MEETING JK ROWLING! [(the long story)

Grandma, Marije, and I were walking up and down George Street, Edinburgh, looking for the cafe caled 'Elephant House', where JK Rowling supposedly wrote Harry Potter. We couldn't find it, so we decided to have a quick drink and a pastry at a random cafe called 'Cafe Andaluz', which was very fancy. We walked in and were seated at booths with tall seats and mirrors facing us. We ordered our little snacks and began eating.

 Near the end of our small meal, Marije hit my arm and whispered, forcefully, "oh my God, that lady sitting behind us" - I looked, and noticed it immediately - "she looks so much like JK Rowling!" I nodded my head excitedly and we began talking about her. Every time we glanced back, the lady looked more and more like JK Rowling, and we began wondering if it really was her - the similarity was ridiculous. On the other hand, she was only with one other person, and nobody else had recognized her. JK Rowling is the most famous author in the entire world - how could nobody else in that crowded cafe recognize her? We decided to ask her if she was JK Rowling. Even if it wasn't her, she looked too much like her to let this opportunity pass. If it wasn't, we would apologize and move on and if it was, we would politely asked for an autograph and a picture.

When Grandma left to go to the washroom, we deliberated whether or not to ask for a picture, as it could be rude because she was eating. We kept glancing back, and she was glancing at us too, very likely noticing that we were looking at her [thinking back, she was probably laughing to herself]. All the while, we were freaking out, saying, "oh my God!" many times. Marije went to get Grandma when we became very impatient. When Marije returned, Grandma came not long after. Marije said it would be rude to ask for a picture, and Grandma agreed. When Grandma went to pay for the bill, Marije and I approached the lady and her friend's table. We agreed that I would ask, but Marije would stay right there the whole time. We approached te table and waited for a break in their conversation, or for them to notice us. When they did . . .

Lady who looked like JK Rowling[looking up]: Hello?

Me[nervous - she was looking right at me!]: Um ... excuse me. Hi. Um ... are you JK Rowling.

Lady[nodding as if she totally expected it]: I am.
 *At this point, I completely froze and probably had a look of shock on my face. I'm pretty sure I tried to say something but couldn't. Honesly, I was totally speechless and probably looked like a complete idiot lol.

Marije[after a pause]: like ... are you really?

Lady who actually WAS JK Rowling[smiling]: Yes.

Marije: Would you mind signing something for us?

JK Rowling[pushing her plate back]: Of course, no problem. Do you have something I can sign?

Marije[pulling out her student pass]: Here, you can use this. Do you have a pen, Anneke?

JK Rowling [looking at me]: Sorry, I don't have one.

Me [searching my purse like a madwoman]: Yeah, somewhere in here, I think. No, I dont, but Grandma has one.

JK Rowling[searching her own purse]: Oh, I do have one.
*Marije handed the student pass to JK Rowling.

JK Rowling: What's you name, dear?

Marije: Marije. [after JK Rowling looked at her quizzically for a moment]It's M-A-R-I-J-E. It's Dutch.

JK Rowling[interested, while signing]: Huh. Are you Dutch?

Marije: Not really. Well ... sort of - my grandparents are.

*JK Rowling handed back the pass and took mine.
JK Rowling: And what's your name?

Me: Anneke. A-N-N-E-K-E.

Marije: We were looking for the cafe called Elephant House, where they say you wrote, but we couldn't find it.

JK Rowling[handing back the pass and smiling guiltily]: Yeah, I tell people I wrote there. I didn't really.

Me: um ... would you -

Marije[accidentally interrupting]: Oh. Well actually meeting you is so much better than eating in a cafe where "they say" you wrote in.

JK Rowling[smiling]: Well, it was a pleasure meeting you.
*JK Rowling looked at me again, expecting me to finish what I'd started to say earlier, which I almost forgot.

Me: Um ... would be, like, really insulted if we asked for a picture? [Looking back, that was a horrible way of phrasing that, but pretty much everything I said in that moment was horrible].

JK Rowling[shaking her head and starting to get up from the booth]: No, not at all. But we should get going, shouldn't we?

Her Friend[with a round face and short, dark, curly hair]: Yeah, we really need to go. [Looking at me] Can it be quick?

Me: Yeah, of course.

*JK Rowling came out of the booth and walked to stand in between Marije and I.

JK Rowling: Who's going to take the picture?

Her Friend[reaching for the camera]: I can.

*I handed the camera to her. JK Rowling held out her arm for me to come and stand beside her and Marije. I came, and she put her hand on my shoulder. The lady took the picture and handed the camera back.

Me: Thank you so much.

JK Rowling: No problem. It was a pleasure meeting you girls.

Marije: It was really great meeting you.

JK Rowling: I'm glad. Good-bye!

Us[shyly]: Bye!

Also:
- before we sat down, we noticed it was crowded and almost decided to go to another cafe!
- JK Rowling was SO nice! She wasn't annoyed or bothered at all that we came up to her. She was very patient and, if she wasn't so famous, would be very easy to talk to :)
- very obvious she was used to speaking with people that come up to he
- the picture is a little blurry but it's still recognizable, and apparently you can get that fixed somewhere...
- couldn't focus on the National Scottish Gallery of Art at all when we went there after the cafe.
- she spelt my name wrong
- this all happened on Friday, February 11, 2011 at around 3 in the afternoon. Of course, this is the UK, so if people at home are reading this, it was around 10 in the morning your time.
- she wrote:
"To Anneka, with lots of love,
JK Rowling"

I'm on a laptop that's not mine right now, so I can't put the picture on right now. I will post it, however, either when I magically find a way to on this laptop or when I get home.

England! Day 4ish...?

Since December, I've been super excited for February because I'm going to visit my aunt and uncle in England for five months. Well...I'm in England - and it is soooo awesome! And super English :P

So the flight was pretty great. Just thinking that we were in a tiny little tube shooting across the sky took my breath away. And then there was free movies, TV shows, and music and our own personal TVs. Heaven. Those six hours went by in about one. Then arriving at the airport in Manchester was confusing. Customs took FOREVER! It only took like two minutes at the desk but about an hour of waiting to get to that desk. Finding our luggage was cool - it was like a game, finding and grabbing the right ones before they went back around the loop. Uncle Andrew was there waiting for us. It was about eight or nine in the morning in Manchester [three in the morning Canadian time, so by then we'd been awake for over twenty-four hours]. Apparently lemonade in England means 7-Up or Sprite. Not cool. And my bank card didn't work. Not cool either. And they charged me for exchanging my Canadian and American money. Super not cool. But I did manage to get about ninety-ish pounds! Cool :)

Everything in England is so much prettier than it is in Canada. It's as though they take so much more pride in where they live. The houses are all made of brick - even the rooves, and very old. There's actually laws on what you can use to build you house. There is no siding or shingles or anything ugly like that. The houses are also built very close to the roads so there's very little room for front gardens [yards]. The roads were fun to get used to. Uncle Andrew could zoom around all the little curves easily on the left side of the road, but it was kind of scary being constantly scared of hitting something.

So I'm gonna finish this up because I don't want to type much longer. But anyways, we take the bus out of Hemingbrough almost every day [there's not much to see here] and either go to Selby or York. Believe it or not, it's the same price for an all-day bus pass as it is going one way. There's a lot more to see in York, but Selby is closer and they both have these beautiful churches [Selby Abbey and York Minster].

York is so beautiful I could write a whole article on it alone. All the roads are bricked and the building are very, very close. Well, inner York anyways, which is all I'm going to talk about because the outer city is just like a normal city and very boring. The inner city is everything inside the York city walls. Barely anybuildings are new, although many are refurbished and there is hardly any traffic. We walked on top of the walls for a bit. It was really interesting seeing the little wedges for the bow&arrows. The St. Marys Church ruins were beautiful and seemed as though they should have been in the middle of a garden. One of the things that's really neat about England is that although they are very big on propertly lines, all of the ancient stonework that's open for the public is not blocked off. So we were able to go right up to those ruins and climb a ways along the bottom, but I assume if we had really climbed to the top of them, we would have gotten into trouble. Right beside the ruins was an absolutely gorgeous building. I have no idea what it was called, but it was all stone along the bottom, that English thing where they have white walls and visible dark wooden beams for the walls, and a wooden beam roof. There were also several arches coming off of one side. It was sooo pretty! There was also this really cool street called Shambles where the butchers used to have their shops. The street is tiny, all the buildings are old, and some are even hanging over the road. Afterwards, I found out that street is famous, but I didn't know that then. Among other things, we also had a tour of the York Minster, which is BEAUTIFUL! It's too much to put down here, but there is so much history behind it, what with the Romans, Saxons, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and so on.

Yeah, I've really gotta go now. Money is another thing too. Pounds are like dollars, but worth more. I already knew about that before I came but it's still hard to wrap my mind around because everything seems so cheap when the money is worth so much more! Seriously, chocolate bars are like 50 pence each or you can get three for a pound. Yeah. One chocolate bar is 50p.

So long!