Czechmatediary

Josef Lada is a phenomenal, self-taught  Czech writer and an illustrator. Born into a poor cobbler’s family, Lada’s love for drawing made him a self-taught prodigy of a unique style of drawing. In fact, his style is so ‘Lada’ that it is almost impossible to make a mistake when identifying his drawings.

One of his more famous drawings is called “Hospodska Rvacka” (‘Bar Fight’) from 1943, in which he depicts about 50 individuals fighting in a local pub. Why are they fighting? Maybe the innkeeper told them there was no beer left to serve? Who knows… [continue reading…]

You are not going to believe this. A certain Prague traveling agency is launching world’s first holidays for stuffed animal toys! For only 90 euros (and up) you can send your favorite teddy bear for a week trip to Prague. You know how boring it is for him to sit in the same bed for years? The poor thing wants to live a little too!

So once you send your dear one off to Prague you get a daily e-mail updates from him with pictures attached: teddy at the Prague Castle, teddy sitting by the Jan Hus statue at the Old Town Square, teddy having a typical Czech dinner…..

The creator of this ‘teddy bear tourism’ is a half-Czech, Prague-based enterpreneur, Tomio Okamura. “There are 1.2 billion teddy bears around the world, which is of course a very big group of potential clients,” says Tomio. [continue reading…]

Today was a big day for the Czech Republic. Prague was chosen to be the place where the US president Barack Obama and  the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed the so-called New START treaty. The treaty is supposed to reduce the 2 countries’ nuclear weapons by about 30% more than the previous deal.

The signing of the treaty was held in the historic Spanish Hall at the Prague Castle, only one year after Obama had his important speech on nuclear disarmament in Prague.

While the relationship between the US and former Russia seems to be improving some critics say the treaty itself is kind of impractical since the biggest nuclear threats are currently Iran and Northern Korea (not Russia).
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Because it is mostly the Czech women who dominate  beauty competitions it was surprising for me to see that the male beauty competition was won by a Czech guy. His name is Josef Karas and was beaten only by one other stud – Kamal Ibrahim from Ireland. Josef is a 32-year-old fitness consultant from a Czech village called Obrnice na Mostecku.

Proficient in many sports and some Korean helped him reach the winner’s stand with no problem. ” Now I know what the winners of Czech Miss have to go through after they win their title. It means that one sleeps no more than 6 hours  and the rest of the day is filled with social and humanitarian activities,” says Karas. [continue reading…]

Hello everyone,

Happy Easter! Although I do feel a little better (thank God!) I have still not picked up enough energy to do the monthly calendar. It usually takes me couple of hours to get that all together and my body is unwilling to cooperate for that long. That is why I am turning over to my buddies, Krajane.net, who do a monthly calendar as well. Their list of events is more global and concentrates less on the USA region.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE APRIL CALENDAR OF EVENTS

CZ: Ahoj vsichni a Vesele Velikonoce! At uz mate doma pripravenou pomlazku nebo delate tzv. Easter egg hunt (nebo obe dve tradice?) jaro uz je tady a s nim i mnohe veselice. Jeste mi neni az tak dobre na to, abych sestavovala svuj vlastni list ceskeho/slovenskeho deni, a proto zezlo prenechavam na tento mesic mym kamaradum zvanym Krajane.net.

AKCE NA DUBEN 2010 MUZETE SHLEDNOUT ZDE (KLIKNETE ZDE).

All Czechs and Slovaks are acquainted with socialized health care from their birth country. Obama’s bill wants just that, except it is extremely divisive. Strong majority of Americans want health care reform, they want cheaper insurance policies, lower co pays and deductibles. But the majority of them do not want Obama’s reform. It will put this country billions of dollars in debt and it also happens to be unconstitutional.

What do you think?

CZ: Vsichni mame z nasi rodne zeme zkusenosti ze socialnim zravotnim pojistenim. Obama se snazi udelat neco podobneho, akorat ze jeho zakony zadluzi Ameriku nekolika desitkami bilionu dolaru a to, ze bude vlada nutit Americany, aby si poridili zdravotni pojisteni je protikonstitucni.

Co si o tom myslite vy?

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I got a funny story for you. For the longest time, even after living in America for couple of years, I kept wondering about this huge highway billboard. It entertained the passing-by driver with a picture of three people having a very good time, laughing like crazy and giving you inviting looks to join them as soon as possible. The three people were usually 2 decently looking women and 1 man, all about 5o years of age. The sign said: “The loosest slots” (and then a name of some place which I did not know). Since spelling was never my strong side, I automatically thought that it said ‘The loosest sluts”, which kind of changes the whole meaning. For years I was completely appalled and flabbergasted about this commercial, for couple of reasons. One, America seemed like such a conservative and moral country to me, where brothels were forbidden and prostitutes were nowhere to be seen; two, why did they hire such old models? I mean, if they HAD to do it, why not hire someone who is more attractive? I was racking my brains about this for years!!!! [continue reading…]

Peter Petrik was featured on these pages in relation to his presentation “From Behind the Iron Curtain to Membership in the European Union”. Thanks to that initial contact we were able to connect for a short interview about his life and the Czech and Slovak community in Dallas, TX.

CZ: Peter Petrik byl na techto strankach uvedeny jiz jednou a to ve spojeni s prezentaci “Od Zeleznej Opony k Clenstvu v Europskej Unii”. Petra jsem pote zkontaktovala a vytvorili jsme spolu  kraty rozhovor o jeho zivote v USA a  jak se ma ceska a slovenska komunita v Dallasu, kde Petr nyni zije.

1) Peter, how did you come to the USA?
I came here to study. I left Slovakia in 1993 when the situation was not the most stable. I didn’t want to start in a place with so much uncertainty. Once I got my bearings in the US after a few months, it was clear to me that I wanted to stay and build my personal and professional life here.

2) What type of career do you have right now?
I definitely have a non-traditional combination. I teach international business and global strategy at the University of Texas at Dallas. I also offer keynote speeches and workshops. Finally, I advise small- and medium-size businesses on operational efficiency. Most entrepreneurs and business owners are very good at what they do. It is not always like that with running the actual business, developing new business opportunities, or technology aspects. In such instances, I implement systems that simplify company operations and allow the owner and managers to focus on the core competency of the business. [continue reading…]

A notoriously famous action-movie actor Jean-Claude Van Damme became part of the committee who picked this year’s Miss Czech Republic (there are actually 2 beauty queen shows running simultaneously, which means that every year we get 2 winners but no one really knows why).

CZ: Cesko zvolilo (za velke pomoci akcniho hrdiny Van Damma) 2 nove kralovny krasy za rok 2010: Miss Ceske Republiky se stala studentka katolickeho gymnazia Jitka Valkova, zatimco ceska Miss Universe se stala Veronika Machova:
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