IM HOME!!!

Yes...unfortunately I had to leave beautiful, quiet, clean, fun, and amazing Austria to come home to dirty, traffic filled, depressing California. I really did not want to come home. I had so much fun with my cousins! I got pretty close to some of them too so it was hard to leave. Well okay....I am home and there is nothing I can do about it so I guess I will get over it soon enough. I will tell you guys how my last week was.

We hired skis and went up to Sonnenkopf but I didn’t really ski so we decided to keep the skis for a few more days and go to a closer place so I could ski some more. I did get slightly better but I was still too scared to go down the hill standing up, so I went 80% of the way upright then I sat down and slid the rest of the way. I thought that was pretty fun! Haha. Okay so after decided skiing wasn’t the best thing for me....my younger cousins and I decided to go down on “bobs” and sleds and stuff like that. That was a lot of fun! We went up the next day too so we could do it again. The second time we went, it was snowing so the snow on the ground was fresh and didn’t have ice on it....which meant that we could have a.....SNOW FIGHT!!! I was gonna say snowball but Stefan made it quite clear the second we got out of the car that you do NOT need an actual snowball to start a fight. He grabbed the bob [a round, slightly bowllike plastic thing] and scooped snow onto it and then WHOOF I got all down my jacket! I didn’t even have enough time to put a scarf of before he did that. That made me mad so I just kinda held in my annoyance and got him really good later but I think if I wasn’t me and if I spoke german....i would have been in a bit [or a lot] of trouble. But we had fun.

The rest of our time was pretty much spent at home. My aunt and cousins from NZ arrived on the 28th so we got to spend a bit of time with them. It was fun.

We went to a chinese restaurant one night too. There is honestly nothing funnier than a little Asian person speaking German!!!!!!! Hahaha. It was fun.

New years eve......was AMAZING!!! We had raclette [which I cant explain because it makes me want to barf....explanation later.....but at the time it was really good] and then at midnight we went outside and stood on the porch and watched a whole bunch of fireworks go off and we drank [kids had a “kids bubbly” thing] and hugged and wished each other happy new year [but most of that was in German]. It was fun...then we went inside and we each melted a led figurine and when it melted we dropped it in cold water then saw what shape it made...then we read the packet and determined what the new year would hold for us. Mine meant success. =] I will post a pic of that in my picture post.

Now for the “exciting” part! On the 28th of December.....Stefan got sick. He was upstairs throwing up and stuff. No one really thought much of it and he was better the next day. Then a couple of days later [New years eve day], Natalie started throwing up and feeling sick. From that we figured that it was a stomach bug going around but still didn’t think much of it. Then New Years day....about lunch time, Manuel started getting quiet and started not being himself. By dinner time he wasn’t at the table and then came in in his boxers and lay on the couch. He was whiter than usual and had been throwing up. Melanie soon followed making frequent trips to the bathroom to throw up. I started feeling sick but just figured it was in my head since I was the only kid that hadn’t been sick. In the mean time.....Uncle Wally began feeling sick and soon ran to the bathroom to throw up. While he was in there Manuel came sprinting out and up the stairs to the other bathroom to throw up. So both bathrooms were occupied. Manuel came out and went back to laying on the couch with his comforter. I started feeling sick again so I went and lay on the other part of the couch. Then as the night progressed I started feeling worse so I sat next to the others at the table and then I started moving toward the bathroom. I started getting dizzy so I sat next to Natalie at the computer [closest seat to the bathroom] and mom stole Manuel’s bucket for me. I started throwing up. I haven’t thrown up in like 8 years so I didn’t really know what I was in for. I remained sitting in my seat while everyone else went and played games and stuff. I threw up a few times and decided I wasn’t going to have enough energy to get up the stairs to bed if I didn’t go soon so I decided I would wait until I threw up again. That didn’t take long.......Manuel comes running out, past me, and into the bathroom. Every time I hear someone throw up I start gagging whether I am sick or not. This made me throw up. We were both going at it at the same time....I can’t what it sounded like for the others! Then he went into the kitchen to get water and I went in for something and we looked at each others pale faces and started laughing. It was so funny! We did that a lot previously too. I love Manuel...he is funny! SO yeah....i went to bed with a bucket behind the bed so that Melanie and I could both access it. I was the only one who used it that night. I won’t go into any more details but it wasn’t fun. My aunt followed suit by throwing up that night too then dad was pretty sick too. So all in all.....8 out of 9 people were sick in the house [and two 3 visitors too]. So that was New Years Day.

I really did not want to leave. I really felt at home there and I absolutely loved getting to know my cousins! I never knew that I would get this close to my cousins in that short time. I want to go back really bad! I had a blast.