Hello! I had a magical day today! I meant to go see the changing of the guard this morning, but I was just too exhausted from my long day yesterday to get moving quickly this morning. Instead I went to Sainsbury's (sort of a supermarket chain here) and got some groceries to make lunch. I made some spinach and ricotta tortellini and some yummy bread. After panicking about snow and not being able to get over to the studios, we set out to find out for sure. I took the tube to the Euston station and found out that yes there are delays, but the train would still be running. However, the train we needed was already at the station so we lucked out! We took a short train ride to Walford Junction where we picked up the bus to the studio. It was a very cool looking Harry Potter double decker. 20 minutes later, we arrived at the Warner Brother's studio, the Making of Harry Potter. We walked in to find a lobby covered in pictures of the principle cast.

We were then ready to embark on our magical tour. I will detail every single thing I saw, but I will tell you some of my favorites. We started off with a short movie telling us about what we were going to see and about the making of the movies. We then walked through a big set of doors straight into the Great Hall. It was like walking into a movie...LITERALLY! It is was really neat! They even had costumes of all the different professors at the front where they would sit during the movies. Other sets we saw included: the Burrow, Dumbledore's office, Potions room, Umbridge's office, boy's dormitory, Griffyndor common room, etc. One of my favorite moments was walking down Diagon Alley. I really couldn't believe it! I felt just as the cast must have the first time they saw it. We saw other really cool props like the flying car, Hagrid's motorcycle, number 4 Privet Drive, costumes, masks, etc. It was overwhelming and I really learned a lot that I didn't know! We ended the tour with an amazing moment...Hogwarts. Hogwarts is obviously not a real castle, so they built a huge model of one to use to film the movies. Whenever there were sweeping landscape shots of it, they used this model and then put the actors in after. It was incredible and took my breath away. I really came to appreciate all of the behind the scenes people after taking this tour. Of course, like any great place, it dumped us into the gift shop. I bought a few little souvenirs to remember this once in a lifetime experience. I was so glad I did it!

After making our way back to the flats, a few of us went to dinner at a nearby pub. I got some sangria and fish and chips. It redeemed fish and chips for me from the time I ate it in Portsmouth. I can now leave London feeling satisfied that I had good fish and chips! Trying to call it an early night tonight since last night was so crazy late. Tomorrow we start on our final, which has still been kept elusive from us. We are all anxious to know what will go on; we are hoping something fun! Sad that I only have one more weekend left, but getting excited to come home! Missing my family and friends very much!