Dobrou Chut'

A few things, then food food food:

Today (Thursday) was the first day I ever got asked for my ticket on the tram. The man seemed surprised that I actually had a ticket, but he was nice about it. It’s good to know that I actually carry that thing around for a reason. Today was also the first day when I went to a gym (the “Fitness Centrum”, to be exact), and it was hilarious. Many people (90% of which were guys, and the girls only used the stairmaster) were only wearing socks or sandals, and they all were taking themselves very seriously. It was an experience, I can say that for sure.

Yesterday (Wednesday), my bus home at night stopped for a train, and the driver, I kid you not, pulled out a magazine called “Autobusem” (which means, basically, “Bus.”). From what I could see, there were actual models of different busses inside that he was looking at. He seemed to consider the different types seriously, and was disgruntled when the train passed for good and he had to drive again. Woah.

Friday night was All Soul’s Day, and I went and walked around a cemetary at night with some friends. Many people were there putting candles on their relative’s graves, and it was beautiful to see the little red candles flickering.

Okay, food. Well, I should start by saying that you know you’re in the Czech Republic when you open the fridge and see eight different types of meat and at least ten different spreads, none of which sound appealing. These people are serious about their spreads. Butter, of course, is the staple, but they like to manipulate it by adding various flavors and changing the consistancy. Of course, cheese spreads are also popular, and sometimes I’m not quite sure where to draw the line between a butter and a cheese, since they are often mixed in some way. Cream cheese is common, but nobody calls it that, so you’re never sure what you’re getting exactly. The people are also wild about mayonnaise- order a sandwich and you’ll have enough to wash your hair in- but my family hasn’t busted that out yet (expect for maybe in potato salads? I’m never quite sure what I’m eating, actually). The creme de la spreads, however, is spreadable meat. I wish I was joking. My family has some and I haven’t even had the nerve to open it yet, but some of my fellow students swear by it. Gr-oss.

Naturally, you need something to put these spreads on (though sometimes the ratio of spread to bread calls that into question), and there is no shortage of bread in the CR. There are two main staples. The first are these so-called “rolls” that actually look more like breadsticks (or very large horns, for those of you in the know). They cost 3 crowns apiece at any grocery store, and at any given moment my host family has at least ten of them in the cupboard. This isn’t because we don’t eat them, rather, I would guess that my host mom buys a new batch of about 15 at least twice a week. They are pretty delicious, especially because they’re always fresh. When you’re at the grocery store there’s an 80% chance that the person in front of you will be buying at least one of these, and it’s much more likely to see people buying in serious bulk. I cannot imagine how many of these things the country produces daily- the number must be staggering. The other mainstay is rye bread. Even the bread that looks white tastes faintly of rye. I came in not liking it that much, but it’s growing on me, and thank goodness, because it’s unavoidable.

Besides spreads, the other items in the refrigerator at this house are almost all dairies or meats. There are billions of yogurts and creams in there right now, and my host mom was saying this morning that we are running low. On that topic, the yogurt issue is still very perplexing to me. In any grocery store there are about 50 different kinds of yogurt, yet none of them that I have tasted yet are like American yogurt. Many of them are a lot thicker consistancy, and they’re either much sweeter or much less sweet. I don’t get it. Anyway, the fridge is also packed with sausages, and I’m not sure who eats them but they disappear and are replaced quite frequently. I’m beginning to get very suspicious about the meat; the other day we had “turkey” that was definitely not poultry of any kind, and there have been a few other instances where the name Elena gives something does not match up with my experience of that thing. I guess it doesn’t matter if it’s good, right? Hmm.

I usually eat breakfast and dinner at the house, and I bring a lunch with me to school, but more often than not I end up stopping at a grocery story (the big ones are Billa, Albert, or Delvita) or a potraviny (a little mini grocery store- there’s one almost every half a block) or a cleverly named “Ovoce Zelenina” (Fruits, Vegetables—that’s literally what they’re called) to supplement. My favorite Czech discovery thus far are these beautiful things called “Dobre Ranos” (Good morning). They’re basically breakfast crackers of some sort that taste roughly like granola bars in cracker form. There are several different varieties, but I have no idea what flavors they actually are, so all I can tell you is that my favorites come in either yellow and green packaging.

When I check out at the grocery store I carefully observe who around me is getting what, and there’s not really much variety. People usually buy a big bag of rolls, some cheese and/or butter, maybe some fruit, and- without fail- some chocolate or a chocolate/wafer candy bar thing. The Czechs are just crazy about these wafers, which doesn’t explain at all how they stay so thin, but the candy aisle is usually larger than American candy sections, and it is full of chocolate and wafers. I would call it heaven except for the lack of cookies. In the past few days, I have also seen several people purchasing huge bags containing about 20 onions, and I’m not sure what that’s about.

I think I’ve already mentioned garlic soup, which is a staple in restaurants, etc, and I should also mention Palacinky. Palacinky are these pancake/crepe- like things that can be served with either sweet things like fruit or not sweet things like meat. To be honest, I have no idea what they are, but they’re everywhere, and they’re good. Also, of course, the dumplings which are natural to me by now. I really like dumplings. However, the other day Elena made dumplings with fruit in the middle and I did not like those, unfortunatly. The host family disappointed, because they’re a staple, but what can I do? I put up with the rat (oh, I should say, this morning Elena told me that they forgot to shut Vigo’s cage last night. My heart leapt up (not in a Wordsworth way), but then she told me how delighted they were to find that he slept in his cage anyway. I felt delighted as well. Yuck).

Here, they say “myum” instead of “yum”. You wouldn’t think that it would make a big difference, but the distinction is very audible and it’s actually much more satisfying to say “myum”. I recommend it. Also, before each meal we all say “Dobrou chut’” which roughly translates into “Good tastes” and is a way of saying “Bon apetit”. I find it a very nice way to start a meal; almost like a prayer but much less serious. In some families they all link pinkies and say “Dobrou chut’” in a sing-song way, but I like to just say it. We have a Czech woman, Zita, who works at school, and every time she sees anyone eating she goes out of her way to say this to them. It feels silly, but it’s nice.

Passing on the Legacy

I'm in the living room of my host house right now, and Simon was watching the Czech news. They started showing sports, and they went through detailed soccer news, then interviewed a hockey player for forever, and then I looked up to see none other than our very own BRETT FARVE on the screen. Stupified with delight, I managed to stutter, "Hey, that's my team. From my state. From Wisconsin." Jan came in just in time to see the winning touchdown, and he approvingly said, "Hezky." Hezky means "Nice." and it was a fine compliment. I got a little teary. Good old Packers, doing their job to bridge cultures.

Photograffiti

You're in luck: I found my camera cord and my big assignment got pushed back a day, so I put up some pictures. I also stole some from other people, and put those up, too, since I had to keep deleting some of mine in order to work on a photo essay project.

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc199/ClaireMichelleHerman/Prague%202/

Spring Forward, Fall Back

So, today Daylight Savings Time begun. Yes, I guess they have that here, though, if you were me, you wouldn’t have known that ahead of time because nobody talks about it (or, if they do, they talk in Czech, and as you can see from the list from last time, we haven’t learned that yet. This morning I woke up extremly confused, but it all turned out just swell when I realized I had an extra hour to spend in Prague.

That ended up being a valuable hour, since today was the first day when I truly felt like I belonged in Prague, and I even (blushing), might be starting to fall in love with it.

Reasons Why I Liked Prague So Much Today:

1. I took the train into Prague from Rostoky. I should have done this before; it was awesome, easy, fast, and made me feel like a train regular.

2. I went to THE PARK. The big one. And it was totally magical. See pictures coming soon. I could live there. There were sculptures, there were families, there were people playing frisbee, there were leaves of many colors, there were frolicking dogs, there were ducks. I would not have changed a thing, and I’m not joking.

3. At the park, I spent at least a half an hour pretending not to watch this 40-year-old man in the middle of an expanse of grass trying to do handstands and cartwheels. He was extremely awful at both and looked totally ridiculous, and I commend him for trying in such a public space. I probably looked ridiculous too, since there was nothing very interesting around for me to fake looking at, and I laughed out loud several times while trying to be nonchalant, so maybe there was someone watching me, too.

4. It was Czechoslovakian National Statehood Day, and throughout the park I could hear music from a nearby concert. I never ended up finding the concert, which was a shame, but inconsequential, since I later came across a large gathering with music in Old Town Square.

5. I went to the Botanical Gardens and they, too, were magical. (Sidenote: I found the zoo, but I didn’t go in. That will be a project for another day.) I went specifically to see the exhibit for Halloween, which I was told was Jack-O-Lanterns. It ended up being a bunch of moldy, decaying carved pumpkins set throughout this beautiful garden (they had been there since the beginning of October, to be fair), and then basically small tent housing many different types of gourds. It was the most pitiful attempt at being cross-cultural that I have ever seen, and I loved it. It was actually nice just to see gourds and pumpkins (oh, the ones that were carved were so bad, I was embarrassed for the carver. I made better half-moons-for-eyes by the time I was 5). I would have been more disappointed, but the beautiful day and awesome rest of the gardens more than made up for it, plus it was really really funny.

6. I found a cafe filled with books (unfortunately all in Czech), and everyone who came in (except for me, again unfortunately) grabbed a book off the shelves and read it while they were there. That is, except for two guys who were playing chess. It looked a lot like my heaven. To be fair, it was very smoky, which is good because it kept me grounded.

7. I know a lot of the main part of the city, I really do, and I am learning more and more how to get around, but I never fully appreciate how close things are together until I také a slightly different route one day and realize that my favorite cafe is only a block from my favorite potraviny. Today, I walked a full circle connecting three of the major landmarks (Charles Square, Wenceslaus Square, Old Town Square), and it took me maybe 20 minutes, tops, but I needed to do it because now I get it. I finally have a picture in my head of where things are. Finally. It feels good.

8. Fireworks.

9. I had a full conversation with the guy from whom I bought apples. AND I bought my first Czech toothbrush, which makes me feel like I’m really living here, you know?

10. When I got back, Elena made me eat what they ate for both lunch (pasta with mushrooms and chicken) and dinner (salad with fish- shady I know but actually quite good), and a peach. I am so full I could burst, especially since I had eaten quite a bit already today.

It was a good day. Next time, more on food. Seriously. Not kidding. I promise. For real.

Oh, and last night I watched The Firemen's Ball, a movie directed by Milos Foreman (the movie that got him jobs in the US). It was quite good, and I recommend it if you want a taste of Czech humor. It's in Czech, so check (ha) for English subtitles.

No Means Yes and Other Ways Czech Keeps Me On My Toes

For the past eight weeks, I have been attempting to learn the Czech language (Uchim se Cesky- I am learning Czech). Czech is hard. I’ve heard that English is very hard to learn, but everyone here scoffs at that idea and insists that English is a breeze compared to Czech. I guess that I’ve made considerable progress in my short time here, but not enough to convince anyone that I maybe possibly could ever be fluent. That said, I think I’m somewhat assimilated here, because sometime during three of the last four days I have been asked for directions in Czech. Unfortunately, I cannot give them, but I can say, “Prominte, uchim se Cesky, vim jednom maly” (I’m sorry, I’m learning Czech, and I know only a little), and I’m learning to say “But you made my day by asking me.”

First of all, you should know that I am really misrepresenting the language in this blog. Many Czech letters have accents over them (which means you make the noise for a longer time), apostrophes after them, or other markings that signal entirely different letters. For example, vis, which means “you know,” is actually written “víš,“ and nobody would understand it the first way I wrote it, because that’s a completley different word. Also, Czech is spelled phonetically; they don’t even practice spelling in school because it should be logical. You would think that this would make things easier for me, but I’m constantly trying to complicate things English-style, and I have a very hard time remembering what sounds the vowels make, since they are different than ours. So I frequently look like an idiot when I have to ask someone „Jak se to píše?“ (How do you write it?) because they think it’s obvious. I have the worst time with the letter c an other similar sounds, because „c“ is pronouced something like „ts“ (So the Czech version of the name Claire is „Klara“ and no one can say my name), which is impossible for me to remember. Also, the stress is always on the first syllable of the word, which might sound easy, but is harder than it sounds in practice, and leads to conversations like this:
Host Family: Where did you go last night?
Claire: Akropolis.
Host Family: Gde? (Where?)
Claire: Akropolis
Host family: *shakes head*
Claire: AKropolis
Host family: AH, Akropolis!

...and I feel like we’re in some terrible comedy routine.

Also, you may have noticed the immense amount of consonants in words. Again, this is theoretically no problem, because you just pronounce each letter and make the word. Not so simple. The word for “four” is “čtyři”, and that’s not easy to say three times fast. Worse, the word for “I want” is “Chci”, and I absolutely cannot say it for the life of me. Good old linguistic determinism factors in, and it’s safe to say that I have not found occasion to want anything in Czech. Seriously, whenever I consider it I decide that my desire actually isn’t that important after all. I can, however, ask someone if they want to do something (Neches jit = do you want to go), but as you may notice, the polite thing here is to ask questions using the negative, so to say “Don’t you want to go?” instead of “Do you want to go?”. This gets a little annoying when people do it to me, but I think it’s a funny way to ask other people things.

As indicated by the title “no” actually means “yes.” The full word for no is “ano,” but people always shorten it (two syllables is sort of extreme for such a simple meaning). It’s so strange to expect someone to answer yes and hear them say no. My mind can’t handle that sort of contradiction, so luckily there is a different, more casual way of saying “yes”: “jo”. “Jo” is pronounced “Yo” and is often used multiple times in quick succession: “jo jo jo jo”. I already know I’m going to sound ridiculous when I return and say “yo” all of the time, so prepare yourself for that. “No” is “ne”, which is easy if you’ve got yes straightened out.

There are three permutations of “thank you”: Děkuju, děkuji, and diky. There are also at least three forms of greeting, my favorite being “Ahoj!” (In case I haven’t told you, ahoj is pronounced ahoy and the joy of saying it never gets old). You can also say čao (ciao/chow), but watch out- the people here make fun of how I say it (and sometimes “jo”) because of my Midwestern accent. I’m not kidding. I was nodding and saying “jo” when talking to one of our professors here and he stopped me and said, “Wait, you’re from the Midwest, aren’t you?” Ridiculous.

Other things I say frequently include; “Dam si zeleny caj prosim” (I’ll have green tea, please), “Gde je ___” (Where is _____), “Jak se rekne ____” (How do you say _____), and of course I say numbers in Czech as often as possible to practice, even though it’s tough sometimes. It really often feels like I’m back in preschool, since the things we are learning are so basic. This is what I know (I don’t know if this is interesting for you, but it will be good for me in the future—I’m writing without accents and such again because it’s really a pain):

1. Basic greetings/what to say when you meet someone for the first time; “Odkud ste?” (Where are you from?), “Tesi me” (Nice to meet you), “Co delate?” (What do you do?)

2. How to order food and drink in a restaurant; “Zaplatim” (I will pay), “zvlast nebo dohmorady” (separate or together), “Jeste jednom” (One more), etc. ---and of course the names for all of the food!

3. How to ask for directions and orientation words; “nadrazi” (train station), “vpravo” (right), “uprostred” (center)

4. Numbers through 100

5. How to set up a meeting with someone, the days of the week, the times of the day; “Sejdeme se” (we will meet), “nemam cas” (I don’t have time), “Musim pracovat” (I have to work, “Muzu” (I can), “v stredu” (on Wednesday), odpoledne (afternoon)

6. How to describe a family and say what they like to do; “Mat rad(a)” (to like), “babicka” (grandmother), “tatinek” (father), “maminka” (mother), “se jmenuje” (is named)

7. Verbs that someone thought would be useful; “Cist” (to read), “tancovat” (to dance), “nakupovat” (to shop), “spat” (to sleep), etc.

8. Past tense!

9. Adjectives! -à These are new and it is so nice to be able to have an opinion about something in Czech! Thank goodness. On Thursday we all went to an art museum and we had to pick out a painting and do a presentation for the class in Czech on why we liked it. I felt ridiculous, but it’s nice that I can finally express myself; “Krasny” (beautiful), “smutny” (sad), “zajiminy” (interesting), “vesely” (cheerful/happy), “strasny” (terrible), “nudny” (boring)

And that’s about it. I do know some random words like “slon” is elephant, etc, but nothing too substantial. It’s an adventure, that’s for sure.

For the sake of posterity, I would like to record that last night I went to Lucerna for the 80s and 90s music video night. It was beautiful. The Czech people, along with not caring what other people think of them on the metro, also don’t seem to have any qualms on the dance floor. Another Seinfeld reference: Elaine would have been one of the best dancers there. I am not joking or exaggerating. It was awesome.

Also, (I know that this isn’t a food entry, but I have to say it) I finally bought a hot dog from one of the street vendors, and it was exactly like a Stangleville hot dog except for three times as big. It was so so good, you have no idea.