Czechmatediary

The Czech Republic is famous again! The world’s biggest panoramic photo happens to  portray the beauty of Prague. This is what the 360cities.net says about it:

‘This image a super high resolution photo. Use your mouse to zoom in and see a startling level of detail. This image is currently (as of 12/2009) the largest spherical panoramic photo in the world. It is 192,000 pixels wide and 96,000 pixels tall. That’s 18.4 billion pixels, or 18.4 gigapixels! When it’s printed, it will be 16 meters (53 feet) long at regular photographic quality (300dpi). It was shot in early October 2009 from the top of the Zizkov TV Tower in Prague, Czech Republic in collaboration with Prague 3 town hall. A digital SLR camera and a 200mm lens were used. Hundreds of shots were shot over a few hours; these shots were then stitched together on a computer over the following few weeks. (more…)

The 2010 Olympic Games start next week in Vancover. How is the Czech Republic going to do this time? Four years ago the Czechs won 4 medals: gold for cross country skier Katerina Neumannova, silver for cross country skier Lukas Bauer, and bronze for men’s ice hockey team. athleets

This year the Czech Republic Olympic team is bigger than ever, mounting to the total of 93 members! The Czech Olympic committee says that even athletes who have little chance of succeeding should be allowed to take part, budget permitting. “”For the Summer Olympic Games in Athens we took with us a very young athlete, a javelin thrower called Barbora Špotáková. She was in seventh or eighth place there [actually she finished 23rd]…It was her first Olympic Games. In her second Olympic Games in Beijing she was Olympic champion. And we think if she hadn’t taken part in Athens, she couldn’t have made it in Beijing, to win gold at her first Olympics….So we don’t take everyone, but we take those who we feel have achieved a very good effort, very good results. And we wish the best for them.” (more…)

OK, here is yet another addition to our photo-gallery of Prague-under-snow. The My Czech Republic blog took some awesome pictures of the Czech capital (and other places) just a few hours after it stopped snowing earlier this past month. Click here to view all of the images - it really looks like it’s from some kind of a fairy-tale.

CZ: Jestlize jste ve snehove nalade, My Czech Republic blog zverejnil nekolik naaaadhernych, pohadkovych fotek zasnezene Prahy a okoli! Kliknete zde.

You know how much they all talk about how much snow is in the Czech Republic now? I got a proof! These wonderful Prague pictures (taken by a generous donor - Peter) were taken just a few days ago. And if Prague is snowed-in, you know that the rest of the Czech Republic is REALLY snowed in.

CZ: Vite, jak se vsude stebeta o tom, kolik v Cechach napadlo snehu. No, a ja mam dukaz! Fotky (velkodusne darovane panem Petrem) zasnezene Prahy! A vime preci, ze jestlize je Praha zasnezena, tak zbytek cele Ceske republiky je opravdu zapadly pod horami snehu.

Kampa

I was thinking about making post about Czech jokes the other day, about how funny and yet so cruel they can be! The first google result brought me to the My Czech Republic forum where participants talk just about this particular topic. One of the participant’s response (Petr B) was especially helpful in forming these following ideas. He says: “About Czech jokes. I don’t think we have those “how many … takes to exchange a bulb”, “knock-knock” or “lawyer” jokes…”. He is right, I did not even realize that! Here are some of the categories that me and the forum guy came up with:

CZ: Chtela jsem napsat post o ceskych vtipech a pri svem googlovani jsem natrefila na forum My Czech Republic, kde se lide bavili prave o tomto tematu. Jedna osoba (Petr B) byla velmi dulezita pri formovani techto skupin:

1. Chauvinist/Feminist jokes

1. Feminists from all over the world are having a huge meeting. On the stage appears an English feminist and says: “I came home, I hit the table with my wrist and said to my husband:”I am not cooking from now on”. I see nothing the first week or the second week, but the first week I see my husband cooking dinner.” The hall vibrates with a great applause. The second guest speaker is a German feminist and says: “I came home, hit the table with my fist and said to my husband: ” I am not doing laundry from now on!”. I see nothing the first week or the second week. The third week, I see my husband doing the laundry.” Even greater applause came from the audience. Then the Czech feminist goes on stage and says: “I came home, hit the table with my fist and said to my husband: “From now on, I am not cooking or doing the laundry.” The first week I see nothing; the second week I see nothing; when third week rolls around I am starting to see with one eye.” (more…)

Hi all,

Guess what Czech singer is touring the US this month? Lenka Filipova (see the attached foto)! For those who are not familiar with her, she is kind of like the Czech-style Joni Mitchell :0).

CZ: Ahoj, tak nas za tu velkou louzi pristi mesic prijede navstivit Lenka Filipova! Dalibor Janda jede zase za sluncem do Australie, kde ted maji leto :0)

1. Washington, DC (Czech Embassy)

A. What: Lenka Filipova concert

When: Feb. 9

B. Lions of Czech Film Series: “Fighter” (Bojovnik)

When: Feb. 10

2.  New York, NY (Czech Center)

A. What: Classical Music concert (Panocha Qurartet)

When: Feb. 6 (more…)

You can get this miniature pot-bellied pig  (also called a “Tea-cup pig“) for 500 to 5,000 Czech Crowns, depending on their size. The smaller they are, the more expensive they get. Yet the price did not stop them to be one of the new favorite pets in the Czech households. They are supposed to be smart, affectionate and very clean! Watch the video below:

CZ: V Cechach se tyto miniaturni prasatka prodavaji za 500 az 5,000 Kc s tim, ze mensi prasatka jsou drazsi. Chrochtajici milacci tam jdou jako na dracku, stali se totiz novym oblibenym zvirecim mazlickem v ceskych domacnostech. Divite se? Maji pry byt velmi chytri, pritulni a take cistotni! Podivejte se na nize uvedene video: (more…)

Do you know Anthony’s Bourdain’s show called “No reservations”? If not, now is the perfect time to start watching it because this daring culinary chef  will be introducing Prague and its ‘crazy’ culinary art! Catch this episode  on Travel Chanel Monday, Feb 1 at 10 PM E/P.

CZ: Anthony Bourdainova show zvana “No rezervations” bude pristi tyden o Praze! Uvidime, jaky ‘blaznivy’ chod objevi v ‘te nasii kuchyniiii ceskeeeeeee…” ;0)

Divejte se v pondeli, 1. unora na Travel Channel a to ve 22:00 E/P.

Kids in America start going to school way too early. A five-year-old kiddos were still in diapers just 3 years earlier! Children of that age should be playing with their toys, enjoying their childhood and not learning how to read and do math problems.

I went to  first grade when I was almost 7 years old and I turned out just fine, so what’s all this rush about? The thing is that this early school fever is contagious. The Czech Republic started to accept 5-year-olds into their first grades this year, however, the interest was not high. Both parents and teachers think these children are just too young for school. “They have problems with speech, mostly with pronunciation”, says one of the first grade teachers. Even the Czech child spychologist, Vaclav Mertin, claims that children at 5-years-of-age should be educated in some way but they should not be going to school just yet. (more…)

The second part of the history of Czechs in Ohio is here (you can read the first part here) and even though I do not live in Ohio myself, I was engrossed in reading (and translating!) it:

‘So Gustav Adam, the first Czech immigrant to Ohio, was dead and what happened then? The Czech immigrant torch overtook Jindrich Hladik from Prague and a few Czech Jewish men such as Leopold Levy from Smetanova Lhota u Pisku, Bernard Weidenthal from Vestice u Tabora and Zikmund Stein from Prague. Levy had a fabric store  and Stein opened up a little pub on  Seneca Street, while Hladik owned a food market. In 1849 inhabited Cleveland also a 22-year-old Abraham Weindenthal whose offspring became excellent journalists.

In 1852 arrived to Cleveland 16 new Czech families and their beginnings were not pretty. Since the women were accustomed going to the town bare-foot and with scarfs tied around their heads, the locals thought of them as Gypsies. (more…)