Veselé Vánoce a St´aštný Nový Rok !
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
For me it's 2 lessons, one Czech class, 5 gifts, shoe repair and 3 lunches to Christmas! :)
Other items of interest:
I haven't had email access in a week so if I haven't written you back, that's why. It's doubtful I will have it before, well, before the new year now. How sad. =(
It's apparently 80c to send me a letter. No I'm not begging, I was asked!
I've had enough Christmas cookies to choke a pirrhana, all in the name of absorbing culture.
I managed to lug my first Christmas tree home the other day. It's not a great picture, but here it is, decorated all nice and traditionally (read: cheaply) with gingerbread cookies and straw ornaments!
Erica's family arrives tomorrow and we're going to pick them up from the airport. Then we'll come back and go for dinner at the local Švejk pub, (which has the best food we've had in Prague for about $4) ! I can't wait to meet them! And I can't wait to be done with classes for a week! And ... I can't wait to buy tickets because did I tell you we're going to Portugal in February???
That's all, I think. Tak, ahoj, mě se dobrý. Be good.
Dan
The Jesus Post
Children know who Santa Claus is here. They just don’t believe in him. Who is this fat guy who walks around wearing a furry red suit and how can people really believe he fits down the chimneys in houses to put presents underneath the tree? How absurd. Besides, everyone knows it’s the baby Jesus who really brings the presents.
Ježišek, as he’s called here, brings presents to put under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Much like Santa except that (a) It's Jesus, and (b) He doesn't go down the chimney, he comes in the door. Apparently Jesus is more logical than Santa. And in case you're wondering how Jesus manages to get through the front door without being noticed, I should mention that he is invisible.
Adding further complication, the "Baby Jesus" is in fact not a baby at all, but an old man with a beard. I think this is to make it easier for children to believe he brings the presents, since it's hard to imagine an infant - even an invisible one - knocking on doors and dragging a large sack of presents behind him.
So when the Christmas season approaches each year, children (and sometimes students) across the Czech Republic pull out a pen and paper, and begin their wish list... "Milý Ježišku, ..." (Dear Jesus, ...). And when they've finished their letters, what do they do with them???
(Well, if they're English students, they give them to their teacher, but ...)
They put them in the Jesus Post, of course!
It makes sense. For being a pretty solidly atheist country, they remember where Christmas comes from, if only in legend. And they won't have any of this silly "coming down the chimney" business.
So, let me ask you:
Have you written to Jesus lately?
Knedliky: Now Boiled, Not Baked
It’s easy to fall for: Storebought foods just ought to be easier to cook. I mean, they’re pre-prepared. You simply open the package, throw them in the oven or in boiling water or you just eat the contents.
The question is which, when it’s written in Czech.
I’ve recently learned that storebought knedliky should be boiled, not baked. It’s a whole new world of knedliky-cooking that just opened up … =)
Praha, as everyone needs to see it.
It was just after I set the last steaming plate on the Thanksgiving table that I saw it was snowing. It must have started while we were cooking, but, busy as we were, it was when we sat down to give thanks that we noticed the big white flakes streaming past the window. It wasn’t the first time it snowed, but this time it looked serious. The flakes were big and they were sticking. I was excited. Prague, I thought, was meant to be seen under a blanket of snow. And I was happy that it was snowing and we were going to go out and the turkey we ate wasn’t really turkey (hence, no L-triptofan!).
We knew the Christmas tree on old town square was to be lit at some point on Saturday. We guessed 8 o’clock, but it didn’t really matter because we had to eat our Thanksgiving dinner first (n.b. I bet you didn’t know that Thanksgiving falls on a Saturday here). When we arrived the town square was taken up by a multitude of little wooden houses – the Christmas market! – housing specialty foods, such as dough with cinnamon and sugar, and drinks, namely svařák (hot mulled wine). It was perfect. There was dancing and singing, and roasted chestnuts and lots of tourists, and the disney church all lit up and snow and horse-drawn carriages and a couple of Americans running around with cups of svařák in one hand and cameras in the other. And I thought, this was exactly what Prague was supposed to look like.
The Disney Church and Christmas Tree
Ooh, bet you didn¨'t know we could time-travel!
Oh, my personal favorite!
And your hosts!
Now, back to the title of this blog. Wouldn't you agree?
The Grammar of Flannel Jammies
The board reads "What can YOU get away with?"
I got away with wearing my jammies to work, once again. Those of you walking around SPARTA in your jammies and slippers last friday may find comfort knowing that somewhere (in Prague), at some time (before you woke up), someone (me) wore their pajamas to work. =)
Prague to SPARTA -
we're transatlantic, baby!
The Awesome Flat Needs an Awesome Plumber
So the awesome flat has not been so awesome lately. The water is dripping down into our neighbor's flat. Apparently, this is a problem. I say apparently because our landlords really don't speak English well, but from the yelling and gesticulations of the red-faced husband of our landlady, I gather it is a problem. The solution? To tell the tenants not to use any water in their flat until it is fixed. We hope that will be today. Many cultures call whiskey the water of life, but frankly, we'd be fine with a hot shower. :)
