Our first day. Welcome to Talheim!

When my mom and I got off of the plane and went down to get our luggage, I looked out the windows of the airport and saw two heads of blonde hair. I recognized one of them as my cousin (that's basically how we are related), Sina. As soon as we walked over, my mom bursted out in her fluent German with her cousin, Sina's mom, Angelika. I had been pretty confident in my German skills because of the time I had spent talking to my mom at home, but when I heard her full-speed conversation that first day, I knew I would be catching 50% of the conversations at best. We were introduced and the similarities between my mom and Angelika were immediately apparent. I was introduced for the first time in person to Sina next. Sina speaks English fairly well so we started out speaking that. We drove into Talheim which is about 30 minutes away from the airport in Stuttgart. Along the way, my mom and Angelika caught up on the years they had not been together while Sina and I sat in the back of the car drinking Cokes.
When we drove over a hill my mom pointed out a cluster of red roofs down in a valley: it was Talheim. The town my mom grew up in. We arrived at the house and were greeted by Tante Suse, my mom's aunt who lives above Sina, Angelika and her husband, Bernd. She hugged me immediately, told me how much I looked like my mom and her sisters, and then offered to feed me. Little did I know, this would be a common thing she would do every day throughout the visit. My mom, Angelika, Tante Suse, Sina and I all went on a walk and my mom was proud to show me where she used to live and each of her old houses. We walked all the way around the little town and then back up to the house.

Mom's old house and some chocolate from an old friend of hers

Sina and I in front of mom's other house

  Talheim

After our walk around the town, we sat outside on the terrace and talked for a while and I was falling asleep in the sun, so I went upstairs to our little room and took a nap. I was woken up for dinner and we had salad, potatoes and chicken. After dinner, Sina took me to the barn where the horse she takes care of lives. We got to take the horses out with one of her friends, Nessi. We rode the horses down into the hills by the vineyards and got to gallop down the trails. Sina and I both tried to ride her horse at the same time and she bucked us off. We landed in the dirt and could not stop laughing. When we got home, we both showered and joined the family on the little deck for drinks and talking. By the end of the night, I was exhausted and decided going to bed was a very good idea because it had been one of the longest days of my life.