Week 5

I can’t believe I’ve been here for a month already!! From here on out I don’t think I’ll give an entire summary of each day, but rather touch on the highlights of each week. I don’t have wireless internet access, so it’s impossible to update this every day.

            Since coming “home” to Klenčí pod Čerchovem, I spent a lot of time with Martina’s family. (Pavel’s family lives in Moravia, so I haven’t met them.) They are all done with school, so lots of family members gathered at Martina’s parents house for the start of summer vacation. I tried to explain to some of them that July 4th is a special holiday for the US for Independence Day. I told them my family all gathers and grills out and plays games and there are fireworks (that one took a while for them to figure out what I was talking about...they have fireworks only for the New Year) everywhere. I don’t think they really understood the fun and significance of the holiday. I guess you just have to experience it. So that day I knew my family was gathering, so I video chatted with them over Skype. It was SO nice to see my family again and in a small way be there at the party that I was sad to be missing.

            On the 5th Martina’s family had a big, 10-hour-long party with a few kegs of Chodovar (the delicious local beer that has replaced my old favorite) and live music by the family’s ridiculously talented multi-instrument musicians. Now that’s my kind of party! We ate, danced, talked, sang, ate, danced, talked, sang, ate, danced, etc. Everyone was so kind and invited me to participate in everything with them (which reminded me of my family) and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to share in this real-life experience with such a wonderful, welcoming family!

            On Tuesday the local priest, who serves about 7 villages in the area, came over for the evening. He is a young priest, about 30 years old, who drives a motorcycle and plays in the country-wide priest soccer league. Awesome! I asked some questions about the diocese, priests, and seminarians, and he said there are about 5 ordinations in the whole country each year, and nearly every priest has multiple parishes. (Hear that, seminarian friends? Learn Czech and help this country out!!) Often times priets from Poland will fill in the priestless parishes, but they don’t usually speak very good Czech, so the people don’t prefer that. After that little lesson, the priest asked the reason for my stay in the Czech Republic, and although I told him it was to better learn the language and the dudy, Pavel made me tell the priest Pavel‘s favorite thing to make me say, which he thinks is the real reason I’m here. “Moje mamínka řekla že sí tady nemám najít manžela, ale já bych chtela.” (I’m not sure if that’s fully correct typed out, but its close.) Translation: My mom said that I shouldn’t find a husband here, but I want to. Pavel simply delights in my admitting that and saying it in Czech to anyone who asks why I’m here. Sheesh! But since the priest was there I added that I’d like this non-existant husband to be Catholic. So he pulled out his cell phone, called a friend, told him what I had said, and handed me the phone. I ended up talking to a young, single, English-speakng, Catholic man who was on his way to the Czech Republic’s Catholic charismatic conference for young people. He asked if I’d be in Domažlice for the Chodské slavností (festival), and we agreed to meet there. I’m not really sure what I got myself into, but oh well. It’s sure to be funny.

            Throughout the week we spent lots of time with Martina’s family, mostly sharing meals. One day late in the week, Jan and I joined his grandma, great-aunt, (yeah, I don’t know how they’re in such good shape to hike through a forest, but they are) and some aunts and cousins on a hike up Výhledy mountain and through Česky les, which borders Germany. I found myself hanging around Jan and two of his male cousins around his age (13), which may be weird, but they spoke a little English to me and made the trip quite funny. Later, we all went to dinner and I got a Chodov beer and some smažený syr (fried cheese) for the first time. I had heard great things about it, but in my opinion its just like eating a fried mozzarella stick. But it was good. Jan also enjoyed making “pivola”, which was a combination of my beer and his Kofola, a Czech pop that is like Coca-Cola but a bit different. I like the mix, and I wish we had Kofola in the states! After dinner, the boys decided to take me on a little adventure through the field/farm across the street from their grandparents’ house because they wanted to show me the potatoes. We walked through corn and I explained that Nebraska is the Cornhusker state, and our corn gets super tall. It helped that Jan was wearing the Nebraska Huskers T-shirt I brought him! In the middle of the corn field was a potato field. They explained to me that potatoes are valuable and people will steal them if they're not in the middle of some other crop. It was a fun little adventure! After that I played some soccer and volleyball with Jan and some of his cousins, and I even taught them how to play a new game. It was a hit!

            The next day we went into Domažlice to buy groceries for the upcoming visitors (friends from Moravia), and Jan and I walked around the square to run some errands and search for kroj pieces in the antique shops. We went into the same one I had had luck in two years ago, and I ended up getting another apron and beaded vest!! The owner had several beaded vests which surprised me, but I chose the one in the best shape. If anyone is looking for antique kroj pieces I’ll let you know where the place is!

            Some of Pavel’s friends from Moravia came to Klenčí during the weekend, and we had lots of good food, lots of time at the swimming pool, and we even hiked up Čerchov mountain (8 miles total?). On Saturday night we went to the next town over (don’t remember the name) for their town celebration, with lots of music and dancing. My favorite part was dancing to two ‘valčík‘ songs (somewhere inbetween a waltz and a polka) with Pavel’s friend, who spun me around til I was dizzy. It was a fun night!

            Sunday morning Pavel and I went to church, then we had lunch and went to the swimming pool again. It was ridiculously hot out, so in the afternoon we mostly stayed inside and lounged. The friends headed back home, and Eliška and Jan went to their grandparents’ house in Moravia for the week. In the evening I took a sunset walk up to the Jinřich Šimon Baar statue on Výhledy Mountain, which looks out over Domažlice and some other Chodsko region towns. It was a nice walk, but since I went alone it definitely made me miss my friends back home!

            On Monday morning I’m heading to Pardubice, Czech Republic to visit my friend Helena and her family, who may actually be relatives of my mom’s family! We are going to try to figure that out while I’m there. After that I’m going to Bratislava, Slovakia to visit Mikulaš, who lived with my aunt and uncle (who will also be visiting!) in Omaha for a year. I won't be blogging because I won't have my laptop, but I’m very excited for the trip, and so blessed to have these wonderful connections in Europe!

week 4 (Prague)

            I didn’t have my laptop with me in Prague, so I couldn’t update my blog. But here are the main details! Pavel and Martina (my host parents) were going to Moravia and had to drive through Prague anyway, so I rode with them and we met up with Marta, the girl from the Czech Republic who my family hosted as a foreign exchange student three years ago. She currently studies and lives in Prague, so I stayed with her there. Since I had been in Prague for a few days two years ago I had already seen all the touristy sites, so this time I wanted to do more of the real life type of stuff. Marta and her friends were just finishing up school and exams, so their summer vacation was just starting. I probably have some of these days mixed up, but the details are still correct!

            Marta and I walked around part of the city during the afternoon, and saw several churches and cemeteries. The first night I was there Marta was scheduled to sing at a private party, so I made plans to hang out with my friend Jakub who also currently lives in Prague. I met him when he was studying at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln a few years ago. We walked to a park area (called Letná) that has a great view of Prague, got some beers, and sat down to chat and look out over all the red roofs. Three other young guys (who spoke English!) came up and sat with us later in the evening, and it turned out that one was from Bohemia/Czech, one was from Moravia, and one was from Slovakia. I consider this to be beneficial to me because they (pretty accurately, according to Jakub) represented the different opinions and feelings of the people of their respective home areas. They explained the relationship between the countries since the split of Czechoslovakia and talked a little bit about the differences among people from the different areas. It ended up being a very fun night!

            In the morning we went to see her boyfriend playing double bass with a band on Charles Bridge, then got some lunch an hung out on Kampa Island (near the Charles Bridge) for the afternoon. When Marta was singing at the fancy restaurant in the evening I decided to tackle Prague on my own. I walked around Orloj and Charles Bridge, and then sat across the river from the Prague Castle to see it at sunset. I also tried to find the front entrance to the Týn church because the front looks really cool from a distance, but I walked around the block twice with no luck. At this time there was a World Cup soccer game showing on a big screen in the Orloj square, so I watched that with a few hundred fanatics for a few minutes, and headed back to the restaurant where Marta was singing. That night we ended up sitting out on the steps of the Rudolfinum (music hall/theatre?) for a long time before heading back to Marta’s apartment for the night.

            The next day we walked around Prague some more, met up with Marta’s friends, and hung out at another park. That evening we went to a nice restaurant and then met up with more people to go to a bar.

            On Sunday morning I requested that we go to Mass at St. Vitus cathedral, which is in the middle of the Prague Castle. After that, I walked around the cathedral for a while and took tons of pictures because it’s so beautiful! There was a small choir from Alaska, who had sung at an earlier Mass, singing in the center of the cathedral. After that we waited for some of Marta’s friends and for the afternoon headed to the gardens of Queen Anne’s summer palace behind the Prague Castle. We also later went to the Letná lookout place again, and I’ve decided that it is one of my favorite spots in Prague.

            Another band Marta sings with played at a funk/reggae concert in Turnov, near her hometown, Jablonec nad Nisou, in the northern part of Czech. We took the bus there and went to the concert, which I enjoyed the most out of all her concerts that week. Her mom met up with us there, and we stayed at her house in Jablonec nad Nisou that evening. We spent the next day in Jablonec nad Nisou as well. That afternoon we took a nice walk in the forest by their house, and I enjoyed Marta’s stories about going to the forest with her grandparents when she was younger. It was also really nice to be able to talk with someone who knows more about me and the things I say about home or how I feel about stuff, because for the last three weeks I didn’t have that. So thanks, Marta. J

            We headed back to Prague that night, and did some shopping the next morning. (I only got a skirt.) Then in the afternoon we met up with some of Marta’s girlfriends at a coffee shop for them to plan their trip to Spain. We ended up staying there for nearly all afternoon. Later, one of the girls came with Marta and me to drink some wine in the park near Marta’s flat, and then we went to an early evening concert of a band made up of classmates of Marta’s from the music school. From there we went back to the same coffee shop as before to hear some piano pieces by one of the girls going to Spain with Marta. After a few songs there we went to an underground pub for a good jazz concert. Toward the end of that concert I overheard some people speaking American English (which always excites me here), so I talked with them for a while. They were three young guys (younger than me!) from Pennsylvania who were traveling through Europe for the summer. I gave them some tips on what to see in Prague, and taught them some useful Czech phrases. It’s always nice to run into other Americans!

            The next day we met up with Marta’s dad and half-brother in the morning for a while, then walked around Prague again. We, again, met up with friends and hung out in a park. I guess that’s a favorite thing to do in Prague. Drink and smoke (not me! But I think I inhaled enough second-hand smoke this week to have smoked a pack myself. L) in a park. So that’s what we did. Then in the afternoon we went back to Marta’s apartment and got ready for a salsa party for her music class. Then we met up with Marta’s friend Vít’a to drink some Sangria in the park before going to the Salsa club. I enjoyed that Marta and Vít’a made a game out of trying to one-up each other with history facts about Prague to determine who would be a better tour guide, and I just tried to remember everything they were saying, like a history lesson. Later, while Vít’a and I went to meet up with people at the Salsa club, Marta went to pick up my older brother, Andy, and his wife, LeAnna, from the train station. (They were traveling around Europe for a month.) They joined us at the pub/club, and we danced and drank and talked for quite a while that night.

            In the morning we headed out to show Andy and LeAnna the sights in Prague, including Wenceslaus Square, Rudolphinum, Charles Bridge, the Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Queen Anne’s summer palace, and, well, I don’t remember what else, but I’m really glad I didn’t have to figure out the tram system through the city, I just had to follow the people who can actually read the signs! That afternoon we met up with another one of Marta’s friends who was also a foreign exchange student in the US, and we hung out at Letná again. It really does have a great view of Prague! After that we went to the store to buy some wine and things to make for dinner, and hung out at the flat for the night. We listened to music and talked and enjoyed each other’s company for a long time, and when we finished the wine Andy brought out the Hruškovíce, which is an alcohol like Slivovice, but made from pears instead of plums. It’s better, in my opinion. However, I also learned later that night that wine and hruškovíce don’t mix very well! Haha…live and learn. But it was a fun evening of just hanging out with friends! J

            The next day Marta, Andy, LeAnna, and I headed to Jablonec nad Nisou, Marta’s home town, for some real Czech life outside of the big city. We spent a lazy day there, and had some great authentic Czech food. Lída, Marta’s mom, is an amazing cook! Marta’s brother, Viktor, also came home for a while in the afternoon, and Andy enjoyed talking with him about computer stuff. In the evening we went to a restaurant that Marta sings at about once a month for a barbecue and a concert of two bands- one classical, and one jazz (Marta sang with them), and went back to her home afterwards.

            Andy and LeAnna had planned a side trip to Terezín, a Czech town that was the site of a Jewish concentration camp during WWII, the next day, and I went along. We took the bus there and followed Rick Steves’ guide to the town. I don’t think I could accurately describe everything in the town, so here’s a great website with lots of information on it. http://www.pruvodce.com/terezin/history.php3 LeAnna had been to the Dachau extermination camp in Germany some years ago, and said Terezín was a lot different because it just went back to being a town after the war, and is still a working town today, just with some museums and memorial spots of the war. When I was in the Czech Republic two years ago we went to the town of Lidice, which was supposed to be totally liquidated and swept off the map because of some anti-Communist people from the town. There was a great museum there with eye-witness testimonies, pictures, a memorial walk with a garden, statues, etc., and I enjoyed learning about the town’s story. I’m not sure what made me like Lidice better than I liked Terezín, but here is some information on Lidice so you can compare for yourself if you wish. http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/history_en.aspx We took the bus back to Prague in the afternoon, and then split off on the trains- I went back to Klenčí pod Čerchovem, and Andy and LeAnna headed back to Jablonec nad Nisou to spend some more time with Marta and her mom. When I got back to Klenčí that night, Jan (my host brother) met me at the train station and kindly biked my bag up the hill, where we met up with his parents and some family members at the pub (which you can see from my house’s terrace…so its like a pub in our back yard…sweet!) for some music and dancing. It was a long day with a fun evening, and I was so happy to be back “home” after the week away!

week 3

Monday, June 21

Jan was home sick from school, and Eliška came home early as well. Nothing too exciting happened today that I can remember. Martina bought peanut butter for the first time. Maybe that’s exciting. I told the family all the best ways, in my opinion, to eat peanut butter. At dinner we discussed American food, so I asked what they’d like me to make. They asked about Thanksgiving, what it’s for, and what my family eats for a Thanksgiving dinner. I thought it would be really neat to make them a Thanksgiving-style meal! After discussing the foods needed for this endeavor and hearing that half the foods didn’t exist here, I decided against it. So my next thought for “American food” was to grill and barbecue chicken and make green bean casserole. But again, after a possibly 30 minute conversation AND looking up pictures on Google about the kind of soup and French’s onions needed to make this classic casserole, those ingredients don’t exist here either. So I settled for my non-American specialty, pasta with carbonara sauce! I’ll make it for dinner tomorrow night. Maybe some other night I’ll make apple crisp for a dessert!

Tuesday, June 22

Eliška and Jan were both home sick from school today. We had breakfast, I played some dudy, and read out on the terrace because the weather was semi-nice out for the first time in a few days, and played some more dudy. Eliška and I watched the movie Dear John with Czech subtitles. When Martina got home we discussed folk songs from the Chodsko region, and she showed me a book of complied songs. Some songs have variations according to the different villages. Later, I made noodles with carbonara sauce for dinner, along with a tomato/onion/cucumber salad. The ingredients for the sauce were definitely different than the ones I use back home, but it tasted just fine and the family really liked it! At night some family friends (an actress and a musician) came over and we had some wine and discussion.

Wednesday, June 23

Jan was home sick today again. I played dudy for a long time this morning, ate lunch, and played dudy again. Jan actually told me I should limit my practice to 2 hours a day! Ha! So then I packed for my week in Prague, read and wrote out on terrace for a long time, ate dinner with Jan, and then walked to Martina’s parents’ house (they REALLY make me miss my grandparents) down the street for the Jan/Jana name day celebration. Its like another birthday, with a party (sometimes) and gifts, every year, but for anyone with the particular name designated for that day. We grilled out and I met more of the family. When we got home, Pavel said “Carrie, we go!” so I hopped in the car without knowing where I was going or what would be happening, but I’ve learned that if it’s with Pavel there are a few guarantees: he will drive fast, I will have to speak Czech, and we will have some sort of adventure that will turn out to be fun and memorable. This time we took some narrow paths up the mountain through the forest as Pavel explained (somehow) that the family belongs to a ski club that owns a holiday house on the mountain. We drove to the house and got out to look over the wonderful view of the Chodsko area. Pavel then proceeded to drive down the ski area, but the grass was very tall so he couldn’t see any of the holes or bumps or rocks that were on the path. I held on to the car the entire ride. Pavel is kind of crazy, but always fun!

**Mystery Meat UPDATE from last week: I believe it is cooked ground pork with onions and spices in it, formed into a loaf. It can be sliced and fried OR sliced and eaten raw (well, the meat is already cooked) like lunch meat. Phew!**