TOMORROW is christmas eve!!

I am currently making chocolate chip cookies in Austria. You would never know how much a person could miss something like a good chocolate chip cookie once in awhile.

Chocolate CHIPS do not exist in this country, because they have no need for them because their chocolate is so good that they could probably build houses out of it.

So, I had to personally make my own chocolate chips. 15 minutes, a bread knife, a chopping block, plus a strained thumb and forefinger, as well as one TEEENY little cut later the chocolate "chips" (more like chunks) were ready!

It is impossible to measure things here, so cooking has been quite interesting... ALTHOUGH, I am very impressed, and pleased to say, that I made a DELICIOUS apple pie crust on Friday evening WITHOUT MEASURING ANYTHING!

It went like this... "hmmm... that looks about right... GOOD. annnnnnnnd FINISHED!"

The heat is slightly different here too, so things tend to "brown" a little more... I still haven't figured out what is up with that. I am converting everything right.


okay... problem solved... they just look uncooked... but they aren't... they are actually cooked!

I ROCK! am cooking MACHINE!

Krummau-Cesky Krumlov

So I went to the Czech Republic this weekend with Ben and one of the teachers I work with. Here are some photographs! If you click on the photos you can make them bigger. P.S. DOGS ARE ALLOWED EVERYWHERE IN EUROPE. Castor came into all the restaurants with us, and this morning, they even gave him a "purina" bowl with water in it.




Krummau with late afternoon sun.





























A Czech man, his dog and his Weihnachtsmarktstandl.



























Dog fighting on the streets of Krummau. (not really, they were just getting to know eachother. The dog on the right is "Castor" except I kept trying to call him "Castro" like the oil. It was really very frustrating.)




























Me and the castle tower in the background... Ben took this one... the exposure is a little off! :-D














At the top of the castle, looking out over Krummau.



























Krummau through a water drain on the top of the castle.


























Yes, this 'priest'/'pope'/'religious figure' does have a wireless metal headset welded onto his head. Someone was trying to be funny...It worked.

















THE SPACE PIG! The fire in the background was cooking a WHOLE pig. You could see the ears sticking out of the tin foil. Cool, if you could get over the fact that it once oinked and squealed.


























Our breakfast this morning. COFFFFFFFEEEEEE! (The room cost a total of 1580 Ck, which roughly is equivalent to... 65 Euro. Breakfast included.)

















Ben and myself. He needs to shave... shhhhh.

















THE GROUP, from left to right.

Me, Ben, Christoph, Castor, Nadia, Doris, Juddith, Wolfgang, and Jürgen.

so. I was fed up.

Here are the results. :)

new address

I have a new address! AND I have grenzenlos internet!


Marion Chamberlin
Brunngasse 2, Zimmer 107
3250 Wieselburg, NÖ




Here is a photograph from Thanksgiving this past weekend. I cooked for 5 hours on Sunday, from 7:00am-12:00pm, but everyone enjoyed the food, and they actually ATE turkey with cranberry sauce, which tickled me numb, because everyone was SUPER skeptical at first!



from left to right:

Oma, Gunther, Gunther's wife, Emmerich, Me, Julia, Sandra, Eva, and Erich.