Vanoce 2011

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Vanoce….the Czech word for Christmas. It was our first Vanoce in our new home country and we went to Moravia to celebrate it with my husband’s family. They had the traditional Czech Christmas and I was glad we were there since I learned so much about typical Czech traditions.  For example,  they don’t eat the whole day and wait till dinnertime to have a full meal.  Unlike in the Philippines where we eat ham, or roasted pig, they eat fish. My husband explained that the fasting and choice of food was from a Christian tradition.  At Christmas time, they emulate the life of Christ.  Jesus was poor.

They don’t believe in Santa.  For them, Jesus is the one bringing presents to the children.  Children are told to sleep early so Jezisku (Jesus)  can come and drop off their presents under the tree.  At midnight, a bell will toll to signify that Jezisku just dropped off the presents.  In my in-law’s household, we skipped this part since Jakub was too young to understand and appreciate any of it.  We went through the traditional gift distribution and him (Jakub) being the youngest had to distribute the gifts (another Czech tradition).

Jakub giving grandpa his present...with mommy's help

What I also find most challenging is that baking Christmas cookies is a national sport.  In almost all the homes we’ve visited, the woman of the house takes pride in serving the cookies she’s baked.  Jiri’s grandmother who is already 80+ baked 10 varieties of cookies.  His mom,12 varieties.  There’s a lot of pressure for me now to make cookies next Christmas.  Oh well, I have a whole year to practice.

A plateful of mom's cookies

I will probably keep all of these traditions except for the fasting part….that was hard.

Four generations of Melichar men.
With cousins on Christmas Day

The highlight of our visit was the reunion with Jiri’s family.  Everybody went to his grandparents’ house during Christmas day and simply celebrated Jesus’ birth by being together.  It was a nice and warm feeling on a cold Christmas day.  Everything was perfect except for the lack of snow.  Most of the Czechs that I’ve talked to were sad about this.  I was the only one happy.  It seems like the Power-that-be knows that a tropical girl is here and wants to give her a Merry Christmas.

RUNNING

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I miss running. I am not a great runner, but I love to run.  On this cold, dreary day, I am trying to draw some inspiration to be active again. So here I am, writing about running.

My first major run - The Disneyland Half Marathon

I have run a few races, long, short, very short.  I guess you can say that my best time is pretty decent, (2 hours and 27mins for a half marathon), but not outstanding.  I am not aspiring for greatness anyway.  I am happy with just finishing a race.

Jiri and I with our running group

Motherhood has slowed me down.  Albeit, recently I have found that my son is my best trainer.  He likes to ride his stroller on high speed.  When the weather was better, I used to run with him in his stroller.  When I stopped to walk, he would cry.  So this June, I guess it’s high time for us to join a race.   Olomouc, here we come!

CHANGES

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Now that autumn is here, the leaves have beautifully changed colors.  Although it is quite chilly for me to go outside, I am enjoying the outdoors more and more because of the beautiful fall colors.  Together with the changing season, we will also be making a lot of life changes.

Kmochuv Island in Kolin, CZ

Prior to coming to CZ, Jiri and I already talked about building our dream home.  We currently live in his old house and we just recently sold this one out.  Come November, we are moving to a rental apartment while waiting to build our new home.  I am excited about the move because I somehow like our new place.  It is very close to our favorite place in Kolin — Kmochuv Island.  These past few weeks I have been dealing with some sort of seasonal depression which probably came with the changing season.  Somehow, the excitement about moving has lifted up my spirits.   I remember my boss James told me before:  “The next worst thing after experiencing a fire is moving.”  I think that now it has been my saving grace.

The Stroller Game

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Today was such a beautiful day that I took my son out for a run/walk twice during the day. I was not alone. The streets were full of moms on strollers also out with their babies. You see, the Czech Republic is one of the most liberal when it comes to procreation. I say liberal because a woman gets to spend 3 years on maternity leave for every kid that is born. You heard that right… THREE years!    A woman can literally not go back to work for 3-6 years, depending on how many children she has, but still claim a portion of her salary from the State or the employer (depending on the job.)  Thus, it is no wonder that babies are everywhere.

When we were in the States, I only had 3 months. It was heartbreaking to leave Jakub in the daycare on the very early stages of his life.  Now that we are in CZ, I intend to stay with him for at least a year.  Meanwhile, I will use this time to network and get myself updated with the happenings in the industry.  I don’t think I would like to be out of work for such a long time.  I am afraid that my mind will stagnate and I would be lost when I get back to the industry.

I say that because as I was walking on the street today, I realized how simple my world has become.  I have started to play the stroller game.  It is a game that only moms (and some dads) understand.  It goes like this.  Whenever you meet a mom on the street, you give her stroller a quick, thorough look.  The kind of scrutiny like in a GMP audit.  Then you look at your own stroller and compare which features are better than the one you just saw.  In my mind, I always manage to win this game.  I have iPod speakers!

Nemluvim moc Český

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Whenever my husband introduces me to one of his friends or family members, I always say:  “Nemluvim moc Český.”  (I don’t speak much Czech.)  It is not necessary, but for the interest of being polite, I had to give a forewarning to people in case words fail me.

Now that I am a real stay-at-home mom, it is very difficult for me to last throughout the day without any other human interaction except for the debacles with my one year old “mini me.”  As a result, I try as much as I can to talk to the neighbors, go buy something at the store, or just wander through the town square.    The other day, while my son and I were on our way to get some fruits at the town square, I was asked for directions twice and an older woman started talking to me in Czech, only because I was walking behind her and made a short statement in Czech with perfect accent.    The one thing that my husband told me to do right when I speak Czech is to use the right accent.  Thus, it is no wonder that his grandma thinks that I already have a full grasp of the Czech language.  At one time, she tried to tell me something I didn’t understand.  With a blank look on my face I told her:  “Prominte Babi, nerozumim.”  (I’m sorry grandma, I don’t understand)  Then she went on to talk to me slowly.  Now that really helped!

On a more serious note…

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After 2 months of “settling in”, our holiday has finally ended. Today, my husband just started his new job. My son got sick. I was horribly missing California. When we first got here, everything was so new to me. I was over-excited. Now I have to face reality.
The worst part about all this is the fact that I am still unable to speak Czech fluently enough to get a driver’s license. Today I had to bring my son to his doctor on foot. Nothing stresses me more than seeing him sick. I know I should get used to it but I’m still not.
Albeit, at the end of the day, it all worked out well. My husband had a good day at work, there was nothing serious about my son’s condition, and I suddenly felt that staying home isn’t that bad.

Jakub Turns One

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It only seemed like yesterday, but my little boy officially turned one last week. It marks his graduation from “babyhood” to “toddlerhood.” But to me, everything is the same. He is still the same baby I fed, changed diapers and shushed to sleep. Instead of celebrating his birthday with a big party, we traveled instead. His big day was spent visiting the city, the zoo and several castles. He is happiest when he is with his cousins. His joy is our joy.

Adršpach

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Zion + Yosemite = Adršpach
Dress code: Orange

Adršpach is in the Northernmost part of Czech.  It is approximately a 2 hour drive from Kolin.  At the resort, I was wondering why most people were speaking some weird Czech.  For a while I thought it was some regional language or something since there were still some words that I can understand.  Then my husband told me they were Poles.  After half a day in this famous tourist spot, we sneaked into Poland which was only a 15 min drive from Adršpach.

Trust Thy Doctor

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“Trust but verify” – Ronald Reagan

I had my first visit to the doctor today due to a minor ear irritation.  Since my Czech is still limited, I had to ask my husband to accompany me to the doctor.  When we got there, I was glad to be assigned to a young doctor who spoke English.  He was very good.  He explained everything to me.  As we were heading back home, I told my husband about the whole check-up episode.  In the examination room, he had an instrument where he can project my ear on the screen.  During the whole process of explaining what he found, a short phrase caught my attention.  He told me:  “You have to believe me.  That gray matter you see on the screen is your eardrum…”  I thought that was rather funny.  I never doubted him.  I told my husband that maybe it was just one of those lost-in-translation stories.  But then he told me that perhaps the doctor was serious.

Then I remembered a story he once told me about a friend of his.  This friend was sitting in the living room watching TV when his wife’s grandmother came in.  The grandma exclaimed: “Oh, so you understand Chinese?”  To which he replied: “No, this is English grandma.”  With a quizzical look on her face, she went on to say: “hmmm…. I better ask someone.”