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!