Czechmatediary

If you dare to pronounce that “C” word (or rather the “CH” word as “CH” is an actual letter in the Czech alphabet)  in front of a Czech/Slovak person you will probably witness an immediate “Pavlov-dogs” reaction, meaning that after just a few seconds their mouth will begin to water profusely, they may also start to drool really bad. Why? Because what a good cheeseburger means to an American, chlebicky are to  a Czech. Chlebicky are Czech-style, open-faced sandwiches, but more exciting than the traditional American sandwich. What do you find in a sandwich? Ham, cheese, slice of tomato, and a peace of lettuce - very exciting, indeed (not!)! But chlebicky can be topped with pretty much anything under the sun…no strict rules there! There is however the traditional variation on this recipe which I will be presenting today: (more…)

I don’t know about you but I love to watch Czech movies. Up until recently I thought it was impossible to watch them here in the US; I thought they had to be converted from the European system to the US system first. Well, now I don’t think that anymore and I want to share this exciting news with you! We found a DVD player that actually plays Czech (European) movies as well as the American ones! (more…)

Have you ever thought of what would Prague sound like if it were  expressed through music? You will be soon able to buy a CD of those sounds. A British artist Peter Cusack - the master of “soundscapes” from all over the world - is taking on Prague as his new project. How does it work? First, questionnaires are randomly spread through people to get some kind of an information about their background noises. Then the artists go on so-called “sound-walks”, listening to different sounds - looking at Prague from the “sonic point of view”. (more…)

Czech beer is so popular  these days that the EU is most likely going to allow the Czechs Republic to use the “Ceske Pivo/Czech Beer” trademark. The beer is very unique because it is “brewed using  specific technologies in a specific latitude”. I don’t know if you knew this (I certainly did not), but the “Czech” beers like Staropramen or Pilsener Urquell are also made in Poland, Russia and Slovakia (i.e. different brewing technologies and different latitudes), hence the taste may not be exactly the same. (more…)

Yesterday afternoon at the age of 93 years Tomas Bata junior peacefully died in Canada. This world-known Czechoslovak entrepreneur and an owner of the world-known Bata shoe company was the son of Tomas Bata senior - the acutal founder of Bata Shoes. Tomas senior’s nickname used to be the “Henry Ford of Eastern Europe” because he “saw technology as  means of progress, and wanted to make the shoes as cheaply as possible so that the greatest number of people could access them”. The Bata company itself was founded back in 1894 in a Czech town Zlin. After Tomas senior died in a tragic plane accident, his brother Jan took over the business. Under Jan’s leadership the company quickly expanded abroad to Europe, North America, Asia, and North Africa. Along with the continual expansion, the company policy was to set up new villages around the newly build factories so that the workers have places to live. Here are just some examples od those towns (the names are pretty cute): (more…)

So we are back in business! September is a busy month as far as Czech stuff goes. Just to give you a little glimpse let me mention couple of names such as Plastic People of the Universe, Anna K. or Jaromir Nohavica…not bad, right??

CZ: Tak jsme zase v provozu! Ceske akcicky kam se jenom mrknete! Jen tak ze zacatku bych rada zminila par “bezvyznamnych” jmen jako jsou Plastic People of the Universe, Anna K, nebo Jaromir Nohavica.…neni to spatne, co??

1. North Miami, FL
What – Plastic People of the Universe (Vaclav Havel’s favorite Czech rock band)
When – September 27th
Where - American Czech-Slovak Cultural Club (more…)

The Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, had a hip surgery in June. Well, one Czech lawyer (out of all the professions) tried to sell president’s hip bone on Aukro (Czech-style eBay); and guess what? He got caught! But you wouldn’t guess what the Czech president’s response to this hideous act was….read about it right here (click here).

CR: Vaclav Klaus podstoupil v cervnu tohoto roku operaci kycle. Jeden Cech (pravnik!!), ale nelenil cas, a kost z Klausova boku zacal drazit na Aukru (podobne eBayi). Nejen ze si Klausovu kost nikdo nekoupil, ale take mileho pravnika chytli pri cinu. A vite, jak Klaus na cely tento humbuk odpovedel?….Odpoved se dozvite zde (kliknete zde).

I recently discovered this great website called “Cesta Slunce” (created by parents of physically or mentally impaired children) where you can actually listen to the Czech children songs and riddles! I found there some of my all-time favorites such as “Bezi liska k Taboru” ( “A fox is running toward Tabor”), “Holka modrooka” (”Blue-eyed girl”) or “Sly panenky silnici” (Girls were walking along the road” - I know, the translation sounds kind of weird..). I also found my new favorite song - “Bublanina“! (more…)

I might have told you that my husband had tried to learn Czech in the past. Now I would like to tell you little more details about it because it is pretty unbelievable. We were searching for a Czech language course all over at that time but unless my husband was willing to travel a couple of hours, 3 times a week to a large university, there was no way for him to learn the language. Until the day when Keith finally came accoss a “hidden”,self-paced Czech course at a local college. When I heard the word “self-paced” though, I cringed. “Self-paced Czech? That’s rough!” I thought to myself. Little did I know that was just the beginning of a grim reality which my husband would slowly reveal to me. Let’s start with the teacher: the “Czech language” professor was not Czech, in fact she didn’t even speak it, she was American but taught about 6 different Slavic languages, including Czech (beats me!!). How about the textbook? The book was published in 1968, typed – as typed on a typewriter (!!) – remember? That manual thing that had a lot of buttons with letters on them and made an incredible amount of noise? Yeah, that one… (more…)

On August 19th a brave Czech swimmer managed to swim the Strait of Gibraltar both ways in less than 9 hours. He has become the 5th person in the world and the 1st Czech person to do that. By the way, do you know what his name is? David Cech ( = David Czech)! Read more about this “dude” right here (click here).

CZ: 19. srpna leta Pane 2008 jeden statecny plavec preplaval Gibraltarsky pruliv (ze Spanelska do Maroka a nazpatek) za necelych zazracnych 9 hodin. Stal se tak 5. osobou na svete (a 1. Cechem), ktere se neco takoveho vubec podarilo.Vite jak se tento chlapik jmenuje? David Cech! Vice si o Davidovi prectete zde (kliknete zde).