Czechmatediary

Today is i BIG day for the Czechs since Obama and his wife Michelle just flew to Prague for a short (and hopefully sweet) visit. After the official welcome by the Czech president Vaclav Klaus as well as the prime minister Miroslva Topolanek, Obama is planning on having a romantic dinner with his wife at the Golden Well restaurant in the historical center of the city.Sunday will be even a more important day for the Czechs since Obama is planing on giving a public speech in which he is expected to focus on a ‘touchy’ issue of nuclear arms non-proliferation (radar base). About 3o,000 people are expected to come to hear Obama’s speech so the security precautions are ranking very high. [continue reading…]

So I finally finished the list of Czech activities for April! I hope that at least one of the listed Czech Easter celebrations are located close to your house so that you can experience the real-deal Easter 😉

CZ: Ahoj, tak jsem konecne dokoncila list ceskych akci v cizine (tedy hlavne v USA). Doufam, ze si tady najdete nejakou tu ‘pravou’ ceskou Velikonocni veselici!!

Baltimore, MD

What – Slavic Food Festival

When – April 4

North Miami, FL

What – Alan Becker (honorary consul) speaks on the Czech-Cuban relationship [continue reading…]

What qualities do you have to posses to become the Czech queen of Nebraska? “She must be an intelligent young woman who possesses dignity, poise and personality. She must exhibit youthful charm, character and wholesomeness. It helps, too, to be a good extemporaneous speaker” (…not that easy after all!).

This year’s Queen became Missi Vavra, a student at UNL who plans to become a registered dietitian. Read up more on Missy right here (click here).

CZ: Cesi z Nebrasky nedavno zvolili jejich novou kralovnu! Jmenuje se Missi Vavra a je studenkou na UNL. Vice is o ni muzete precist zde (kliknete zde).

The European statistical agency ESPAD 2007 has recently released some sad data: compared to the other European countries, the Czech teenagers are the most experienced as far as drugs go. About a half of the Czech 16-year-olds who participated in the study (total of 3,914 teenagers) have used an illegal drug in their life, mostly marijuana or hashish. Every 11th student has tried a hard drug such as cocaine or speed. Drug abuse has improved within the last 10 years in all of the 26 participating European countries except in Czech and Slovakia. What is even more unnerving is that ever since 1995 the amount of drug usage in these 2 countries has actually doubled. The ‘good’ news is that since 1999 our kids do not use as many of the hardcore drugs (heroin,pervitin..) as they did in the past and ever since 2003 even the ‘dancing drug’, ecstasy, has decreased in popularity almost in one half.

The ESPAD project has interviewed more than 100,000 students from all over Europe (26 countries). Overall, the study reveals that on average  23% of all of the boys have tried an illegal drug in their life, while only 17% of all of the participating girls have followed their foot steps. The Czech Republic ‘won’ the study, where 46% (!!) of students have experiences with illegal drugs. [continue reading…]

This video is hilarious (thanks for the tip Jamie)! It makes fun of Prague’s International Airport, calling it the Franz Kafka Airport, “a place of suspicion and confusion, where time simply disappears”.

CZ: Toto video je opravdu vyborne. Dela si totiz srandu z naseho Ruzynskeho letiste a z jistych duvodu ho nazyva Letiste Franze Kafky – “misto neustaleho podezreni a zmatku, kde se cas jednoduse vypari do vzduchu…”

The next interviewee (does that word even exist?) in the new series of Czech and Slovak organizations in the US (and abroad) is the Czech-Slovak American Club of Tucson. Remember the Czech and Slovak Association in Boston? Well, these folks are just as nice and have a 50-year-old history behind them! Once again, I have learned and I hope that you will too…

CZ: Dalsi cesky spolek, s kterym jsem nedavno udelala rozhovor je Cesko-Slovensko-Americky Klub v Tucsonu. Pamatujete si na CS organizaci v Bostonu? No, tak tito lide jsou take velmi prijemni a jeste navrch je jejich organizace 50 let stara! Zase jsem se toho dosti priucila, tak doufam, ze vas rozhovor take zaujme….

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Today collapsed the government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek after losing a vote of no-confidence created by the opposition party of Social Democrats. The ODS party has lost by the bare minimum of 101 votes. Although the Czech Republic  currently has an important role of  presiding the European Union, the prime minister  believes the EU leadership can function in terms of administration, even without a stable government. The EU committee itself also hopes for the best, believing that the Czech Republic will solve its internal political turmoil and will continue leading the European Union for next 3 months.

CZ: Dnes konci vlada Mirka Topolanka (ODS) a to pote, kdy ji snemovna vyjadrila neduveru skrze prestne potrebnych 101 hlasu (stalo se to tak poprve v samostatne historii Ceske Republiky). Topolanek od Klause ocekava, ze ho znovu poveri do sestaveni noveho kabinetu jako sefa strany. Jestlize se ODS nepodari sestavit vetsinovou nekomunistickou vladu, ODS odmitne “urednickou ci polopolitickou vladu, ktera navrhuje CSSD” a predcasne volby by se konaly v lete. Evropska komise ale plne veri, ze Cesi si tuto prekerni situaci vyresi a ceske predsednictvi EU bude nadale funkcni. Za poslednich 10 let nezazila EU situaci, kdy by v prave predsedajici zemi nastala rozsahlejsi obmena nebo pad vlady.

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Can you guess, what is currently the most popular Czech name? Girls are most often named by Tereza and the most popular boy name is Jakub. ‘Tereza’ has been winning the name charts for 11 years now (!!), while ‘Jakub’ won the ‘Best of’ prize for the second time this year.  According to the Czech statisticians themselves the old fashioned Czech names such as Anezka, Amalie or Kveta are going through a great comeback, while nontraditional  names such as Sofie, Vanesa or Liliana are also popular. The boy names on the other hand have forerunners such as Oliver, Kristian, Vendelin or Florian. Here is the full list: [continue reading…]

Emily Prucha is a writer for the Prague Daily Monitor but she is also married to a Czech man. In her recent article Emily describes communication skills (or the lack of) of her Czech husband Radek. Listen to this:

CZ: Emily Pruchova je dopisovatelka pro Prague Daily Monitor a je take vdana za ceskeho muze. Ve jejim nekdejsim clanku popisuje Radkovi ‘zvlastni’ komunikacni vlastnosti – jeji postrehy jsou vskutku velmi zajimave:

‘From the beginning of our relationship, I knew that Radek and I had strikingly different temperaments. Still, it took us several years to realize that many of our arguments resulting from miscommunications had as much to do with our cultural upbringings as our individual personal traits. In many cases, some of my husband’s most admirable attributes are the ones that strike the greatest discord when we disagree. It’s highly likely, that the same goes for me. Early on in our dating days Radek and I went to a sporting goods store so I could look for new running tights. He helped me pick out a few pairs, and I went into the dressing room to try them on. When I modeled them for his approval, I was shocked and hurt when he honestly replied, “They are no good. You have short legs and the pants make your legs look even shorter.” Tearful, I fled the dressing room and the shopping trip was aborted. A few minutes later my Czech girlfriend who witnessed the scene tried to calm me down by saying Radek wasn’t trying to be insensitive, and that she understood why I was upset, but that she also understood Radek’s perspective. While there have been many times since that moment, that I have truly appreciated Radek’s directness, this was one of the times that I hated the Czech propensity for honesty.
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