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.