super Short

Okay so to be completely honest this is a quick catch up blog so I can talk about my weekend in Holland…

April 18^th: This Wednesday we went to a Crypt Gallery for my art class. Most of this artwork I didn’t really like, but because it was all site specific for the Crypt that was cool. Site specific just means the artists created the work to go specifically in that location, so some of the themes were pretty sweet.

April 19^th: In GST we had our neighborhood presentations, which I would say went pretty well. After that quite a few of us spent some time on the internet looking up Greek Week dances for our sororities because that was Wednesday night back at Elon.

Thursday afternoon I spent three and a half hours in Café Nerro working on a research paper so that I could enjoy my weekend away without worrying about it!

Super boring blog…sorry…I would just skip these few days, but I haven’t skipped a day yet!

The next blog will be all about my weekend in Holland- I had such a great time!

What a Pity!

20 days left in the program… 1 month until I leave London….this is crazy, where has the time gone?!?!?

Saturday, April 14^th: Not much to report…Worked on homework, evening Mass, movie night in the flat with Transformers. The End.

Sunday, April 15^th I visited Nick, a missionary brother from this past summer, at the retreat center where he is living and working now in England. Visiting his community was such a relaxing day! It’s surrounded by fields, and we spent the day chilling and relaxing with the people he lives with. We made a massive amount of vegetable and spaghetti Bolognese for six or so people which was nice. Nick also led a praise and worship session during Adoration, which was so incredible! I haven’t been able to do that in months, so that was such a blessing!

Monday, April 16^th would have been a practicum, but I wasn’t feeling too hot, so I stayed home. KJ treated me back to health in time to go to class. Only one practicum class left!

A little back story before I continue with Monday…KJ, Neenz, and 2 other girls went to Switzerland this weekend to go hang gliding. On the tube ride home they met and befriended 5 Austrian guys visiting London for the weekend. They exchanged phone numbers so….

On Monday night we met up with them after class to just hang out at a pub. Dominik, Berney, Alex, Philipp, & Benny…they’re hilarious. They are all pretty good at English, really good actually, but the language barrier does cause some hilarious stories such as… they learned that Americans/Englishmen say “What a pity!” We told them “what a shame” or “that’s too bad” is a bit more common… They also had a really really  REALLY hard time distinguishing Vs and Ws, in their speech and listening to us. So for a while, “visiting” sounded a lot like “whisiting.” They call cell phones “handies,” and they actually say “ex-gf.” We spent a few hours at the pub with them, and they really didn’t want us to go home. It was so much fun hanging out with them!

Tuesday, April 17^th just starts with class: GST & Theater. In Theater we watched a video about the making of War Horse, and that was actually really cool (though a bit long)! Afterwards we met back up with the Austrian boys for lunch. They are flying out tonight, but had some more time in the afternoon so we showed them around.

We took them to Hyde Park where they were fascinated by the SQUIRRELS. Seriously- they’ve never seen squirrels before and thought they were so cool. Ha. We told them to come to Elon, and they’ll see more squirrels then they’ll want to see in their entire lives… We also walked them around Oxford Street, before they had to head back to their hostel to get their bags and go to the airport. KJ, Neenz, & I were all actually really sad to say goodbye to them. They were such sweet and funny guys! It’s that atmosphere of meeting other tourists and befriending them for a short while and then going your separate ways that I’ll really miss back in the States! Even though they had to leave (sad day), we made some great memories just hanging out with them.

For example…they know the phrase “Like a boss.” When someone was eating really polite during lunch they said they were eating “like a sir.” Haha oh language barriers….