Cookies and ROUS's

Yesterday evening, Jason came over and we cooked dinner together. We had a couple incidents with burnt garlic and pine-nuts, but overall a very successful dinner. After dinner we decided we wanted cookies, so we made them from scratch! Here's the result:

Jason REALLY liked the cookies 

 We also made sure we left some raw cookie dough to eat as well.

Yum!

Jason even made himself a raw cookie dough-cooked cookie sandwich, which I refused to try, but he said was delicious. 

We decided we needed to watch a movie to go along with our cookies, so we decided on the Princess Bride, which neither of us had seen in awhile. We had a great time quoting along with the movie and eating copious amounts of sugar. 

Now that Exams are Over

My last exam was last week, and my junior year is now officially over! Now that exams are over I've had lots of time to sight-see and enjoy the nice weather that finally decided to show up. 

Here are some of the things I've done with my free time. 

Tarini, two of Tarini's friends visiting from Brandeis, Amy and I went to Primrose Hill, a steep hill in the middle of a park with a fantastic view of London. We set up camp and had a picnic. Then we people-watched until the sun started to go down.  

Here's some of the view: 

 Because of the nice weather, the park was absolutely crawling with people. I guess we weren't the only ones who thought a picnic would be fun. 

If you look closely you can see the London eye

The next day we went to see Men in Black 3 on its opening night in London! Unfortunately the movie was in 3D, which gives me headaches, but we still enjoyed it thoroughly! Time travel and an all-star cast, what more could you ask for, really?

 Today, Amy and I decided to check on the two museums we hadn't had the chance to visit yet. First we met up at the lovely Courtauld Gallery, once a mansion with an extensive private art collection, now turned museum. 

 Here's some of the highlights from inside:

Rubens' preparatory oil paintings for his famous Descent from the Cross

Cezanne's Still Life with Plaster Cast

Still life by Monet

The Bar at the Folies Bergere, by Manet

Dancers on Stage by Degas

A self-portrait by Van Gogh, after the whole ear incident 

The museum had an awesome spiral staircase

 Next up, the National Portrait Gallery. No pictures inside, but here's the exterior.

So that's everything of import. I'll let you know if I do anything else fun before I head back to the states.

I have two weeks left in London, we'll see how much more I can cram in before it's time to go home.

Harry Potter World! (A post for my Dad this time)

Yesterday Amy, David (he's in London visiting), Devon, and I went to Harry Potter World! 

Okay, okay, I know I said I'd just be studying, but let me explain: 

Rachel's family is also here visiting and they had booked to tickets to go to HP World, but finding that they were much too tired from all their other sight-seeing excursions to go, generously gave us the tickets instead. No matter how much studying I had to do, there was no way I was going to turn down that opportunity! 

Harry Potter world consisted of some awesome movies with the actors, lots of the sets, a creature shop showing how they made all the animals and elves, etc., all the props from the film, and more! 

We all met up at Eusten station at the ungodly hour of 9AM, and we headed to Watson Junction. From there, a very special Harry Potter World coach bus came and picked us up to take us to the studios where they shot the films. 

Our express bus ride to Harry Potter World!

Rupert Grint's hand-prints! 

The cupboard under the stairs

The Great Hall

The Professors' Table 

Alan Rickman's (Snape) Wig

The Gryffindor Boy's Dormitory 

The Mirror of Erised. (I should've brought my wool socks)

Gryffindor's Fat Lady

The Triwizard Cup and the Golden Egg. 

The entrance to Dumbledore's Office

Dumbledore's Office 

The Pensieve 

The Sorting Hat

The Sword of Gryffindor 

The Potion's Classroom 

These were some of the many portraits that covered the walls of the halls of Hogwarts---which are all actually portraits of the crew members of the film. 

The door to the Chamber of Secrets

The door to the Gringott's vault

Hagrid's hut

The Burrow 

The Ministry of Magic Statue 

Umbridge's office 

The Black's family tree tapistry

Butterbeer! (Actually cream soda with a marshmallow topping...super sweet, kinda gross)

Hagrid's (Sirius') motorbike

The Wesley's Enchanted Car. (In pretty good condition considering it was the in the Forbidden Forest for so long)

Wow, we're flying!! (This is how Amy and I get to Vassar every semester.)

The Knight Bus!  

Tom Riddle's tombstone. 

Number 4, Privet Drive 

The Hogwart's Bridge (only in the movies)

Godric's Hollow, the Potter house. 

A chess piece from the game that guarded the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone

Goblin masks

Fawks

Aunt  Marge's blown-up body. 

Dobby!

A Mandrake 

Aragog

Buckbeak the hippogriff 

Diagon Alley! 

The giant model of Hogwarts used to film the exteriors in the film. (They shot it against a green screen and then added in background to make it look large-scale)

The ridiculous gift shop

And those are just the highlights! The tour took us about 2 hours to get through, it was an incredible. Thank you so much to Rachel's family for making it happen! 


p.s. Dad, my fellow Harry Potter-obsessed fan, that post was just for you, I know you were jealous that the last one was for Mom. :)