Belgium in two words - Food Coma

Greetings from Brussels, Belgium!!  Three days into study abroad I called the Laane's (family friends of ours) in a state of panic with no wifi and missing home.  They graciously offered us to come stay with them and we decided to make it our first trip outside of London.  We have been here since Thursday night and it has been wonderful! We took the Eurostar - a high speed train over to Belgium and it only took about two hours to get here.  It was our first time in "the chunnel" aka the tunnel underneath the English Channel that goes into Paris.  We made a quick stop in France and continued onto Belgium.  I cannot express what a relief it is to be in a house, in a suburb and see actual trees/grass/shrubbery!

Our room at the Laanes! Feels like home away from home

Our time here can be summed up to two words - FOOD COMA.  Hanna and I have struggled throughout our studying abroad because we are NEVER full.  My hunger is constant over here which is so crazy.  Being here, I finally feel full.  Thursday night we had beef stew, bread and salad with dessert which was chocolate chip cookies.  Everything was so delicious.  We finished the night by sitting in front of the fire chatting with the Laanes.  Friday we went into Maastricht, Holland.  It's about an hour drive from the Laane's house.  Maastricht is where Nick (the oldest Laane) goes to school.  We saw the COOLEST book store in the entire world there.  The book store was in an old church.  Being there and experiencing how awesome that is I launched into my classic topic of how I want a library in my house when I grow up.  Seeing this just made me more determined to make sure I have a library someday...Friday night we had ham, potatoes, cole slaw (which was SO GOOD) and green beans.  Then we had home made chocolate mousse for dessert - I was so full.

The outside of the bookstore 

Today, Hanna and I got up early and we were sitting around the kitchen when Toon (Laane's dad) came downstairs and asked us if we wanted to go to the market with him.  We walked around an open air market looking for a pancake pan -- although we didn't find that we found some olives, fresh baguettes, fresh flowers and sausages.  We went back and had baguette with nutella and peanut butter for breakfast YUM.  Toon, Hanna and I went to the grocery store and a gourmet chocolate store to get some authentic belgian chocolate.  This afternoon we went to Leurven which is a smaller town outside of Brussels to run some errands.  It was a blast to experience normal everyday life in Belgium.  Tonight, we are having lasagna, salad and tiramisu for dessert.  I don't think I can stuff another piece of food into my body but here goes nothing!

So much chocolate :) 

Another piece of exciting news, I cut my hair on friday! It's really short and it has taken time to grow on me but I'm starting to like it.