David Schwimmer knows I'm awkward

I thought of another London story. It made me laugh out loud, so I thought I'd better write it down. I am a F*R*I*E*N*D*S Fanatic. In fact I'm watching it right now. If I can find a reason to work a Friends reference into a conversation I will, then I crack myself up and graciously accept the blank stares. 

When I found out that David Schwimmer was going to be in a play in London, I decided he probably would want me to be there. I ended up getting awesome tickets only 5 rows back. It is quite surreal to see someone up close when you are used to only seeing them on TV. 

I was told if you wait at the stage door afterwards, you can get an autograph. I was almost too excited to sit through the show. I waited and waited and then jumped every single time some jerk yelled "There he is!" over and over. There were so many people that I wasn't close enough to get an autograph. So I decided to come back another night and line up before anyone else. It worked. I got an autograph! I have it framed somewhere. 

Then one night I just happened to be in the same area with my friends at the same time the play was letting out. I told them if we waited at the back door we could see him! So I waited for the 3rd time.

I don't know why I did it, but I did. I got carried away and yelled "I love you David!" I kinda just thought that's what people did when they met famous people. But I was only like 3 feet away from him and he just looked up and stared straight at me. I was like "Oooohh this is awkward..." But I got great pictures!

Can somebody help me out? 

I was told she is famous too, but I don't know who she is. 

 This was probably taken the first night when I was buried in the crowd. 

Plus, he's got a different hat on.

Harry Potter in London! "--and they mean every flavor"

So I realize I've neglected this blog since May. But I feel good about that, I've been so busy with www.GallerybyLaura.com!

I have caught up on all my photo editing for the first time since my launch party! So I am taking this time to work on my personal blog before I shoot another wedding this Saturday!

Once I decided I was going to write about London, I knew I would have a whole blog dedicated to Harry Potter!! But now with my friend Mary going to the new Harry Potter theme park, I decided now is the time to post it....and be majorly jealous of her. (See last post if you are interested in hearing more about my time studying abroad in London.)

If you are not a Harry Potter fan, you can just put down your Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Beans and go sit in a corner and wait for the rest of us to finish being more awesome than you. 

If you are a Potter head, lumos your wand and read on!

Harry Potter in no way shape or form influenced my decision to choose London as my choice for study abroad. It was after I had already been planning my trip did I realize all the Harry Potter potential that London held, I did allow my little heart to flutter at the thought of maybe going to find a little space somewhere in between platforms 9 & 10 and staking out a photo-op at Kings Cross train station. Little did my heart know of the joys and wonders that England had in store for me!

Not only did I find the correct station and platform, it was labeled, with a luggage cart halfway disappeared into the wall! As much as England loves their Harry Potter, I felt this meant they also secretly loved me. It only got better from there!

Kings Cross Station where everyone boards the train to Hogwarts! 

(boo, except me, I'm a muggle.)

Before we go any further I feel the need to explain part of my extra special attachment to the Harry Potter books. (I'm sad to see that the collection of all 7 now costs a measly $50, I'm pretty sure I paid that much per book.) I must mention my status as a Hermione look-alike. Hermione is the beloved-brainy-bff of Harry Potter. And even before there was a movie, I felt a special kinship to the first heroine I'd ever known to sport such frizzy hair.

I was pegged as a Hermione Granger/Emma Watson doppelgänger by my driver's license photo, seen far right. Due to some excellent SC laws about driver's license renewal, I am still toting around a picture of myself as a 15 year old. I have watched as friend after friend passed around my license, blinked, stared, and then uttered "yup, Hermione." 

I bonded with her in my mind's eye long before she was ever brought to life in the movies. 

(Shout out to my mom for knitting me a Gryffindor scarf, so much more real than all the ones for sale!)

This is a house near our college that kind of reminded me, of what I imagine Harry Potter's aunt & uncle's house looked like, "number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging Surrey" before the movie went and depicted otherwise.

Whomping Willow perhaps?

I want to say this picture was taken before I knew about floo powder, port keys, and secret entrances into the Ministry of Magic, otherwise I would have been more careful! (I remember I was actually making a phone call to leave a message for some Greek friends I had in the States to see if they had any relatives I could visit for them in Greece. Never happened, had to wait 5 years to go to Greece.)

So of course if you want to see Harry Potter stuff, you must go to Oxford University. Much of the film sets were modeled after the grounds of Oxford, some of it was even filmed there. So my friend Bethany and I were on our way!

(Pretty sure, this room was not in the movie, but it had desks, so we had to pretend we were 

Hogwarts students!)

Quidditch lesson anyone?

And now for the mecca of all Potter Fans....The Great Hall! Which is Oxford's dining hall. 

And big BOOOOO it didn't happen! It was closed for a meeting the day we visited! I had to settle for purchasing a postcard of it, which I'm sure is in storage somewhere, so sorry no post. No one seemed to care when I complained to the people who took my money to not see the Great Hall. ugh!

These are the stairs that the "First Years" stand on with Professor McGonagall 

when they first arrive at Hogwarts. 

Ok, now back from Oxford, and visiting the London Zoo 

to see the scene where Dudley bangs on the snake's glass and Harry unknowingly 

makes the glass disappear, causing Dudley to fall in and get locked in the snake exhibit. 

Ok, but see, I have this theory, when Dudley fell through the glass, he fell into a small pond. The exhibit with the sign over it does not have water in it, but  an exhibit nearby does! So I think this is actually the exhibit used for filming, and someone who wasn't a true fan, hung the sign over the wrong one. Harumph!

So later on in our study abroad trip, ASA, arranged for us to take a tour of Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon & Stonehenge. (More on these places in a later blog.)

This was not supposed to be a Harry Potter sighting....

But at some point on the bus tour, the bus driver casually (casually?!?!) mentioned that the castle on our left was one of the castles used to base the design for Hogwarts. It took every ounce of restraint I had, not to fly to the front of the bus on my Nimbus 2000 and choke the driver while screaming for him to stop the bus. Hence the hurried sideways picture, as I was given no warning, that this (sarcasm alert) non-important landmark was approaching.

Whew, ok, I hope I didn't leave anything out! I will be sure to post it later if I forgot something. 

(Can I just say that I am exhausted? 

Googling all those Harry Potter terms to make sure I spelled them right....sheesh!)

Well then, there's nothing left to say but....

Mischief managed...

Study Abroad in London, England 2005 & stolen cameras

Ironically my last blog post was about my little green camera and about how not to get your stuff stolen. Well, my purse was stolen and the little green camera is gone. Guess I can give myself a commission now and click on my own Amazon links to buy a new camera. As soon as I get new credit cards that is....


I left my purse on the back of a chair in the mall hallway while I was having my review for work. I was very engrossed in listening and forgot it there. When I realized I didn't have it, it was already gone. I remember from TV, the crooks always dump the wallets or bags somewhere. Sure enough, the store next door had my purse. They thought it had been left on accident in a dressing room. Everything was unzipped and dumped out. Luckily I gots no cash in my wallet and all they got was my camera. They didn't even recognize my ancient iPod shuffle as an iPod. 


I feel like now would also be a good time to give a shout out to a favorite blog of mine: http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/ 


The way it works is if you find a photograph or memory card, you send the blog a few pictures off the camera that might show the owner or clues to where they might live. They are posted on the blog and people view the blog trying to recognize people in the picture. All my pictures from my camera have already been saved to my computer so I'm not that worried, but not everyone is so lucky. There are some real precious moments from lost cameras on this blog.


I'm sure the site is more for people who legitimately found cameras and didn't just yoink them. 
(You are welcome Andrew for my use of the word yoink.)




Anyway, this blog is about London. (I know it appears I have a travel bug, but I realized I just do these things because I'm young and I feel like I should while I can.)


The summer in between my sophomore and junior year of college I did study abroad in London, England. I thought I could make this just a highlights blog, but its already stretching into a few more blog entries. Curses, I have a good memory. 
(Oh and PS: No need to tell me how cute I look at 19 with bangs, I already know...)

There is probably very little chance of this blog being in order, so I'm just going to write as things come to me. You don't know, you weren't there.

Here is my lovely half of the room. (Complete with pigeon warning posted to window.)
Most confusing 5 minutes ever was arriving to find that my room was on the 1st floor which meant I would have to take the stairs up.
"What? 1st floor is ...umm...above the ...umm....1st floor?"

I hate history classes. Not a history hater, just never done well in history. So I decided to knock out one of my graduation requirements while I was in England. I figured that if I was only taking 2 classes, I would be able to focus more and get a better grade. Best decision ever! On Tuesdays we would listen for hours about some historical part of England's history (mostly the Tudor period) and then Thursdays we'd go visit it! How cool is that? We were literally a few tube stops away from huge parts of history. We went to West Minster Abbey, you actually kinda walk on the graves because people are buried in the walls and floors. We went to Hampton Gardens one of King Henry VIII's homes. You can still sign up to play tennis on his clay courts there on Sundays. We even went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which is where I got to see these adorable kids in their "Madeline" uniforms with hats! This kind of outfit was pretty typical. Almost every kid I saw on the street was in a school uniform. 
(Oh and do make note of European "man-capris")

This is a picture of our classroom. That TV in the corner reminds me of a fight my teacher had with another teacher, about how the cassette tape we were supposed to watch that day, got stuck in the VCR. It was the most polite argument I've ever heard, but she was livid, it was surreal.