Czechmatediary

Here is a wonderful article that one of the CMD readers wanted to share with us: a story of a vintage gypsy wagon from Fallbrook CA, how it got there and what kind of restoration process it underwent. However, here is the most important part of the article which is relevant to Czechmate Diary: [continue reading…]

A giant Czech man-made lake Milada (located in the northern part of the Czech Republic) may be a ready-to-use tourist attraction by the year 2013. It came to life after a deserted coal pit was filled with 35 thousand million liters of water and flooded three former villages.

Milada is not the only such lake. It is one of the other 3 lakes which were created the same way. Water re-cultivation appears to be an inexpensive way how to beautify the land which was devastated by coal mining.

The locals hope the site to become another Macha’s lake, a place of leisure, filled with thousands of swimmers, dock yards, hotels and cyclists. All this will depend on whether the local community has the money to fund these recreational projects or not.

However, the lake has also a couple of drawbacks. Since it is located in a giant pit, the wind is almost non-existent, which will discourage yachtsmen from coming. The banks are also quite unstable, causing frequent mini-land slides. What is more is that the area still has coal deposits underground (about 100 million tons), which is about 2 to 3 years worth of supply for the whole Czech Republic. [continue reading…]

Hi, this is just a quick announcement that I am also on Twitter now. So if you would like to follow my squawks tweets in Czech and/or about anything Czech-related you can follow me @CzechmateDiary.

Have a great Sunday!

CZ: UPOZORNENI: Jestlize jste Twitteraci (v cestine by to bylo neco jako ‘cimcaracci’?), muzete Czechmate Diary sledovat @CzechmateDiary.

Preji hezkou nedeli!

Hi,

For those of you who live in Southern California, this newsletter is perfect for you. Check it out and get plugged in!

Consulate general of the Czech Republic in LA – newsletter (click here)

CZ: Pro ty z vas, kdo zijete v jizni Kalifornii, je tu vyborny zdroj informaci zvany “Czech the News”. Dukladne si ho proctete a zapojte se do ceskeho deni v LA.

Consulate general of the Czech Republic in LA – newsletter (kliknete zde)

This is one of those Czech recipes which has a weird name: FURRY DUMPLINGS. Don’t ask me who came up with that name but it probably comes from the fact that they are covered with mounts of string-like sauerkraut. Or maybe the person who named this recipe kept finding hair in his meal ?  Not sure. Either way, they are awesome.

This particular recipe was passed on to Greg by his Czech great-grandmother. The only new thing that is added to it is the spinach ingredient, since we thought it would give it a bit more user-friendly image. Now it has that healthy ‘vegetable’ or  ‘salad’ ingredient that everyone is looking for in a healthy or semi-healthy meal, plus it looks  more appealing! [continue reading…]

This is a VERY EXCITING news for all of the Czech moms living in the Southern California area. I happened to have a meeting with Michal Sedlacek who is the Consul General of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles. Among other things we also talked about a possible new Czech school for Czech children which would be located probably in Los Angeles (possibly also San Diego, depending on how many people in what area are interested). The school would run under the “School without borders” program, which is funded by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It all sounds wonderful, but the most important thing right now is to get as many Czech moms on the list as possible, so we can make this happen. I already have about 15 contacts but we need more than that. So, please, if you live in Southern California and are interested, leave your name and location (LA or San Diego?) in the comment area. You don’t need to leave your email address since it is already a requirement for leaving a comment, so I will be able to see it (but no one else will).

Also, if you know of anyone else who may be interested in this, forward him this article. Thank you!

CZ: Mam pro vas opravdu VYBORNOU NOVINKU! Nedavno jsem se sesla s panem konzulem Sedlackem a mimo jinych veci jsme diskutovali take moznost vzniku nove ceske skoly v jizni Kalifornii. Patrila by pod program zvany “Skola bez hranic”, ktery je dotovany ministerstvem zahranici. Skola by byla situovana pravdepodobne v okoli Los Angeles (mozna i San Diega), ale vsechno zalezi na mnozstvi zajemcu a kde bydli.

Tudiz vas prosim, jestlize mate o neco takoveho zajem, zanechte v komentech sve jmeno a a kde bydlite (LA area nebo San Diego area?) Email tam nemusite psat, protoze uz vyplnujete emailovou kolonku jednou v dobe, kdy onen koment pisete).

Jestlize vite o nekom jinem, kdo by se chtel se svymi detmi neceho takoveho zucastnit, preposlete mu teno clanek. Dekuji!

Hi all, here is a cute story about a brave American woman named Karen who decided to pack her bags one day and move to Prague  in order to ‘get out and experience our globe’. You know as well as I do that moving is not easy, even if you are moving over to a neighboring town. Karen also had to sell her precious Satrun and give herself over to the mysteries of the Czech public transportation. Do you want to know how did it turn out? Read her most popular article called “Starting My Third Year Without a Car “.

CZ: Karen je velmi statecna Americanka, ktera si jednoho dne proste zbalila svych pet svestek a odstehovala se do Prahy, aby  ‘ (z Ameriky) vypadla a zakusila dobrodruzstvi nasi zemekoule’. V tom spocivalo take to, ze se zbavila sveho draheho Saturna, auticka, ktere ji verne vozilo po Statech uz nejaky ten patek. Misto toho se rozhodla sverit se do pece ceske verejne dopravy. Jak to dopalo a jake z toho ma zkusenosti? Prectete si jeji nejpopularnejsi post zvany “Starting my third year without a car”.

It’s quite shocking for me but the recent EU study showed Czechs to be the biggest lovers of marihuana. Even countries like Neatherlands or Denmark are bellow us, together with Slovakia (check out the following chart). How embarrassing!

CZ: Je to pro mne docela sok, ale z nedavneho pruzkumu vychazeji Cesi jako nejvetsi milovnici marihuany. To, ze je Nizozemsko a Dansko jsou nekde dole pod nami me opravdu prekvapilo. Slovensko ma take mene zahuleny mozek nez Cesi – to je ostuda! [continue reading…]

I have done an interview with the following Meetup group a couple of years ago so it is time to re-visit them and see how are they doing. For those who don’t know what Meetup.com is,  it is a social network of local groups with shared interest and/or nationalities. Once a group has an organizer, those people actually physically meet and hang out. It is not uncommon, however, for groups to break up because there is a small fee one has to pay  or people get too busy or some other obstacle gets in a way.  But the New York Meetup is still – after so many years – alive and well! It is not surprising that one couple in the group actually got married and now lives happily ever after :).

The following interview is in Czech because most of the members are Czech/Slovak and happened to answer the questions in their native language. But do not despair, the English version can be found here (click here).

CZ: Mozna, ze si jeste pamatujete, kdyz jsem s nasledujici Meetup skupinkou delala v roce 2008 rozhovor poprve. No, ale bylo tomu jiz nejaky patek, tudiz je na case je zkontrolovat. Ziji jeste? Nebo se skupinka rozpadla,jako mnoho dalsich Meetupu? Mam dobrou zpravu. Nejen, ze se nadale setkavaji, ale jejich pocet neustale roste. Cela skupinka tak kvete do krasy, ze se v ni jeden parecek dokonce i vzal a ted spolu budou zit stastne az do smrti. A zazvonil zvonec a pohadky je konec (tedy az po rozhovoru).

[continue reading…]