Czechmatediary

If there was an apple for every season how do you think the Christmas apple would look like? How about having an imprint of a real Bethlehem comet on its skin? Because that is what Josef Thor’s apples look like. Josef is a well-known apple grower who won the title of the “Apple of the Year” many times in his apple-growing career. How does he achieve such Christmas magic? The “magic” is actually a very simple science: just before the apple becomes ripe, Josef puts the comet sticker on its skin and then he waits. As the apple ripens, the star’s surrounding area becomes red while the area under the sticker stays yellow. [continue reading…]

Do you know what is special about this great group? That it was started by an American guy, Mike. Mike’s dear wife has some Czech heritage in her, which led him to not only start a Czech/Slovak Meetup group in Raleigh but also to enroll in a Czech course at the local university. His “obsession” with the Czech language (as he likes to say) led him to guest post on Czechmate diary more than once and I am so grateful for it because he is a such a great and witty writer. His humor is so dry at times I think that he must be Czech…at least like 1/30th of him, anyway. That’s enough of my babbling, let’s hear it from Mike:

CZ: Vite, co je nejzajimavejsi na teto skupine? Ze byla zalozena Americanem! Mikova manzelka ma v sobe nejakou tu ceskou krev, coz Mika podnitilo, aby nejen ze zalozil cesky a slovensky Meetup,ale take se na mistni universite pilne zapsal do kurzu ceskeho jazyka. Jeho – jak to Mike sam tvrdi – “posedlost” s ceskym jazykem ho take navedla na Czechmate diary, kde nas poctil mnoha velmi zajimavymi (ale take hrozne vtipnymi) clanky o svych zkusenostech s ceskym jazykem a ceskou kulturou. Mikuv humor je nekdy tak suchy, ze ho podezrivam z toho, ze je take z casti Cech/Slovak… mozna alespon z 1/30tiny?? [continue reading…]

Christmas is just around the corner and I figured I would post some Christmas recipes a little earlier (click here for more Christmas recipes) so that everyone has enough time to practice. This time I am going to show you how to make the most delicious Christmas cookies called Linecka kolecka(or some call them Linecke kolacky).They taste heavenly (I am serious) and are quite easy to make once you get the hang of it. Couple of things you need to be aware of, however: 1/ they are VERY fattening 2/the dough is made mostly of butter (hence the warning no.1) so if it becomes too soft it is almost impossible to work with (the solution to the problem is listed bellow). So roll up your sleeves and let’s go! [continue reading…]

I met Jana through the Czechmate diary couple of months ago. She has been very diligent with leaving comments on my site (thank you Jana!) as well as sending me a lot of useful info as far as Czech-American stuff goes. One day we struck up a conversation and I found out that she has a VERY interesting story. Just like Karin Gandalicova from my previous post, Jana was born abroad but both of her parents are Czech. “I bet she has so many interesting stories to tell!”, I thought to myself and then I acted upon that thought and a THRILLING interview with Jana was born (it’s kind of long so I had to brake it up into parts):

CZ: Janu jsem potkala pres Czechmate diary pred par mesici; je jedna z mych nejvzornejsich cternaru – zanechava koment skoro pod kazdym clankem (dekuji Jano!) – tak jsem si jednoho dne rekla, ze si ji trosku “proklepnu”. Zjistila jsem, ze tato mlada slecna byla narozena v cizine (US), ale jako je to s Krarin Gandalicovou z meho nedavneho clanku, oba jeji rodice jsou Cesi. “Ta musi mit tolik zajimavych zivotnich prihod!” pomyslela jsem si, a taky ze jo! Presvedcte se sami:

1/Tell us something about yourself. Where were you born? How did your childhood look like when having 2 Czech parents and growing up in the US? Do you have any funny childhood story (I am sure you got plenty) to share as far as being brought up in the midst of the 2 cultures (Czech and American)?
I was born in West, Texas USA in a multigenerational home, parents, grandchildren, grandparents. My mom teaches special needs children in the public school and my dad is editor, publisher, and owner of an over 200 year old Czech language newspaper, Hospodar, founded in Nebraska. It is one of two papers still being published in Texas entirely in the Czech language. As far as I know it was the one of the few western newspapers allowed into Czechoslovakia under communism.He did a blog cast a year or two ago about his paper.
As far as I know, I am not related to the author Ludvik Vaculik. Wouldn’t it be nice though? I love his fejetons and our family’s sense of humor is similar to his.  My father’s parents, great grandmother, great aunt emigrated while my mother’s parents and the rest of the family stayed in Czechoslovakia. My grandfather was born in Slovakia and emigrated in 1948 because of the communist coup. He managed to get across the border into an Austrian camp and then to Canada before communist agents were able to take him back. As a result of helping my grandfather escape, my great uncle Daniel spent five years in the silver/uranium mines in Jachymov. [continue reading…]

Prague itself has about million coffee shops and and another million of bars and the numbers are growing every day. How do you know which one of these places is worth visiting? In case you are wondering the same question, the Czech Bar Awards for 2009 should make the choice easier for you. Within the last 6 months about 2,030 Czechs  voted on-line or via text messaging on their favorite hang out and beer-drinking spot. Here are the results:

• The best coffee shop: Cafe Savoy (Parizska Street,Prague)
  
• The best pub: Potrefena Husa Na Verandach (Prague)
  
• The best bar as far as interior design goes: Coctail Bar Zluta ponorka (Ceske Budejovice) [continue reading…]

Happy belated Halloween! Although I am not a big of fan of Halloween ( why the heck would I celebrate ghosts and witches and dead people??) I do like to dress up. You see, the Czechs don’t have Halloween at all; we celebrate the All Saint’s Day on November 2nd which is nothing like Halloween. People basically go to the cemeteries during the day and lay candles on their beloved’s graves to honor and remember them. “Well, do you guys ever dress up??”, you may wonder. And yes, we do! Except it is not on any particular day; it may be any day of the year and we call it the Carnival. I used to love carnivals when I was a kid. My mom would always make us our costumes, some year better than others, depending on if she was in a “carnival mood” or not. One time she made my brother a robot costume made out of old cardboard boxes and a bunch of aluminum foil. My brother won that year. [continue reading…]

Rosie Johnson is a columnist for Radio Prague and she recently wrote about her experience on learning how to drive in the Czech Republic. Many of you are probably not aware of the fact that in order to get your driving license the Czechs HAVE to take official driving lessons supervised by a certified instructor. And the lessons are NOT cheap. I personally haven’t had the “pleasure” to undergo this particular course but I have heard stories…And this story is one of them (click here).

CZ: Rosie Johnson je zurnalistkou Radia Prahy a nedavno napsala o jeji zkusenosti s ceskou autoskolou. Ja osobne jsem v Cechach nemela tu “poctu” timto kurzem projit, ale slysela jsem dosti hororovych prihod od mych ceskych kamaradu, kteri timto ucenim-mucenim prosli a vestina z nich take kupodivu prezila. Jestlize mate chut si jednu z techto historek precist, kliknete zde.

Hi you guys!

Here is the calendar of Czech events for November 2008. The activities have seemed to slow down a little for this month but do not despair – December is coming and you won’t know what event to pick from first! We are going to be very busy…

CZ: Ahoj! Dokoncila jsem kalendar ceskych akci na tento mesic a musim rici, ze jich nic moc neni. Ale nebojte se, pristi mesic je prosinec, tak se to vsechno zase rozjede.. [continue reading…]

Mirek Topolanek, the Prime minister of the Czech Republic, has quite the reputation these days. Apparently, thanks to his numerous unsuited comments and behavior over the past few years gave him the reputation of a redneck. Recently he was caught on camera to attack one of the photographers while he was strolling his 15-month old son up to the castle. The poor reporter was asking Topolanek something about the upcoming election while the camera man took a picture of his son in the stroller. And Topolanek did not like that AT ALL. In America he would get impeached for this AND the Child Protection Services would be knocking on his door. I mean, am I right, or am I right?? [continue reading…]