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texting flickr imageMy friend Iva just told me a big secret: did you know that if you have a T-mobile account and live in the US you can text message to Czech/Slovakia for $0.20 per message (both incoming and outgoing messages)? The bad news is that I don’t have a T-mobile account but I thought some of you would find this information helpful….or maybe everyone but me knows about this already??

For further information visit T-mobile website.

CZ: Ma kamaradka Iva mi prozradila velike tajemstvi: vite, ze kdyz mate mobilovy ucet s T-mobile a zijete v USA, tak muzete textovat do Cech nebo na Slovensko za velmi nizke ceny? Prichozi a odeslane sms stoji pouhych $0.20! Spatna zprava je ta, ze ja T-mobile nemam, ale rikala jsem si, ze by tuto informaci nekdo z vas, ctenaru, ocenil….nebo to uz vsichni, krome mne, vi???


Pro blizsi informace se obratte na webove stranky T-mobilu.

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Sandy Ptak /facebook imageA beautiful Sandy Ptak doesn’t just have a Czech herritage in her (hence her last name ‘Ptak’, meaning ‘bird’ in Czech) but she also won the Miss Czech Slovak US for the year 2008-2009. She has been enjoying her queen days very much but the time is running out for her as the new miss is going to be elected in about a month or so during the famous Wilber Czech Festival in Nebraska (August 1st and 2nd). I did manage to get in touch with her just in time to do a short interview about her experience of being a Czech/Slovak queen in the US (by the way, she speaks fluent Czech!):

CZ: Krasna Sandy Ptakova nema jen ceske prijmeni, ale stala se take Ceskou/Slovenskou Miss US za rok 2008-09. Poslednich 11 mesicu si uzivala ‘kralovskeho’ zivota, ale cas uz se ji krati – 1. srpna se totiz na znamem ceskem festivalu ve Wilber, NE bude volit nova CS kralovna, ktera slavnostne prevezme zezlo na pristi rok. Sandy ale bude nadale sedet na trune neco pres mesic, tak jsem s ni stacila v rychlosti udelat rozhovor, aby jsme se dozvedeli, jaky ten kralovsky zivot vlastne je (jo, a abych nezapomnela, Sandy mluvi plynne cesky!!):

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. I already know that you are a 1st generation Czech and that you speak fluent Czech – that’s great! How did your parents ended up in the US? Were you born here? How was your upbringing?

– I am a fist generation American, born and raised in Anchorage, AK. My parents escaped Communist Czechoslovakia in 1980 and got to Alaska six months later in 1981. We have lived in Alaska the entire time we have been in the U.S. and I am so happy that we did. We never lost touch of our Czech heritage and we hold traditions by speaking Czech at home, cooking Czech foods, polka dancing and traveling to Europe to visit family among other things. In just a few months, I will be graduating from Portland State University with a double major in International Marketing and Management. [continue reading…]

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Brussels EU street partyYesterday evening the Czechs finished their 6-month chairmanship to the European Union (the time sure flew by quickly!). The Czech government put on the last cultural event (in this case it was a party) out of the 700 other events that were held during their ‘reign’ over Europe. At first the party was supposed to be out-of-this world show at the main Brussels square but thanks to the world wide recession the Czechs decided to settle for something less grandiose and moved it over to the little more ordinary Carol Street. About 6000 visitors flooded this street and danced to the grooves of Czech bands such as Clou, Mig 21 and Krystof. Many of them were holding a Czech wine in one hand and a slice of traditional Czech cheese or salami in the other. And of course, the biggest line was registered at the Czech beer stand. [continue reading…]

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S.O.S.!!! S.O.S.!!! / S.O.S.!!!S.O.S.!!!

czech national anthem flickr imageI was humming the Czech national anthem for myself the other day and I realized with terror that I DO NOT KNOW ALL OF THE WORDS ANYMORE!! How sad is that!!! What is strange though is that I can remember the Slovak national anthem word for word (I also have to say I have always liked the Slovak melody better, so maybe that is why it got stuck in my memory).

Anyhow, if you feel are as guilty as I do (I sure hope there is someone else out there!!) this YouTube video should help you. It is also provided with English subtitles, so for those who do not speak Czech and have always wondered what the heck is the Czech/Slovak anthem about there you go:

CZ: Tak jsem si nedavno pobrukovala ceskou hymnu a s hruzou jsem zjistila, ze si jiz NEPAMATUJI VSECHNA SLOVA!! ‘No, to je teda ostuda!!’, pomyslela jsem si. Co je na tom ale zvlastni je to, ze si stale pamatuji slova slovenske hymny (vzdycky se mi ta melodie libila vic, tak asi proto mi uvizla lepe v pameti).

V pripade, ze jste se pristihli (nebo se v budoucnosti pristihnete) v teto same deprimujici situaci, tady mate mensi tahak. Video ma i anglicke titulky, tak si tu nasi hymnu ted muzete pobrukovat i v anglictine :0).
[continue reading…]

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retro botasky image/www.lidovky.cz imageRemember Botasky, the boring communist shoes that everyone would wear? They are back and they are popular!!! But don’t worry, they did go through quite the make-over, created by 2 young Czech art students, Jan Kloss and Jakub Koros. ‘Our school task was to make  new sport shoes so we decided to make a new shoes from the old ones’.

The new style Botas shoes have a wider toe and come in 13 different designs from which one design is kept ‘sentimentally’ white. Each pair costs 1,600 Czech crowns (about $80!!) and tend to get sold out pretty quickly :o) [continue reading…]

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plate licking google imageWe all know that the Czechs have some bad habits; we don’t like to say the words ‘I love you’, we have some bad table manners such as licking of the plate and many of us like to smoke and drink…and not exercise on top of everything else. To add to our humility quest, the Czech Daily blog publicized yet another one of those ‘bad’ habits (Peter actually calls it the worst Czech habit of all!), although this one may not seem bad to everyone….read the whole article right here.

What do you guys think?

CZ: Vetsina z nas, Cechu, je si vedoma toho, ze mame hodne zlozvyku; neradi vyslovujeme slova ‘mam te rad‘, radi vylizujeme prazdne talire a mnoho z nas take rado kouri, pije a k tomu vsemu jeste nesnasi sportovani. A aby nas ta schlipenost jen tak neopustila, Czech Daily blog zverejnil dalsi zlozvyk, podle nej pry ‘nejhorsi zlozvyk kterym Cesi trpi’. Ne vsichni s nim budou souhlasit, ale to uz zalezi na osobe…prectete si Petruv clanek zde.

Souhlasite s nim nebo ne?

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prague-zoo-flamingosOnly about 7 years ago (2002) Prague underwent one of the most horrendous floods in the city’s history. Besides the historical downtown completely disappearing under water, the Prague’s zoo was flooded as well. The zoo staff managed to evacuate more than 1,000 animals, 800 birds, 150 reptiles and 100 mammals prior to the upcoming flood (making it the largest and the fastest evacuation of animals in the history of zoological gardens). Unfortunately, 14 mammals and 130 birds died during the floods, including the male seal Gastron, who swam more than 186 miles down the Vltava river to Germany, was resuced days later but died on the way back home thanks to exhaustion, stress and infection. Among the animals that had to be put down was 35-year-old Kadir (see image bellow), an elephant popular with zoo-goers, who became trapped by rising waters and could not be rescued. [continue reading…]

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schnitzel google imageRizky (Wiener Schnitzel) may be a traditional Austrian dish but it definitely belongs to the Czech and Slovak cuisine as well. The original Austrian Schnitzel is made from veal but most Czechs make it from pork or chicken. It is usually served with mashed or boiled potatoes or one just makes a plain bread-n-schnitzel sandwich from it. Who does not remember a schnitzel sandwich from his school days? Whether  you went on a long school bus trip or for a tremendous mountain hike, guess what you had in your lunch bag? A schnitzel sandwich wrapped in a dump paper tissue, which meant that you spent about a half an hour peeling it off of the poor schnitzel before you actually took a bite :0).

CZ: Recept na rizky jsme sice ukradli od Nemcu, ale i pres to je neodlucitelnou soucasti ceske a slovenske kuchyne. Kdo by si nepamatoval Vanocni kureci (!!) rizek s bramborovym salatem?? Nebo veprovy rizek s chlebem a horcici? At to byl skolni vylet, nebo turisticky vyslap na Snezku nebo autobusovy zajezd do Jugoslavie, hadejte, co bylo k obedu? Rizek s chlebem zabaleny v papirovem ubrousku!!!…a pak jste samozrejme stravili pul hodiny odlupovanim onoho vlhkeho, ulepeneho ubrousku z nestastneho rizku…

[continue reading…]

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the biggest Czech spiderWhat a ‘beauty’, right? Can you guess where was this picture taken? No, it wasn’t shot in some hot desert state like Arizona or Nevada; this spider lives in the Czech Republic! Him and 3 other spider species  are not only  very rare kinds in nature but they are also THE BIGGEST SPIDERS IN CENTRAL EUROPE (!!) and – let me repeat – they all live in the Czech Republic, namely in the county of Olomouc. All of these four guys are living happily together in one particular area without having the need  to compete over each other or eat each other up as it often happens in nature.

These spiders can grow up to 4 cm in diameter and their mandibles can be up to 1 cm wide. But don’t worry they are not poisonous and don’t like to bite humans –  they would rather snack on tasty Czech beetles and other bugs. [continue reading…]

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redneck flickr imageVlastimil, our devoted reader and a great commentator, gave me a wonderful  post idea. Remember our discussion about Americans and geography? Well, the following picture is a great addition – it is called the ‘ World Map according to the rednecks’. It is THE FUNNIEST THING EVER!!! – check it out:

CZ: Vlastimil je jednim z mych ‘vzornych’ ctenaru a komentatoru :0). Nedavno mne upozornil na vybornou mapu sveta – tedy jak ji vidi americti vesnicti balici (vyborne se hodi k nasi davne diskuzi o Americanech a zemepisu). OPRAVDU TO STOJI ZA TO:
[continue reading…]

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