Harry Potter Studio Tours

It is finally time to share the last of my Europe pictures. While in London, I had the absolute pleasure of visiting the Warner Brother's Studio Tours. It has been a dream of mine to visit the place where they filmed all the Harry Potter films. It's a place that I've seen so much content from, both the films and tourist photos from the tour, but nothing could compare to seeing the scale model of Hogwarts in real life, with "Harry in Winter" playing on the overhead speakers. It was truly a magical experience, and it is definitely a place that I would love to revisit in the future. Here are some of my favorite shots from the tour...

I absolutely love the level of detail that went into putting everything together. The tour really highlighted how much work went into the making of each movie. - Jessica 

Books I Read In July

I read 8 books in the month of July. This was definitely been my worst reading month this year, since I struggled with finding the motivation to pick up a book this month. So here are the books I read and some of my thoughts and opinions on them...

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young - This is a Viking inspired novel that follows Eelyn, after she discovers that her brother alive, who she watched die five years before. I really enjoyed this book, I liked the cast of characters and the social questions this book raised. I also liked Young's execution of slow burn development, in terms of the story and the romance.

The Ascendence Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen - This book follows Sage, after he is enlisted in a game to employ a false prince to his kingdom's throne. I found the first two books in this series interesting enough, but as the series continued on, I became disappointed in the lack of character development in the main character. This is a series that's been on my radar for years now, and it's one of those books that I think I would have enjoyed more, if I read it at a younger age.

Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro - This is a coming of age story centered around police brutality and racism. I was blown away by this book, it tackles so many hard subjects, such as; underdeveloped communities, lack of funding in schools, and undocumented citizenship. Because of these issues, the book almost had a dystopian undertone, except all of these issues are unfortunately true. I also absolutely loved the different levels of representation this book has, and I think that so many people can relate to some of these characters on some level. I did find this book a little hard to grasp at times because there is so many issues that the main characters face, that I think some of the messages about these topics was diluted. Overall, I think this a fantastic must-read, but there is a lot of explicit violence, which may not be for everyone.

Skin and Earth (Vol. 1) by Lights - This is the first volume in a graphic novel, dystopian series. I have talked a lot about Light's latest album and the tie-in-comic that she wrote and drew. When the bind up of the series was released, I knew that I would be rereading the story (disclaimer: I had previously reread each issue at least 3 times when they came out, which I think speaks volumes about how much I love this project). So as soon as my hardcover arrived, I again devoured the whole series again. I absolutely can't wait to see the direction Light's has planned for this series.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling - This was another reread of the month, I initially planned to reread the whole series, since I picked up the new US paperback covers, but I barely squeezed by the first book. I do plan to continue rereading the series slowly over the next couple of months.

Heart of Mist by Helen Scheuerer - This is the first installment in a high-fantasy trilogy, where magic is forbidden, and the heroine is captured by the king for her skill. I really liked this book, mostly I found that it sets up for the next two books, so I'm interested to see how this story continues.

And those are the books I read in July. I'm hoping that August will be a better reading month, because there are a lot of new releases that I've been anticipation and that I've been itching to get to. - Jessica

July Snapshots

1. Celebrating 23 years around the sun with mermaid hair. 

2. I bought this jersey while I was in Paris and I wore it for all of France's World Cup games. When I bought this jersey, I had a lot of hopes that France would go far and it was so nerve wracking to root for them this whole tournament, but I'm so happy they won! And I'm sad that the World Cup is over but we are getting closer and closer to the Women's World Cup next summer and I can't wait to see my faves, the USWNT, especially since I'm hoping to go to one of their qualifiers this fall.

3. Scholastics just rereleased the 20th anniversary covers, and because I have no self control, I had to get them. And that called for a complete relocating of all my Harry Potter books. It's weird to not have any of them on my bookshelves anymore but I'm happy that they're all in one place.

4. I've talked a lot on here about how much I love Lights and her latest album/comic series. The graphic novel bind up just came out and I splurged and bought the hardcover because it's gorgeous and signed by Lights herself.

5. Latest Etsy haul. I got some more bookmarks from Happy Hello Co, because I have an addiction to her bookmarks, I think I have over a hundred at this point. But I honestly couldn't help myself when I saw the Yuri!!! On Ice sets and the Silver trio. The second item is a print I've been wanting for a while from OwlnBone. I've previously bought from her shop and her prints are of amazing quality and the colors are so vibrant. - Jessica

London

I'm still slowly going through the last batch of Europe photos. Our last stop on the trip was London! Originally when my sister was planning this trip, London was not on the itinerary, but I was able to convince her to add it, since I had never been. London was definitely the highlight of my trip, I knew that I would love the city, but I especially fell in love with the cityscape and the parks. 

Some highlights included: walking along Millennium Bridge and visiting Trafalga Square and the National Gallery. I really enjoyed visiting two places that had subtle ties to Harry Potter, I had completely forgotten that the Millennium bridge was in the sixth film, until I recognized it on our walk across the bridge. And I've wanted to visit Trafalga Square since I watched the livestream of the premiere of the eight film (I know I'm a giant nerd when it comes to Harry Potter). Some highlights from the National Gallery included the Rosetta Stone and the reliefs from the Pantheon, both of which I studied for my undergrad, and it was surreal to see them in person. 

I mentioned previously that we spent a day trip at the Harry Potter Studio Tours and at Oxford. Almost half my photos from the trip were taken at the Studio Tours so I'll be sharing those next week.

These two photos were taken during a stroll through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I fell in love with all the parks we went to in London, they spoke so highly of the city's culture and they honestly felt like a wonderland. 

Views from our walk through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. We were originally in the area because I had wanted to see Big Ben (sometimes you have to check things off the tourist checklist), but we weren't aware that it's down for renovations, and instead we made our way through St. James Park. This was the first park we visited, and I was immediately drawn to the wildflowers that lined the trails. 

We took a stroll through Regent's Park before sunset and it was my favorite moment while in London. We mainly walked through Queen Mary's Gardens, which is filled with thousands of roses. I may also share a separate post of just photos that I took while in the Gardens because it was the most gorgeous place I've ever seen.

Saving the best for last! I wanted to share a photo I took while waiting for Part II of the Cursed Child. When I first read the script, I loved revisiting the world, but I also recognized that it had a lot of problems (I have a detailed review of my thoughts). This is a story that demands to be told on stage and reflects how hard the cast and crew have worked to bring true magic to life. I absolutely loved seeing this in person and I feel so lucky that I was able to see this sooner that I could have imagined and on it's original stage. - Jessica

Paris

After the events of yesterday, today seemed like a good time to share my photos from France. And while I'm thinking of the World Cup, I told my mom during the Round of 16 that the final would be between France and Croatia, which she doesn't remember, but let it be noted that I got it correct! I also got a France jersey during my stay and I wore it at every opportunity during this WC. Anyways back to my trip, I really loved Paris. There was so much that I wanted it to see and do, and we were pretty successful in managing our time to get a lot out of the 4 days we spent there.

Although we relied pretty heavily on the Metro, we mostly explored the city on foot. Our hotel was really close to the Sacré-Cœur, which we ended up visiting several times because there are just some things you'll want to see both during the day and lit up at night. We also walked from the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre in the humid heat, but it ended up being worth it because the walk allowed us to see so much of the city. 

We went to so many museums while in Paris; the Rodin, the Sainte-Chapelle, Versailles, the Musée d'Orsay, the Louvre. There's just so much art in the city, but it was important to me, to see as much as possible.

Detail shots from the Jardin du Luxembourg.

It was so hard to narrow down the sunset pictures, because I took a lot, but standing on the Pont des Arts and watching the sunset along the Seine was my favorite moment of the Paris trip. - Jessica