diff --git a/minecraft-protocol/src/connection.rs b/minecraft-protocol/src/connection.rs
index 96514486..b4e3595c 100644
--- a/minecraft-protocol/src/connection.rs
+++ b/minecraft-protocol/src/connection.rs
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 use crate::{mc_buf, packets::Packet, ServerIpAddress};
 use bytes::BytesMut;
-use std::io::{Cursor, Read, Seek, SeekFrom, Write};
+use std::io::{Cursor, Read, Write};
 use tokio::io::AsyncWriteExt;
 use tokio::{
-    io::{AsyncReadExt, BufReader, BufWriter},
+    io::{AsyncReadExt, BufReader, BufWriter, SeekFrom, AsyncSeek, AsyncSeekExt},
     net::TcpStream,
 };
 
@@ -46,21 +46,23 @@ impl Connection {
 
         // the first thing minecraft sends us is the length as a varint, which can be up to 5 bytes long
         let mut buf = BufReader::with_capacity(5 * 1024, &mut self.stream);
-
-        let packet_size = mc_buf::read_varint(&mut buf).await?;
-
-        println!("packet size from varint: {}", packet_size);
-
+        let (packet_size, packet_size_varint_size) = mc_buf::read_varint(&mut buf).await?;
+        // then, minecraft tells us the packet id as a single byte
         let packet_id = mc_buf::read_byte(&mut buf).await?;
 
         // read the rest of the packet
-        let mut packet_data = Vec::with_capacity(packet_size as usize);
+        let mut packet_data = Vec::with_capacity(
+            (
+                packet_size // the total size of the packet
+                - 1 // we just read the packet id, so we don't read that byte again
+            ) as usize);
         buf.read_buf(&mut packet_data).await.unwrap();
-        println!(
-            "packet id {}: {}",
-            packet_id,
-            String::from_utf8(packet_data.clone()).unwrap()
-        );
+        println!("packet {}", packet_id);
+        // println!(
+        //     "packet id {}: {}",
+        //     packet_id,
+        //     String::from_utf8(packet_data.clone()).unwrap()
+        // );
 
         Ok(())
     }
diff --git a/minecraft-protocol/src/mc_buf.rs b/minecraft-protocol/src/mc_buf.rs
index 6c2b9f1b..f657626f 100644
--- a/minecraft-protocol/src/mc_buf.rs
+++ b/minecraft-protocol/src/mc_buf.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ use tokio::io::{AsyncRead, AsyncReadExt, BufReader};
 const MAX_STRING_LENGTH: u16 = 32767;
 // const MAX_COMPONENT_STRING_LENGTH: u32 = 262144;
 
+/// Read a single byte from the reader
 pub async fn read_byte<T: AsyncRead + std::marker::Unpin>(
     buf: &mut BufReader<T>,
 ) -> Result<u8, String> {
@@ -29,9 +30,10 @@ pub fn write_bytes(buf: &mut Vec<u8>, bytes: &[u8]) {
 }
 
 // fast varints stolen from https://github.com/luojia65/mc-varint/blob/master/src/lib.rs#L67
+/// Read a single varint from the reader and return the value, along with the number of bytes read
 pub async fn read_varint<T: AsyncRead + std::marker::Unpin>(
     buf: &mut BufReader<T>,
-) -> Result<u32, String> {
+) -> Result<(u32, u8), String> {
     let mut buffer = [0];
     let mut ans = 0;
     for i in 0..4 {
@@ -40,10 +42,10 @@ pub async fn read_varint<T: AsyncRead + std::marker::Unpin>(
             .or_else(|_| Err("Invalid VarInt".to_string()))?;
         ans |= ((buffer[0] & 0b0111_1111) as u32) << 7 * i;
         if buffer[0] & 0b1000_0000 == 0 {
-            break;
+            return Ok((ans, i + 1));
         }
     }
-    Ok(ans)
+    Ok((ans, 5))
 }
 
 pub fn write_varint(buf: &mut Vec<u8>, mut value: u32) {
@@ -71,13 +73,13 @@ mod tests {
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_read_varint() {
         let mut buf = BufReader::new(Cursor::new(vec![192, 196, 7]));
-        assert_eq!(read_varint(&mut buf).await.unwrap(), 123456);
+        assert_eq!(read_varint(&mut buf).await.unwrap(), (123456, 3));
     }
 
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_read_varint_longer() {
         let mut buf = BufReader::new(Cursor::new(vec![138, 56, 0, 135, 56, 123]));
-        assert_eq!(read_varint(&mut buf).await.unwrap(), 7178);
+        assert_eq!(read_varint(&mut buf).await.unwrap(), (7178, 2));
     }
 }