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!!