January 30, 1998

Change of plans on London!!  Get this - we couldn’t get reservations for the dog! They are booked!  They have ten pens, who are all these people traveling in February of all times?!  Don’t they know we are planning a holiday here?!  I knew things were not going well when I called and the girl who spoke English wasn’t there.  The reason we liked this place was because they had someone who spoke English and we would not be dependent on Mike or Hanka.  The dweeb hung up on me. Twice!  I had it all written down in Czech if he would have waited a minute.  So I had to have Hanka call.  Now it is the waiting game.  The 2 for 1 special is good for all of February so Hanka is going to call for other dates in February for the dog and then we will make sure the flight can be changed.

Nothing it seems is ever easy, and we are sooo spoiled.  I never dreamed there would be a problem in February.   This is going to take another two or three calls to London for the hotel.  Coordinate an airline, a kennel, and a hotel!  Before we even leave for London I’m going to start setting up the next trip.  No more last minute stuff.  Of course, I don’t look at a week IN FEBRUARY as last minute.  Big travel season in February?

There, I feel better having vented.

Observations

---You have a 50/50 chance of opening a door the correct way.  More doors open inward than outward.  This is especially true if the building had not been remodeled.  It’s no guarantee a new building will open outward.  I realize sidewalks are very narrow most of the time and if the door opened out you could hit someone or push them into the street.  We have four doors to go thru to get into our apartment.  Three open inward, one out.  OSHA would have a field day here.

---Checkout clerks generally sit down.  Some stores (grocery or general merchandise) give you a plastic bag.  Most small grocery stores you bring your own or pay 5 or 6 koruna (15cents) for one.  You always bag your own groceries or merchandise even in the larger department stores.  Smaller general stores ask if you want a bag and then it’s 50/50 whether they hand you the bag or bag your purchase for you.

---The first floor of a building is the ground floor or patio.  What we would call the second floor would then be the first floor.  Therefore, second floor apartments mean you climb three flights of stairs.  One travel agency I wanted to stop at turned out to be on the fifth floor, no elevator.  Needless to say we didn’t check that one out.   

---Birds are similar.  There are chickadees, big black raven/crows and pigeons.  There is one type of black bird that has a large area of white on the wing where it connects to the body.  I haven’t seen any squirrels or chipmunks.

---In some ways bedding is better.  We each have a comforter, but no top sheet, which is nice for the person (me) who would be the one to end up without a blanket.  Making the bed is a synch.  Shake out the comforters, fold each in half and then in half again, fluff pillow, you’re done!  I actually make the bed five to six times a week.  We each have our own mattress, which again is nice for someone (me) who tosses and turns a lot at night.  I don’t have to worry about waking Jack.  However, they turn the heat up at night.  It gets too hot for a comforter.  Then we wish we had a light blanket or a sheet.

---They follow the rules of etiquette more with regards to meals.  This is true in pubs as well as white linen table cloth restaurants.  Close the menu and the waiter comes to take your order (same as in the states).  Put your fork on one said of the plate and put the knife on the other side, you are just resting so to speak.   Put your fork and knife together and they will take your plate, again in fancy restaurants and pubs.  Much more practical and convenient than having the waiter keep coming over and asking are you ready to order, or asking if they can take your plate when you really aren’t done.  They eat the proper way, at least in the eyes of a left-handed person.  There is a reason the fork is on the left when setting the table.  You put it in your left and have the knife in your right hand.  None of this switching the fork to the right hand, switching it back to the left, picking up the knife with the right for cutting and putting down the knife and switching the fork back to the right, back and forth stuff.

---Toilets don’t have a handle on the front of the tank.  It is a knob on the top of the tank that you pull up.  Some old buildings still have the type with the tank up above the toilet itself and you pull a chain.  This is true throughout Europe.  Even more modern toilets have two buttons on top of the tank.  One button uses less water, for a “number one” flush and the other button for when more water is needed, like for a “number two” flush.

---Recycling has always been common.  There are containers in each neighborhood.  The white one is for white glass, green for green glass.  The type on wheels that are white with yellow trim and two holes on the top are for plastic.  The aluminum container is for paper.   Mike and Hanka use ours whenever they come over.  Unlike a lot of neighborhoods, we have all four in one area.  In their area, they have glass on one corner near them and then several blocks in another direction is the paper and plastic.

---Fire trucks have roll down steel curtains on the sides and back of the trucks (reminds me of a big red Coke truck).  There are no exposed hoses or ladders unless it is the large ladder truck. 

---You must be female and very attractive to get a job as the evening weather person on Prima TV.  They have a graphic that makes the weather person appear to be walking over the country pointing out the clouds and where it is snowing or raining.  It must also be mandatory to wear a short skirt or skin tight pants.  Jack says he had never noticed.  HA!

---Snow skiing appears to be similar to skiing in the Rockies for northern Czech and comparable to skiing in Northern Michigan for the Southern part of the Czech.  Of course, people here compare the skiing to the Alps (we have nothing similar to I’m told).  Lately Shep has been ready to start his day around 7:30 - 7:45, which means we start our day also.  Euronews doesn’t start until 8am.  Prior to 8am they show live camera shots of various ski resorts and areas.  These are not just still shots.  The camera rotate and pans probably 180 degrees so you get a real good look at the actual slopes and surrounding area.  Generally, the camera is at or near the top and looking down onto the valley below.  They show one particular resort for two minutes then show another resort for two minutes, etc.  At the bottom it lists snow depth, hours of operation, general info.  Some really gorgeous country up there. 

---Since when is sumo wrestling part of the winter Olympics?  They have various ads that show different sports involved in the winter Olympics and half way thru they show two sumo wrestlers wrestling.  Is it just here or are you guys also getting this ad for the winter Olympics in Nagano?

January 27, 1998

January 27, 1998

Today our plan was to go to the post office to mail some letters and grab a quick lunch.  There is - get this - a McDonald’s near the Post Office.  We decided because it would be quick and convenient we would grab a quick lunch there.  We have McDonalds, Kentucky Fried, TGI Friday, Planet Hollywood, and one pizza chain that I forget where and it’s name.  We don’t lack “western culture” when we need it.  After the quick lunch we would go to Schwarzenbersky Palac (Schwartzberg Palace).  It’s not really a palace anymore, it houses the military museum.  The post office for us is to the south and the museum is back to the north and then east. 

We walked over to the bus that would take us to the post office and the traffic going the opposite direction of the post office was backed up for as far as we could see.  This highway is a connecting route between two major highways.  It’s only about 4 miles long.  Once we got on the bus and started heading south we could tell the traffic had to be backed up the whole length of the highway.  That put to rest any idea of catching that same bus back north.  We have become experts at changing plans at the spur of the moment.  We could have gone farther into town and then backtracked.  But Jack thought of a good place for lunch in the center of town that one of the three trams at this stop goes past.  It was after 12 noon (I have this thing about drinking before noon) and a beer instead of a McChicken sounded good.

Instead of visiting a museum, we stopped at a couple of travel agencies.  We wanted to check on pricing for the Canary Islands in February, Portugal in March, and Greece in March or April.  The intent is to go to the warmer climates.  They gave me literature and prices for Canary Islands, however, it was in Czech.  So I spent this evening translating.  Jack’s not too keen (no offense Kevin or Keith) on Canary Islands now that I had literature.  He’s concerned that there would not be a lot to do besides shopping and lying on the beach.  The pictures indicate it would be more like going to a Caribbean Island.  Many many hotels and not a lot of culture.  I was under the impression they are more in line with the Hawaiian Islands as far as beautiful country side to tour.  I’m still interested though and the price wasn’t bad at all.

Tomorrow we need to go to the main train station to inquire about departure times for Dresden, Germany.  We plan to go next weekend.  Train fare is only $60-$65 total for both of us, we couldn’t rent a car that cheap.  It takes about three hours.  Again, not much more than by car, plus we don’t have to worry about getting lost.  We had talked about this weekend but time got away on us.

January 29th

Change of plans.  Just on a whim we went to the American Express Office as they have a travel desk.  We figured you had to be a card holder to use the service.  We were wrong.  She gave me the same literature on the Canary Islands, but called and found which of the 20 or so hotels still are available for the second or third week of February.  While she was making the call, we were looking around and came across an ad for a “2 for 1” special to London.  So now we leave for London the Thursday the 5th and return Tuesday the 10th.  She also gave me a number for a mid range hotel that they recommend.  It is very convenient to the main tourist area as public transportation in London is expensive. 

We went to a book store and picked up a book on London so we can figure out in advance what all we want to see.  I prefer to have a basic plan for each day and then adjust as needed on that particular day.  It says temperatures should be in the mid 40’s and to always carry an umbrella.  Typical temps in the summer are the upper 60s with some days reaching 80.  Maybe it’s not the best time, but, the book recommended this time of the year to avoid heavy tourist season.  Dresden will be put on hold. 

Ballroom Dancing

I didn’t realize how popular ballroom dancing is.  The paper last week mentioned that the Ball Season would be in full swing in February and an article broke down the average cost of attending one.  This past week it gave the dates for the various events.  Once again, I tossed the article by mistake.  I need to just rip the page out and set it aside.  I start picking up and organizing and everything that doesn’t seem useful at the time gets tossed!  Anyway, it is expensive.  

It also discussed preparations to attending a ball for the woman.  Not only must she make hair and makeup arrangements for that evening she must discuss with her seamstress the design of the dress.  Then there are appointments for fittings.  One apparently does not buy off the rack for the ball season!  Top officials attend four to six balls.  You are expected to attend the ball of any organization that you belong to.  So if you are big in community stuff you would probably attend at least two, or so said the article.  I don’t know if the average person really makes makeup arrangements and has a gown designed for every ball they attend.

Mike and Hanka just attended a ball a week ago.  It was sponsored by a couple of pharmaceutical companies.  It is the evening of their country wide conference for pharmacists.  This year it was in Praha and at a facility on a small island on the Vltava River.  In a very large building that I would pay someone to let us see the inside of!  They had three orchestras in three different ballrooms.  This wasn’t one of the really fancy balls.  Hanka didn’t have a dress made and Mike wore a suit and not a tux.  However, they didn’t dance.  In the subway Hanka’s heel of her shoe came loose and she didn’t want to risk it coming completely off.   She said it did give here time to talk to old classmates that she had not seen in a long time. 

Super Bowl

We only read about the Super Bowl.  Best game in years and we didn’t see it.  All four American bars were going to have it live.  Here the pregame stuff started around midnight.  A couple bars had advance ticket sales for reserved seating that included beer and food.  Oscar’s didn’t have advance tickets or a cover charge.  We figured since we don’t work we could go to bed early.  Get up around 11pm and head down to Oscar’s.  That way if we decided we didn’t want to do this after all we wouldn’t be out the price of tickets.  They figured the game would last until 5am. Then we remembered we watch Marek on Monday’s!  It probably was just a pipe dream anyway. 

Mike had recorded it.  Maybe we’ll watch the highlights some weekend; especially considering the Packers didn’t win why be excited about watching it.  Jack was happy Denver did win just because Elway has been there three or four times without a win.  He claims to have been really torn about who he really wanted to win.  Yeah right, sounds like a politician talk to me.

Tripe Soup

One of the books we have on Praha mentioned a common soup to have with dinner was Tripe Soup.  Both Czech cook books I have mentioned Tripe Soup also, but it didn’t really mention what tripe was.  They just said to wash the tripe in boiling water and clean well.  Once it is rinsed to cook it in various spices for three hours and then strain and cut the tripe into narrow strips.  It also had a color picture and reminded me of clams in a broth. 

We stopped and checked out a popular cafe the other day (or was it last week?).  Knowing we would not be able to get a full lunch there we figured to check the menu for something light and eat an early dinner.  Tripe soup was listed.  Daring as we have become we ordered it.  It really was tasty, just like a clam or maybe squid or something similar.

Curious what our handy dandy CD dictionary said what type of fish a tripe was, we fired up the computer. 

Tripe:  Part of the stomach of an ox or other ruminant when used as food.

Ruminant:  Chewing the cud, of the cud.

This is one of those times I’m reeeeealy glad we didn’t know ahead what it was we were eating.  Having now tasted it, I would have it again.  It’s just if I had known ahead of time I would not have tried it.

January 25, 1998

Home on the Weekend

It has been a really nice weekend.  The family upstairs left Friday for the weekend.  Our kitchen window actually looks into the entry.  By propping the entrance door open I can see the whole back yard from our kitchen window between the window in the entry and the open entrance door.  No dogs barking at imaginary intruders.  Shep could stay out for as long as he wanted.  In fact, we have spent the whole weekend at home. 

Hanka’s parents sent a bag full of home grown apples over a few days ago.  They were getting soft so I made an Apple Crisp.  We want to plan a trip to the Canary Islands or Portugal for February now that we have someplace for the dog.  So we spent time on the computer emailing a couple of travel agencies here in Praha and on the web.  We received photos from people plus I have gotten two rolls developed since we have been here so I got them labeled and put into an album.  We’re not sure yet if it is every Saturday, but for the second time we found an old musical that was not dubbed  into Czech around 3pm.  This particular movies starred Tony Curtis and Olivia DeHavallen (spelling?).  I made a big dinner last night, meat loaf, baked potato, vegetable.  I took some leftover chicken and made a chicken and potato soup for lunch today.  It has been very enjoyable and relaxing weekend.

A few last questions to us

Someone figured we would be eating Rice Czechs and Wheat Czechs and wondered if we wrote Czechs to buy merchandise and if we play Czechers to pass the time.  Ah-h-h such humor.  Roddy, Jack wanted to point out we do have spell czech and that the dog can speak Czech better than we can.  Of course bow-wow is the same in either language.  We did stump Mike yesterday on the phone.  We asked him in hockey, what they call it when someone does/gives a body check.  He didn’t know what word or phrase they use so he is going to ask his father-in-law as he is a big hockey fan.

Hockey

Speaking of Hockey, we took in a hockey game with Mike on Friday night.  The Czech Rep. has a league from various cities within the country.  Praha has two teams.  The one we went to was for Praha Sparta.  I thought of both Craig (as he lives in Sparta, MI) and Mark D. (Mich St. University’s nickname is The Spartans) from work when we were picking an evening to go.

I’ve only seen Grand Rapids Griffins play hockey and kinda watched it a couple of times on TV.  These guys were definitely better than Grand Rapids.  A lot of finesse plays more passing of the puck.

One player from Sparta had an opponent coming towards him from an angle.  He completely stops the puck in one move.  I mean the puck literally stopped right now, there was no sliding.  He fakes a move, heads towards the opponent, and then turns away from him.  The opponent follows him not realizing he doesn’t have the puck.  It was only a second or two, but long enough.  Another Sparta guy comes up from behind and skates off with the puck all by himself.  It gave them clear sailing for a considerably distance unopposed.

The clock counts up not down like it does in the states.  So when there is two minutes left to play the clock reads 18:00.  It took a little getting used to.  They do just as much shoving, I guess it’s called checking, and they get plenty of penalties for tripping and all that.  But, they have less fighting (yea).  The couple of times that a shoving match would start, they quit as soon as the ref got there.  I don’t think it is tolerated.  They ejected one guy for an illegal hit of some sort.  We didn’t even know it had happened until we were walking to the tram to go home and talking to a Canadian and his kid that had also been to the game.  They mentioned the ejection.

Between periods they had two teams of little seven or eight year olds play for a few minutes.  It was hard to judge age with the uniforms and helmets on.  They skated out onto the ice then went through some skating drills, backwards, side steps.  More than I would ever think of doing on skates.  Kids start with skating classes around five years old.  Even after they start actually playing hockey they also continue with training in skating.   One kid scored.  The team got so excited, they were hugging and jumping around him.  Kid probably didn’t sleep all night, just kept thinking about his big play. 

The Czech national hockey team is made up of the best player from this league.  The national team in turn then plays European cup games.

January 22, 1998 FAQ

To answer questions that has been asked of us.

Several questions were about the political scene because some of you have read about what happened here in December. 
Why did the Prime Minister resign?  What was it like here when it happened?

A very brief overview of the political structure here since it is very different than the USA.  Even though there is a Prime Minister and a President, the President is not a figure (the way the Queen is in England with the Prime Minister having the power). Mike has said it best resembles France who also have a president and a prime minister. 

There are two houses.  The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.  The people elect representatives to both houses.

There are about seven political parties; three major, two minor, and a few stragglers.  I will just refer to them by their initials as their names are lengthy.  ODS, CSSD, and the ODA are the most common.  The SPR-RSC is a minor and radical party.  Their leader is currently in jail for “inciting national and racial hatred”. The second minor party is called US.  It is new as of January ‘98 and is a spinoff of the ODS.  It is also not uncommon to run as an independent and not be affiliated with a specific party.  President Havel is an independent.

The two houses vote and elect the Prime Minister.  This person generally is from the party with a majority in both houses.  The Prime Minister, with coalition partners, then elects the cabinet.  The Chamber of Deputies and Senate must vote to confirm them.

The two houses also vote and elect the President.  However, this gets more divided into voting by the political parties.

ODS was the largest party.  It is the party that former Prime Minister Klaus belongs to.  He is still president of the party.  Naturally, most of his cabinet was also ODS members.  He and his cabinet resigned in December because of illegal campaign donations.  One substantial donation it was discovered was from a guy who had been dead for some time.  There was also the rumor of a secret Swiss bank account.  Typical of any government investigation, this will be long and dragged out.  There is no limit on the amounts of donations, but receiving them under a false name is.  It was Klaus’ dishonesty in denying knowledge of any of the donations that finally brought him down and he resigned.

Havel then elected an interim Prime Minister and cabinet.  They will stay in place until the spring (maybe as late as June) elections.

The day it happened, we didn’t really understand it.  We knew by the news something was happening.  The next morning, they had a brief two minute report on the situation on Euronews (English news program).  There were no big demonstrations or people leaving work or homes and gathered in the streets.  The military was not called out or put on alert.  The best comparison would be the day Nixon resigned.  It was a first for our country.  Many people could not believe it and many people felt it was about time.   No one knew what would happen next or what would happen because of it, but it was business as usual. 

Klaus had resigned also as president of the ODS party.  Then they voted him back in as prez of ODS.  Thirty or so members of both houses and other members of the ODS who had disagreed with Klaus on many other issues prior to November quit the ODS and created their own party in January.  This is the new US party. The ODS party has lost a lot of credibility. 

This past week Havel was re-elected by both houses to another (and final) five year term.   This too is different.  They have “rounds” of votes.  The winner must get at or above a certain percentage of votes before he is declared the president.  Havel got the necessary votes on the second “round”.  Even this election is going to be debated.  Because the president of the SPR-RSC is in jail, his party is saying the election was unconstitutional.  Most people wish he would just go away.

This too will probably be debated for a long time to come and the issues get quite complicated.  Every week we read more about it and understand more of what it is and it was all about.  The country is stable.  To our favor, the koruna has dropped against the dollar, which means we can buy more korunas from each dollar.  But, that’s it in a nut shell. . .

Did I ever make the dumplings

Yes, I made the dumplings.  However, it was with a packaged mix.  I had two books that contained recipes for potato dumplings from scratch. 

One book had six recipes.  One called for two tablespoons of “farina”.  Having no idea what that is, skip that one.  Two were for Prune Dumplings - no way.  Two needed cake yeast.  I can’t keep flour straight here much less find “cake” yeast, skip that one.  One was for grating raw potatoes and very vague as far as measurements.  It used the phrases like “enough flour to make firm”, “let stand until desired texture”.     

The other book had a dozen recipes.    Some were for bread dumplings, which we don’t care for.  Some had prunes, bacon, blueberries, etc.  Some needed yeast-I’m not ready to do yeast.  But all three of the ones classified as potato dumplings needed “semolina”.  Once again a word I never heard of.  I’m not known for my cooking knowledge or skills if you haven’t already guessed.  Closest I knew it was an Indian tribe or a country in Africa.  Dictionary for semolina:  Meal consisting of particles of coarsely ground durum.  Dictionary for durum:  Hard wheat that yields flour, semolina, macaroni.  Any recipe that requires a dictionary is not something for me to try.

My sister had a progressive dinner in their neighborhood that had different ethnic foods at each home.  She wanted me to fax her ideas for typical Czech appetizers.  Czech’s don’t have an appetizer that originated from here.  Dumplings, pork, and sauerkraut or open face sandwiches (chlebicky) are what they are known for.  Dar had faxed me back that she used here “Joys of Cooking” book for dumplings and everything was perfect.  They were so simple she may start doing them more often.  Okay, why does she have an easy recipe and I have to resort to a package mix?

After an evening of translating the three paragraphs of instructions I felt I was ready to try it.  I mixed it.  I made the three 2” diameter by  4” cylinders.  And I’m recalling dumplings that my grandmother made.  They weren’t cylinder size.  I double check my translation.  I have it right. 

Put in salted boiling water for 20 minutes, turning occasionally.  They sink to the bottom.  Now I know my grandmother’s floated.  But these are big cylinders.  Nothing said if they should sink or swim.  After about ten minutes they did rise to the top.  I’m still thinking “Dar said it was sooooo simple”???

After the suggested time I took them out to cool somewhat.  Hanka and Mike had both told me not to cut them with a knife, to use a thread while still warm.  I had a small travel sewing kit along.  Cutting them was messy because the outsides were wet, but it worked.  We had dumplings coming out of our ears, 33 to be exact.   In all honesty I had to throw about a dozen out.  They got too old before we could eat them.  Wonder if they would freeze okay? 

All in all, they turned out okay.  They definitely need gravy with them.  Hummm, making gravy. . . . .   

What do we do all day?

This kinda put to rest my mom’s fear that I would be doing nothing in the winter buy sitting around getting fat.  Bless her heart for not saying ‘fatter’.

We get up between 7:30 and 8:30.  We leave this up to the dog.  When he decides he wants to get up and go outdoors, we start our day.  After making breakfast, cleaning up, sitting with our coffee afterwards, watching Euronews (in English), and then taking the dog for his morning walk, we are usually ready to head out around 9:30 - 10:30, sometimes as late as 11:00. 

Mondays we take care of Marek for the day.  So that fills that day.  Generally we have discussed what we want to do the evening before.  There is always something different every day.   Transportation takes up time.  Waiting for trams and buses adds up too.  But there is always something or someplace we want to explore in and around Praha. 

There will be a restaurant or pub we want to find.  We received porcelain cups from Hanka’s parents.  I wanted to look into the cost of a complete set.  That means finding stores that sell that brand and checking prices.  Yesterday we looked up in the yellow pages for places that sell dog supplies.  We need to get a bed for him.  I need to get a haircut.   We looked up a couple addresses.  So we found those places and talked to them. There are unique buildings I want to see, a garden or a park to find.  We are either looking for a particular place or just exploring. 

We get home between 3:30 and 5:00.  We kinda relax and then fix dinner while watching the news. 

We like to read, so if we aren’t answering emails or on the web reading newspapers or (Jack) keeping up with sports we are reading any time after 8:00pm.   With Mike, we have an unlimited supply of books.  For Jack, it’s generally lights out between 9:30 and 10:30 and between 10:00 and 11:00 for me.

And yes, with all the exercise I am losing weight.  ABOUT TIME!  I have to wear a belt.  Not that my pants would fall down without one, it’s to keep from that constant yanking on them habit.   In time, I hope it will be to keep them from falling down.  I would like to keep in this habit of a heavier lunch and a lighter dinner that we have developed.  

How many families live in the apartment house we live in?

Our building is a row house.  It’s like two houses split down the middle and are duplicates of each other (only in reverse).   Typically, one family owns one half and another owns the other half.  Usually, there are two apartments per half, so a total of four apartments to the whole building.  Sometimes the owners will remodel the attic, if it can be, and rent that out also. 

In our case, the uncle owns the upstairs and the niece that we rent from owns the downstairs.  How the expenses are divided up is unknown to us.  Because the houses are like two separate houses, just joined on one end, our entrance is only for us and the uncle and aunt upstairs.  Our yard is fenced in for just our half of the building.  We never come in contact with the other two families on the other side unless we see them in their front yard as we are walking by.  I have yet to see anyone in their back yard. 

Unlike the USA corner lots are better.  We have twice the yard as someone who lives in the middle of the block. 

What is the time difference?

It is a six hour difference from Eastern Std Time and seven from Central Std.  We are on what is called Central European Time.

Do I miss work?

The work?  No.  The people? Yes.  After 10, 12 years it gets to be family.  But I don’t think about it like I did the first week or two.  I still have a project to complete for them.  I’m still waiting for winter to set in.  Someday when it’s too cold and windy to go out I’ll get it done.

What do we miss the most?

Definitely and hands down a house of our own.  Even though this is a really quiet house, we don’t hear them moving around upstairs, it’s still not the same as your own house.  I’m used to opening the door and letting the dog out.  With a fenced yard here this should be a dream.  But, I have to listen if the other two dogs are out.  I have to watch that he doesn’t walk through the garden or start to eat the food left out for the stupid cat. 

We shoveled/swept the walk of snow today after walking the dog just because we felt like it.  Dog enjoyed the extra time outdoors.  After our morning walk he stays out as long as he wants.  That may change as it gets colder.  It’s not pleasant  standing around out there waiting for him.

Shopping gets less and less frustrating.  The idea of learning to cook is basically gone.  Maybe I’ll do some experimenting with recipes I brought along.

We looked into buying a car.  It would be nice to just go for a drive some days or take the dog to a park.  It would make shopping easier.  We never would drive it down town.  But the cost wasn’t justified in the end.  I’ve copied down many of the bus times to reduce the time waiting whenever possible.  So a car isn’t missed all that much.

We do not miss TV; other than sports and news in English.  I do wish these old movies we see every now and then weren’t dubbed, but totally understand they have to be.  I like old movies.   In the states we were not able to get the cable channel that showed old movies.  I thing the name was American Movie Classics or something like that.  So I can’t miss what I didn’t have.  Maybe we can when we get back.

I do not miss loud teenagers, or even louder car stereos.  That is the one thing that is noticeable here - or noticeable that is not here - no boom. .  baboom. . boom. .  baboom from a mile away.  Very few young people are into the grunge and oversized look (or is that part of the grunge stuff?)  Young adults get up and let an elderly person have their seat.  AND NO, THEY HAVEN’T DONE IT FOR ME.

I’m getting used to a dining room table in the middle of the living room.  Not something I will do when we get back, but it’s okay temporarily.  Not having two bathrooms is working out okay.  That probably has a lot to do with not having to be on a time table.  We don’t have to be in there at the same time.

I do miss going out for Sunday breakfast and reading the Sunday paper, but not every week.  Usually I have a hard time knowing what day of the week it is.  Now that we watch Marek on Monday’s it makes Sundays stand out more.  We have read about some restaurants with Sunday brunch, we just haven’t gotten around to checking them out.

January 20, 1998

Octavia Gets Broken Window

Hanka doesn’t work on Thursdays.  On Wednesday she asked if we wanted to go to the Delvita store with her.  It works good for the both of us.  Jack pushes the cart with Marek in it so Hanka can get shopping done quicker and more complete.  Plus we don’t have to walk so far with our groceries.  Bad news came Thursday morning when she went out to the car to come over to get us.  Someone had smashed the passenger window and the radio was stolen.  Life in the big city.  We went over to watch Marek so she could take the car in and then go to the police station to fill out paperwork.  She had called the dealership and they had the window in stock.  More bad news when she got there.  Because of the force to break the window, a piece of plastic inside the door was also broken.  They didn’t stock it.  She had to leave the car with them until Monday, and then she had to take buses to the police station. 

We went over at 1pm.  Naturally, we asked if she had broken the news to Mike and if so how did he take it.  She said it was a civil conversation, but she was sure after he got home it would change.  She didn’t get back until 6pm.  Mike had a baseball meeting and wouldn’t get home until later.  Baseball and beer go hand in hand here. too  

Dog Kennel

We went to the other side of town to check out a kennel that the Chamber of Commerce gave me the address to.  I found the street on the map.  We found the right bus after we got off the subway.  The only thing in question was what stop to get off at.  The street was one of the rarer ones that actually go for more than six blocks without changing names.  The bus traveled on about half of the length of the street, not the full length of it.  There was one stop listed with the exact name of the street.  So I figured wherever it stopped to get off there.  The street number we were looking for was 58.  Logic says if numbers go higher as you go away from the center of town we would know which direction to walk. 

This particular side of town is more industrial.  In fact, it’s far enough out that it gets into little “subdivisions” or neighborhoods.  These subdivisions are very old, not new.  I started watching street signs to know when we were on Dolomecholupska.  Once I knew we were on the street the next thing was to find street numbers.  Once again, nothing is easy.  It is old factories.  I couldn’t find numbers before our stop came up.  Our bus stopped in the middle of a 40 acre field between and the industrial area and one of these subdivisions!  Luckily there was a side walk on one side of the road.  There was also one house, its number was 22.  So we walked towards the houses and away from the industrial area.  It was about a 1/4 mile and the first house was number 25.  That seemed like a long way between numbers.  The next house was 23....  We’ve come across strange numbering before.  There was about a block until the next two houses.  They were numbered 19 and 17.  Obviously,the little neighborhood is its own little burg and is outside Praha and the numbers are going up the farther from the center of the little burg.  Okay, we walk all the way back towards the industrial area.  A little over half way is a small bridge over a rail road, the side walk ended!  However, we can hear dogs barking.   Where the barking was coming from was from behind a new building that did not have a number on it.  The building listed a vet’s name.  Since we only had an address and no name, we went in.  I had called a few days before and there was someone there who spoke English.  Luckily, she was there and confirmed we had the right place. 

She showed us the area where they boarded dogs.  They have ten pens in a separate area for boarding.  Three were occupied.  All three dogs had water, the pens were clean, the dogs were clean, and the dogs were not agitated or fearful that someone had come in; all good signs for an unannounced visit.  We had asked why there were rows and rows of other pens in other buildings.  She mentioned quarantine and for dogs that must be kept separate.  She seemed frustrated that she could not explain better so we left it at that; which to us really didn’t explain why so many other dogs.  Since we now knew that the business was associated with a vet, we looked it up in the yellow pages on line.  It appears they are also a dog shelter.  Which explains some of the dogs, but there were too many for even a shelter, or at least our definition of a shelter.

So we found a place to board the dog.  Problem is – however it isn’t easy to get to.  Oh well, there is one in a town about 20 minutes west of us.  Probably just as far away distance wise, but it would be a lot easier to get to.  We have yet to go look at that facility.

Observations

---Saw what I consider another amusing thing on TV.  News is on between 6 and 8.  They were interviewing a hockey player or maybe a former hockey player; a really big guy in weight and height.  His face looked to have met with a few fists and hockey sticks.  He wasn’t cute by any means.  The amusing part was the program that was on the TV behind him- synchronized swimming!  I would have thought the reporter would have considered the background and the TV should have been turned off during the interview, or at least have hockey or soccer on.   It just appeared strange to me. 

---I have read about, and when we first came here years ago we noticed, everyone seems to always be looking down.  They won’t look you in the face and nod in a hello type nod.  We have joined their ranks.  I noticed we walk with our heads down, rarely looking at the people we meet.  For two very obvious reasons:  The sidewalks are very irregular and uneven and most of the time they are made of a type of a brick or stone.  Generally it is pieces 2”x 2”x 6 ” placed on end and the ends are not smooth.  Or the walk ways have been patched over with other shaped bricks, asphalt, or concrete.    Time and weather has made them heave in places.  The other reason is doggie dodo; lots of it from little pooches.  So it seems the only time we glance up is to see if anyone is coming towards us and for traffic at an intersection.  We carry on complete conversations with each other directed towards the ground. 

---There is no cheddar or Colby cheese in the country.  I recall yellow cheese isn’t yellow naturally.  But, I can’t even find white cheddar. There is only Edam, German Swiss, and 100 varieties of goat cheese.  I’m not fond enough of soft cheese to indulge in the goat stuff.  The first person coming over to the Czech Rep. needs to bring a small container of parmesan cheese, the small size lasts us more than a year, and 1/2 lb of Colby cheese, a mild Cheddar, or Co-jack.