Merry Christmas! And it has been! We spent the day with Leo’s mother’s side of the family. I met some of Leo’s aunts, uncles, cousins, her grandparents and other random people. They were all so wonderful and nice to me. Most of them could speak at least a little English, enough to have a little conversation. When we arrived, there were like 6 different cakes to choose from and we had afternoon coffee and cake. Not everyone had arrived, so we spent some time just talking until we started to sing carols…in German, obviously. I just hummed along. It was pretty comical because we’d start to high and by the end of the song no one was singing or we didn’t know the words or something so then when everyone was discussing how to go about this, Leo’s mother told the room that, “Maribel can sing!” So, being a huge push over and slightly drunk, I sang Silent Night all by myself. I forgot some words along the way so I ended up making part of it up, but in the end, there was clapping and laughter and more wine, so I was golden.
After all the music, we helped ourselves to dinner, which was great! I tried goulash and they had this amazing bread with butter and tomatoes. I also had some different salads…I’m so proud of myself because I tried everything…even some things that I’m pretty sure may have had mayo in them…I still tried it all. My food pickiness has pretty much disappeared now that I’ve been traveling so much. I just learn to try things, if I don’t like it, I don’t eat it, but I still give it all a try and sometimes I surprise myself and like things I wouldn’t think I’d like.
When we finished dinner, we socialized some more and played some foosball, which was intense and it makes me want a foosball table of my own. We said our goodbyes and I thanked everyone for having me…they were all so nice. Then we headed to Stuttgart to meet up with Leo’s friend Christoph who invited us for some birthday drinks. We didn’t stay for too long, but it was really chill. We got back to the house and called it a night after some late-night snacking. Tomorrow we have a hike planned…not sure whether I’m looking forward to it…as long as the weather stays pleasant but it looks like it could snow any day now…yuck.
Later dudes,
Maribel