czechmatediary.com

I know how everyone of us poor Czech/Slovak souls living abroad, suffer without real Czech bread and that is why I went on a recipe hunt. And I found one. When I first read it though, I thought I was going to either faint or have an anxiety attack. It looked so complicated!!! “Well, I will at least give it a try, just for the heck of it”, I told myself. And I have to tell you, it was actually a lot of fun! Sure it takes couple of days to prepare the sourdough, but it really takes up like 1 minute per day - very easy and very worth it! When my first loaf came out of that oven I just couldn’t believe the fact that it looked like a real loaf of bread! And when I tasted it I became even more amazed as it not only looked but also tasted like a REAL Czech bread! (more…)

The internet pages of the iDnes magazine re-created the communist shopping mall and it is AWESOME! Talking about reminiscing, this will definitely bring back some weird memories (I mean who didn’t have Krasohled!!!! - see picture above)…… (more…)

Hello everyone/ Nazdar vsichni!

I thought some of us moms - myself included - would like to brush up on Czech lullabies (Ukolebavky) so I went ahead and found some of them. Up till now I personally would usually just remember the first verse/sentece of a particular ukolebavka and then was left with brainless humming or substituting words than not only didn’t rhyme with the rest of the song but they also didn’t make sense (my poor child). Well, today is a new day, new beginning! I did not translate the content into English for one simple reason: I want to keep my sanity (I hope you understand).

CZ: Tak jsem si rikala, ze je na case, abych si oprasila znalosti ceskych ukolebavek. Pamet mi moc neslouzi, coz znamena, ze si vetsinou pamatuji prvni vetu z kazde ukolebavky a pak jsem odsouzena k prostemu broukani, nebo do pisne vlozim vymyslena slova, ktera nejen ze se nerymuji, ale take nedavaji vubec zadny smysl. Jestlize mate ten samy problem, tyto nize uvedena slova vam pomohou problem vyresit: (more…)

Have you ever found yourself translating Czech idioms into the English language? I have; and once you do there is no way out. No matter how serious the topic is, once you throw in the “…you can kill two flies with one swap that way….” (an equivalent of “kill two birds with one stone”) or “...that’s totally a Spanish village for me….” (meaning “I have no clue on this one”) you are bound to get confused looks from your English-speaking listeners and the serious conversation is over because everyone starts to laugh. Anyhow, here is some more of these play-on-words thingies that I found or thought of. Feel free to add some!

CZ: Taky vzdycky udelate tu samou chybu a prelozite jeden z nasich ceskych idiomu do anglictiny? A taky dostanete zmatene pohledy? Ja jsem v tomto ohledu “nevylecitelna”. Jestlize vam repertoar jiz dochazi, tak tady si jich par muzete pripomenout…

• Take your legs on your shoulders = vezmi nohy na ramena (take to your heels)
• Like soaked hen = vypadas jako zmokla slepice (you look glum)
• Throw it behind your head = hod to za hlavu (forget about it)
• To have a milk on your chin = tece mu mliko po brade (to be still very young and naive) (more…)
  If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!

The “My Czech Republic” website did a poll on people’s favorite Czech meal and here are the results:

1. Beef goulash with dumplings (Hovezí guláš s knedlíkem) - 18% [27 people ]
2. Beef sirloin with dumplings and vegetable cream sauce (Svícková na smetane, knedlík) - 21% [ 32]
3. The winner: Roast pork, dumplings and sauerkraut (”vepro-knedlo-zelo”) - 28% [42 ] (more…)

This year’s National speed beer-drinking contest ended with a little surprise. If you were to look around the room and scan all of the nervous contestants, one of them would stick out for sure. Olina Cunatova, a 19-year old attractive young lady certainly did not blend with the typical crowd of beer-belly dudes. She received a lot of smirks and teases but not for long because once it was her turn to compete everyone’s chin dropped: (more…)

Would you like to know what are the cool traditions of Czech Easter (for the not-so-cool Easter traditions click here)? Or maybe you are Czech but would like to “brush up” on those customs? For example, could you explain your fellow neighbor what are:

• rehtacka
• pomlazka
• Skareda streda (??) (more…)
  If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!

Tell us your story… What led you to come to the US?
I came in August 2001 to visit my friend as well as to work as an au-pair. I also wanted to get to know this country a little better, learn English…the usual stuff. Originally, the plan was to stay just for a year and I have been here for 6 ½ years now:). I live here by myself, my whole family still lives back in Czech. At first I had started attending a local college to take some ESL courses, which turned into getting my GED and I have been currently finishing up a second year of the Business Management program here and I love it.

How is the Czech community in Atlanta? Was it easy for you to find new Czech friends?
I have met a lot of great people here. The Czech community in Atlanta is pretty big. We have a Czech supermarket here, Czech restaurant, as well as a Slovak restaurant. (more…)

Prague Spring in 1968 brought to Canada about 21,000 Czech and Slovak immigrants. How are they doing now? They are just fine but their kids seem to have forgotten their Czech roots. Why is that? It certainly cannot be for the lack of exposure because Toronto is simply overflowing with Czech “fingerprints”. Here are some examples:

• Masaryktown quarter
  • flats
  • Czech library
  • Czech restaurant

• “Czech” park - favorite meet up place of local Czechs

• Czech theater (more…)
  If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!

The Czech Republic (and Slovakia) has an interesting tradition. If you are a high school student your mom will most likely force you to go to “do tanecnich” ( Dancing school). It is a very inexpensive way to not only learn how to dance almost any type of dance that currently exists (seriously, they teach you anything from Polka to Samba to Foxtrot) but it is also a socialization tool for all of the pimply kids out there. When you are 15 or 16 years old, it is hard to talk to the opposite sex (well, for most of us anyway). But this dancing school makes you to do exactly that. At the beginning of each weakly session you are forced into pairs (male -female) whether you like it or not. (more…)