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Want to whine with the best of them?

This year’s Whiny Expat Bloggers Meet-Up is being planned as I type… hop on over to J’s blog to vote for a location. For a reason I can’t seem to grasp, Wiesbaden is currently in the lead, despite the fact that it has no one to show us around and is apparently overrun with American … Read more

Germany has lakes and mountains, too

On Sunday we headed out of Munich with some friends to do a little hiking. The drive there took us past some beautiful scenery including green pastures and clear, aqua-colored lakes. It was not long until snow-capped peaks could be seen in the distance. It was almost as if we were back in Switzerland. The … Read more

Where am I supposed to ride this again?

Gotta love superfluous English. Although at least the ‘outdoor’ on my new bike makes a little more sense than the ‘street racer’ written in big letters on my skis. (Or could it be that I’ve been using my skis in the completely wrong environment all these years?) Not unlike skiing, I learned to ride a … Read more

Garden update: Felice the pepper

OK, I know, this is one of those posts that will only be interesting to me and perhaps a couple other crazy vegetable garden enthusiasts. But…. I’m so proud of my pepper I can’t help but share. We’ve named it Felice (Italian for ‘happy’). Isn’t he handsome? 🙂 At 5 centimeters high, he’s by far … Read more

Eurovision 2008

We had a little party for the Eurovision finale again this year. At least half the guests came reluctantly… either not having heard of Eurovision at all, or wondering why in the world I’d want to throw a party for such a ridiculous event. But everyone had fun whether they liked it or not, even … Read more

Chocolate chips for expats

As ubiquitous as they are in the US, chocolate chips are practically unheard-of in the rest of the world’s supermarkets. Sometimes the clever expat must improvise:

1. Unwrap a bunch of dark chocolate bars (extra bonus step – freeze them first)
2. put them in a ziplock bag and seal it
3. break up the chocolate in the manner of your choosing (drop the bag on the floor several times, take a wooden mallet to it, etc. etc. Be creative!)

This little tip isn’t new… in fact American expats have been making their own chocolate chips using this method for decades, if not centuries.

Read moreChocolate chips for expats