harry potter and the best 32 hours of my life

wow. so i went to the harry potter and the deathly hallows, part 1 world premiere. i really did. i keep having to convince myself of that.

sabrina and i got there at about 2 on wednesday afternoon after we panicked and saw that people were already lined up. we made friends with four girls that were in line ahead of us: beckie, amanda, blaire and natalie, and set up camp potter (a circle of folding chairs and three tents). we were ready.

lots of people joined our camp along the way: ian (who goes to chapman with us), sarah (from my drawing class), christeen, 2 german girls named bianca and susanne, and a guy from japan who did not speak any english. we spent several freezing hours chatting, going on food and potty errands, and doing nothing until the wee hours of the morning.

[the team]

[late night chinese food]

sabrina, ian, christeen and i slept in a small pop-up tent that we turned on its side so we could all fit. INTERESTING. it was raining and cold outside but somehow we survived in our little taco shell of a house. at about 3:30 in the morning i was about to give up because i was so uncomfortable and cold, but we all persevered.

[there were signs like this in front of every tent]

[our survival bags kept us warm...ish]

[us in our taco tent]

several trips to mcdonald's and cups of hot chocolate later, at about 7am, we were told to pack up our stuff so we could move into the premiere area. we had been in line around the perimeter of leicester square up until this point. when we finally entered the square, we were FRONT ROW right in front of the press! it was still freezing, but i think at this point i cared so little about my body temperature and so much about the fact that i was living one of my dreams that it didn't matter.

[waiting...and waiting...]

[me attempting to sleep while standing by hanging over the barrier]

[team USA]

[the press, right across the carpet from us]

we stood there for about 8 hours, unable to sit down, while we were interviewed and photographed by newspapers, fansites, blogs, and television stations. you can read my quote in usa today here, spot me at the beginning of this video, try and find me in picture 16 in the la times, and if you happen to get your hands on some british newspapers, you'll see my mug shot in them, too. baby girl is famous. the best of these? ben lyons of e! took a picture of us on his phone and tweeted it. ben lyons has a picture of me on his phone. love.

[ben <3]

[the tweet]

[the picture taken with ben's phone...

p.s. beckie's sign...]

the actors began to arrive at 5:30ish. rupert grint, emma watson, dan radcliff, tom felton, and the rest of the gang signed autographs, chatted with fans, and stood within 3 feet of me. i was in shock. please don't hate me that i didn't get any good pictures because i was too busy being in awe. you can look up pictures of the event though...emma looked beautiful and the rest of the cast followed suit.

my favorite part of the evening had to do with emma watson in two ways: although i did not get to meet her (just wave and scream her name), but i DID manage to piss off her boyfriend and befriend her brother.

her boyfriend (whose music video i've seen and led me to know who he was) walked by and i impulsively yelled "emma watson's boyfriend!". he turned around, stared me down, and said, "what's my name?" of course, i didn't know. so he yelled some curse words at me, scoffed, and walked away. oops, that's what you get for dating a famous actress.

however, i recognized her brother because he is a burberry model, and he was just awkwardly standing off to the side, so i yelled his name. he did a "who, me?" and ian and i beckoned him over. he talked to us about what he was wearing (paul smith, in case you were interested) and took pictures with us, chatted a bit, and then moved along when everyone started realizing who he was and attacking for autographs. all i can say is that i loved him first.

[alex watson...not my most attractive moment, but we'd be a cute couple, right?]

i ended up with autographs in my british copy of the deathly hallows from neville, luna, dobby, and lucius. i was bummed i didn't get the main trio's signatures, but i did decide that i will be at the july premiere for part 2, camping out and all, and i will complete the collection. it was an amazing 2 days, full of ups and downs, new friends, and a lot of craziness, and i would repeat it in a heartbeat. just let me nap first.