Hallo!

This post might be kind of long so yah...get comfy.....or don't read it....but I suggest the first choice! Ill try and make it easier to read by breaking it up into "paragraphs" okay.

The plane.....so stinkin long and boring!!! This was my tenth thime flying 11+ hours so I am pretty used to it. But this time I couldn't sleep. The seats weren't comfy.....the movies I wanted to see are only on when we fly back home......I hate airplane food. It was definately one of my not-so-good flights. But I knew it was the only way to get to Austria so I had no choice. Okay...so I watched Transformers...it was an okay movie.....I also "watched" Stardust. I really like the small part of it that I did see. I fell asleep within like 15 minutes of watching it. I absolutely loved the flight attendants on this flight! They were hilarious! But yeah...enough about the plane.

Arrival.....when we got our luggage and stuff....we walked toward the exit. There was a glass wall dividing us from the people waiting for us. It was retarded! I recognized my uncle even though I have never seen him in person before and my cousin was there and all I wanted to do was run through the glass wall to see her! But yeahh....we went and had a drink with them at the airport before we left to go their house. The car ride was like 2 hours I think and my butt fell asleep and was very uncomfortable for 90% of that time. But it was fun talking to my cousin so I kinda forgot about my butt hurting. We finally arrived at their house. I love the house!! It is definately my favorite house in the world! 3 levels...but it isn't very "wide" [idk what other word to use]. It is so nice an homely! I love it.

The family....... I knew my Aunt and my older cousin Melanie but the rest of the family I didn't. I have seen pictures so I thought I knew who was who. We walked into the house and there was a youngish looking boy with brown hair and I figured out that it was Stephan. I was right. Then a young girl came in and I knew it was Natalie because she is the only young girl. Then a GIANT walked in....skinny, brown hair, taller than me. I was like... who in the heck is this??? Its my 15 [i think...maybe 16] year old cousin Manuel. In all the pics he had blonde hair. Apparently he dyed it. So yeah..and I kinda knew my uncle who picked me up.

Language.....one word to describe this....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! It was okay with my two older cousins and my aunt and uncle coz they all speak english a bit. Manuel not as good as the others but still pretty good. The two younger ones......ehhh not too good at english! But we found ways to communicate. Hand gestures and translators [mom, uncle, melanie] are our main ways of communicating. Stephan is so adorable....he just came into where i am and asked me if i could help him wrap a present he has for someone. But the way he said it was so adorable! His voice was kinda like...high low high low. Haahaa. So yeah.

First day......Melanie, Manuel, Natalie and I took a bus into the town where we would later meet up with the adults. It was funny to hear everyone speaking another language. I keep wanting to speak spanish to them....of course....spanish is not the same as German. BUt my brain doesn't comprehend that. Okay back to the story.....so we got into town and walked around looking at stores and stuff. The we met up with the adults. We ate lunch then we got on the bus and went home. We had just started walking after we got off the bus and the adults pulled up. There were 4 of them in the car...normal sized car.....not a big one. My uncle rolls down the window and says "anyone want a ride??" I assumed that one of us would hop in and the rest keep walking...uhh...no. Natalie jumped into the car on my moms knee and then i sat in the back next to my aunt and Melanie sat on me and so teh car was full. But wait...wheres Manuel?? I assumed that he was walking. No...wrong once again. My uncle yells..."MANUELLLLLLL" and then some geman words...and from the trunk i hear "Ja" [yes]. I cracked up! There were 8 of us in a 5 person car and one of teh 8 in the trunk. It was funny! So yeah...that was the first day.

Day 2......I slept really late and then when I got up my uncle...dad...mom..manuel...Natalie...and I went to the snow! Oh...btw...it is freezing here!!! it is foggy and it is so cold that the fog freezes!!!! Crazy huh!! It is also too cold for snow!!! I didnt even know that was possible! So yeah back to the snow. I used Melanie's snowboard.....boots....and Manuel's ski pants and off we went. Up the mountain. Manuel was trying to teach me how to snowboard....yeahh didnt really work....i was too scared. I held onto mom and she ran while i was goin down the hill on the snowbard. I have that up within like 10 mins. My uncle suggested that I try skiing first..i agreed. So mom and I decided to go down the hill on the bobs. Like round plastic things. That was fun. Then we watched Manuel snowboard down the hill and Natalie ski down. Natalie and I went on the bobs after that. I was sitting next to everyone and I felt a cold wet icey thing it my face. My uncle threw a snowball! It was on! Natalie and I got him back! haha. So yeah then we went home and i forgot what we did. I think we ate. Maybe...idk. So later that night we went down the road to a neighbors house for something I cant describe. Ill try.....in the catholic church...they do something where every day [of december] until like the 23rd they decorate or do something. Then from there on a person in the village decorated a window and has like a mini-party that night. We went to that and I got to meet some people. It was fun! We hung out there for a while then Natalie wanted to go home so her, mom, stephan, manuel, and I went home. Stephan was messing around with Manuel...like boys do....and then Stephan started running away from Manuel...Manuel [who wears his pants around his knees] attempted to chase Stephan....so funny! He took like two steps then he couldnt go any further coz his pants fell down. He pulled them up and kept rnning. It was funny. Then mom kept pulling them down. haha. We played Rummikub when we got home....we played it the night b4 too. I played with Manuel and we won most of the games but then when we played last night i played with dad and we lost..bad! so i went back to playing with Manuel and we did better.

Day 3 [today]......we are just chillin at home. I just went upstairs and met someone else. Mom wanted Manuel to explain what they were doing [in english]...but he couldnt so she explained it to me. So yeah. This is a super long post! Sorry! I will go get the camera and hopefully post pics as soon as possible!

Funny things..... 1. the drinking and smoking age here is 16! But the driving age is 17/18! Crazy!
2. The main english wors my cousins know......shit and cool. Haha. Thats like all they say!

So yeah. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Tschuess!