Elise's 7th Birthday

Here's our Elise, enjoying her 7th birthday, the first family birthday to be celebrated in the Czech Republic. I can hardly believe that she's 7. I know, I know...that's what every parent says at every one of their children's birthdays. But it's true!! Elise has blossomed this year and has stunned all of us with her absolute adoration of our new home in our new country. For being the most inflexible person in our family (or so we thought), Elise has proven us completely wrong in this move. She loves our village, loves our apartment building (oh the innocence of childhood! - more on that later), loves our daily activities, and generally loves our whole life here. Maybe it's the fresh air...maybe it's all the bread she gets to eat (because it has taken me nearly 2 months to figure out how to cook here!)...maybe it's the fact that she's seven - a near perfect age, I think. Or at least it was for me (Heidi that is, just in case you can't yet tell the difference between my written voice and Mark's - that's an English major talking for you!). Ever since Elise was a tiny baby, I knew that if she was a color, she'd be yellow. Mariana is all the warmth and radiance of the sun and Elise is all of its brightness. I hope the pictures included here illuminate that fact. We spent the day together, first coming home from our week in Prague, and then at the park enjoying the day. Basil noodles and Cherry Chip cake (a Betty Crocker special sent from Grandma Skinkle) were served and presents included marionettes bought in Prague, a kitty cat that meows (in remembrance of Lewis and Livy, our two tabby cats we had to give away prior to our move here) and chocolate, among other little trinkets. Elise bounces, laughs, cries, and moves non-stop from morning till night - she's our Tigger, and we love her for it! Happy Birthday, Elise!

Prague Part II

Okay - Now it's my (Heidi's) turn to comment on our week in Prague. I was told that Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe. At this point, from my limited perspective, I'd have to agree. Historically speaking, it is an amazing city, rich with moments commemorating Europe's cultural and economic traditions. Every view of Prague provides one with beauty, unless of course you are coming from the bus station, which then affords the viewer with lots of graffiti-laced store fronts, thanks to the influx of American Hip-Hop, so I'm told. Trade networks at their best! Okay - back to Prague's historical center...As Mark says, words just cannot capture the beauty of Prague. We learned to navigate the Metro and Tram system fairly quickly and made use of it as often as we could. But being tourists was not the reason for coming to Prague in the first place. I had my Fulbright orientation to the Czech Republic and so had many meetings during the week that covered Czech identity, culture, economic and social positions, and more than one meeting on the US proposal for a missile radar facility within the Czech Republic as well as the visa proposal. The political maneuvering is fascinating, really, and I, as a European history teacher, am in awe of actually witnessing it all from the Czech viewpoint. I applied for this opportunity for reasons such as this, so I'm quite in my element. During the week, we went to an opera at the National Theater and also had the opportunity to visit the US Embassy (or rather to the visitor's center as clearance into the embassy would have taken an hour or more ) and later we were even invited to a reception at the US Ambassador's house (or rather mansion/palace), which is one of the most amazing ambassador's houses in the world, so we're told. And it was quite amazing. The pictures included above should give you some idea of its grandeur. Mark and Elise are standing in front of the house, which looks over lovely gardens, and Mariana is standing in front of the stairs that lead to the personal residence of the Ambassador and his family. The current ambassador is from the Milwaukee area, and since part of my family is also from the Milwaukee area, I was able to connect with him on a small, polite level. No smoozing from my end, I promise. In the picture below, standing from left to right, is Zbynek, my mentor here in Mor. Budejovice. In between Zybnek and myself is the Ambassador, Richard Graber. My associate principal, Frantisek, is on the far right. It was such an honor to have Zybnek and Frantisek with us that evening, and I think it made quite an impression on them as well.

All of us were honored to attend the reception and grateful for such a fun opportunity, though afterwards most of us Fulbright grantees enjoyed the food and fun at the local 350+ year-old pub more than the ambassador's house. In all fairness, I'm not sure the two can be compared. Still, I did feel the need to show pictures from the reception and not the pub. Go figure! Our week was full and enjoyable, and we look forward to returning to Prague in December. I hear that no city is more beautiful at Christmas time than Prague. But that's for a later entry. Ahoj.

Prague

Castle Cathedral in morning light

Yo! We spent last week in Prague. We left on the 16th, a Sunday. No church for us. Now one thing you have to understand is that we don't have a car here. In Chicago that might not seem like such a big deal. Here in small Czechville it is. We left our flat 45 minutes before the bus arrived because the bus station is on the other side of town. It really is no small thing to drag suit cases better than a mile through town. I think everyone here already thinks we're weird... this didn't help matters. So... we finally got to the bus station. We must by our tickets on the bus as the bus station proper was closed. Soon the bus arrived. It was so full of people that people we're standing in the aisles... before it stopped. There were maybe 12 of us that wanted to board. Only ticket holders got to board... we had to wait another hour or so for the next bus. When that bus arrived it was just as full. Again we were told that we would have to wait. By now it was getting to be late afternoon and we were really wondering what to do... even considering trying to rent a car the next day. But we decided to wait one more bus. It seemed we were in luck. This bus was full, but the aisles were empty. We got to board and to stand for a two hour and forty-five minute ride. lovely...


When we arrived at the Prague bus terminal, we wasted no time in hiring a cab as our feet were not interested in navigating the city with all our luggage. The cab arrived at our hotel, or I should say Villa... and more exactly: Villa Lanna. The Fulbright Commision decided to put us up in a building that the academy of sciences had bought some years ago for the purpose of housing scholars and holding conferences. If it sounds impressive... I will confirm that it was.

a room at Villa Lanna

National Museum

But what of Prague? Oh yeah... There really aren't words that can do justice. You really need to see this place. It really is quite incredible. If you want old world/medieval ambiance, this is the place. Perhaps the only down side is the high amount of tourists. But if you're looking for a pub, restaurant or cafe with loads of atmosphere... it's easy to find. We discovered many of these and also took advantage of the different kinds of ethnic foods that such a city offers. This may not seem special to those in Chicago, where you can get much, but in Moravske Budejovice, the town of 8000 in which we live... the options are limited. So in Prague, Chinese, Japanese, and even Mexican was had. Oh, and the last night a new friend, Venko, took us to a steak house that had an amazing view of the city. It was situated right under the castle. The name of the place was quaintly called "Cowboys". The meal was quite good as was the Argentinian wine. As we ate and drank looking over beautiful Prague we were serenaded by 80's rock ballads. ...go figure.

and the bus ride back? Much nicer as we got to sit the entire ride back.

...from Charles Bridge

Question: Can one really ever have enough kill holes?

yo

Hello again. A week has passed since our last entry, and we are getting into a bit of a routine. This week of school for me (Heidi) was much like reliving my first year of teaching, and anyone who has ever taught knows what a nightmare that first year is! Lucky for me I do have a few years of experience to help me recover from the feeling of inadequacy! The language barrier is the biggest challenge, obviously, because I am quite in the dark as to what is going on/what should be going on. I'm sure as the weeks progress, I'll get better acquainted with the language and the routine in the office. The girls are getting used to their schedule as well, and everyday they come home with a few more Czech words and phrases. Mariana is learning the language faster than the rest of us; we went out for pizza Friday night and she was able to order hot chocolate successfully! The hot chocolate, however, was not quite what we expected. It literally is a chocolate bar heated up, which turns out to be a very thick, hot liquid. Still, we enjoyed the experience and we were all proud of Mariana's language use. We keep looking to her for the correct word or phrase when we're out, though she's not quite that fluent yet! Mark is also settling in - he bought a bike this week and has been enjoying riding around the countryside. It's hilly enough that he's getting a great workout at the same time. His books also arrived this week, which got a bit wet in the transport, but overall, he's happy to be here. He's really happy that he gets to sleep in - no more 4:20 a.m. alarm clock!! He's got the apartment all set up for us to live comfortably albeit in a rather small space. I like the coziness. He's happy when he gets some space for the morning when the girls and I leave for school! Overall, we're quite content, and we're thrilled to be here.

We try to travel on the weekends - yesterday we went to a local village for a harvest festival, and I nearly cried when I witnessed the "medieval" parade that ran through town - I was witnessing a mock of the medieval world, of course, but given the fact that I was watching it next to a cathedral that overlooks the old medieval walls (from the 12th century, mind you) I couldn't help being a bit giddy! One of the above pictures is of the cathedral - we're standing next to the old medieval wall across the way. It's all quite picturesque! The other picture is one of many harvest arrangements that were in the cathedral as an offering, I suppose. I was mesmerized by the designs of the produce, so I had to take a picture of one. Everything in the arrangement is real - no plastic substitutions! I wanted to reach down and take a bite of the apples, but I thought I that might be a bit irreverent! Mariana writes a bit on the festival too, so I'll sign off and let her tell you of her experience! We're headed to Prague today. I have my Fulbright orientation this week, which comes with 2 or 3 crash courses in the Czech language! A very good thing!!! Till next time,

Heidi

When we first moved here, it was very surreal. It's been a month and it is still like that. People in the town know who we are. Nobody has asked us if we are American because they already know. It's not like we are typical Americans and come in with our minivans and wave our flags around and make people in the restaurants make French fries for us. We actually try to blend in. But I guess they can still tell because we are new. The first week of school was really hard because people would stare at me. Now this last week, it has been a lot better; people are a lot friendlier.
Yesterday we went to a really cool town called Znojmo. It is about 10 minuets from the Austrian border. They had a festival there that celebrated new wine. They had lots of things we could buy and they had several churches and a clock tower we climbed that was very old. They have a rotunda that is over a thousand years old. The whole town has about 40k people living there.
This next week we are going to be in Prague for some meetings. While we are there, we are going to have dinner at the ambassador's house and go to the opera.
yeah! Bye for now,

Mariana

Genesis

Dobry den from the Czech Republic!

A week after my arrival and already a blog. It appears that I must have lots of time on my hands since I no longer have a job. Still there is much to adapt to in our new social environment and this keeps us busy. However, I've set this blog up so that we might let you know of our latest and most craziest adventures. With Heidi, Mari and I, we should be posting at least once a day... so stay tuned in...

Ahoj

Mark

p.s. Heidi suggests I relate yesterday's adventure. So it all began when a fellow parent offered the use of their car for the day. BMW to boot, not too shabby. So we took the car to Brno, the second largest city in the CR, and went, among other places,to an IKEA so that we might purchase many things for our barren apartment. ( I can't stress how nice it was to not have to take a bus and try to carry everything. The use of the car was extremely generous) After we left Brno a friend of Heidi's invited us to stop at a festival in the small village of Slup. yep, that's the name. The festival seemed to be celebrating... actually I don't know what it was celebrating, but there were many locals wearing traditional garb and singing songs. I'll see if I can post some pic. Perhaps the highlight was the food and beer. My keen eye spotted a tent where they were serving grilled sausages with brown mustard. So I walked up and pointed in my best czech manner, indicating I wanted two. The "vendor" then let me know that I had walked into the festival volunteer area and that this food was reserved for others. Perhaps it was our ignorant American charm or simple presumption, but that day won us free food... and some laughs. Either way the grilled sausage were worth it.