Christmas (kinda) in Germany: Family, Bratwursts, and Bad Jokes

Arrival

Germany. I had always wanted to come back, to see what it was like as an adult. I had lived there twice before, when my parents were stationed there, when I was 2 and 10. I remembered the people being super nice, the landscape really beautiful, and the food insanely delicious. All three things were confirmed on this trip.

After all the crazy travel nonsense, I finally got settled in. My mom had really made an effort to mix in with the German community since being there, despite the language difference. Because the majority of Americans tend to stay to themselves and are generally indifferent to the population, and also because she's incredibly outgoing, the Germans fell in love with my mom and the family. So, when I finally got to my mom's house, there was a whole party there waiting for me.

Christmas Day was awesome, giving all my presents. Here's my stepdad, Josh, with his Japanese shoes I got him. The family across the way had just gotten Rock Band 2. We were addicted to it. Some pics.

Snowboarding and Cruising

From there, we headed down to Garmisch, a ridiculously beautiful town, for snowboarding and just cruising. Here is where Isabella really got into a groove. She's an only child, so sometimes she just says stuff, without really having a meaning to it. She is also only 5 years old, but she was crackin' me up. Here's one of the exchanges we had at our table in the hotel restaurant:

(Talking about Japanese and English words, what means what)

Isabella: You wanna know what pig is in English?

Me: What?

Isabella: Pig. (3 seconds pass) That's a joke.

(I laugh, she keeps it up, same joke, over and over again. 3 minutes later.)

Isabella: So, what is pig in English?

Me: Overkill.

Isabella: Mom, what's overkill?

Garmisch was a beautiful place though. We hooked up with another family that my parents knew, and walked around the city, checkin' a bunch of stuff out. Here's us walking around and doing stuff. (Isabella needed to be carried everywhere. Note my distaste in the last pic.)

And here's us tearing it up on the mountain. (And me thugging)



Stuttgart

My mom had some errands to run back at home after snowboarding, so she let the rest of us check out downtown Stuttgart, and we got some drinks afterward.

New Year's Eve

Once again, my mom had a billion people over for New Year's Eve. (I feel bad too, cuz they're are only a couple of pictures of her on here...She was taking all the pictures.) Here's some of the craziness that went down.

For some reason, there was a zip line outside of my parent's house. Every time they get drunk and ambitious, they run out and jump on it. We got drunk and ambitious. (From left: Mom, German friend Marian, German friend's daughter Melissa, Me before, and Me, after)

Here's some pics of us after taking schnapps shots. Isabella didn't take one, trust me. (Isabella, funny dude - forgot his name, Stephanie, 俺)

Food/Beer

What better way to end this. Brats,

Even after all the travel nonsense, things still turned out awesome.