Czechmatediary

Antonia is a 32-year-old mom of 16-month-old triplets, currently living in the state of Virginia. She was born and raised in Slovakia and attended Trnava University, like probably a handful of my other Slovak readers here. Antonia is a super-woman. Non only does she manage to juggle being a mom of triplet babies but she is also battling with a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (type of cancer). She had a tumor situated right above her heart that was interrupting the flow of blood. Surgery was not an option due to the tumor being wrapped around her superior vena cava vein and cordic arteries. She is finished with chemo, but the type she had is a type that you can only have once in your life as it changes your heart muscle and other things.

The plan for her family is to move back to Slovakia at the end of this month where they can build a small house and live close to Antonia’s family. Read what Antonia’s husband, David, writes in his blog.

‘This is where I need your help. I have reached the conclusion that I can not do this alone. This past year has been difficult as we have given up everything, including our home and car, to pay for medical bills to fight Antonia’s disease. And we are still fighting. There is one thing we do have however, and that is a piece of land in Slovakia called Hope. I have sent this to you asking that you help raise $2500 to build a house for Antonia. The cost to build a house in Slovakia is around $75,000 from the ground up. Our goal is to do it for $50,000. And with the help of 20 volunteers raising $2500 each this can be done. The construction will be done by myself, her father and her brother.
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Slovaks were testing their bomb-detection protocols by planting plastic explosives into 9 passengers’ suitcases WITHOUT informing them about it and this is how the story ONLY begins…

CZ: Na Slovensku se tentokrat testovalo, zda-li by 90 gramu trhaviny proslo letistnim bezpecnostnim systemem a podivejte, co z toho bylo za prusvih:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/01/06/slovak-security-team-plants-plastic-explosive-on-flight-to-dublin/

Daniela Lazarova from Radio Prague always digs out such interesting stuff. This time her article targeted the Museum of Records and Curiosities in Pelhrimov. We already know about fakir Petr who was planning on overcoming his past record at the museum by laying on hundreds of glass shards for 72 hours. This time the museum is exhibiting a 2  by 1,35 meters tapestry made by an amateur! This late-bloomer is a 46-year-old machine engineer from Slovakia who was unable to work for 4 years because of a work accident. Bored out of his mind, he kept watching ‘dumb’ TV channels until he came across a tapestry maker and decided to try it. He tried making Czech castles and various caricatures from the daily newspaper and then went on doing – now his life achievement – the Last Supper. This tapestry has over a million stitches and took him more than 9 years to finish. (more…)

One of you guys discovered this great video presentation on the transformation of Czechoslovakia since the end of the Cold War and its impact on international business. The presentation is done by a professor (Peter Petrik) who was born and raised in Czechoslovakia (today Slovakia) and who not only knows his history very well but can also give you some personal insight on it.

CZ: Jeden z vas, ctenaru, objevil vyborne video zabyvajici se transformaci byvaleho Ceskoslovenska od konce studene valky a jaky tato transformace mela efekt na mezinarodni obchod.

From Behind the Iron Curtain to Membership in the European Union from Slovak on Vimeo.

I am definitely not an expert on Slovak cuisine so I called on for some help. Lubos has a blog called ‘Slovak cooking’ and one of his tasty recipes introduce us to the magic of traditional Slovak Sour bean soup (click here). It kind of reminds me the Sauerkraut soup which I have introduced to you in the past. It definitely looks delicious and healthy and it is scheduled for one of my next week’s dinner courses :0)

CZ: Jelikoz nejsem expert na slovenskou kuchyni, zavolala jsem si na pomoc Lubose. Lubos ma blog zvany ‘Slovak cooking’, kde se to hemzi dobrouckymi recepty, jako je napriklad tato zakysana fazolova polevka (kliknete zde) - prava, slovenska! Pripomina mi trosku nasi zelnacku: je zdava a brni vas po ni pusa. Tak dobrou chut, ja ji mam naplanovanou na pristi tyden!

(FOR PART I CLICK HERE)

Do you know, what the first official Slovak organization in the US was? It was  Jednota (or The First Catholic Slovak Union of America), founded in Cleveland as early as 1890. Early after that The National Slovak Society (Narodni slovensky spolok) was founded in Pittsburgh. This time the organization was nondenominational and it still exists today. Its founder, Peter Rovnianek, had such a patriotic spirit that he also established a new Slovak community in Arkansas (about 300 people) and gave it a clever name – the Slovaktown (it looks like the town doesn’t exist anymore, however, since I tried to google it and I got only the ‘historical’ map of the place). (more…)

I did couple articles on Czechs in America but how about those Slovaks (many of you might not know that my grandfather was Slovak)? True, those two groups get intermingled quite a bit since we were part of a one country for quite some time (1918-1991). There is fortunately quite a lot of information on this topic. The first Slovak who set his foot on the American soil was Isaac Ferdinand Sarosi, who immigrated in 1695. Isaac served as a teacher and a preacher in a religious colony in Pennsylvania called Germantown and (because of his homesickness??) returned back to Slovakia in 2 years of time.  About 100 years later an army of 300 Slovaks, who called themselves the “Blue Hussars”, came to fight with George Washington’s army in the War for Independence. After the war was over the surviving men settled in Maine.

A large-scale emigration wave from Slovakia  was caused by the cholera epidemic in 1873 and the subsequent crop failures all over the country. This movement was fueled also by coming of industrialization, in which many farmers lost their jobs.

During this unhappy time a world traveler named Daniel Sustek decided to purchase about 80 acres of land in Iowa in a hope to build a new thriving Slovak colony there (the article does not say if in fact his dream was fulfilled). (more…)

At a strike of a each hour, a bunch of excited tourists swarm underneath the Prague’s famous astronomical clock. You can hear English, Japanese, German, Italian or Chinese spoken, but Czech language is a rarity. Once the clock strikes, the commotion begins: bells start to ring as a parade of 12 apostles circles in and out of the clock, with a scary figure of an antique skeleton finishing up the round, while ringing his sad little bell.

A similar performance can be seen now in Slovakia as well. Yesterday marked a historical unveiling of a new astronomical clock in Stara Bystrica – the first moving astronomical clock in Slovakia ever! (more…)

“For the first time, the Slovaks are ahead of the Czechs in something- that is well worth whatever sacrifices.” says Roman Guta, a 35-year-old Slovak distributor of a dental equipment. Roman is referring to the fact that the Slovaks are now using Euros, which is something that the Czechs are afraid to do. Who is the wise one here? Thanks to the worldwide economical depression together with their fairly new usage of Euros Slovakia has become a very expensive country. Hence Slovaks are now forced to shop in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic where they take advantage of the relative streng of their newly minted currency. (more…)

I 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).
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