Czechmatediary

You all have probably already heard, but if you didn’t here is the news: the formal indirect presidential elections have been changed to popular directions, meaning that the general public will vote for the next Czech president.

The the majority of the Czech senate agreed to this new law just this past Wednesday and already there are many well-respected politicians that are voicing their strong disagreements. [continue reading…]

Every 2 years the American government  puts out a student contest called the Solar Decathlon in which the contestants compete in designing a self-sufficient solar house. The Czech team placed itself among the 20 finalists for the first time in history. They call their design The Air House, which combines 2 main elements: a wooden box and a light membrane. The wooden box contains all of the technology needed to run a household; it’s also very compact and inexpensive. [continue reading…]

This young Slovak violist does not only have a talent but also a great sense of humor!
CZ: Tento mlady slovensky violista nepostrada talent ale ani smysl pro humor!

Sunday is a perfect day for a fairytale! / V nedeli se nic nedela, jen se poslouchaji pohadky…

Sleepy John

Sleepy John was prone to, well, sleeping and one day he passed out in the back of a farmer’s cart. Upon discovering him, the owner, along with his friends, decided to stuff him in an empty beer keg and leave him in the forest. Sleepy John finally woke up, only to find himself trapped in a beer keg. What’s worse, wolves, having picked up on the human scent, were now circling around him. John grabbed the tail of a wolf that was standing too close. Startled, the wolf began to run and the keg hurtled down a hill and smashed open upon a rock. John was free! Continuing on through the mountains, Sleepy John came across a hermit who said, “I shall die in three days. Bury me then, and I will pay you well for it.” [continue reading…]

Not sure if you are dealing with the same thing but most people I talk to here STILL call the Czech Republic/Slovakia Czechoslovakia….and Prague is, of course, the capital of Czechoslovakia. Those two nations have split up 19 years ago!!!!!

Please vote here so we can compare our experiences.
CZ: Take se vam zda, ze vetsina cizincu uplne ignoruje to, ze se Ceskoslovensko rozpadlo jiz pred 19 lety? Nezapomente vyplnit anketu, at si muzeme porovnat nase zkusenosti.

 Loading ...

A new EU poll uncovers some surprising data. The Europeans consider themselves to be young until they reach their 42nd birthday and call themselves old when one hits the 64th year of age.

The Czechs are even more harsh: a ‘spring chicken’ is anyone under the age of 40 and an ‘old hag’  is anyone who is 60 years old and older.

The most gentle people are the Dutch when it comes to age since they think one is not old until they reach their 70th birthday (I would probably have to agree with them). The harshest of all are Slovaks who will call you an old lady at 58! Now that’s just wrong…
[continue reading…]

The New Year celebrations are over so let’s get back to work and talk about something practical, like ‘how to make Czech cottage cheese or TVAROH. Tvaroh is a necessity to many Czech/Slovak meals so once we learn it we are close to reaching the ‘Czech nirvana’ :).

Thanks to the wonderful Slovak lady named Dagmar, you can make yourself a wonderful authentic tvaroh by following a step-by-step recipe accompanied with wonderful pictures. She even translated it into English for me!!!! [continue reading…]

Hello to all and a Happy New Year 2012! I wish you much happiness, peace, prosperity and a lot of Czech thoughts! To put you in a right step, I have prepared the list of the most popular posts from the previous year. They touch about just every topic so don’t think you will be getting bored here!

CZ: Ahoj Vsichni! Preji vam vsem moc a moc stesti, pohody a uspechu do noveho roku 2012 a at vas ta cestina a ani ty vlastenecke pohnutky a myslenky neopousteji. Abych vam k tomu nejak pomohla, pripravila jsem si list tech nejuspesnejsich clanku z roku minuleho. Zabiraji se snad kazdym tematem, takze vam slibuji, ze se nudit nebudete.

• The most difficult question to answer: “How are you?”
• No Americans = No Czech Republic
• The Russian brotherhood
• ‘Immigration is terribly hard, one does not realize it is forever’
  

[continue reading…]

Apparently according to the Czechposition.com the American movie Star Wars has been a great success in the Czech Republic. You want a proof? Just look at the numbers: in a recent nationwide census 15,070 Czechs (0.31%) identified themselves as the ‘Jedi Knights’ believing in ‘The Force’. That’s a BIG number!!! [continue reading…]