Christmas in the Czech Republic

Merry Christmas One and All!

Thanks to everyone who sent emails, annual family letters, cards, packages, or Skyped us to wish us well this holiday.  It has been an interesting one with different customs and opportunities, but touched with sadness at being so far away from old friends and family.  A long post with many, and sometimes gory, details follows, so, if this is as far as you get...we love you...Happy New Year!

The flu plague visited our abode this past week and thrusted deep its sickle.  It started with Caleb a week and half ago.  Then Silas vomiting through the day on Sunday.  Lucy came home early from church looking pale, she proceeded to sleep for most of the next 24 hours.  By Monday morning I had a fever and cough.  Even Kristine got hit with a chest cold. We're still kind of limping along, but generally on the mend.

Lucy gave a talk in church last week - in Czech.  The tough thing about giving a talk in Czech is that, even though you can write out all the words, pronouncing them is difficult and slow, so people have a very difficult time understanding.  Well, Kristine, Caleb, and the Branch President all reported that Lucy did an excellent job.  Aubrey and Caleb joined in the program at church playing a Czech carol on the cello and violin.  It being the Sabbath we didn't go shopping, but had it been any other day I would have been tempted to pick up a wild boar they were selling at a the Christmas market in the street.

On Tuesday, Kristine and I attended a performance by the Southern Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra of the Czech Christmas Mass by Jakub Jan Ryba.  It's the Czech equivalent of going to Handel's Messiah.  It was nice.  I have to admit, though, that I preferred the opening act where a really strong children's choir sang Czech carols with the orchestra playing.  Czech Christmas carols are so cute.  Speaking of which, we did not go out caroling because we sounded like heck, but here are some of my favorites Narodil se Kristus Pan and Nesem Vam Noviny and Pujdem spolu do Betlema.  


Wednesday was the big day...Silas, Aubrey, Caleb and I walked to a fish market to buy our carp.  You may recall that in October we went to the destocking of a carp pond by Třeboň.  In the week before Christmas, those same fish are living in plastic tubs in the city streets.  I approached the fish monger (by so calling him I fail to properly credit the seriousness with which the fisheries people take their profession here) and said I needed two carp each between two and three kilos (4.4 to 6.6 pounds).  He looked around in the tank to find some little ones then reached in and produced a beauty of a fish.  He weighed in at 4.5 kilos (9.9 pounds).  The next one was only a bit over three kilos (just under seven pounds). 

Then comes the big question...alive or dead.  If you choose dead they beat it on the head rapidly with a baton and its all over.  The sidewalk had little pools of blood and everybody that I saw was having theirs killed.  Some places will even clean it for you on the spot.  But the most traditional is to take it home and do it yourself.  So, we walked home with two gasping carp in a big plastic bag.

 
The carp took up residence in our bathtub.  Silas fed them cornflakes and gave them some toys.  They were named Barli and Schwanli after the Alm Uncle's goats in the book Heidi (which we are reading aloud as a family).  Silas wanted to butcher them right away, but we told him it would be after his nap.



We set up the Christmas tree.  This was a challenge.  We borrowed a stand, but the opening on it was less than two inches across.  We carved the base of the trunk down to a nub, stuck it in the stand, and it immediately cracked off.  In the end we stuffed it in a planting pot, weighted it down with rocks and decorated it.  The standard Czech tradition is to decorate on Christmas Eve, but we needed something to do.  Decorations included ceramic ornaments that Lucy made and a paper star Caleb made at school. 

At about 4:30 I heard a ruckus from the bedroom.  Then Silas came flying out saying, "I'm awake from my nap, time to kill the fish!"  Well, it was too close to dinner to start the process.  We made strawberry dumplings.  Yum.  Then we cleaned up the kitchen and went to work.

We set plastic on the table and a cutting board on that.  Knives ready.  Hammer ready.  We retrieved Barli.  I set him on the cutting board, took the hammer, whap - didn't even faze him.  Whap - barely a scratch.  WHAP - the hammer penetrated his skull and buried itself deeply in his brain.  Needing somewhere to go, that displaced gray matter found a home on our refrigerator, wall, and ceiling.  Caleb scaled it, removed the head and fins, and gutted it.  Then I cut it into steaks.


Kristine was a bit distraught over the condition of the kitchen.  She thought I should kill the next one in a room that would clean up easier (who over heard of painting the walls and ceiling of a kitchen with flat, i.e. non washable, paint).  So, I waited till she left for choir practice to do the next one.  I tried cleaning up the walls a bit before starting on the 2nd.  There was this spot, if I just stretched a little more...the chair I was on tipped and I came crashing down in a heap.  That hurt.  This carp thing was looking pretty questionable at this point.



This time I used the flat of the hammer and had Caleb hold up the plastic bag so any splatterings would be caught.  Well, I beat him and thought he was dead (by they way, I call them he but they were both females, it's just that the notion of violence to females is so odious).  But I was mistaken.  Suddenly, he is flopping about in a pool of his own blood.  Caleb was still shielding any splatterings - at the head end.  So, one wall has brains, the other has blood.  Eventually he died.  This one I filleted.


We delivered the fish to the Tučkovi because they wanted to marinate them in yogurt sauce over night and we set about cleaning up the place.  We threw the heads, tails, gutted bodies and egg sacs into a pot with garlic and onion to make some fish soup.


On Christmas Eve some Czechs fast until dinner to be more spiritually prepared to receive the coming of Jesus or to see a golden pig (we have heard both reasons).  Those in our household who fasted didn't see any golden pigs (I carried the camera around just in case), but then, we broke our fast at noon to eat golden fish soup.  'Twas good.

From Christmas

We went to the Tučkovi for a proper Christmas Eve feast.  They had their best china out.  We had a simple beef broth soup, followed by deep fried carp and potato salad with a rose non-alcoholic wine.  Afterward, we snacked on Christmas cookies while Aubrey, Caleb, and Lucinka Tučkova (on the recorder) played carols. While waiting to hear the anticipated bell, the kids played with sparklers out in the garden.  The bell was heard and the parade home began.  Here the presents are brought by the Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve.  A bell rings telling you he just left and then the kids can go at the presents.  We opened ours and then spent the remainder of the evening playing.



On Christmas morning we went to church.  The congregation has a little meeting filled with song and scripture.  Kristine played piano for the carols.  Aubrey and Caleb played the Overture from Handel's Messiah really nicely.  A choir consisting of the missionaries, Branch President, Aubrey and Kristine sang an incredible arrangement of Angels We Have Heard on High.  In my opinion, it was the best choral piece I have ever heard at church, and that's saying something.  


After the service, we went to the river and threw bread to the ducks and swans.  In the tradition of Saint Francis of Assisi we like to get out on Christmas and share some of our bounty with the beasts.  It warmed our hearts to get a note from our friends the Shanafelt's assuring us that the birds at Williams Nature Center in Mankato would find food despite the snowstorms this Christmas.


We had no snow, it melted earlier in the week.  The weather on Christmas was balmy.  Caleb was going stir-crazy, so he, Aubrey, and I took a bus to Dobra Voda (a suburb/village) and went hiking in the hills.  It was beautiful.  I think we all really missed the exceedingly white Christmas you received back home, but, if it's gonna not be white, it was a least nice that it was warm.


One more tradition...early in the month we bought some branches snipped from a cherry tree.  The lore is that if you put them in water and they blossom by Christmas Eve, an unmarried female in the household will tie the knot within a year.  Lucy assures us that she is not eligible, so we hope Brother and Sister Benson are quite prepared for their daughter to get hitched this year.


Those were our Christmas activities.  Underlying it all, though, was the same spirit of goodwill and appreciation for our Savior that makes us cherish this time of year.  We hope your Christmas was lovely and uplifting.


Peter



P.S. Strange thing happened on the way home Saturday night.  We saw this light in the sky, kind of like a candle floating in the air about five stories up.  It passed over our apartment, moved northward over our heads and continued toward downtown.  We thought at first it might be some kind of fireworks or a flying saucer or a hot air balloon.  Then, we settled on the golden pig, flying.  We continued southward and a guy passed us going north.  He was dressed in camo and carried what looked like a ski pole over his shoulder in soldier marching with gun style.  Probably a ray gun. It was creepy.

Aubrey Arrived

From 2009-12

It's with great relief that I report the arrival of Aubrey Rose Benson to the Czech Republic.

For months now we, especially Lucy, have been looking forward to Aubrey spending Christmas break with us.  She grew up in the Mankato area and we know her from church.  Now, she studies cello at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

On Wednesday she boarded a Swiss Airlines plane in Manchester to fly to Zurich.  From Zurich she would go to Prague, where Kristine would be waiting to take her and her cello to a hotel.  After stowing their gear, they would go see a performance of the Talich (String) Quartet  at the Rudolfinium in Prague.  The next day, after roaming around Prague in the morning, they would take the train to České Budejovice.

Well, so much for plans.  It seems the Swiss have trouble telling time.  Her flight to Zurich was 40 minutes late.  So she missed the flight to Prague.

When the very last passengers off the 2:00 flight from Zurich had disembarked, Kristine got worried.  She looked all over the place, but there was no sign of her.  Kristine asked at the Swiss Air desk if Aubrey was on the flight, but they would not say.

She called me to see if I had heard anything.  Nope.

What followed was a wonder of technology.

Using our computer and Skype, I called Aubrey's mother in Minnesota to get her cell phone number in England.  She gave it to me, I called Kristine, Kristine called Aubrey.  Unfortunately, a message said that the number was no longer valid because of renumbering.

I called her mom again to see if there was another number.  She had left home already.  So, I put out an APB on Facebook and sent Aubrey an email with Yahoo Mail.  I then went online to Google and Switchboard.com to find phone numbers for her sisters in Utah.  No luck there, maybe they have cell phones.  Maybe somebody from our congregation in Mankato would have her sisters' numbers.  I was having trouble finding any numbers online.

Kristine and I talked again, she remembered our Bishop's home phone number (she used to be Relief Society President and had him on mental speed dial).  I called there.  So, while I was using my computer to talk to their land line, Sister Cragun was calling people on her cell phone to get the numbers.  Finally, she got them.

So, I called Aubrey's sisters.  Both had the same number that her mom had given me.  I tried calling her from Skype.  I got the same message.  Then I tried again, telling Skype the country not dialing the country code.  I got through...to an answering machine.

Meanwhile, Kristine travels around Prague.  At one intersection, when the walk sign came up everybody started walking.  Problem was that someone in a big SUV wanted to go through that intersection.  They barreled through, missing the lead ped by six inches.  Later, at the same intersection, there was a man standing by a car yelling at the occupant.  He started pounding on the passenger door until he busted out the window.  He turned and ran to a parked car and took off.  Kristine's feeling a bit frazzled at this point.

It's now 5:45 p.m. The next flight from Zurich comes in at 6:45.  Kristine needs to take a bus at 6:00 to get to the airport.  If she goes and Aubrey's not on that flight, she'll have missed the first half of the concert needlessly.  If she doesn't go and Aubrey is on the 6:45, she'd be sitting for a long time. 

So, I make a call to Swiss Airlines HQ in Zurich.  I was a little slow in pressing three for English, so a nice woman said hello in German.  I could understand her and, although I should have been able to get the point across, all I could think of were the Czech words.  Finally, she asked if I spoke English.  I told her our sad story and how my wife doesn't know if she should make the trip to the airport again and is there any way we can know if she is on that flight.  She looked it up.  Yep, she's on the 6:45 flight. Kristine has hope that they can take the 25 minute taxi ride and still make it nip and tuck for the concert.

I called Kristine, she took the bus, and promised to call when she had Aubrey safely in a taxi.  A little before 7:00 I got a text, flight 20 minutes late.  At about 7:20 she called.  I heard Aubrey's Minnesota accent with a British lilt in the background.

They missed the Mendelssohn and the Golijov, but made it to the Shostakovich after intermission.

I then proceeded to send emails, make phone calls, and post Facebook messages to alleviate the worry I had been causing.

Thursday they took the train to České Budejovice and is safe and sound here in our little home.

She received the unofficial calling of Branch Cellist - our Branch President (the leader of our congregation) asked if she would play at church each Sunday and on Christmas.  Right now, she and Caleb are practicing the piece they will play tomorrow.

In other quick news...Caleb has the flu.  Where once it was just an illness, it now seems the equivalent of announcing that he has the plague. 

We had our church Christmas party on Friday.  We ate pizza, sang the 12 Days of Christmas in English, and played the White Elephant (Bily Slon) gift game.  Weather has been chilly with some snow.  It's beautiful, but likely to melt.  We got a package in the mail from some folks back home.  Instead of packing peanuts or bubble wrap, they put Coco Pebbles and Cheese Puffs in ziplocs.  Ingenious.  Tasty.

Looking forward to Christmas carp.

Peter

Reflections on Aging

From 2009-12

Winter came to České Budejovice this last week.  Snow and finally a killing frost.  Here are some highlights.

After dropping out of potty-training a month or so ago without so much as a single success, Silas started up again last week and graduated.  He got so good, in fact, that he would only pee little small amounts at a time because every time he successfully deposited pee in the potty chair he got a treat.  He went from wetting his diaper four times a day to using the potty eight times.

Lucy and Caleb had the week off from school.  Frankly, that's usually not pleasant.  People get bored, they bug each other, they fight.  Monday was bad, but then everyone settled into a routine, doing some homeschooling in the morning, completing chores each day, and generally staying pleasant.

Caleb had a concert on Friday.  Due to illness, he was the concert master.  They played nicely, much sharper even than their concert a couple weeks ago.

Caleb and I participated in a little informal fencing tournament yesterday.  Real swords, mask, pads.  They put me against this big kid for my first one.  It was tough to get used to the limited vision, the flex of the sword, the ill-fitting pads.  I beat him.  Then Caleb went against a guy about my age and beat him soundly.  In both of our matches, the form wasn't there, there was an awkwardness, poor lunging, poor parrying.

Then Caleb challenged me.  This was fun.  I tried my move of whacking his blade out of the way before lunging.  He did his favorite, the disengage.  I got a touch.  More battling, I got another touch.  All I needed was one more, so I took a more defensive role to wait for an opening.  Then, Caleb swung his sword around and whacked me upside the head.  That drew cheers from the crowd cuz it was so unexpected.  Fighting again, another touch for Caleb.  By now I am breathing hard.  I had some nice parries, looking to do a parry of prima and counter attack.  A couple of my lunges were over extended.  Then, another rounding blow from Caleb glanced off my shoulder and hit my head.  He won.

I celebrated my 40th birthday yesterday which caused me to contemplate what I'm making of my life.

I set the next year's goals on my birthday.  I'm a big believer in goals.  We set a goal to come to the Czech Republic to live - boom, we're here.  Lucy set a goal last year to be able to pass each of the arithmetic timed tests (add, subtract, multiply, divide, 100 problems, five minutes, no errors) - zing, two weeks later, she'd passed them all.  Caleb made a goal to do eight pull-ups - whoosh, he's hit his goal and got six pack abs in the bargain (a dream that slips farther and farther from my grasp with each passing bowl of ice cream).

So I reviewed last year's...
- Move to the Czech Republic - done
- Learn Czech - nope
- Get Hwy. 169 pre-design wrapped up - done, and then some
- Get decision on location for Hwy. 14 New Ulm to Mankato - done
- Establish daily writing habit - got it
- Write something good - still working on it.

Then asked Kristine and the kids what my biggest character flaws are.  No, not a complete list, just the biggest.  Okay, never mind.

And set this year's goal...
- Learn Czech
- Finish writing book
- Bike to Alps
- Get touch on fencing instructor (we didn't have time to fight last night)
- some other personal ones too.

Then I spend some time wondering if I'm in the right job.

Then, I think about getting older.  I've got some nice role models for how I want to age...
- When I'm 50 I want to be like our friend Wes.  He's always learning new things, stays fit, seems like he's just bumping up against 40 really.
- At about 60 I want to be like Marc at work.  He is a mentor for the young engineers and student workers.  He shares his experience with them and seems to get energy and different ways of looking at problems from them.
- At about 70 I want to be like my parents.  They still have jobs and so are keeping active physically and mentally.  I may not be at Mn/DOT anymore, but I would hope to be serving a mission with Kristine somewhere.
- At about 80 I want to be somewhat like Brother Christopherson (before he died).  He rode a three wheeled bike all over town, including up Madison hill.  He was on a first name basis with our friend Ross in the emergency room.  Stay active or die trying.

Lucy made a little ceramic mug the size of a shot glass for me.  I drank my plum flavored non-alcoholic beer in it at dinner last night.

So, Caleb asked if I had a nice birthday.  I told him that when you have a life like mine, surrounded by family and good friends with opportunities for learning and adventure, every day is nice.

Peter

Ceramics

Keramika is the Czech word for ceramics. I go to ceramics every Monday. I really enjoy it!!!  I am hoping that my parents will buy ceramic equipment for one of my birthdays.My mom says I have to earn the money for half of it. I agreed. I think earning the money will be easy peesy lemon squeezy.  So, maybe, in a few years, I will make bowls, cups, pots, vases,etc. for you.

I LOVE my  teacher, Jana Tuckova. Jana is sweet and kind. She is also a VERY good cook.

From 2009-12

From 2009-1

This is me with my finished M+M jar. Cool isn't it?

From 2009-12

Jana let my dad take these pictures. Also, she let him make this chess set. 
 

From 2009-12

 This is also my M+M jar. Also right in front of it, there is a clay printer. You probably don't know what it is. It is very easy to make. You just make a sphere of clay, press your thumb and pointer about 1/4 in, squish the bottom flat, and make a design on the bottom. You also have to fire it on a kiln. 

From 2009-12

This is me deciding what to make.

From 2009-12

This is the workshop. Pretty cool isn't it?


These are ONLY A COUPLE of the things that I have made.

1. Bells
2. Christmas tree decorations
3. Little house
4. Garden gnome
5. Earrings
6. M+M jar
7. Clay printers
8. Beads
9. Pots
10. Cups
    

- Lucy

Saint Nicholas

Christmas season is in full gear here in the Czech Republic.  Saturday, December 5th was Svati Mikulaš (St. Nicholas) day - a day of fun and fright for kids all across the country.

We went with our friends the Tučkovi and bought ourselves a Christmas tree.  It's sitting on our porch waiting for December 24th.  That's the traditional day to set it up.  It then stays up until January 6th.  Here is Jan trying to decide between two trees...

From 2009-12

On Svati Mikulaš the tradition is that St. Nick (dressed as a Catholic Bishop - or some similar high office) goes around with an angel, who carries a basket of presents, and Chert, this minor devil character that shows up all over in Czech folktalkes, who carries a switch to whack kids and hands out coal.  So groups of people dress up and go around and mess with people.  They ride the buses, they stroll the streets.  Our friend Jan says that he used to be so scared to go out on Svati Mikulaš.

From 2009-12

In the evening we, and all the rest of České Budejovice, went downtown.  There, with thousands of other people, we watched a guy dressed like an angel descend on a zip line from the Black Tower to the opposite side of the square.  He had a little trouble getting going and moved very slowly at first, but suddenly zinged right along.  Everybody cheered. Then, with loud creepy music playing from huge speakers, a giant angel paraded around the square. Here's a short clip (notice the size relative to the three story buildings)...

From 2009-12

Svati Mikulaš brought a present for Caleb and Lucy...no school all week.  There were so many sick kids and fear over flu that classes were canceled for the whole week.  Pray for us.

Peter 

The Unifying Theory of Some Stuff

I'm writing a book, see.  It's about this girl and this boy and I don't want to reveal too much, so I'll leave it at that.  By the way, I sure hope the one minute version of Harry Potter got as many okay-that-sounds-stupid looks as I have gotten when I have given a more complete synopsis.  Things are coming nicely - I'm about 40% through the first draft - largely due to a chapter in the book How to Write a Lot by Paul J. Silvia that was shared with me by our friend and composition professor at Mankato State University, Heather Camp.  The gist of it is to schedule time to write.  For me that means get up early and write until 6:00 or 6:30 depending on whether Caleb wants to play World of Warcraft while people in the U.S.A. are still populating the servers.

Anyway, instead of lying in bed resting from a 22 mile bike ride with Caleb like I should be (it's 12:45 a.m. here), and instead of describing how this girl turned princess now feels the need to learn to fight with a sword to defend herself, I am sitting up thinking about a half wit Unifying Theory of Some Stuff.

I've always been a fan of great unifying theories.  It seems to me that God put together a complex universe that resolves down to some basic truths and the more we learn about science, philosophy, and our Creator, the more clearly we will see these truths and apply them to the problems of life.

Tonight's theory involves fencing, music, storytelling, and Czech.  Unfortunately, in writing the intro, I have forgotten how they all fit together.  This reminds me of the time that I was momentarily able to comprehend how the dimension of time fits with the three spatial dimensions, but afterwards the understanding faded and all I had was a mental sketch of a gleaming, blue corkscrew curve projecting from the origin of a three dimensional cartesian coordinate system.  Or, even worse, the time when I had life all figured out and, when I later tried to describe it, all I could come up with is that it is like a bowl of crushed Wheaties (when I wrote this last night, I erroneously said Corn Flakes - my apologies if anyone spent time contemplating the solemnities of Corn Flakes).

Shoot, well some things that have happened in our lives over the past few days...

Caleb had a concert on Thursday.  His music school orchestra played a piece that may have been the Children's Symphony (or the toy symphony - I'd don't know if they are the same) by Leopold Mozart (don't blame me if I'm confused, they used to tell us that this was composed by one of the Hadyn's).  Caleb then played a nice, solid solo.

On Friday evening, when buddies on two continents were hanging out with friends, Caleb went with Lucy, Silas and me to the grocery store.  On the way back we crossed paths with a bunch of girls and some guys from his class.  I kind of felt for the boy as all he could do was say hi and continue walking, laden down with bags full of milk for his whining toddler brother and beer (non-alcoholic) for his unemployed old man.

Czech continues to be a struggle.  We got the basic mechanics down.  Now it's just a matter of stringing things together quickly enough that people will pay attention to a whole thought.  In fact most of my conversations go one of four ways (english equivalent of czech words given in italics)...

1.  I....like would (the person corrects my word order)...to read (the person corrects my pronunciation of the letter 'i')...a book (the person corrects the ending I used on the word book)...about (the person has started a conversation somebody else).

2.  Peter - I speak a little Czech
     Other Person - I speak a little English
     Peter - simple Czech words for which the Other Person knows the English equivalent and "uhs" for all the rest.
     Other Person - simple English words for which Peter knows the Czech equivalent and "ers" for all the rest.

3.  I think that you...should...try...how do you say X?  Oh, heck, (and speak english from there on).

4.  I don't speak Czech.

I didn't understand a lot at fencing on Monday, but it became clear to me that it is realistic for a very talent fencer to defeat a whole bunch of unskilled swordsmen (like they always do in the movies).  So after class I asked the teacher if he could take on the whole class and win.  He said no, but there will be a tournament at the end of the year, and, while it will be disgraceful if he loses to me, it would be more disgraceful to not accept my challenge, so we are on.

We have started getting packages from people and requests for our mailing address.  Let me say, I think folks are crazy to spend the kind of money that it takes to mail a package here.  With that said, we really appreciate the consideration and sacrifice.  Thank you.

Finally, we did celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday.  We had turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, corn, lingonberries, bread, and the biggest pumpkin pie I have ever seen for dessert.  We had the pleasure of the company of the four missionaries here in Česke Budejovice.

The missionaries are...

Elder Hill - an excellent singer and, we learned Sunday, a Guitar Hero hero, nearing the end of his mission.

Elder Pearson - came to the Czech Republic about two weeks before us and, in Kristine's words, has left me in the dust in terms of learning Czech.  His dad is a General Authority (Elder Pearson of the Seventy) so we are always asking him what it's like to grow up in such a household.

Elder Vivona - has only been out for about a month.  He's coming along nicely with the language too.

Elder Nowland - I'm no Czech, but it sure sounds to me like this elder has it down.  He even draws out the letters with accent marks, he even speaks with the same kind of cadence as Czechs.  He too is nearing the end.

It's now 2:00 a.m. and there is no sleep in sight.  I think I'll try warm milk and counting Czech noun endings.

Peter

A Hymn for the Day

Kristine and I went to a wonderful performance last night by Lubomir Brabec playing classical guitar and Alžběta Vlčková on the cello. The beauty of the music was only surpassed by that of the woman sitting next to me. That has me thinking of one of my favorite hymns, For the Beauty of the Earth, by Folliott Sandford Pierpoint.

For the beauty of the earth, 
 for the glory of the skies, 
 for the love which from our birth 
 over and around us lies; 
 Lord of all, to thee we raise 
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For the beauty of each hour 
 of the day and of the night, 
 hill and vale, and tree and flower, 
 sun and moon, and stars of light; 
 Lord of all, to thee we raise 
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For the joy of ear and eye, 
 for the heart and mind's delight, 
 for the mystic harmony, 
 linking sense to sound and sight; 
 Lord of all, to thee we raise 
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For the joy of human love, 
 brother, sister, parent, child, 
 friends on earth and friends above, 
 for all gentle thoughts and mild; 
 Lord of all, to thee we raise 
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For thy church, that evermore 
 lifteth holy hands above, 
 offering up on every shore 
 her pure sacrifice of love; 
 Lord of all, to thee we raise 
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For thyself, best Gift Divine, 
 to the world so freely given, 
 for that great, great love of thine, 
 peace on earth, and joy in heaven:  
 Lord of all, to thee we raise 
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

We wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving. 

P.S. Benny and Rene - we wish we would have been out on a double date with you all last night.  The music was right up Benny's alley.

P.P.S.  Here we are...

Peter

Cooking

Thanksgiving (a holiday not normally celebrated here) is this week, so naturally our thoughts turn to cooking.  I like to cook. I can remember as a youngster daydreaming about becoming a chef someday. I started cooking big meals as theme dates when Kristine and I were first going out. In the last 10 years I've had the pleasure of knowing and being inspired by some phenomenal cooks (e.g. Suzy Clive, Heather Camp, Tony Gregor (who's now gone pro)). So, a few words on cooking here.

The first challenge with cooking here was shopping for ingredients.  I've got a pretty good handle on food words now, at least for the basics.  I mean, I still spend an inordinate amount of time reading labels (even with words I know the meaning of the symbols does not jump off the package), but I can usually get what I want.

Pork (which constitutes 2/3 of the meat section in stores) and chicken are fairly cheap, beef much more expensive.  I can get duck anywhere, and some places have geese and turkeys and rabbit.  The basic vegetables are available. 

There are some things they just don't have...

• Vanilla Extract - thanks to a tip from Tony Gregor of Token BBQ we are made our own
• Peanut Butter - okay they do have it in some stores but it's incredibly expensive and I've only seen the hydrogenated oiled, sweetened variety (Jif or Skippy), so for all practical purposes, they don't have PB
  
• Root Beer - not like I miss it or anything, but most folks here think it tastes like medicine (think old fashioned creosote based cough syrup)
• Corn starch
• Cumin - fortunately, Kristine's sister Becky sent us a bunch
• Turmeric
• Sweet Potatoes - I could have sworn I saw some in a store once, but no luck since.
• Cheddar cheese - well, they have it, but it is super expensive.  We use Eidam instead.
• Cranberries - they do have lingonberries (a fine substitute and reasonably priced)

Things I have been delighted or intrigued to find:

• Fish sauce - in some stores in little bottles, but I found the big bottle of Squid brand in a little corner store run by Vietnamese immigrants.
• Jasmine rice - again, you can spend a lot as a specialty food in stores, but I was happy to find the 10 pound bag for cheap
• Pumpkin - more common now as a decoration, some places have the varieties meant as food, but expensive (we paid $6 for one)
  
• Creamy ice cream - I was afraid they would just have the watery kind.
  
• Pizza - it used to be flat bread with ketchup on it, but now there are a lot of pizzerias with pictures (we have yet to partake) of real pizza.  They also have frozen ones in the store.  We'll find out how it is because the congregation has a tradition of getting pizzas from a pizzeria for the annual Christmas party.
  

Once you find what you need, you have to get it home.  Lots of folks have cars now, but we have chosen to rely on walking, biking, and public transportation.  Fortunately, there are a lot of small grocery stores all over the place so flour, sugar, milk, butter, eggs, veggies, meat, cheese, and bread can be had very easily.  If you want better prices or more exotic ingredients, you have to go to the bigger stores.  The photo below shows what I carried home in my backpack on my bike one day.

From Sept 09

We have a gas stove - which I really appreciate for cooking.  We also have an electric oven.  When we got here the oven didn't work, so they brought in a new one.  The fellow who delivered it said that the owners had originally said they want a small one like what was here already.  He told them, no they are Americans and have a big family so they need a big oven to make a big turkey.  A big oven here is still small compared to what we are used to, but it provides enough space.

The apartment has some of the tools I am used to.  Others I have been making do without or have purchased.  We have an incredible set of knives - I think I will buy some good ones when we return to the states. 

Our first batch of cookies didn't go so well.  They came out a little crisp.  I don't understand, I put them in at 350 degrees just like the directions said.

We've made really good roast ducks, geese and chickens, Vietnamese bun, Thai curry, fruit dumplings, and a chocolate cream pie.  We find recipes on the web or get tips from people here, or just experiment.  It's fun.

So, we will celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday with the two sets of missionaries.  We'll roast a turkey and have stuffing, potatoes, a vegetable, gravy and, if I can find a pumpkin that looks good, I'll bring it home on the bus and Kristine will make a pie.

We wish you all a very good Thanksgiving. 

Peter

The Freiberg Temple and the week in review

From 2009-11

Caleb and I took a trip to the Freiberg Temple in Germany this weekend and had some great experiences along the way.  In fact we have had a week filled with things, so here's a long rundown.

Quick preface...Temples are special buildings that Latter-day Saints construct as the House of the Lord.  We do not have regular Sunday services there, but instead go there to make covenants with God that we will keep the commandments, to be married for eternity, and perform this work on behalf of people who did not receive the essential ordinances during their mortal life.  I know that last sentence is loaded with Mormon jargon - if you want to understand what I just wrote, start here, otherwise, suffice it to say that going to the temple is an immensely important part of our spiritual development.

The Freiberg Temple holds a very special place in history.  Built in 1985, it was the only temple built behind the iron curtain.  The East German communist government didn't want to allow its residents to go to Switzerland to attend the temple, so they allowed one to be built in an out of the way city near the Czech border.

From 2009-11

On Friday morning, Caleb and I took the train to Prague, then another train to Usti nad Labem (a strikingly beautiful city in the northern mountains along a large river), then Aleš picked us up and drove us to Freiberg.

It was Czech week at the temple so many Czech saints were there.  It was like a big family reunion.  There are dormitories with a shared kitchen and dining area so everyone hangs out and interacts between temple sessions.  This was great since we got to see people from across the country (some we knew, some we met for the first time).  We shared a room with a member of the mission presidency who is also a transportation engineer.  We stayed up late Friday night talking about road design and financing (I know you are thinking "only an engineer").

In the temple communication was typically given German and either Czech or English.  Nobody speaks only one language.  And some spoke all three.  Finally Czech just flowed effortlessly out of my mouth - unfortunately it was only when I was trying to speak German.  It was just beautiful how everyone was just patient and helpful.  We felt very much at home.

On of my favorite people was a brother from Austria who was serving as a temple worker.  He and his wife had served a mission in the temple 10 years earlier and they now go back there (even though Frankfurt is closer) to keep serving.  He spoke to me in English.  I spoke to him in German (to the extent I was able).  And, best of all, when he pronounced Czech names, he even did the "ř" (you'll recall that's the ha-rrrrr-zh sound) just like a Czech.

Besides the social benefits, serving in the temple brings a great peace of spirit that is incredibly refreshing.

Some other events of the week...

From 2009-11

Last Monday and Tuesday the kids had off school in celebration of the anniversary of the start of the protests that led to freedom from communism.  On Tuesday, Kristine, Caleb, Silas and I went to Rudolfov - a small town just outside Česke Budejovice.  It was an absolutely beautiful day for a hike through the woods along a stream.  That afternoon Caleb, Lucy and I biked to Plav.  We also watched TV some to see the images of the protests 20 years ago.

Kristine, Lucy and Silas went to Plzeň to visit Madla on Friday and Saturday.  While there they visited Madla's mom, Maruška, at her cottage.  She's a hunter (a rather rare thing here and even rarer among women) so she made them svičkova from venison with homemade dumplings.  It was delicious (they brought some back).  Kristine said it was a nice visit, though she ended up carrying Silas too much.  Oh, and he vomited on the train just as they got back to Česke Budejovice.  Kristine was able to catch it in a bag though.

By the way, in Usti there were a bunch of roundabouts.  I took some video of a multi-lane roundabout with a fairly large truck volume.  Then, there was a traffic circle that had yields on the inside of the circle (which violates one of the fundamental design principles of modern roundabouts).

On our way back from the temple with the Chrdlovi family, we went to Řip Mountain.  Legend has it that the original Mr. Čech looked out over the land from atop Řip and claimed all the land he saw for his people.  As the core of an old volcano, it is an interesting bell-shaped hill in the middle of a plain.  Going there is kind of like going to Fort Snelling in Minnesota or the Alamo in Texas - it's a fundamental part of the historical identity of the people. 


Finally, Sunday we relaxed with church and time at home to recover from a busy week.

Oh, and a couple of Silasisms...We had watched Green Eggs and Ham for English class.  So, on a walk, Silas says, "Me Sam.  Sam me am."  "Daddy bein' a booger.  He buggin' me all the time." 

Peter

The Wonders of Modern Technology

I wanted to be involved in a phone call with work last week as they kick off the next phase of a project that used to be mine (writing the Final Environmental Impact Statement for US Hwy. 14 from New Ulm to North Mankato).  I looked into a bunch of ways to communicate with folks and settled on Skype.

I loaded Skype (this was effortless) and bought myself a microphone (not quite effortless - I had to walk about 12 blocks to go to a store where the guy didn't speak english, but was patient enough to deal with my Czech).  I bought some credit because, while Skype to Skype calls are free, I would be calling out to a regular landline.  At 2.4 cents per minute, though, you can't beat it.

I made a test call to the office last Monday.  I called my friend Rebecca in the cube next to mine.  It sounded better than had I called from my phone there.  On Tuesday I spent about two and half hours on the phone with the project team.  It was great.  They sent me PDFs of the designs and there wasn't a hitch.

I tried surprising my Mom by calling on her birthday on Friday.  She wasn't home, so we left a message.

Then, last night we called our friends Wes, Lisa and James Taylor back in Mankato.  We started with a call to their phone, but Wes fired up his laptop and the next thing you knew, we were on a video call.  It was not smooth as silk, some choppiness to the video, but it was more than adequate.  And, it was free.  We gave them a tour of our apartment (we're wireless so we tromped around with our computer).  It was a blast.

Anyway, it made me hearken back to a time 21 years ago when I was a student at North Dakota State University and Kristine was at the U of Minnesota.  To call her I had to get a load of quarters, walk to a payphone, and feed that machine continuously.  Our good-byes were always like "Bye, are you still there?  Bye, oh we got a few more seconds.  Bye, I can't wait to see you.  Bye, I really lo...click."

By the way, we want the Taylors to come see us and we think you want them to also.  Why should you care?  Check out some of Wes' photos and see.  There are so many things so worth photographing and Wes is so good.

As a final note...Caleb gave a talk in church on Sunday...in Czech.  That takes some guts. 

Peter

Nothing Much to Talk About

Greetings.  Nothing really big going on, but I don't want to lose your attention before Christmas (there will be really good posts then) so here are some random observations and occurrences and photos so you don't forget what we look like. 

We have had sunshine this week - about half the days for about half a day each time.

This is Kristine.  My wife.  I'm sure everyone is wondering how well she is enduring having me around the house so much.  Her response:  "Chuckle, chuckle.  I enjoy it.  It's like having my best friend around all the time and I never get tired of him."  She's the breadwinner now (English lessons four times per week).  Doing yoga most days now.  Going strong with Czech.

Kristine has season tickets to the orchestra.  Sometimes she takes me; sometimes she takes Caleb.  They play really good stuff.  Kristine's going to make a post all about it sometime.



 What I miss most about home:  Barnes & Noble

This is Lucy.  She's still 10.  Lucy is enjoying watching Zach & Cody and Hannah Montana on YouTube these days.  A teacher hit her on the head with a pen the other day.  They love embarrassing kids here.  It's kinda like the old Pink Floyd Another Brick in the Wall piece about We Don't Need No Education.  She got a turn on the potters wheel the other day.  She wears T shirts when it's cold out, so the people all up and down the street ask our friend Jana what's up with that (they really bundle up here).  Jana just explains that she's an American.

What I miss most about home:  Peanut Butter

Caleb, Age 13.  BIG NEWS!!! He finally reached level 55 in World of Warcraft and can now create....DEATH KNIGHTS.  He got an extra hour of screen time this week when Kristine gave him a quiz and he got 139 out of 144 of the most common noun declination patterns in Czech.  Our extra fencing lessons are paying off for him. 

He does not look like this anymore.  He got a haircut, but this one was cooler than the sort of dorky one he has now.  He has a facebook account (or is it Kristine's account with his name?).

What I miss most about home:  My friends



Silas here.  Three.  Here is what he is saying right now..."Bum soldier.  Bum soldier.  Woo who!  Chink Chink Chink Chink.  No you are my horse.  Horse stay there.  Come back okay horse.  Bye horse.  Bye horsey.  Waaaaa waaaa waaaa wasss.  Kahck ahck."  We had an unhappy time today (I didn't get much sleep and he was crabby), but we went for a bike ride and that helped.

What I miss most about home:  Silence.  Your yellow house?  Yeah.

This is me.  I don't have a job. 

I've started writing.  One of those life long dreams, you know.  The more I do it, the more fun it gets. 

I pulled a calf muscle a month ago, so I only just started running again.  I need to be ready for the inaugural Mankato Marathon next October.

Learning Czech is going.  I also learned the endings.  Now I gotta work on vocabulary. I gotta prepare a talk for church tomorrow in Czech.  That will be an adventure.

What I miss most about home: Yerba Mate (the herbal drink from Argentina).

We've got Monday and Tuesday off from school, so we might have some fun stuff to report soon.

Peter

Visa Update

As described in previous laments, our visas expire near the end of January.  We were invited to fill out all the applications again and pay another fee with hopes of extending to the end of May.  So, for the last month Kristine has been researching our options and reading horror stories of people who had run ins with the foreign police in various European countries.  With less than three months remaining on our visas it was time to get the ball rolling.  So, on Friday, Kristine paid a visit to our friends at the foreign police.

The open borders between  Schengen Agreement nations is great for Europeans.  For us it means that there is a uniform maximum combined time in the Schengen countries of 90 days out of every 180 days.  The clock starts the day you enter.  We came here seven days before our visa kicked in, so we used seven of our 90 days in August and the 180 days ends in February.  Then a new 180 day block would start and we could stay in Schengen countries for 90 days.  Until recently, the rule was that time in a country with a visa counted towards Schengen time.  That would have meant that we would have used up our 90 Schengen days around Thanksgiving.  Fortunately, a more recent re-interpretation of the rules (as described on the U.S. Embassy in Prague website, not on a Schengen country site) changed it so that visa time does not count as Schengen time unless you leave the country that granted the visa.  So, you probably have an idea why people enlist the assistance of the Russian Mafia to get through this.

So Kristine set out Friday morning with the information from the U.S. Embassy site in English and Czech.  She was hesitant about showing it because you don't want to provoke the people with the final word by saying our government says their government has to let us stay.  In fact we spent a lot of time talking about strategy.  One friend suggested we take flowers.  I told Kristine that we should threaten to move frequently in our remaining time here if they did not make it easy for us (which would have resulted in a huge amount of work for them).

Anyway, best case scenario was that they agree that we can use Schengen time after our visa expires so that no visa extension would be needed.  Otherwise, we were ready to spend many hours filling out papers and hand over another few thousand crowns.  Moving to the British Isles or Croatia was dropped as an option because we feel very strongly about the need to be here helping out with our tiny congregation at church.

She sat in the waiting room, nervous.  Her palms were sweaty.  She concluded that only the executioner made people feel worse.  As she looked around at others, including a Vietnamese family, she thought about how they must feel.  Our stress is all about whether our vacation is interrupted, but for other people it's about whether they have to return to a country where their paycheck might not come for months at a time, or people steal your chained bike off your third floor balcony, or your life is in danger because of political or ethnic enmities.

While sitting there she had one of those "pure intelligence flowing into you" moments.  She quickly sketched out a timeline showing the ideal scenario and where we had questions.

When her number was called she went back into the office.  Our regular case worker was occupied so she talked to another woman.  As they went over the timeline the woman commented several times that it was a good description of our plan and very clear.  Our regular case worker listened in on it anyway and, in the end, they agreed that we can stay until the end of May without a visa extension!

By the way, our maximum allowable stay works out to the exact day of our flight home.  Isn't that "lucky"?

When Kristine got home she still had sweat dripping down the back of her neck and had one of those post adrenaline rush headaches.  Once again we found ourselves on our knees giving thanks that things worked out just right.

Peter

Czechoslovak Independent State Day

October 28th is Czechoslovak Independent State Day - the biggest national holiday of the year.  It celebrates the creation of the independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 following the obliteration of the Hapsburg Empire in World War I.  The kids got a five day weekend and, since a lot of things shut down at the end of October, we tried to cram in a lot of activities.  Here then, is a rundown of our week and of Czech history.

Pre-Slavic People
There is archaeological evidence of Neolithic Era inhabitants in the region.  There is also behavioral evidence for the ongoing maintenance of a neanderthal population - they hang out around train station stairways and drink wine in a box.  The earliest identified residents in these lands included Celtic tribes such as the Boii (3rd century BC - from whom the name Bohemia originates).

No doubt these people celebrated Samhain, or some similar harvest festival, and so did we, in the secularized christianized version known as Halloween.  That's right, that holiday beloved by children, despised by mothers and dentists.  It is Caleb's favorite holiday.  Kristine can't stand it.  It had been resolved long before we came that we were not going to be introducing Halloween to the Czech Republic.  Imagine her surprise when it was announced at a church leadership planning meeting that we would have a little Halloween party at the chapel!

Silas was a knight, Lucy was a sort of Robin Hood, Caleb was a disgruntled fiddler ("Imagine the fun I would be having if I was back at home with my friends"), Kristine was a clown (she wanted to be a vodnik - a water goblin, but didn't have the requisite buggy eyes), and I wore a brown fitted sheet with two socks pinned on the bum (ostensibly Silas' horse).  It was a nice event with a cake walk, pumpkin carving, and bobbing for apples.   

Well, the Germanic tribes (Marcromanni and Quadi) moseyed in during the 1st century and moseyed back out in the 5th century. 

Coming of the Slavs

Along came the Slavs with their difficult slavic languages. 

By the way, the kids and I are not yet fluent in Czech.  I can almost formulate a grammatically correct sentence (as long as it does not have a direct or indirect object or any prepositions or past tense verbs).  In fact, we had a bad Czech language experience on Wednesday at the Plzeň Zoo in Plzeň.  We went to a raptor show.  It was cool.  The eagles caught food in the air and snatched it out of a pool.  Then, it got boring.  The birds were just flying back and forth between volunteers arms ("It's like watching someone else play a videogame").  So we got up to go.  As we were walking up the stairs out of this huge amphitheater, I became aware of the presenter yelling at someone.  I turned around and he was looking at me.  I couldn't tell what he was saying, but I got the gist that he didn't want people walking around during this part of the show.  I sat down and told Lucy to do the same.  Well the guy kept raving.  I look back and Silas was still ascending the stairs with Caleb trying to catch him.  We got all seated and smiled back serenely at the 400 hundred staring eyes.  Well, I smiled back.  Caleb stared people down until they looked away uncomfortably.  As the guy was finishing his rant, a nice woman just in front of us called out "they don't speak Czech" in a leave-them-alone tone.  The guy made a last disparaging remark or two and went on.  The kids were ready to board a plane after this incident.

It's interesting how a person takes a blow to their pride even by something like this.  Obviously this guy's (and the 200 other peoples') opinion of us is irrelevant.  But you want to stand up and yell, "Hey, I am fluent in my own language, Buddy!"  It's tough being treated like the village idiot all the time.

Then I got thinking about how people would react to this in back home.  Would I call out, "Hey, give him a break, he doesn't speak English."  Or would I say, "Freaking foreigners, they should learn our language if they wanna come to our country."  I wonder if anyone else who was there wrote a blog about the incident.

So, anyway, along came the Slavs led by this guy, Czech.  Legend has it that he climbed Mount Řip (northwest of Prague) and claimed all he could see for his people.

Medieval Times
To make a long history short, the Slavs soon settled down and adopted the feudal system.  They had all the cool medieval stuff going on.  The architecture progressed from Romanesque to Gothic (like St. Bartholemew's Church in Plzeň) to Renaissance to Baroque to Whatever the More Modern Stuff is Called.  They had knights, local nobility, kings, emperors, saints, romance, intrigue.

We got to see a humorous skit about Czech history at a Warriors Festival in Tabor on Saturday.  Some of the historical re-enactors did this piece that included selecting a husband in pagan times, selecting a religion in early Christian times, and selecting a ruler at the time Svaty Vaclav (Saint Wenceslaus) and his treacherous brother Boleslav (note that I use the term "selecting" tongue in cheek as neither the woman, nor the converts, nor the ruled had any say in the decision).  The best parts about the trip to Tabor were eating in a dark, tavern warmed by a real fire and lit by candles and shooting a long bow.      

From the time that Great Moravia and, later, Bohemia emerged as states, their history is completely entwined with the Holy Roman Empire and its precursor, the Kingdom of the East Franks, and its post cursor, the Austro-Hungarian Empire (same Habsburgs, new name).

Our little part of the world was run by the Rožmberks.  They were headquartered in their castle in Česky Krumlov (a UNESCO world heritage site).  Kristine, Caleb and Lucy took the train there on Thursday.  The castle tour is a must do.  Unfortunately, they didn't get to do it.  After the hour train ride and the half-hour walk to the castle, there wasn't enough time to take the next available tour and still make the next train home. Kristine figured it wasn't worth an extra four hours of kids' whining while waiting for the six o'clock train.  They skipped the tour, walked through the gardens and caught some of the medieval city.

The Rožmberks oversaw much of the development of southern Bohemia.  Most notably, they took the local fish ponds and had them developed into an extensive complex of carp production ponds.  Although the noble carp is much maligned in the US, it is a part of life here.  In fact, it is a Christmas tradition here just like turkey at Thanksgiving there.  Anyway starting around the 1300's they excavated wetlands, built dikes around them, and got carp production really rolling.

This is the carp harvest season and the"unstocking" (vylovy) of the ponds is accompanied by crowds showing up to watch, eat and drink beer.  Lucy, Caleb and I went to Rybnik Dvořiště on Friday.  We left home at 6:30 in the morning with our friend Aleš driving us so we could see the roundup.  The fishers were out in full regalia (green uniform with fish shaped pins and felt hats).  The lake had been drawn down and the fish spooked into a small bay.  Wading through the waist deep water, the men fenced off the area.  Then they drew a net across and pulled it closer.  By this time there were a couple hundred people out to watch.  Finally, the circle was tightened and alive with fish.  The men then net them and dump them into bins.  They then get transported to Třeboň where they will spend the next couple of weeks in concrete pools to clean the mud out of them.  After watching this, we took a 10 km (6 mile) hike to catch a bus.  It was a beautiful day.

Other notable events between 1300 and 1700 include:

• Founding of Charles University
• Jan Hus pushes for religious reforms and is burnt as a heretic
• Jan Žižka leads the Taborites against crusaders bent on destroying the Hussite movement
• Thirty Years War
  

The Czech National Revival of the 18th and 19th centuries sought to put emphasis on the Czech language, culture and national identity.  German was the dominant language in the empire and some Czech rulers didn't even know the language.  It is said that of the several thousand volumes in the library at Hluboka Castle, only 13 were in Czech.  Anyway, the revival brought the first Czech dictionary, Dvorak's Slavonic Dances and the phenomenal Ma Vlast by Bedřich Smetana. 

Czechoslovakia
This revival got folks thinking about maybe having some autonomy.  Then, with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, WWI broke out.  During the war, Professor Tomaš Masaryk, living in London, provided intelligence to the allies and went to France, Russia, and the U.S. to win support for an independent Czechslovakia.  Following the war, the allies recognized Masaryk as the leader of the Czechs and an independent republic was formed.

At that time Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, part of Silesia, and Carpathian Ruthenia were merged to form a new nation.  It was a prosperous time here.  There are a lot of buildings with dates in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  The Czechs had a strong industrial base and one of their top exports, guns, was in demand during the interwar period. 

Then along came the Nazis.  We're all familiar with the appeasement policy (referred to as a great betrayal by Czechs at the time) where the allies failed to live up to responsibilities and turned the Sudetenland over to Hitler.  Shortly thereafter, Hungary took part of Slovakia, the Poles took some of the country, the Slovaks split off to form a Nazi puppet government, the Ruthenians separated, and Germany occupied the remainder of the country.

In 1945 the Soviets came from the east (after delaying to make sure that local insurgencies failed so they could be the liberators) and the Americans from the west.  There are a lot of monuments celebrating the liberation.  When we were in Plzeň four years ago we got to town the day after the 60th anniversary of the liberation by the US forces.  There were flowers placed at the monuments dedicated to the American soldiers.  It was very moving.

So Czechoslovakia was reconstituted (without Carpathian Ruthenia).  Then the communists took over. 

We visited our friend Madla in Plzeň.  She was a teenager in the 80's.  She tells the story about how under communism the history teachers taught that the Soviets had liberated Plzen.  So the students would ask, why do the soldiers in these photos have American uniforms?  Because the Soviet troops were in disguise.  Yeah, but some of these soldiers are black, who's ever heard of a black Russian?  The teachers would just give a pleading look indicating everyone knew it was a lie, but if you just go along with it life is much easier.

Madla questioned this propaganda publically and was called in for scoldings from the communist bosses.  Despite graduating near the top of her class, she was denied a spot at the university and instead was assigned to work as a flagger on a road construction crew.  She said it was interesting, though, because she got to work with a bunch of black-listed college professors on the road crew.

Well, Madla's still a trouble maker.   On a train last year she sat near a bunch of German-speaking skinheads.  One of them told her she couldn't sit there and called her a "Czech swine."  She told him he had no business talking to her that way.  He got up and said Heil Hitler in her face.  She slapped him.  He punched her.  She whacked him with her bag.  You gotta respect a woman going toe to toe with a bunch of neo-nazis.

So, yeah, life was bad under the commies.  In Plzeň there is a monument put up by the communists commemorating their greatness.  Set a short distance back from it is a newer, black obelisk remembering the communist terror.

In 1968 the political leaders in Czechoslovakia were getting a little too liberal

Blessedly, in the late 80's all the world was in upheaval.  Even the Soviet Union was liberalizing with Gorbechev's Glasnost and Perestroika policies.  The Czech communists were not keeping up with the times and the people were getting more restless.  There was more open criticism of the government.  The Candle Demonstration on March 25, 1988 was the first mass anti-communist demonstration by Catholics demanding greater religious freedom.  Then, on November 17, 1989 during a student march commemorating International Students Day (which, ironically, originally was established to commemorate the Nazi storming of the Charles University after protesters demonstrated against the Nazi shooting death of Czech student Jan Opletal - the Nazis executed nine student leaders and sent 1200 to concentration camps and closed all Czech universities) the commies trapped the student demonstrators and beat them.  This led to mass demonstrations and strikes.  Within two weeks the border with Germany and Austria was open and by the first of the year there was a new non-communist government led by Vaclav Havel.  This series of events is known as the Velvet Revolution.

Czech Republic Now
On December 31, 1992 Slovakia officially split off.  There was no fighting over it, just a "velvet divorce."  Just a sense on the Czech side that the Slovaks were not wise to do so (the economic base is on the Czech side). 

Now the country seems to be doing well, though we hear a fair amount of concern over the economy.  They moved to a free market economy, but retained fully socialized medicine and higher education.

We did note that there was not much outward demonstration of national identity on recent national holidays.  We wondered if, 20 years after the revolution, young people have forgotten the need to be involved in politics to ensure that the Nazis, the Communists or any other civil and human rights squashing groups don't get control.  Our friend (whose Czech flag hanging from their house on October 28th was the only one I noticed on any residential location) commented that a more accurate interpretation would be while people love their land and their culture, they are distrustful of government.

In the words of the Czech National Anthem (click here to hear it)
o

Where is my home, where is my home?

Water roars across the meadows,

Pinewoods rustle among crags,

The garden is glorious with spring blossom,

Paradise on earth it is to see.

And this is that beautiful land,

The Czech land, my home,

The Czech land, my home.

f mine.

Roundabouts and a few other Worthington Related Things

I haven't taken the time yet to write about transportation very much, but a trip to the Carp Capital of the World, Třeboň, to go biking last week got me thinking about another world capital I used to visit a lot - Worthington, Minnesota, the Turkey Capital of the World (though this designation is disputed by Cuero, Texas).  

Roundabouts
They started building roundabouts about 10 years ago in this area.  There are now quite a few throughout the country.  All four of the big roads leaving town have roundabouts at the edge of the city.  As best I can tell, with new construction, they put in roundabouts.

The design is similar to what we do in the US (no doubt they copied England also).  There is a splitter island, yield on entry, circular road, truck apron (on single lane roundabouts anyway), center island.  The truck aprons have typically been cobblestone.

Their roundabout signing is pretty simple and consistent through the ones I have seen.  Here is the approach to a small roundabout in Česke Budejovice -

From Transportation

This is the first sign at approaches to roundabouts.  I like this sign.  It tells you there is a roundabout and which exit to take to reach your destination.  Note the Tesco and Baumax exits go into parking lots.

From Transportation

This photo shows the ped Xing sign and the, farther along, the circular roundabout sign set below the yield sign.  Then, in the circle itself, chevrons.  That's it.  The small roundabouts do not have destination signs at each exit, I didn't notice if big ones do.

From Transportation

If you were wondering from the previous photo what the car was doing in the center island - it's an add.  There are lots of adds in public right of way including hanging from bridges.

On Hwy. E49 on the east edge of Ceske Budejovice there is a big multi-lane roundabout.

From Transportation

To the northeast runs a four-lane divided highway.  Plans are to extend the four-lane into town on the unfinished southwest leg.  This baby has two lanes all the way through with a third between each entrance-exit pair.  The diameter of the inscribed circle is 475 feet.  There is another big one on the four-lane headed north from town that has a diameter of 350 feet - so it is not a fluke.  So we drove through it very comfortably in a mini-van at 50 km/h (30 mph).  The fellow driving said he sometimes takes it at 80+ km/h (over 50 mph).

This concept has been frowned upon in the US.  Sure, the maximum safety benefits are gained when you slow traffic to below 20 mph.  That way, there is rarely a crash and, if there is, no one usually gets hurt.  My opinion, though, is that there are those locations (most notably on four lane highways at entrances to cities) where some form of traffic control is needed.  Signals are too dangerous.  Interchanges are too expensive or take too much space.  Small roundabouts inhibit mobility too much.  A big roundabout may be a good solution.  My friend said that this one is not noted as having lots of crashes.  When I can speak enough Czech I'll see what they have for crash data.

So, how does this all relate to Worthington.  Well, at the entrance to Třeboň, there is a roundabout and this is what is inside it...

Note the carp and the five-petaled rose which is the symbol of the Rožmberk's - the powerful family that ruled the area for several hundred years and had the fish ponds dug.

I ask you, if the Carp Capital of the World can have carp, why not have a turkey in the forthcoming Oxford Street roundabout in the Turkey Capital of the World.  Imagine the shocked and awed expressions of the Cueroites when they bring Ruby Begonia up for the race with Paycheck in the Great Gobbler Gallop.  I expect there would be no more discussion of to whom belongs the title - Turkey Capital of the World.

By the way, in the Třeboň area there is this  km long ditch from one point on the river Lužnice to another point downstream.  The ditch, known as the Golden Canal, provides water to a bunch of carp production ponds.  The guy that designed it is even featured on a statue.  Frankly, it ain't much to look at.  Anyway, for all the trouble the off-take ditch in Worthington was/is, I propose that it be dubbed the Golden Off-take Ditch. 

Finally, after a nice bike ride (we got lost - those are the best) we returned to Česke Budejovice.  We traveled on the narrow two lane roads with no shoulders, two foot deep V-ditches with 2:1 (yes steeper than 1:1) slopes, and trees on the back slope.  We came to the four lane highway with narrow median utilizing a sort of plate beam center guardrail.  We went through the big roundabout.  We drove on a four-lane city street.  And we came to the biggest bottleneck in town - a railroad underpass.  This again reminded me of Worthington.  It is a bit more problematic than the Union Pacific one track line over Hwy. 60 though.  Here the road goes under the tracks right by the train station - there are five tracks on the bridge and dozens of trains a day.

Peter