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The other day I read an article on the American ignorance of the world geography. I completely agree, however, I think that the finger should be pointed on the educational system and the way they teach geography. Isn’t it part of the elective subjects in high school? Also, I am sorry but the Americans do live on a different continent so I would cut them some slack when they don’t know where Slovenia is.
All that said, I do have some pretty funny stories about this whole issue. Most of them come from the times when I was attending a college since that is where you get to talk to a lot of people and they find out you have an accent and then they ask you where were you from and than it goes all downhill from there..:)

Anyhow, my best story comes from one of the parties I went to. I started talking to this friendly all-American girl and as soon as she found out I was from Prague she got really excited, telling me that she had spent 3 weeks there! So we talked for a good 45 minutes about “Prague stuff”, places she had visited, clubs she went to, the food she ate….she then grabbed one of her friends that walked by and excitedly said: “Look I met a girl from Yugoslavia!” I looked at her, waiting for her to correct herself but nothing happened. When she saw my ‘look’ she became somewhat self conscious and said: “ Well, what, you are from Yugoslavia, right? Prague?”. (more…)

The Czechs start to fancy the organic foods and I am not just talking about the basic stuff such as meat, eggs or the vegetables but also the so-called bio-wine, bio-beer and bio-bread! They have spent this year 49% of their grocery money on organic food which equals to 760 million Czech crowns. This amount should increase to 3.2 milliard Czech crowns by the year 2011. The Czech Republic is therefore becoming the “star child” when it comes to ecology. Compared to other EU countries, the amount of its organically-worked land is far above the EU average, equaling about 7.2% of the total amount of the agricultural land. And that’s not all! (more…)

Christmas, which translates as Vánoce in Czech, begins with the Den Svatého Mikuláše, St. Nicholas’
day on December 6th. On this day Svatý Mikuláš, Saint Nicholas, who is our very own Father
Christmas or Santa Claus, walks around town accompanied by an andel, angel and a cert, devil.
Saint Nick walks around asking children if they have been good or bad. If they have been good, they
get a present, and if they have been bad the devil terrifies them. The devils are often extremely convincing,
and tend to scare the living daylights out of children.

The real-deal St. Nicholas was born in about 270 A.D. in Lycia (Roman providence of Asia, today Turkey) and died in 343 A.D. on December 6th in Bari, Italy. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, he even gave away his inheritance when his rich parents died, hence our current Santa Claus. Nicholas was never officially canonized and for that reason Martin Luther decided to replace the festival of St. Nicholas Day which had become connected with Papacy witch “Christ child” celebration on Christmas Eve. (more…)

Hi to all / Ahoj vsichni,
I was a little disappointed about the upcoming activities for the month of December (although I found some more of them). There are not very many of them despite the fact that December is a big month for the Czech/Slovak culture. Besides the Christmas Eve we also celebrate the St. Nicholas Day (Den Svateho Mikulase) which is a BIG deal mostly for the little ones…..

1. Bohemian Beer Garden (New York)

http://www.bohemianhall.com/home.htm

Dec. 1st: A free Czech culture center movie presentation - “It’s gonna get worse”

Dec. 31st: New Year’s Party entertained by a band playing Czech, Slovak and American songs

Mondays: Beer Tasting Dinners

Wednesdays: Comedy nights

Sundays: Family Fun Disco Dinner

2. Czech Embassy in Washington, DC

http://www.mzv.cz

Dec. 12th: Lions of Czech Film Series; playing the Fimfarum, written by Jan Werich (more…)

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Here are some really nice youtube commemorative images from Velvet Revolution in 1989. The picture show is accompanied by singing of a famous Czech singer, Karel Kryl.

Pripominame si Sametovou revouci… (more…)

During one of the celebrations of the 18. anniversary of the Velvet Revolution the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, had a speech on what circumstances have played a great role in the birth of communism in the former Czechoslovakia:

1. The first breaking point became the anti-Nazi demonstration on November 17th 1939, when one of the participating students, Jan Opletal, was deadly wounded. His funeral became an excuse for the Nazis to begin with a massacre of Czech intellectuals. All of the Universities were closed, 9 student leaders were executed without any kind of a trial, and 1,200 students were taken to the concentration camp in Sachsenhouser. This date, according to Klaus, was the beginning of German attempt to erase the Czechoslovakia off of the map of Europe. (more…)
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This year’s 18th (!!) anniversary of the Velvet Revolution is celebrated in kind of an untraditional way. The Wenceslav’s Square in Prague is exhibiting a mocked-up communist-era work camp that has it all: the barbed wired fences, a watch tower and - of course - the famous sign over the entrance gate reading “Praci ke svobode” (Let us work toward freedom). When walking through this camp one can see the cardboard cutouts of real-time political prisoners with a little attached side note briefly explaining about what their “crime” was and how were they punished for it. The director of this whole idea, Simon Panek, explains that one of the main reasons why this exhibition was built was to wake up the young Czech generation. (more…)

The speaker of a trendy clothing chain the New Yorker, Jana Slintakova, claims that the reason why Czech women do not wear fancy hats is because they are simply too practical for it. Their hectic lifestyle doesn’t allow for such an impractical clothing accessory. Mrs. Slintakova further explains that those brave women who actually go and buy one of these hats still tend to pick the simple styles because they tend to be on the shy side compared to other European women. The biggest trend right now are the retro-style hats from the 1930’s; they are chic and also - practically - cover the ears for the cold winter months.

CZ: Mluvci nemeckeho modniho retezce, Jana Slintakova, New Yorker nam vcera odhalila novinku: ceske zeny nerady nosi klobouky. A proc? Protoze jsou na tyto “vymozenosti” prilis prakticke. Navic, jejich zivotni styl je proste moc hekticky na to, aby si hlidaly, kam si odkladaji svuj nobl klobouk. Pani Slintakova dale vysvetluje, ze ty statecne zeny, ktere se odhodlaji vkrocit do butiku a jeden z klobouku si zakoupit, si spise vyberou jednodussi, nenapadny styl. Tento rok jsou pry v mode drobne kloboucky stylu 30-tych let; nejen ze jsou “in”, ale take vam zakryji usi behem zimni sezony.

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/magazin/zajimavosti/index_view.php?id=280995

Bramboraky (Potato Pancakes) are my all-time favorite! They are really easy to make and the cost is about 5 cents per person The only downside of this dish is that they don’t make very good leftovers. Hence prepare them, fry them, and eat them all on the spot! Oh, and also, warning for the meat lovers: no meat in this one! Sorry!

Ingredients:

• 6 large potatoes, pealed
• 1 egg
• 5 cloves of garlic, grated
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tsp of dried marjoram
• pinch of salt and pepper
• about 4 Tbs of oil (more…)
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What is the Czech style of living compared to other European states?

• The person-to-area ratio is smaller compared to the European average. The Czechs occupy on average an area of 49 meter squared with 2.7 rooms and 2.6 people living in them. And what nation is living in the rooms size of an airport hallway? The Danish people! The average size of their house/flat is 110 meters squared with only 2.2 people living in it!
• Regarding the basic home equipment such as running water,a toilet or a shower, those homes - although tiny - seem to be doing very well. About 95% of all of the Czech households have all of these necessities which puts us on the same level with the well-to-do states such as Austria and France. Country that is not doing that well in this area is Romania, for example, where only 53% of households have an actual running water. (more…)
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