well.

I'm pretty sure everyone reading this knows all about my crazy travel stuff, but I figure it will be good to write about it anyway.

I saw my cousin, which was lovely, and my aunt, and it was great to just spend some time with them, speaking Papiamentu and talking about Curacao.

Afterwards I hung out with Nat and we went to her friends' Christmas party, which was really fun. And then next day we woke up to A LOT OF SNOW. And long story short my flight that night was cancelled, with the next available one to rebook being Sunday night, two whole days later!!

I went and spent the night at Natalie's house in den Haag - she was leaving Saturday for Boston. I went to the airport with them to see if I could get aflight, but they were all booked or cancelled, and then to see if I could get a train, but they were full, and then I decided to take the ferry to the UK. I took a train to Hoek van Holland and then the ferry to Harwich and then there was snow in the UK so the trains weren't running perfectly, so I took a 3 hour bus to London. I never want to be crammed up with that many Dutch people for that long again!

Then I took the underground to our family friends' house, which is where I am now.

The first day we just hung out, and it was lovely to not do much. It was great to just catch up with Claire after years of not seeing each other!

The next day we went to Oxford, because I had to get the rest of my luggage from the Stanford House. We took the bus into town, went to the Eagle and Child (the pub where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis hung out and talked about their books), and then we ate at this delicious bakery chain called Valerie, and then went and picked up my stuff. After we can back we just had dinner and hung out for a while.

Now for what is (hopefully) the end of the travel saga: my flight home was cancelled because Heathrow is still a mess. They don't own snowploughs(!!!!!) so though it stopped snowing 3 days ago, the airport is still not functioning well. So...I fly home Christmas Eve. Just in time, I guess. I get a few more days with Claire, but not as many with my family, especially my mom who is going to visit my grandparents...

Today Claire and I spent the day at the Victoria and Albert, which is a super cool museum. We spent so much time just wandering, it was lovely :)

Every night we sing Christmas carols around the piano, and it's so great :)

I'm just making the most of everything, and crossing fingers to be home for Christmas.