Czechmatediary

WARNING: this post is going to be VERY boring for someone who is NOT a Czech mother living abroad. For that reason I am not even going to attempt to translate it into English. If you are a Czech mother living abroad pull out your handkerchief and weep because the good times are over…..

CZ: Kamaradka mi poslala novinky ohledne prispevku na deti a porodneho. Jeden poplatek se snizuje a druhy (porodne) plati jen pro prvorodicky. Ano, je na case vytahnout si vsechny ubrousky a kapesniky co mate po kapsach a horce si zaplakat.

Příspěvek:

Dosud pobírají rodiče u čtyřleté varianty rodičovský příspěvek v základní výměře, tedy ve výši 7600 korun měsíčně, do 21 měsíců věku dítěte. Od ledna bude příspěvek v základní výměře poskytován pouze do dovršení desátého měsíce věku dítěte.

Sníženou výměru, tedy 3800 korun měsíčně, tak rodiče na čtyřleté rodičovské dovolené budou pobírat již od desátého měsíce věku dítěte na rozdíl od současného 22. měsíce. [continue reading…]

Greetings! I hope you all enjoyed Christmas and that the year 2011 (it’s going to take me months to get used to writing the correct year) is going to be the best one ever. On that note, I have a little surprise for you. I am updating the blog image, making it more fancy and getting rid of the old technical bugs that have been bothering me (and some of you) for some time.

Since it’s the first of the new year let us remind ourselves of one ultimate and absolute truth about the Czech nation: WE LIKE BEER. We like it so much that the world rated us number one beer-drinkers of all times. Don’t believe me? Click on this link (click here) and watch the video.

CZ: Doufam, ze jste si vsichni uzili vanocni svatky a ze tento rok bude vasim neuspesnejsim. Ocekavejte v nejblissi dobe male prekvapeni a to v podobe aktualizace tohoto blogu. Vzhled by mel byt podobny (lepsi) a po technicke strance bude vykonejsi – tedy takovy je  alespon muj zamer.

Jelikoz je dnes 1. ledna 2011 (!!), pojdme si pripomenout jednu z nejpravdivejsich pravd ceskeho naroda: CESI MILUJI PIVO. Miluji ho do takove miry, ze se stali temi nejvetsimi pivari na svete! Neverite mi? Podivejte se na toto video (kliknete zde).

Hi Folks,

I hope you are enjoying Christmas season and all of you have finished your letters to Santa (or Jesus). To make these moments complete I selected a few YouTube videos of Czech Christmas carols. The last song is sang by Karel Gott (also known as the Golden Voice of Prague), probably the most famous current Czech singer whose career has spanned over four decades. He sold over 30 million records and became one of the first multimillionaires in the socialist Czechoslovakia.

CZ: Doufam, ze si vsichni uzivate predvanocni pohody a ze jste jiz dokoncili dopis Jeziskovi. Aby byla ta vanocni pohoda uplne dokonala, tak jsem si pro vas pripravila par klasickych vanocnich pisinicek. Nejdriv je to samozrejme Rybova mse, pak par koled a pak nas nezapomenutelny Gottik :0)

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My friend send me this email the other day and I thought it was so funny that it earned the right to be on this blog. I cannot help myself but agree with some of the brilliant grammatical corrections….
CZ: Jedna z mych kamaradek mi nedavno poslala hrozne vtipny email; byl tak vtipny, ze jsem se o nej rozhodla s vami vsemi podelit. Nektere navrhnute gramaticke zmeny mi prijdou briliantni napad…

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”.. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
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A an inventive blog called ’52 weeks in Slovakia’ posted an article on Slovak cuisine, especially when it comes to the Christmas time. It is very educational and detailed but also fun to read.
Go ahead, test your knowledge about Slovak food. Do you know what are:

A/ Lokše ?
B/ Mastný Chlieb ?
C/ Langoš ?
D/Pagáč ?

If you know these terms through and through then you are off the hook. If not, your homework is to read the whole article (click here) and make notes. A review test is coming soon….and the teacher’s grading methods are pretty strict ;0)

CZ: Blog zvany ’52 weeks in Slovakia’ nedavno publikoval velmi pekny clanek o Slovenske kuchyni, zejmena behem Vanocnich svatku. Vite napriklad, co to je lokos nebo pagac? Nebo jak pripravit ‘mastny chlieb’? Jestlize ne, vrele doporucuji si tento clanek nastudovat. Test prijde pozdeji a pani ucitelka je pry velmi prisna :0).

How do Czechs evaluate themselves this year? According to a recent poll about 1,000 Czech voters see themselves as:
– witty
– ambitious
– smart
– outgoing
– fun to be around
– pleasant

What is interesting is that five years ago the Czechs evaluated themselves more as hard-workers and rational thinkers (I guess we have lightened up a bit since then :0).

How do the Czechs see other nationalities?
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My daughter Hahna loves to watch Czech cartoons I used to watch when I was little. I like to watch them with her when I get a spare moment (and don’t blog..or knit…). And during those times something finally dawned on me. Most of these cartoons feature bugs and animals that are – I have to admit – ugly! I could not help but compare them with some other well-known American cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Bugs Bunny or Bambi. OK, so here we have a mouse, a duck, a teddy bear, a bunny and a fawn. These are some really cute animals in a real life, right? Now let’s look back at the Czech selection: we have a mole (Krtek), an ant (Ferda Mravenec), fire-flies (Broucci), a butterfly (Motyl Emanuel) and a worm (zizala Julie). I am sorry but have you lately look at a photograph of a mole? Don’t get me wrong, I love animals but that thing is far from cute! Couldn’t those cartoon-makers pick at least a hedgehog or something more appealing? (Granted, we also have Fik, the humongous dog or Bob and Bobek, two cute rabbits who live in a deserted magician’s hat. But that still does not explain those other insect-like characters.)
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I thought I would translate yet another delicious Czech Christmas cookie recipe but after searching the internet for a bit I realized I don’t have to. I don’t have to translate anything or convert the European measurements because it has already been done! Barbara Rolek, who is apparently a well-known food editor, food writer and restaurant critic for daily newspapers and magazines, has done it all for us. Since her parents were Polish I bet the Czech food is close to her heart (as it is on the map) and that is why she searched for our bear paws. Or maybe the recipe has been with the Polish culture for quite some time? Either way, thank you Barbara for this recipe!

When I was a child, Christmas cookies were my grandma’s specialty. [continue reading…]

A certain Italian food company made a poll in the Czech Republic regarding the knowledge of olive oil. The results showed that the Czechs don’t know its proper usage. Out of 628 participants (15 to 65 years old) more than half thinks that olive oil is good only for cold dishes such as salads. Some of them even do not like the taste of it.
The good thing is that 83% of the Czech population does buy it and uses it. But what is there to know about olive oil that is so important?
A/ you can use it for grilling and frying (it starts to burn at 210 degrees Celsius which is 410 degrees F)
B/ you should store it in darkness
C/ you should store it in temperatures that do not go above 20 degrees Celsius which is 68 degrees F) [continue reading…]