Czechmatediary

If one leaves the Czech Repulic at the age of 18 like I did, many important things, mainly from politics, history and culture just pass right by you. Of course, I wasn’t a complete numb head, I was attending one of the hardest high schools in the country and I was getting good grades. But still, when you are eighteen, your priorities and targets of interest are just different than when you are 30 years old. Am I right or am I right?

One of those important things – or rather persons – that passed me by was a gentleman named Michal Horacek. A very intelligent and multi-talented Czech personality which is worth knowing about. Anyhow, he recently produced (and wrote the lyrics to the songs) a CD called “Cesky kalendar” (Czech calendar), which is filled with a bunch of fresh new Czech songs. And the word ‘fresh’ is very important because our family is kind of tired of the same old songs. We listen to Czech music in the car and since we drive a lot, we need new material, new inspiration! That is why I was so excited about this. What is also very cool is that the music was written by talented individuals from the general public. Horacek announced a composer competition and ended up picking 32 best sounding pieces out of the total of 1,100 of them. Truly a nationalistic piece of art. [continue reading…]

The following article is very interesting (thank you Nikola!). If you are a linguist you are already salivating. If you hate linguistics, give it a chance, you will learn a valuable history lesson in a matter of a few minutes. And it will be more clear to you why is Europe devided into a Western part and an Eastern part….even the words on the map show it!

CZ: Tento clanek je velmi zajimavy (diky Nikolo!).At jste lingvista nebo vas lingvistika absolutne nezajima, tato mapa vam vse vysvetli v kostce za 30 sekund. Take vam bude jasnejsi, proc se Evropa vubec rozdeluje na Vychodni a Zapadni…vzdyt i ta slova na mape to to tak ukazuji!

It is true that the weaklings sometimes become the strongest and the most successful of all. Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison are just a few examples and now you can add to them the unbelievable story of Otto Wichterle – the inventor of soft contact lenses.

Otto was born into a well-to-do family but his life almost ended at the age of 6 when he fell into a sewage dump. The doctor gave him no longer than a year to live since he suffered with terrible fevers ever since. But his little body fought hard and he got better every day. His teacher began coming to the house to home school him so he would not get behind with his studies. When was Otto ready to leave his bed and get back into the real world (he was 9 years old) the principal tested his knowledge and became astonished how much he knew! He put him straight into 5th grade which was a blessing and a curse. He was the smartest boy there but also the smallest and two years younger than everyone else. He had no friends and kids were constantly making fun of him.

Not having anyone to hang out with after school, Otto found his new love in playing tennis. He became so good that he was put on the mens’ tennis team. That in turn gave him enough confidence to pay attention to his studies, especially mathematics and physics. Otto graduated high school with flying colors and in 1931 began his lifelong quest of studying chemistry at the Prague university. [continue reading…]

I have a couple of updates for you, one is The Petra Project – a sick young Czech mom who is in a desperate need of a bone marrow translpant. Read up on her case here (click here).

Another important info is the Calendar of Czech events in the USA. I used to collect that information myself but ran out of time so I am giving the marathon stick over to Czechevents.net.
That’s it!

No other pastry made the Czechs and Slovaks more famous in the New Wold than KOLACHE (kolace). I even find them in my local grocery store! Yet, they don’t look anything like the original kolache I know (see the image attached). After reading an article about them in the New York Times, I was up for a rude awakening: they have evolved quite a bit in the US (look at the second photo)! Once you read about them (click here), please let me know if you like what’s going on or if you just want to stick your head in the sand like me and pretend none of this has ever happened.

CZ: Chudaci kolace si prosli v USA nejen jednou plastikovou operaci, ale tak deseti. Nevypadaji totiz vubec jako nase tradicni makove, tvarohove nebo orechove typy! Prectete si o nich clanek v New York Times a dejte mi vedet, co si o tom myslite. Mne se to nelibi. Asi jsem kolacokonzervativec.

You know this is going to be Czechmate Diary’s 6th Christmas this year??? With that I have new exciting Christmas cards for you with traditional Czech motives like the Prague Castle, the Czech winter countryside and more! Please check them out, including the cute mugs, keychains, bags and more! The designs were all drawn/painted by me and I hope you like them.

Let me know as soon as you decide to order any of them because time flies and I want to get them to you before the Christmas season starts. I have been already having some early bird orders so don’t stay too behind!

Remember any other drawing/painting that I created can be printed on either one of these products. So if you like any other image let me know and it can be done. It is all custom made :).

The cards are each$1.89 but if you order 2o or more you will get it only for $1.50 each! The cards are 5.5″x 4″ in measurements.
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Eva Herzigova –  one of the world’s best top models – was born and raised in Litvinov, Czech Republic. She was featured in almost all prestigious magazines and modeling agencies all over the world. She was married to Tico Torres, Bon Jovi’s drummer. Now, 4o years old, she is mostly just a mom of three boys.

Here is a fun fact you probably did not know about her career though. Find out here.

CZ: Vsadim se, ze tohle jste o Eve Herzigove nevedeli.

Up until last night I was totally oblivious to the new city fad – keeping beehives on the roofs of skyscrapers and apartment buildings! I always associated bees with flowering meadows deep in the countryside but not anymore! In an attempt to save bees from decreasing in numbers many city folks accross the world (Londoners being in the lead) decided to become so-called urban beekeepers.

And Prague is one of those cities. The Prague airport has its hive, so does the Prague Castle and now even some restaurants are proud owners of their own beehive, one of them being the famous hotel Intercontinental. The kitchen chef there is very excited about it, yet in order to supply the 200 kilos of honey a month that the kitchen needs he would need about 50 more beehives, he says. [continue reading…]

There seems to be a growing perception among sport fans that horse racing is becoming a thing of the past. It’s true, the days of the entire United States being captivated by a story like the famous Seabiscuit are probably over, and in some ways horse racing may not have quite that many admirers  that it used to (the same goes for tennis I think).

However, the sport is by no means dying out, and remains very popular in the U.S., as well as in European culture. In fact, a quick glance at the Betfair news online gambling exchange demonstrates the continued popularity of the sport with perfect clarity. Horse racing is in the hub on this site that includes betting for all kinds of sports.

In the Czech Republic, in particular, horse racing remains alive and well not just as a popular sport, but, increasingly, as something of a national pastime. My good friend, for example, gave up her ‘glamorous’ life in Prague and now lives in a country and takes care of her horses (see one of her beauties on the picture below). This old-new trend stayed alive throughout Communism mostly thanks to the Velka Pardubicka, a steeplechase race that has been occurring annually every year since 1874, and which is set to take place on Sunday, October 13th this year.

Thanks to its high difficulty ratings it is considered one of the hardest steeplechase races in the world. It’s about 4 miles long, and with 31 obstacles, it usually takes about 10 minutes for the horses to finish. Because it’s so tough, horses have to be at least 6 years old, and they have to qualify by finishing in at least one tough qualifying race that year. [continue reading…]