Love and the last couple of weeks summarized

Happy Valentine's Day!

I rolled out of bed this morning, ambled off to the kitchen, fired up the computer, and was met by...

Kristine finished reading a draft of my book last night (Lucy beat her, though, finishing yesterday afternoon) and I'm hoping that her loading this as the desktop background indicates she does not disapprove of the ending. Things were a little tense here the last week or so as they read and reacted to things. But more on that in a moment.

Yes, Valentine's Day. I know some people say Bah Humbug. They might even go to an anti-valentine's party to celebrate singleness (secretly hoping they'll meet that special someone). I for one like it. I love my wife and don't mind letting her know it. I like to get homemade valentines from my kids. So, I will keep Valentine's Day with a roasted duck, dumplings and red cabbage, with a lemon meringue pie (or at least something that contains the same ingredients and rests in a pie tin), and, if luck should smile on me today, with the classic Czech fashion of smooching in the street.

Caleb and I went skiing in Austria with the Chrdlovi family. We made the hour drive across the border where the old check points now lie dark and quiet and, in the case of the Czech one, for sale. After riding the deluxe, six seat lift to the top, we looked down over the gentlest slope. Caleb said, "This is the easiest one?"


We shoved off. Caleb flew down the hill. I thought, "Oh man, he is out of control he might hurt himself." He was thinking the same as the steep initial slope got him going too fast for a simple snowplow approach wasn't enough to maintain speed control.

He survived that first run. Then Aleš, our running, biking, XC skiing, downhill racing, climbing, Branch President, doctor, friend gave him some lessons.

I eventually learned a lesson too. Now I know how the head of a hammer feels. My whole face felt like a fat lip after I planted it into the, thankfully, soft snow.
Couple of interesting observations: people are generally good skiers here (lots of people spend a week as a family in the Alps), most folks, young and old, wear helmets, we saw no one hauled off the slopes by ski-patrol (a several times a day occurrence at Mount Kato). Aleš assured me that during holidays in the Netherlands, when the Dutch come out for a week of skiing, there are a lot of ER visits.

Like I mentioned, I finished the second draft of my book about a week and a half ago. Cost me forty bucks to get it printed - most I ever spent on a book outside the organized crime ring known as college textbooks. Kristine and the kids have been reading it. I've been chewing my nails. I received some threats (if this turns out like that, you better get used to sleeping in the bathtub), some reactions ("How could you?"), and some affirmations ("It's starting to grow on me"). Also, a ton of suggestions for wording improvements that will make it much, much better.

We've gotten more snow. Folks say this is the best winter (lots of snow, yet pleasant temperatures) here in 40 years. Most years they only have snow on the ground for a couple weeks with gray and rain the rest of the winter. Good thing it's been snowy since we're missing a heck of a winter back home.

We've had a couple of orchestra concerts, a little illness (Silas with a cold, me with a high fever for a couple days), more downhill skiing (at a small local hill) and XC skiing. Otherwise, kind of the same things - school, english classes, etc.
Peter

The Family According to Lucka Harffova

Silas-Silas is a Sunbeam now, so we teach him at home on Sunday evenings. We recently watched Prince Caspian, so now he pretends that Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, Reepicheep, and Aslan live in our house.

What he misses most about home: his house and his friend, Joseph S.

Lucka- I am totally loving the Czech Republic! I'm not sure if I want to go back to the U.S.A. Although, I do miss a lot of stuff. What I miss most about home: It changes a ton. Right now it would be the unbelievably great access to great books. But by tomorrow it might change. What I love most about the Czech Republic: I have no idea what so ever. I love it all!!!!!!!!!!! (almost) By the way, my English grammar has melted like the snow. Although, my Czech grammar is definitely improving. In a few years you won't see me like this. I won't say anything else about it to build up the suspense.     









Caleb- He likes skiing. What he misses most about home: friends. What he loves most about the Czech Republic: learning to fence.  













 Kristinka-She loves the Czech Pastries .

Petr-Done with the second draft of his book. It is a fairy tale. What he misses most about home: yerba mate What he loves most about the Czech Republic: running along the Malse river at dawn.

Bernie Czech and Other Czech Media Darlings

Back at home in the USA we didn't get TV reception and I won't buy cable until it's free and comes without unsightly cables, so we got our video fix by getting DVDs from the library or video store. We also still carried with us some of our old, idealistic anti-TV feelings from back when we didn't even have a means to watch videos and had to content ourselves with playing games, reading, and talking to one another.

Well, we're in a new country now with a different culture and different language. Just like billions of people worldwide learn about America through such shows as Dallas, Little House on the Prairie, and The Simpsons, we turned to the TV to bring Czech culture and native speakers into our living room.

We get three channels: CT1, Nova, and Prima. Programming is like US TV with the following notable differences:

• shows don't necessarily start on the half hour, or even the quarter hour, they can begin whenever
• because of the flexibility they have more shorts (usually children's shows or news) that may only be 10-15 minutes long
• commercial breaks don't occur every eight minutes or whatever the interval is in the US, they are much less frequent, but when they occur, you may as well get up and do the dishes or go for a jog, the breaks are long
• in addition to shows produced right here, they have programming from all over the world dubbed into Czech.
• there are a lot of cop and criminal investigation shows on
• they have more PBS style programming for kids on the commercial stations (it may be that all the stations are partially supported by taxes).

The brightest star in the Czech television sky is our good friend Večerniček, or, as Silas calls it, "Bernie Czech." This TV show has been on Czech TV since 1965 and airs at 6:45 p.m. each night. It starts with a little guy greeting the children by saying "Dobry večer" (good evening) (Click here to watch on YouTube). They then show a short, usually animated (often stop motion) show from somewhere in the world. They are cute stories for small children. Each one is self contained, but they might run a series with the same characters for a week or two. The show ends with the little guy saying "Dobrou noc" (good night) indicating it is time to get ready for bed (Click here to watch on YouTube).

This show is a cultural institution here. It's not just kids that watch it, whole families gather on the couch, children in laps, grandma in her chair, to see it each night. Sometimes the episode they show is old, from when the parents were kids. It's delightful.

Another show that we like is called Zpivanky. On TV a couple of times a week, each one takes a Czech folk song and puts actions with it. They are sometimes cute, sometimes just weird, but they maintain a cultural literacy that would otherwise be at risk of disappearing. It's interesting also, given the history of the Czech people, that when their culture was being exterminated by the Austro-Hungarian empire, one of the things the Czech nationalists did was to scour the countryside writing down the words and music to the old folk songs (as well as stories and the language). Now many hundreds of folk songs are known. Antonin Dvořak (and others) took advantage of that work and incorporated some of the melodies into their classical works (like what he did using American folk tunes in the New World Symphony). Here's an example of one of the episodes of Zpivanky.

Finally, there are the fairy tales. Many Czech fairy tales (some of which are variations on the ones familiar to us from the Brothers Grimm) have been made into short movies for TV. Each Sunday at 1:05 they show one on CT1. During Christmas they were on all the time.

The Czechs have also produced plenty of movies. They have a distinctive humor - which I usually don't get. I watch them anyway though, hoping to someday understand what they are saying.

Peter

Booklust

Nothing like a catchy title to keep people coming back for more blog!

Last night we finished reading The Jungle Book as a family. Each night we take 15 minutes or so, gather up, and take turns reading out loud. I try to pick classics that appeal to all ages. We've read The Prince and the Pauper, Little Men, Sweetgrass, Heidi and now The Jungle Book.  One night during Heidi, when the reader stopped to pass the book to the next person, Silas, whom we'd thought was oblivious, snapped his head up from the blocks with which he was playing and asked, "What happens next?" with an urgent tone in his voice.  More is getting through than we realized.  Of late he transforms into Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (the heroic mongoose from The Jungle Book) in the twinkling of an eye and tries to engage us to be his ill-fated cobras.

I recently got word that my book club in Mankato read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. That inspired us to watch the lecture on youtube.  I miss the wise and witty women from my book club. I read very little here, mostly just plugging away at a really dense, scholarly book of Czech history.  It's the kind where I sometimes read a paragraph several times and still don't completely understand the author's point--I'm not sure why I'm torturing myself-- maybe because it's good for me, like brussel sprouts. 

Caleb also reads a lot less now that he is in public school - ironic, huh? Between fencing, violin, and World of Warcraft, it leaves him little time. My sister sent him the Sword of Shannara trilogy weighing in at 1,191 pages.  I'm hoping he at least finishes it before we leave, so we have enough weight allowance for Czech goodies instead.

Lucy has taken over as the big reader in the family, going through books like crazy. She has 22 books on the shelf above her bed and she's read them all at least once, some of them several times, since we've been here. Inspired by her love of the Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson film, she just read Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, which we discovered in English at the local library.

Silas "reads" at naptime and bedtime mostly and really gobbles up the Frog and Toad readers and his Ladybug magazines.

Peter has become a reader again, too, and loves it.  He's read several fantasy and sci-fi books, particularly enjoying his re-reading of The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.  He finds that his writing flows better when he's currently engaged in a book.

For those who have sent book-laden packages, we so appreciate it! And the USPS appreciates the injection of cash into their coffers.  We think we are set now; the library does have some books in English and spring is coming wherein the reading will taper off.

Reading in Czech is still not easy for me (the rest of the family doesn't even try). When I try to read Czech, I spend as much time with my nose in the dictionary as in the book.  They have a lot of differences between formal written Czech and conversational, so it's often necessary to learn two versions of the same words. Plus, when people take a moment to think about what they want to say, like most writers do (disregarding those writing facebook comments), they tend to use less common words in order to be more precise.

On Tuesday, Peter finished the first draft of his book. He's feeling a sense of accomplishment. Now comes the hard part of wordsmithing and editing, though. It's a race against the weather, because I'm sure that when the snow melts his bike will call out to him from the dark corner of the cellar and Peter will gladly respond.

Kristine

More About Caleb

Normally I'm one of those guys who likes to avoid the very appearance of emotions. I mean, fine, I got 'em, you got 'em, no need to talk about 'em, right? Well, I don't know what's gotten into me the last couple of days, but I kind of feel like expressing them, electronically, before all the world. Here goes...

I love my son Caleb.

That's right. Here he is, all cute and cuddly.

Caleb, on Kluk.  From 2010-01

On Monday I was having a crisis. I'm almost done with a first draft of my book and I'm feeling very insecure. Sure, in the first draft the writing is poor, lacking mood and flow, but my real concern is whether the story itself is just dumb. So, we were on our way to fencing and I told him I was going to ask him a question and if the answer was negative, to just lie and if it was positive to tell the truth and then say he really means it (even if the book is dumb, I want to finish it and go on from there, so I only want to hear positive things about it). He agreed. So I asked if they plot was dumb. He exclaimed emphatically, "Absolutely not!" Then went on to state everything that he could come up with that is positive about the story.

Today (Thursday) he skipped school because most of his class is up north skiing all week. So he and I took a train to Vrabče to hike up to the top of Kluk (which means boy), a large hill not far from town. On the way there, I told him about the next couple of scenes in the book to get his reaction and ideas on tactics that a small army might use in the situations before them. Then he told me about his latest ideas with the fantasy world he is developing (that was fun because stories were just bubbling out of the ideas). Then I ran a very preliminary idea for a story past him and got his ideas on some motivations for the antagonist.

Also atop Kluk, the valley from which we hiked is visible behind. From 2010-01

Eventually, we made it to the top of Kluk. The forest was beautiful. We split a chocolate bar, then slipped and slid down the hillside in the snow. On the walk back to the train, we talked about dealing with the reality of wanting to do so much more than time will ever allow. Specifically, he's trying to decide on which sports and arts to focus.  It was a perfect day with him: physically demanding, intellectually stimulating, and fun.

He's a good kid, thoughtful and energetic, and we like him.
Peter

Half Way Point

Howdy.

I'm practicing my American.  We just passed the halfway point in our odd assay at life in a foreign country.  I haven't really anything to say today, life was blessedly normal this last week, so I'll muse a bit on the language and show some pictures from our nice snowfall of the last two days.

The view when you step out our front door (below). From 2010-01

Caleb commented a few weeks ago that if the goal is to immerse oneself in a culture and come to understand more or less how it works, three months is plenty of time to live abroad.  If the goal is to become fluent in the language, well, nine months is not going to be enough.  We talked then about how a goal should be to support our brothers and sisters in the small branch of the church here and grow our relationships within our own little family.

There are few boulevards in our neighborhood, so people have to push the snow into the streets (below).  From 2010-01

We (when speaking about language this does not include Kristine, she already speaks very well) are starting to understand more and more and simple things are rolling off the tongue.  A real conversation with a stranger in the street is still not a possibility, though.  That is unless the stranger happened to live in Tuscon, Arizona for five years.  That happened to Silas and me while we were feeding the swans this week.

Lots of people out playing, skiing, walking in the snow (below).

I did have a nice conversation with some electricians yesterday.  We had a small electrical issue (some smoke, lots of reek from burning plastic, no visible flames) a few weeks ago.  The owner of the flat sent a couple of his buddies to work on it.  A few days ago you would have thought Americans decorate for Christmas by stringing extension cords all over their houses (hmm, I guess we do, except these were on the inside), but now all is well.  It was kind of creepy, though, when Kristine and Caleb watched a German disaster film yesterday featuring a tower in flames that started with an electrical problem in an outlet that looked just like ours.

Stream in the park near our house (below).  From 2010-01

One of the things we asked the electricians was about some local lore.  Folks here say that if the men want to go out and have a single beer to enjoy the flavor, they will drink a Budweiser (from the brewery here in town).  However, if they want to drink a lot, they consume some other brand because Budweiser leaves them particularly hung over.  Interestingly, we split a non-alcoholic Budweiser on Friday night and here is what Caleb looked like when he got up on Saturday.

Caleb, the morning after drinking a non-alcoholic Budweiser.  From 2010-01

So, it snowed here on Friday, Saturday, and Today.  The mile walk to church was laborious, but very beautiful.  I went for a stroll this afternoon and took the photos.   I wish I was a skilled photographer, because then I would approach people and ask to take their picture.  Today I would have taken shots of an old man walking with a black lab, a couple snuggled on a park bench with a bottle of wine in the snow next to them, pretty girls flicking snow up at their boyfriends, and the most darling little baby bundled up and riding in a runner sled pulled by her young mother.  Alas, instead you get point and click.

See you all in four months and ten days.  

Peter

And a Happy New Year

Greetings and a Happy 2010 to everyone.  Here are a couple of recent highlights...

Lined up letting nose drops soak into our brains.  From The Holidays

We was sick.  Bad sick.  So bad, in fact, that our doctor made a house call.  He is also our Branch President.  After bouncing back, Lucy and I had gone down again, this time with ear aches.  The doc took a look, departed, and came back an hour later with seven medications for each of us.  Pills, nose drops, nose spray, ear drops.  Most were to treat symptoms, but he also put us on an antibiotic.  Lucy later got to add another medication for her cough and should have had eye drops for a horribly infected eye, but she refused.  The doctor also prescribed a hat, coat, and socks for Lucy (the whole neighborhood is in awe at the change).  Caleb, developing an ear ache, got on the regimen too.  Kristine's ears filled with fluid and she joined in with a partial treatment.  We all still have a residual cough, but we are at least living again.

Kristine and Aubrey on Charles Bridge in Prague on a quiet, snowy morning.

So our friend Aubrey's visit was a little less exciting than we had intended for her.  Still, she got to see the Hluboka Castle, the ruins at Maskovec and Divči Kamen, the countryside around Rudolfov and Dobrá Voda, the Talich Quartet, and the Southern Bohemian Philharmonic, and lots of Czech Fairy Tales on TV.  We also ate a lot.  Feeling it was our duty to introduce her to Czech cuisine she ate Carp and potato salad, strawberry dumplings, chicken schnitzel, svičkova, the Czech national dish of pork roast, sauerkraut and dumplings, and a bunch of pastries.  She ate caviar, Tartar Steak (a raw beef spread) and drank her fill of non-alcoholic beer, though she did not yet develop a taste for it when she left.  And, as a Christmas present, Kristine took the girls out for dinner at Vin de Cafe.  She survived the 19 days with us and Silas keeps asking for her to return.  The photos in this post, and the web album they link to, are from her camera.

Aubrey's entre at Vin de Cafe. From The Holidays

On New Years Day, we got up early and took a train to Třisov to hike to Divči Kamen.  It was a perfect day, by the way.  The cool thing, though, was that the train was crowded with people.  Most were older, dressed in hiking clothes, and got off at the town nearest the mountain Klet.  It is a popular tradition to hike (not ride the chair lift) to the top on New Years Day.  On the way south, Caleb and I had a conversation with a college student and his grandfather in Czech, and English, and Spanish.  On the way back I chatted with a couple from San Francisco while Aubrey talked to people from New York and Kristine spoke with a Japanese man that teaches German and spoke a bit of Czech.  What a multilingual smorgasbord.

On Saturday we got some snow, so on Sunday afternoon I went for a walk along the river for some solitude.  I didn't get it though.  There were more people going for walks, taking their kids sledding, or just hanging out on benches than I have ever seen on the Red Jacket Trail in west Mankato on the nicest summer day.  That's the single thing I like most about life here, people's affinity for spending time outside no matter the time of year.

One thing I decidedly do not like about life here is the fact that when my three year old throws tantrums in the streets - which he does a lot - people gather round to watch.  One day we had a small crowd observing Silas crying that he did not want to go on a walk.  One woman even came out of her building for the express purpose of standing there watching us from an uncomfortably short distance away.

Caleb is most assuredly Czech though.  We had to run an errand before fencing last night, so he had to change into his sports clothes at the practice.  I was surprised when, right in front of the mothers of some of the other fencers, he pulled his pants off and slipped into sweats just like the Czechs do.  Sorry, I didn't get a photo.

Many wishes for good health, happiness, and the blessings of heaven in the new year.

Peter