The Harry Potter Holy Land

Today I went to Oxford, England. I loved it, except for the constant rain and freezing temperature, I'm pretty sure some of the rain was solidifying or freezing by around 4 o'clock aka the time it was starting to get dark. But it really was a fun little town, basically the epitome of a college town, because there are 39 colleges that together make up Oxford University. It was a beautiful, homey little town.

Oxford is the home of writer C.S. Lewis, I have read a lot about Lewis the past few weeks because I wrote a paper about him. Anyways, there was a pub called the Eagle and Child that he and some of the other "fellows" he was friends with 'hung out' at. They liked to call it "The Bird and the Baby". We had lunch there and actually sat in the Rose room by the fire which is where Lewis and Tolkin would sit when they came in. It was SOOOOOOO good. Then we toured a few of the colleges, I loved them. All of the colleges are really small the biggest one has like 600 students and the smallest about 100; I think it would be really neat and really great for your education to be in such a small group to learn. You get so much more professor time, and smaller classes, you know all that jazz. One of my favorite Colleges, it might just be for the name, was 'Jesus College'; I almost got a pair of sweatpants that said Jesus on them... ha.

We toured Christ College, which is where they filmed a whole lot of stuff for HARRY POTTER! So I stood where in the first movie, the Philosopher/Sorcerer's Stone, Professor McGonagall welcomed the first years on the steps before entering the Great Hall. Where Neville lost his toad, and Malfoy told Harry if he knew what was good for him he'd want to be in Slytherin, and all the Characters that we love so much and have 'watched/read about them growing up' were standing out side the Great Hall wondering what was to come of the 7 years they were going to spend at Hogwarts. What house will everyone be, at this point we didn't even know what that really meant, not like we do now. Anyways, I stood there, I stood where the students would have been and also where McGonagall would have stood. It was pretty awesome. Don't believe me, look at the picture. Then we went into their dinning hall, which was used as the Great Hall for Harry Potter, you could so tell too. There are pictures all over the wall that they took down and made a new back ground behind where the professors sat. Also there was a lot of computer animation done to make it look bigger, but I was there.
I also got a Oxford Sweatshirt, and show sweatpants that will totally be great for Travel break in here in a few days. Which reminds me, I have 15 days and then I'm back in America. That is terrifying, exciting, and depressing all at the same time. I really can't believe it. But I've got 2 weeks in Central Europe before that and Finals. Lets just hope I make it through this week of exams, and term papers and packing.