Heeey, London. Long time no see. Prior to being back in London, I was in Brussels, chatting up a boy from New Zealand who was also stranded. I did some walking before my train left, saw some famous things, including the super famous Mannekin Pis statue. (Yes, it was as disappointing as they say. I mean, really anti-climactic.) I bought some chocolate. It was the exact same chocolate I found in my London supermarket a few months ago. The map I found told me real Belgians don’t bother with the fancy chocolate because their supermarket chocolate is frickin amazing, so I listened to my map. My map also led me to Fritland, where I ate cheap and delicious lunch. Belgian food is kind of the realization of my food dreams: french fries, waffles, chocolate, and Haagen Dazs. The train ride was brief and the woman next to me was super cranky because, poor her, she’d been on trains since 6am yesterday. (So had I, but I decided to just nod my sympathy instead of telling her to STFU.) So I guess the whole train experience turned out pretty awesome: I got to see the Alps, French countryside, and Brussels!

Back in London, I’m back to a relatively normal lifestyle. I spent my first several hours back talking to a series of people back-to-back on Skype. Today I got a haircut for the first time since early December (holy crap, so happy) and did laundry and am about to go grocery shopping. Tomorrow, my mom and Larry arrive! Tomorrow night…my kind-of birthday party with friends from UCL/Skidmore? Yay! Good to be back, but still…can’t wait to get back to NYC. Annnnd the fire alarm just went off. That’s my cue to leave!

— Lauren