Everyday Life – Page 3 – Czech the Flip

My Growing Belly….and Family

Published on September 17, 2013 by Grace16 Comments

I am now on my 35th week of pregnancy and as anxious as ever to give birth. Albeit, life had never been more hectic lately. I had been keeping myself busy with arranging my children’s bedrooms and making checklist after checklist of all the things we would need for the baby while at the same time checking my toddler’s needs. One tricky thing about raising children is that they grow very fast – literally. With the changing season, I have to constantly check that my son has adequate and appropriate clothing for the day’s weather. Last season’s pants are now too short, and although he didn’t gain much horizontally, some of his shirts are also getting shorter. I know that I will not be able to do a lot of shopping when the baby arrives, so I have now stocked up on some fall and winter clothing. Plus, I made sure that all his vaccinations and doctor and dentist check-ups are up-to-date, and made an effort to schedule some of these appointments ahead of time so I will not have to worry about it when I have another child to take care of. As you may notice, I am a freak when it comes to organizing things. I believe that in order to be successful in anything, adequate preparation has to be done and that means everything has to be well-organized.

I have also been reading about how to help older siblings cope with the arrival of a new member of the family. It is said that since all the attention will now be focused on the baby, it is important for parents to be mindful of the older child. My husband and I have already talked about it and we have decided to involve Jakub in everything that has to do with his sister — from helping out with diaper changes to being on the lookout for hazards that may be harmful to the baby. Almost everyday, I remind him that he is going to be a big brother soon and I am happy to note that he exhibits a certain sense of pride in his new role.

Anyway, we had a maternity photo session last week to document the anticipation of our little one’s arrival. I am sharing with you some of my favorite shots.

Photo: Jan Strnad — Photo by: Jan Strnad (www.atelierkolin.cz)

It is normally difficult to get a toddler’s full attention in this type of activity, but my little boy was surprisingly enjoying it. He was willing to oblige to every pose and was always excited to check out his own image in the camera after a shot was taken.

Here’s one of my favorite photos. The big brother communicating with his baby sister.

She is already loved.

My growing belly….and family.

We still have about a month to go before we finally meet her. I feel SO HUGE that it seems like there’s no more room left for growing. This is the longest month ever. Although I am suffering from all the discomfort that pregnancy brings, I am happily looking forward to finally hold my little girl in my arms.

“Čas na Pivo” (Time for Beer)

Published on September 10, 2013 by Grace15 Comments

There are only a few residents in my little community, but it is not without a pub. A pub is a very important part of a Czech settlement, because it is the home of the beer. And for those of you who are new to Czech and would like to meet a few people, it is the best place to go.

One day, as my 3-year-old son and I were walking, he tried to drag me to the direction of the pub and told me: “Mommy, Čas na pivo” (time for beer). I was taken aback by this gesture and was thinking to myself: “where did he learn that phrase?” But it really doesn’t matter. He could’ve easily picked it up from the people around him. It just goes to show that beer is an integral part of Czech culture. Even a 3-year-old knows it.

Playing with an empty beer bottle during our first few days here.

In my opinion, there are 2 basic food items in this world that Czechs can’t live without: bread (chleba) and beer (pivo). I know this because if I don’t have these things at home, my Czech husband gets into a bad mood. I have learned my lesson. I need to have a steady supply of bread and beer at my home to prevent any unpleasant mood swings.

During our big move from the US to Czech, we stopped by Brussels for 2 days to do a little sightseeing and slightly recover from the jetlag. Guess what my husband ordered in a Belgian restaurant. That’s right, a beer sampler.

This fondness for beer is not only with men but also with women too. Beers come in different varieties, alcohol strength, and raw material source. And to cater to everyone’s “needs,” a beer can also be non-alcoholic. Inasmuch as Czechs like alcoholic beverages, there is a zero tolerance limit of alcohol for drivers in this country. Thus, brewers have to come up with this non-alcoholic variety.

Before meeting my husband, I never liked beer. When we were still living in the States, and had parties with friends, I would drink it just to have something to drink. But now that we are here in the Czech Republic, and I have been introduced to all different kinds of beers, there is a growing fondness for beer in my palate. Thankfully, they have the non-alcoholic variety, so I can still enjoy it even now that I’m pregnant.

If you are Czech and don’t like beer, please do share your story of your secret society. Because out of my two years of living here, I have yet to meet a Czech who has an aversion to beer.

Pregnancy classes and Childbirth

Published on August 27, 2013August 27, 2013 by Grace8 Comments

As my due date comes to a close, we are now preparing the important details for the arrival of our little princess. One of the most important things to consider is the birthing place. Out here in CZ, everyone is covered by a national health insurance. Although it is a good thing, one of the downsides is that there are really a few choices when it comes to healthcare.

Since we are from a little town, there is only one major hospital in this area. There are a couple of hospitals in Prague, but it is a 45min drive from us. So, without even considering other options, I decided to enlist at the Kolin hospital. After all, the current Czech president, Milos Zeman, was born here. It can’t be that bad, right?

So last week, we went on a hospital tour. The tour itself only lasted 15mins, but there was a 2 hour class before it. My husband came with me, so he translated some important parts of the class.

And then we got this….

A box full of goodies for expectant mothers.

It is not as great as the Finnish baby boxes, but at least it is something.

The class was in Czech and so was the tour. Even though I didn’t fully understand everything, I was thankful that we enlisted for it. It just eliminates the hassle of trying to find places and people on labor day itself.

When I was pregnant with Jakub, I remember attending all sorts of classes. I was a first-time mother back then and didn’t know anything. I had a pregnancy yoga class, a lamaze class, a general childbirth class and a detailed hospital tour. When labor day came, I had prepared for everything. I even had a detailed birth plan where I wanted everything to be natural – with no epidural, and the anticipation of breastfeeding my baby right after he is born. But on the day itself, none of it went as planned. Needless to say, I had an emergency c-section, was unable to breastfeed my baby on the first few hours of his life and he had to stay at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a few days.

It’s a good thing to know a thing or two about childbirth and all the birthing techniques, but in the end it is really up to the child on how he/she chooses to be born. This time I know better. The only class that I ever attended was the one that came with this hospital tour. I will just go with the baby’s wishes and let nature take its course. As they say, “prepare for the best and expect the worst.”

Mars vs Venus

Published on August 23, 2013 by Grace21 Comments

Sometimes it still amazes me how simple men are. On our last shopping trip, my husband was so happy to find the perfect product.

How can one product cater to 3 different needs? I have 4 different products for the following uses: shampoo, conditioner, body wash & facial wash. I cannot use my shampoo as a facial wash. Nor will I ever use my conditioner as a body wash.

Oh well, I guess Martians are really different.

Pat & Mat

Published on August 20, 2013 by Grace6 Comments

One of my son’s favorite animated series is “Pat a Mat.” It showcases two characters, handymen Pat & Mat, who always gets into technical problems but manages to solve them with the most surprising solution. It is presented in a very comical way and somehow showcases Czech culture.

I am sharing here with you one of our favorite episodes.

Right around this time, people from Czech villages are probably processing fruit and vegetable preserves from the excesses of spring’s harvest. When I first got here, I was so impressed with how my mom-in-law processes all sorts of preserves.

But after living here for some time, I have come to realize that this is a common practice among most Czechs because we also get preserves as gifts from friends and relatives.

I have never tried doing this sort of thing at home, but perhaps one day I will. I certainly got some ideas on how to do bottled strawberry preserves from Pat & Mat.

“False Friends”

Published on August 16, 2013August 16, 2013 by Grace20 Comments

My Czech mother-in-law spent some time with us last week and I am so proud to say that I was able to communicate with her in Czech without any difficulty during those times. Gone were the days when we had to resort to body language just to be able to express what we wanted to say. My Czech grammar isn’t perfect, but my language proficiency is at a level where I can communicate and be understood.

New Czech Step by Step: A Basic Course in the Czech Language for English-speaking Foreigners

However, in my continuing quest to learn the Czech language, I would have to say that one of the most challenging aspects is the existence of “false friends” These are words that may sound similar in English and Czech but entirely have different meanings. Thanks to this book, I can now refer to some of these words when confronted with a situation where I am not really sure about the meaning.

Here is an illustration of my point. Although English words such as doctor and medicine are also doktor and medicina in Czech, other medically important words have “false friends.” For example, if you want to say “ambulance, ” you cannot say ambulance (pronounced ambu-lan-tse) because it means outpatient department. The proper term is sanitka which might be confused with sanitary in English. In Czech, kontrola means check-up which can be confused with control in English.

You might hear somebody say he/she finished highschool in a gymnazium because a gymnazium is a secondary school, not a gym. List is a leaf or a piece of paper in Czech. Seznam is the proper word to use if you want to say list, as in list of things to buy or list of things to do. While a host is the one who is hosting a party, a host is a guest in Czech. A šéf (pronounced “chef”) is not a chef but a boss. The one who makes the food is a kuchař.

And never ever say kurva if you want to say curve because it means whore in Czech. The proper term is křivka. But perhaps the funniest “false friend” is preservativ which you may confuse as preservative in food but actually means condom in Czech. Preservative in food is konzervační in Czech.

About 2 years ago, I had my own funny experience with these “false friends” at a conversation with an older woman who was my former neighbor in the other house we used to live in. In one of our small talks, I told her I was cooking pasta (toothpaste in Czech) for dinner.

Destination: Mirakulum at Milovice

Published on August 13, 2013August 14, 2013 by Grace6 Comments

This past weekend, we visited an amusement park here in Czech called Mirakulum. Since the temperature that day was relatively mild, we decided to head out there and check it out. We went there with some friends who live close to the area.

From the main entrance, the first attraction that we visited was this giant trampoline/jumping area.

At first it intimidated my little boy.

Then he decided to take the leap with his daddy.

Ooopps, he jumped too much.

But perhaps one of the main trademarks of this place is this wooden castle with an underground tunnel and a lot of open space for the kids to run around.

We rented a cart and asked our son to ride in it with our stuff. I thought it was such a clever way to carry things (and kids) around.

My son was hyped up when he saw all the kids in the castle and all the fun things he can climb. Instead of simply taking the stairs, my boys decided to climb.

There goes Jakub, and now it’s daddy’s turn.

As for me, I took the easy route – the stairs. The great thing about this place is that there are a lot of different options to get to where you would like to go. In my condition, i wasn’t able to go to every obstacle, but was glad my camera had a good zoom capability and I was still able to capture the action.

So here they are, on top of the castle, waving at me.

But perhaps the best attraction for Jakub was the ride on a war tank. Milovice used to be a Soviet army camp during the communist era. After the new regime, the barracks were left in ruins. I’m glad they built something like this. It made this place come to life again.

They call this the “tankodrom.”

I was wary in the beginning because I thought Jakub will be scared and will scream to get out once the going gets rough.

Unsure of what lays ahead, he reluctantly waved back at me after they boarded and prepared to go.

The ride took 10 mins under rough terrain.

But when they got back he was so ecstatic to tell me all about it.

As you can see, it was a guy thing.

There were a lot of other attractions that everyone enjoyed.

It was a weekend very well spent.

So, how was your weekend?

Just Another Day in this Mama’s Life

Published on August 6, 2013 by Grace18 Comments

We only have 2 months left before another member of our family is here. Since this is already my third trimester, I have been feeling very sluggish lately and cannot seem to get myself off the couch. I feel bad for Jakub because this is the time when he is most active and really wants some interaction. But who can blame me, with a burgeoning belly like mine, laziness is an expected side effect. All I can do now is do some educational things with him as we are stuck at home.

For now, this is the book that Jakub and I are currently reading. It’s a great introductory book about the existence of different ethnicities. This early on, I intend to make him realize that the world is full of different people, and it’s ok to be different. In our area, we are the only multi-cultural household, so I think it is best for him to understand this at the onset.

One of the challenges of living in CZ is finding a good English book. Of course, most bookstores do sell English books but the selection is very limited. There could be a wider selection in the bookstores in Prague, but since it is 45mins away from us, travelling all the way there is such a hassle in my present condition. Luckily, I found this great website with the widest selection of books even offering free shipping. The items are reasonably priced and delivered on time.

If you live in an area where high quality english books are hard to find, it is worth checking out. To go to their website, please click here.

Anyway, to keep myself occupied, I recently busied myself with “nesting.” We have finished cleaning up our new arrival’s future room and I did some minor decorations. I’ll post some pictures as soon as it is finished. I also organized some of our picture albums and was surprised to realize how well I’ve documented the growth of my children from conception to birth. As an example, here are 2 ultrasound pics of both my children at the same stages.

Jakub's sister at 21 weeks — Jakub’s sister at 21 weeks

Based on these ultrasound pics, it looks like both of them will have similar features. They all look like me. The excitement is mounting. We’ll see.

Have a great week!

The Heat is On

Published on August 1, 2013 by Grace7 Comments

We have been having scorching hot weather in this part of the world these past few days. After the very long winter, now comes the heat. It is the 3rd week now where temperatures had been at 30C++. Although it is not unusual to get this high temperature, I have been told that having it linger for 3 weeks is quite unusual.

Thankfully, our passive house has kept us comfortable despite the soaring heat. Even without AC, we have managed to avoid overheating by scheduling our activities to conform with nature. For instance, I schedule all my cooking at night time when temperatures are normally low. At dawn, when the temperature is at 10-17C, we increase the ventilation and open the windows to quickly let the cold air in. During the day, we normally get 30+ temperatures, so we have all the blinds closed. Although one of the features I love of this house is an abundance of natural light, no sunlight means minimal heat accumulation, so it will do for now. The thick insulation is enough to preserve the coldness that was trapped at dawn. The only drawback is that we, (mainly my husband) has to wake up early just to open the windows and quicky let the cold air in. But this is very minimal considering the comfort that it brings.

To give you an idea of how it is ventilated, here is a short video about the ventilation system in a passive house.

So there you go, a passive house is not only good in winter but in summer as well. I am sharing this with you so that if you ever think of building your own home, the passive house is the way to go. It is good for the environment, good for your pocket and good in any weather!

Czech the Cyclist

Published on July 23, 2013 by Grace13 Comments

If there is one thing that strike me as the best Czech past time, it is cycling. Now that the weather is definitely getting better, cyclists abound the streets of my little town. The cycling paths are not that well developed but people still go out and ride their bikes.

A Czech friend once told me that it is almost mandatory for every Czech child to know how to ride a bike. And these bikes come in all stages depending on the child’s age.

They start out with little plastic ones.

Then as they get older, they have those that resemble a real bicycle but without pedals.

And of course, your bike grows with you.

As much as I would like to join the trend, I cannot ride a bicycle for now. Plus, I do not own a good bicycle…just yet. All I can do is reminisce my biking days.

But the good thing is, we may be able to save some money on my bicycle since I am a small person. Those bikes for teenagers may just fit me just fine. We’ll see.

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