Czechmatediary

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).
(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?

Since house-cleaning is a huge business in the US I was wondering how many of you, Czech and Slovak ladies, hire (or would hire) a house cleaning lady? If you have not been brought up in Czech or Slovakia let me give you a little bit of a background on this situation. Back when I was a child everyone cleaned their house himself - there was no question about it. Having a cleaning lady coming to scrub your toilets meant that you were either really rich (which was unlikely) or there was something physically wrong with you (sickness, injury, old age). If you were to suggest those services to some woman during those years she would probably laugh at you and said something like: “What? Are you crazy? Why would I let some stranger in the house AND pay him money, if I can do that stuff myself?”.

I haven’t heard of such ‘magical’ services until I came to the US and I have to say I was kind of apprehensive of it at first. And I admit, I would still probably not hire any cleaning help just because I am a stay-home mom (and also a blogger!!) and I have more time to clean than someone who works full-time. But also, if someone were to clean my house, I would probably end up feeling bad for that lady the whole time she was there, wanting to help her! You know what is the worst about this whole business? Some of my American friends do use house-cleaning services  and they actually clean before the cleaning crew comes so that they would not feel embarrassed about their ‘real’ mess!!! Now, what is the point of that?? Just clean the whole house when you are at it!! (more…)

If you don’t like to go mushroom picking you are simply not Czech. As most of us have  experienced, summer in the Czech Republic (or Slovakia) can be very rainy; sometimes it rains for weeks! It is unfortunate for  tourists but for mushroom pickers it is a time for celebration. As the forest soil sucks in the moisture, various mushroom types  emerge but you have to have a trained vision to see them as they are really good in camouflaging themselves. When I was about 5 years old I went mushroom picking with my neighbor’s family. Since I was the youngest one in the pack I was sent on the most obvious and boring trails. Discouraged, with my basket being completely empty compared to the others, I slowly lingered on my assigned trail. All of a sudden I see this suspiciously big pile of leaves. (more…)

I was thinking today that although communism is gone I still experience some remnants of it. The good things were hard to buy during communism; when bananas or oranges arrived in the store people were just about to unpack their tents in front of the store so they could get some; when there was a decent trip to Yugoslavia available, people really did sleep in the sleeping bags in front of the traveling agency to purchase a ticket (and I am talking from a personal experience here). If a kid brought some Western candy to school he would better watch out not to be torn into pieces. And the list goes on…you get the point: good things were scarce, most of it was just junk.

Now that I live in the beautiful United States of America I find it quite ironic that i miss this ‘junk’. What ‘junk’ am I talking about? Let’s say that one of my friends comes back from Czech and brings a box of Fidorka, or Bonpari, or - God forbid - Lazenske oplatky (!!). (more…)

Ctyrlistek in Czech is not only a four-leaf clover but also an ultra-famous children comic magazine. Just the glance on this image above puts me right back into my childhood, when I would read each issue over and over until I had each line memorized. The magazine was named Ctyrlistek after its 4 main characters: the smart cat Myspulin, the pretty doggie Fifinka, the happy-go-lucky Bobik and the cheeky rabbit Pinda. They live in a house together, experiencing different kinds of adventures, fighting for righteousness and protecting the weak. It is also important to mention that they  love goulash and ‘buchty‘  (sweet bread)!

While comics have always been very common in the Western world, the socialists dismissed them as a “capitalist trash”. The only comics that survived the 1970s and 1980 were children comics as they had an educative character and were supposed to enhance childern’s interest in technology and sciences (to develop the nuke later in their life, I guess). When the borders opened in 1968 the Ctyrlistek’s creator, Marin Nemecek, went on vacation to the Western Europe. “Looking around the shops I noticed something that was completely absent on our market - colorful comic books. So I thought for a while  that we could somehow import them to our country. But then it occurred to me, why should I try to import something  when I can write and draw my own things.” (more…)

Most of us who grew up in Czech/Slovakia or  were raised by Czech/Slovak parents were raised quite strictly. There were rules and if you failed to follow them there was punishment. Sometime it was the wooden spoon, sometimes the belt and sometimes the smack on the head or one got grounded for a long, long time….. Different households had different rules but most agreed with one thing: no one wanted to have a spoiled brat in their home.

Now that you have your own children (or are planning to have them), how are YOU raising them?

CZ: Vetsina z nas, Cechu a Slovaku, byla vychovana dosti striktne. Pravidla se musela dodrzovat a kdyz se nedodrzovala, zacaly litat facky. Kazda domacnost trestala jinym zpusobem, ale jednu vec meli spolecnou: nikdo totiz nechtel mit doma rozmazleneho haranta. Jak vychovavate (nebo planujete vychovavat) VASE deti?

(more…)

I received this email from one of my American friends and although it directly does not have anything to dowith the Czech Republic or Slovakia, it so resembles our nature: eat, drink and be merry; forget about exercise - it is bad for you ;0)

CZ: Nasledujici email jsem obdrzela od jedne z mych americkych kamaradek. I kdyz se jeho obsah nevztahuje primo k Cechum nebo Slovakum, po jeho precteni uvidite, ze vlastne popisuje nasi naturu: 1/ jezme, pijme a veselme se; 2/cviceni skodi zdravi ;o)

Q: I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it… don’t waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that’s like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products. (more…)

I have just recently discovered the two Wild and Crazy Guys skit from Saturday Night Live. I was pleasantly surprised and also proud in a sense that a tiny bit of Czech culture got into such a famous American show! Are you telling me that Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd actually impersonated 2 Czech guys?? That’s pretty cool!

I dug out a YouTube video of these 2 dudes and it is pretty funny. Mind you, this was shut in about 1977, during the deepest communist era and ‘the wall’ was higher then ever. My husband remembers watching this as a little kid and laughing like crazy -little did he know he would eventually marry a ‘wild and crazy’ Czech girl! The funniest thing is that their ‘Czech’ names are really not Czech at all - Georg Festrunk and Yortug Festrunk? - they sound more like Swedish names if anything. Also, Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd tried to speak ‘Czech’ and again,sorry to say, it sounds more like some kind of a Moon language ;0) (more…)

I was thinking the other day, that the Czech kitchen offers some weird dishes (see for yourself!). Yet, one cannot help it but love them. Which one of these unique Czech meals do you love the best?

CZ: Kdyz nad tim zapremyslite, nektere pokrmy ceske kuchyne jsou opravdu prapodivne (presvedcte se sami!). Nejprapodivnejsi na tom ale je, ze nam vsem hrozne chutnaji! Ktery z techto unikatnich ceskych pokrmu je vas nejoblibenejsi?
(more…)