I Can Hear the Fireworks... A New Year update

We hopped in our bus called ‘Carl’ and drove

And drove

And drove

And then BOOM! We ended up in München. Beautiful, really. We scaled that city in 2 hours then came home, played TAK until the wee hours of the morning, slept then hopped right back into Carl and drove..

And drove

And drove

And then BOOM! We’re lost in Zurich, the biggest city in Switzerland. We found ourselves again, as well as the hotel, checked in, settled in, napped (I think, I mean, I’m not sure anymore because it was so long ago. I know how important these details are.) Then took off again into the big, bad ass Stadt.

We went to fancy restaurants,

history of med.

Circuses,

Museums,

An Opera,

On a hike,

Then we experienced New Years in the city. We danced all over the city, Emily Flemming, we all did the sea creature boogie! We were so good that some teenagers came  “sharked it out” with us. Pretty cool, huh? And then… 20 minutes after midnight we watched the fireworks… They were better than any other show I have seen in my life! Not only because they were in Switzerland, because the Papa from Yuki MADE them. CONSTRUCTED them. DESIGNED them. 

Should I keep going?

So rad. Really.

I don’t know if I can explain it further, It felt like a dream.

yeah, I ate that.

these, my friends, are fireworks. 

Sophie holding the circus program! 

traditional swiss desert, it's bigger than my head! and better than lead

part of the family on the 31st 

Then we slept for the whole day.

Then my host mum and I went to the mountains in Austria, met up with another host sister and her kids and went skiing for 4 days!

I slept it off in school.

Lots of Love!

Cleo

I Can Here The Bells..... The Christmas Update

Our "Tannenbaum"  

I think it’s time for me to fill you guys in on Christmas, New Years, and January. You have all been very patient, thank you J

An Austrian Christmas is not to be missed. Many friends of mine asked me, “Why don’t you go visit your family and friends for the holidays! That’s so unfair to you!” I reply, “and go back to see all those ugly, cheep wall-mart decorations limply hanging on trees, cars and houses? I don’t think so!” (To be fair, I did miss home- a lot. But thankfully we were all so busy I had no chance to get lethargically melodramatic) (that don’t fly with me)

We had a HUGE tree. Absolutely gigantic. My family didn’t think so because it’s usually bigger but compared to my family’s Charlie Brown style tree, it was a giant. We used only white, gold and red decorations-sometimes I tried to sneak a blue ornament under a thick, bushy branch, but I was always found out and got a scolding. “Nein, nein, nein, Cleo. Das ist blau. Das passt nicht!”

Sooner or later my host sister, Veronika went to take a nap (it was far too stressful to moderate the tree-decorating process) when suddenly a golden fairy out of nowhere came and completely took over. Golden tinsel! Golden bows! Golden everything! I thought it was absolutely magnificent. But then from above came a scream, “WAS HAST IHR GEMACHT?????” uh oh……. Veronika comes back down stairs and says, “I leave for a 10 minute nap when the tree looked great. I come back and a gold pandemic has taken over!”

Oops! I blamed Martin, one of my host sibz.

It was hilarious.

Christmas spirits start developing on the 1^st day of the Advent. Suddenly you’re walking through Vienna and BAM you bump into a punch and roasted chestnuts stand. On every street corner up sprung Christmas markets and over every street were beautiful Christmas lights hanging overhead. It’s called “walking in a winter wonderland”  minus the snow. Which we did get, eventually, and a lot of it, too! You have to watch out for Krampus, he’s coming with chains and sticks and will beat you! Really! I got a good wack on my bum. Owwa!

Table's all decked out

Christmas is celebrated on the 24^th, and we cook and clean and sing around the tree and get all dressed up fancy and finish up packing our last present and then we eat a little snack then a little bell rings then we all rush (or not rush) to the tree because the Chriskind has come! Then we sing to the glittering, golden tree and… I bet you can guess the rest of the story.

“Jingle bells” was always part of the program. They loved it. I just wish I knew the second verse…

Then we had a couple of days to digest the feast before we packed up our bags and drove off to…. Switzerland!