Back in Brussels...

... for the next two and a half days.

I leave at 3:15 for Madrid on Thursday.  Six nights, three or four in Barcelona.  We don't actually know what we're doing yet, but only two out of four of us want to talk about it.  It's kindof expensive to travel from Madrid to Barcelona, but there's nothing to do in Madrid for five days.  We'll see what happens. 

Today I woke up without an alarm clock at 4:40 AM.  My alarm never went off, but I woke up "on time" which I was very grateful for.  We got hot milk and had our leftover rolls while we waited for the water taxi, then we caught the bus (just barely) and made it to the airport with an hour and a half before our flight left.  The flight was uneventful, as was the other travel.  When we got to Charleroi, we had trouble finding a bus, but we did eventually.  We got to the train station and got our tickets to Brussels; the train left in a half hour.

On the way to Charleroi, we had seen a little "snack" place across the main boulevard from the train station.  We didn't have time to stop on the way out, but we did on the way in, so we walked over.  Apparently fewer people speak English in Charleroi than in Brussels, but, feeling confident after picking up Italian in a few days, I tried out my French.  We had no idea what anything on the menu was, but I managed to ask a few questions and translate most of the food items.  James got a chicken curry sandwich and I got sliced gyro meat on a toasted bun.  I'm not sure what type of meat it was, but it was fantastic and tasted like pulled pork.  (By the way, restaurants to visit upon returning to Charleston: Arby's, Manny's, Melvin's, and Captain D's... No, I didn't plan for them all to be possessive...)

We also got some fantastic fries, which we ate on the train.  It was very slightly snowing the entire time, and the snow in the tracks was really pretty.  It was also really cold.  Charleroi was -4 Celsius according to the pilot when we landed at 11 or so.  We got home to Brussels about 12:30 and I immediately went to the post office to get my package. 

My parents are awesome. Let me just throw that out there.  Peanut butter, grits, popcorn, gum, DELICIOUS cookies, and some other helpful items.  It makes me miss home so much and I've been having a lot of trouble today.  I've been taking all these weekend trips, but, in all actuality, the best trip would be to come home, if only for a couple days.  I know this is a fantastic experience, and I am having fun, it's just that I want to be with friends and family. 

So I got back, went straight to CUBC for a marketing test, and then came home to unpack.  I did laundry and watched most of Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter book 3) with Sam and Brinley.  To go with the movie, I poured one of the bags of crushed cookie into a bowl and ate it with a spoon. I can think of no better way to eat crushed cookie.  It was fantastic.  Then I read a bit, played with my KidSpeak (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian all on three disks. Not advanced, but a good start for basics.) and "did homework"... i.e. watched House and Psych with my textbooks open next to me. =]

Tomorrow nothing is on the schedule.  Hopefully my clothes will dry so I can pack them for Thursday's trip.  Also management, marketing and communications homework.  Oh, and sleep. =]

Speaking of which, I'm exhausted, so it's bedtime for me.

Goodnight, world.