Czechmatediary

I am starting to have a suspicion that many Czechs emigrated to the US because of their last name. These are just a few examples of Czech names that I have seen around town, here in the US, and they made me giggle:

- James Zadek (Zadek = Behind)

- Andrew Siska (Siska= pine cone but also piece of poop)

- Rudolf Ptak (Ptak = bird but it is also a slang for ‘penis’)

-  Sue Kruty ( Kruty = ruethless, evil)

It must be hard to live in the Czech Republic with such names especially since Czechs are such merciless jokers at times; if I had a last name like that I would surely leave the country! Because when abroad, all those names sound rather exotic without anyone knowing what they really mean. (more…)

Summer is here and if you are not going back to Czech or Slovakia and are practicing so-called ’stay-cation’, you need to get the Czech vibes from somewhere else in the country. Most of us are migrating back to our motherland this month  so that is why the list is kind of short but not too short for you to find something!

CZ: Leto je tady a vestina z nas rado migruje zpet do Cech nebo na Slovensko, ochutnat ty prave krupave tresne primo z prohybajicich se stromu…a koupat se ve spinavem rybniku…a jist boruvkove knedliky…a pit ceske pivko. Jestlize ale nikam nejedete, tak nevzdychejte, list ceskych aktivit je sice kratsi nez normalne, ale ne zas tak kratky, aby jste tam nic nenasli!
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My friend Iva just told me a big secret: did you know that if you have a T-mobile account and live in the US you can text message to Czech/Slovakia for $0.20 per message (both incoming and outgoing messages)? The bad news is that I don’t have a T-mobile account but I thought some of you would find this information helpful….or maybe everyone but me knows about this already??

For further information visit T-mobile website.

CZ: Ma kamaradka Iva mi prozradila velike tajemstvi: vite, ze kdyz mate mobilovy ucet s T-mobile a zijete v USA, tak muzete textovat do Cech nebo na Slovensko za velmi nizke ceny? Prichozi a odeslane sms stoji pouhych $0.20! Spatna zprava je ta, ze ja T-mobile nemam, ale rikala jsem si, ze by tuto informaci nekdo z vas, ctenaru, ocenil….nebo to uz vsichni, krome mne, vi???

Pro blizsi informace se obratte na webove stranky T-mobilu.

A beautiful Sandy Ptak doesn’t just have a Czech herritage in her (hence her last name ‘Ptak’, meaning ‘bird’ in Czech) but she also won the Miss Czech Slovak US for the year 2008-2009. She has been enjoying her queen days very much but the time is running out for her as the new miss is going to be elected in about a month or so during the famous Wilber Czech Festival in Nebraska (August 1st and 2nd). I did manage to get in touch with her just in time to do a short interview about her experience of being a Czech/Slovak queen in the US (by the way, she speaks fluent Czech!):

CZ: Krasna Sandy Ptakova nema jen ceske prijmeni, ale stala se take Ceskou/Slovenskou Miss US za rok 2008-09. Poslednich 11 mesicu si uzivala ‘kralovskeho’ zivota, ale cas uz se ji krati - 1. srpna se totiz na znamem ceskem festivalu ve Wilber, NE bude volit nova CS kralovna, ktera slavnostne prevezme zezlo na pristi rok. Sandy ale bude nadale sedet na trune neco pres mesic, tak jsem s ni stacila v rychlosti udelat rozhovor, aby jsme se dozvedeli, jaky ten kralovsky zivot vlastne je (jo, a abych nezapomnela, Sandy mluvi plynne cesky!!):

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. I already know that you are a 1st generation Czech and that you speak fluent Czech - that’s great! How did your parents ended up in the US? Were you born here? How was your upbringing?

- I am a fist generation American, born and raised in Anchorage, AK. My parents escaped Communist Czechoslovakia in 1980 and got to Alaska six months later in 1981. We have lived in Alaska the entire time we have been in the U.S. and I am so happy that we did. We never lost touch of our Czech heritage and we hold traditions by speaking Czech at home, cooking Czech foods, polka dancing and traveling to Europe to visit family among other things. In just a few months, I will be graduating from Portland State University with a double major in International Marketing and Management. (more…)

Yesterday evening the Czechs finished their 6-month chairmanship to the European Union (the time sure flew by quickly!). The Czech government put on the last cultural event (in this case it was a party) out of the 700 other events that were held during their ‘reign’ over Europe. At first the party was supposed to be out-of-this world show at the main Brussels square but thanks to the world wide recession the Czechs decided to settle for something less grandiose and moved it over to the little more ordinary Carol Street. About 6000 visitors flooded this street and danced to the grooves of Czech bands such as Clou, Mig 21 and Krystof. Many of them were holding a Czech wine in one hand and a slice of traditional Czech cheese or salami in the other. And of course, the biggest line was registered at the Czech beer stand. (more…)

I was humming the Czech national anthem for myself the other day and I realized with terror that I DO NOT KNOW ALL OF THE WORDS ANYMORE!! How sad is that!!! What is strange though is that I can remember the Slovak national anthem word for word (I also have to say I have always liked the Slovak melody better, so maybe that is why it got stuck in my memory).

Anyhow, if you feel are as guilty as I do (I sure hope there is someone else out there!!) this YouTube video should help you. It is also provided with English subtitles, so for those who do not speak Czech and have always wondered what the heck is the Czech/Slovak anthem about there you go:

CZ: Tak jsem si nedavno pobrukovala ceskou hymnu a s hruzou jsem zjistila, ze si jiz NEPAMATUJI VSECHNA SLOVA!! ‘No, to je teda ostuda!!’, pomyslela jsem si. Co je na tom ale zvlastni je to, ze si stale pamatuji slova slovenske hymny (vzdycky se mi ta melodie libila vic, tak asi proto mi uvizla lepe v pameti).

V pripade, ze jste se pristihli (nebo se v budoucnosti pristihnete) v teto same deprimujici situaci, tady mate mensi tahak. Video ma i anglicke titulky, tak si tu nasi hymnu ted muzete pobrukovat i v anglictine :0).
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Remember Botasky, the boring communist shoes that everyone would wear? They are back and they are popular!!! But don’t worry, they did go through quite the make-over, created by 2 young Czech art students, Jan Kloss and Jakub Koros. ‘Our school task was to make  new sport shoes so we decided to make a new shoes from the old ones’.

The new style Botas shoes have a wider toe and come in 13 different designs from which one design is kept ’sentimentally’ white. Each pair costs 1,600 Czech crowns (about $80!!) and tend to get sold out pretty quickly :o) (more…)

We all know that the Czechs have some bad habits; we don’t like to say the words ‘I love you’, we have some bad table manners such as licking of the plate and many of us like to smoke and drink…and not exercise on top of everything else. To add to our humility quest, the Czech Daily blog publicized yet another one of those ‘bad’ habits (Peter actually calls it the worst Czech habit of all!), although this one may not seem bad to everyone….read the whole article right here.

What do you guys think?

CZ: Vetsina z nas, Cechu, je si vedoma toho, ze mame hodne zlozvyku; neradi vyslovujeme slova ‘mam te rad‘, radi vylizujeme prazdne talire a mnoho z nas take rado kouri, pije a k tomu vsemu jeste nesnasi sportovani. A aby nas ta schlipenost jen tak neopustila, Czech Daily blog zverejnil dalsi zlozvyk, podle nej pry ‘nejhorsi zlozvyk kterym Cesi trpi’. Ne vsichni s nim budou souhlasit, ale to uz zalezi na osobe…prectete si Petruv clanek zde.

Souhlasite s nim nebo ne?

Did you not make it to Peter Nagy concert when he was touring the US  and Canada last month? Don’t worry if you didn’t, Czechmate Diary has you covered! My super-nice friend Pavla agreed to do an interview with him since I could not make it and she did a great job. I have never personally met Peter but I have to say, from this video, he sounds like a really nice guy. Check out the interview for yourself:

CZ: Nepovedlo se vam zajit na koncert Petra Nagyho v USA minuly mesic? Nebudte smutni, Czechmate Diary vam napravi naladu! Moje dobra kamaradka Pavla me zaskocila a udelala s nim moc pekny rozhovor a jeste to natocila! Ja jsem ho osobne nikdy nepotkala, ale z tohoto nataceni mi prijde jako velky sympatak - presvecte se sami:

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Only about 7 years ago (2002) Prague underwent one of the most horrendous floods in the city’s history. Besides the historical downtown completely disappearing under water, the Prague’s zoo was flooded as well. The zoo staff managed to evacuate more than 1,000 animals, 800 birds, 150 reptiles and 100 mammals prior to the upcoming flood (making it the largest and the fastest evacuation of animals in the history of zoological gardens). Unfortunately, 14 mammals and 130 birds died during the floods, including the male seal Gastron, who swam more than 186 miles down the Vltava river to Germany, was resuced days later but died on the way back home thanks to exhaustion, stress and infection. Among the animals that had to be put down was 35-year-old Kadir (see image bellow), an elephant popular with zoo-goers, who became trapped by rising waters and could not be rescued. (more…)