S.O.S.!!! S.O.S.!!! / S.O.S.!!!S.O.S.!!!
June 25, 2009
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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We all know that the Czechs have some bad habits;
Since house-cleaning is a huge business in the US I was wondering how
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.
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.
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)!
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.
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)
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 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?
