February 2010

To puke or not to puke? / Zvracet nebo ne?

baby-cartoon-clipartI am happy to announce that we are expecting yet Czech-American baby. The thing is that since I am in my early stages of pregnancy I don’t feel so good – in fact I feel like I want to throw up all the time – which greatly effects my writing abilities. I am sorry to say that I will not be able to write as often during my puking days so please be patient.

Off to the bathroom….

PS: S radosti oznamuji, ze nase rodina ocekava dalsi cesko-americkou ratolest! Co neni tak radostna zprava je to, ze je mi ted dosti spatne – tedy velmi dosti, dosti, dosti spatne, coz znamena, ze nemam absolutne zadnou energii na psani. Budu nyni psat mene casteji, tak  prosim mejte trpelivost.

..smer koupelna…

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‘Communism is dead! Czech people, you don’t have to eat like a communist’ / Komunismus je po smrti! Cesi, uz nemusite jist jako za komousu’

Czech goulash google imageKaren is one of my frequent commentators, a very pleasant American lady who currently lives in Prague. She has a blog called The Empty Nest Expat and writes bunch of interesting articles about her observations. One of her recent posts is contemplating about the Czech – still rather unhealthy – cuisine. Read her thoughts in a post called “Who will be the Czech Jamie Oliver?”.

CZ: Karen je jedna ze ctenarek Czechmate Diary, ktera se sama zabyva blogovanim, ale z opacne strany nez ja. Je totiz Americanka zijici v Praze a popisuje sve  zazitky a postrehy v blogu zvanem Empty Nest Expat. Clanek, ktery me tentokrat zaujal se pozastavuje nad – bohuzel stale jeste – dosti nezdravou ceskou kuchyni. Kdo Cechy vykoupi ze zaklete zeme brambor, knedliku a veproveho? To se muzete docist v Karenine clanku zvanem  “Who will be the Czech Jamie Oliver?”

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Tagged as: food, health

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Two Czechs are to conquer frozen lake Baikal / Dva cesi planuji zdolat zamrzle jezero Bajkal

lake baikal/ tripadvisor.com imageToday left Prague an important travel expedition called the Bargans Bajkal 2010. It consists of 2 extra brave men – Vaclav Sura and Petr Blazek, who are to cross the Siberian Baikal lake on foot, by so-called unsupported style. All of their belongings (food included) will be pulled by those two man on sledges. The trail leads from the south peak of the lake to the north peak and it si ‘mere’ 650 km long, which should take them 4 to 5 weeks to conquer. The slight problem is that the temperatures during this time go as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. Only one such expedition has been done in the past, so if the Czech one is succesfull it will be a great victory.
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Tagged as: celebrities, nature, sports, travel, winter

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Rice art: who can beat that? / Ryzove umeni: kdo ho muze prekonat?

saferedirect-81The Czech Republic’s tourist spot is Prague;  Slovakia has the magnificent Tatras; China has the Great Wall; Japan has the Mount Fuji and…what else? How about these images of a truly astonishing Rice-paddy art that my friend sent me? ‘The Japanese artists create the murals by planting little purple and yellow-leafed Kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed Tsugaru, a Roman variety,to create the coloured patterns in the time between planting and harvesting in September.’

Isn’t this crazy?!

CZ: Cesi se mohou vytahovat Prahou, Slovaci Tatrami, Cinane Cinskou zdi a Japonci horou Fuji…nebo jsem neco vynechala? A co takhle japonske umeni zasevani ryze (tzv. Rice-paddy art)? Tyto fotky mi poslala jedna z mych kamaradek a nemohla jsem si pomoci, nez vam je ukazat. Neni to nadhera?
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Tagged as: art, travel

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Sablikova is enjoying her victory/ Sablikova si uziva sveho vitezstvi

Sablikova image/ www.ceskenoviny.com imageNot long after the Olympic games began the Czechs have already won their first gold medal.  The 22-year-old speed skater, Martina Sablikova, conquered a  3,000-meter long race like it was a piece of cake. But the real piece of cake was waiting for her at the Czech House in Vancouver, fashionably shaped as an ice-skating ring with an image of a speed-skater in the middle.  The cake of just the sweet ‘snack’ ,however. Sablikova also received a price of 1,5 million Czech crowns and a one-year-long free supply of Pilsener Urquell!

Congrats, Martina! [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: celebrities, Olympic games, sports

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‘It must be your genes’ / ‘Podekujte vasim genum’

facial flickr imageI went to get a facial and a massage which my dear hubby bought for my 30th birthday. The massage always turns out to be great; even the facial is always relaxing, but I tell you, the beginnings are rough – at least for me. As soon as I assume your position on the ‘facial table’ (don’t know the exact name for it) I get bombarded with quite the personal questions about what products am I using on my skin; what soap, what cleansing water, what night cream, what day cream, what eye cream, what wrinkle cream……I guess I would not be so annoyed by it if I did not feel so self-conscious. I just use one face cream (at least I think it’s a face cream and not a foot cream) and that’s it. And half of the time I don’t even know what brand it is! I find it in the grocery store in the cosmetics isle and it is on sale. What else can one want? When I was bombarded by those unpleasant questions this time, of course I had a brain fart and I forgot the name of the frickin’ cream again! So I said “huh….Neutrogena” – for some reason that name sticks to my brain. And I have also had a few products of that brand in the past…I think. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: aging, humor, relax

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What would you like to see more of on Czechmate Diary?/ O cem byste na Czechmate Diary radi cetli nejvice?

improvement google imageHi Everyone,

it’s time for self-criticism ;0) What would you like to see more of on these pages? Which category should dominate? Or would you like to ad a new category to Czechmate Diary? I am open to your suggestions!

Vote in the poll bellow and if you don’t find your answer, comment.

CZ: Ahoj, vytvorila jsem anketu, ve ktere se od vas dovim, o cem byste na techto strankach radi cetli vice. Jestlize mate uplne novy napad, napiste o nem v komentech.

What would you like to see more of on Czechmate Diary?

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First Czech house arrest ever / Prvni oficialni pripad domaciho vezeni

house arrest google imageA house-arrest sentence is a very new thing in the Czech Republic. It used to be that you go to jail or you don’t go to jail and house arrest was left for the disobedient kids. Petr Boruvka informs us about the very first felon who was given such an ‘awful’ punishment. Read about him right here.

CZ: Domaci vezeni byvalo v Cechach aplikovano jen na zlobive deti. Nedavno se z neho ale stal oficialni pojem, kterym se trestaji lehci kriminalnici. Petr Boruvka nas informuje o prvnim takovem cloveku, ktery musi ‘trpet’ 6 mesicu doma….ale zas tak hrozne to pro nej nebude. Proc? Duvod si prectete zde.

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Tagged as: law

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Are Czechs smarter than Americans? /Jsou Cesi chytrejsi nez Americane?

idiot_v_genius google imageRemember we had that heated discussion in one of my posts about  Americans and their poor knowledge of geography? You guys ended up leaving 102 (!!) comments! Jamie was one of those involved commentators who kept pursuing the idea that there is NO difference between us and the Americans as far as general knowledge goes. He also promised to send me a research paper on exactly this issue and he kept his word! Here is most of the article, although I could not fit in all of the questions. But you get the idea..

CZ: Pamatujete si , jak jsem jednou psala clanek o Americanech a o jejich spatnych znalostech zemepisu? Vyvolal takovou diskuzi, ze jsme skoncili se 102 komenty!!! Jednim z komentatoru byl Jamie, ktery tvrdil, ze vseobecne znalosti Cechu a Americanu jsou na stejne urovni. Take nam slibil odborny clanek, ktery jeho hypotezu pry potvrzuje. Jamie dodrzel slovo a clanek poslal. Zde je ho vetsina, ale vsechny otazky se mi tam bohuzel vmestnat nepovedlo.

OK, WHO IS SMARTER, WE OR THEY?

Author: Vladimír Kajlík

Periodically, readers are showered with newspapers articles decrying progressive decline if not outright abysmal state of American public education. The conclusion, usually supported by various sorts of statistical “knowledge surveys”, provides presumably ample evidence for such a decline. There would be not much to report if we just assembled such articles from Europe and America to state the facts and to confirm assumed trends. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: school, science, statistics

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Prague models for the largest panoramic photo in the world / Praha modelovala pro nejvetsi panoramaticke foto na svete

Prague Panorama google image

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. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: art, Prague

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