Harry Potter and other tales.

I am halfway through the semester, and I have been very aware of the English part of my major. Though I do love reading books, and I love talking about books almost four books every week is a lot of reading. It's nice to have a break where I can casually read at my own pace rather than scrambling through the book. Yes, I am still doing homework over break, but I have come to terms with the fact that during College your break isn't a break from school work it's just time to catch up with school work.

This semester, however, is the lightest semester I have had since first semester Freshman year, at least credit wise. The only reason it is difficult at all is because I am a slow reader therefore reading is very time consuming. My time will be even more consumed in the coming semesters. I will look back on the stressful times of this semester and laugh because I am fully prepared for stress levels twice as high for the next two semesters, both of which will be at or close to the limit of credits we are allowed to take without have to pay more money. This is the plight of a person who wants to graduate with two majors and a minor. When I finally graduate it will be incredibly fulfilling, but at the moment it is quite stressful.

Alright, on to England stuff which is much more exciting than my needs to obtain as many different departments on diploma as I possibly can.

My sister and brother-in-law visited recently. The day after they arrived we went on the Harry Potter Studio Tour. Every thing there was actually used in the production of all of films. My favorite part was the section with the creatures and animatronics.

Threstral

Mermaid




















There were also sets, the Burrow.

And costumes.

And so much more. Unfortunately, we couldn't linger and take it all in as much as we would have liked to due to bus schedules There was also a Death Eater exhibition going on that we couldn't really see because of time. There were people dressed up as death eaters roaming around looking menacing, and there was a wand maker carving wands for everyone to see. I wish I could have linger there longer than I did. The wands have always been one of my favorite parts of Harry Potter.

After the tour we had obnoxious bus ride back to Bath that involved a long wait for the bus to arrive and an exhausting amount of time sitting on a bus.




The next place on the agenda was the Roman Baths where we held digital tour guides to our ears poking in numbers to tell it what we wanted to hear about, and drank hot water with excess amounts of minerals. The patron goddess of this bath was Minerva goddess of War and Wisdom. She is Athena's Roman counterpart.

The statues on the pillars are not part of the original baths They were added after the baths were excavated in the 1800s. Each statue portrays an important figure in Roman culture. The whole bath was once a series of buildings that no longer stand. Originally the bath pictured above had a high domed ceiling. After discovering numeral facts about the baths we discovered a gift shop half way through the exhibit. In this little gift shop amongst the souvenirs of soap and teddy bears in bath robes there was this lovely gem.

Harry Potter in Latin, and I am just now realizing it is randomly the second book in the series. I was highly tempted to buy this lovely find and they even had a children's book on on learning Latin that would help me read it. Alas the novelty of buying such an item did not out way the practicality of buying such an item, so I left it behind and was contented with remembering of its novelty.

At some point during my sister and brother-in-law's stay my sister gave me her birthday present for me. I always love art from my sister.

Thanks for reading. I should have a post up soon about my trip to Penzance.