"Vinohrady Halloween"
Like I said earlier, there's no Halloween celebrated, but we couldn't just let the day pass...
May and other foreigner moms organized a get-together/trick-or-treat so us dads wouldn't miss out.
This trick-or-treat fest was mostly for the parents, since the kids all were pretty young...like from 1 to 3 years old.
The group included South Africans, Czechs, Americans, Canadians, Swedes, Brits, & New Zealanders. Not all of the participants celebrate Halloween in some fashion or another 'back home,' it was a fun learning experience for us walkers as well as the groupies we collected.
Enough writing, here are some pics.
Some of Ella's friends...I'll caption more later, but for now...off to bed.
This little devil is Alice.
Santi the skeleton and Claudia the witch.
You all know Santa's Elf.
The Parkers.
Santi gets treats from his dad while Johanka (bee) and Analee (cat) wait patiently.
31 October 2006
28 October 2006
Happy Birthday ...Czechoslovakia
Just a quick entry about October 28th. Today is a national holiday. Today marks the day when Czechoslovakia succeeded from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Yes, true this nation hasn't been Czechoslovakia since 1993, but the celebration lives on.
So, a flash of history here...Czechoslovakia was ruled by either the Austrian-Hungarian Empire or Hapsburg Dynasty from 1526 up to the end of World War I.
In World War I, Austria-Hungary was against the Allied Powers (UK, USA, France & Italy).
Toward the end of the war, when Allied Powers were looking as the favorites to win, Bohemia and the neighboring lands recognized a good opportunity to declare independance from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
On October 28th, 1918, they got what they wished for and Czechoslovakia was born.
In 1938, Czechoslovakia was less than 20 years old when the rest of Europe parceled it up to appease Hitler. Still stinging from the "Great War" (no need yet to call it World War I), the UK, US, France and Italy believed in appeasement over war. The reward for Hitler to not wage war on them was a section of Czechoslovakia called "Sudenland". Of course, this failed and Czechoslovakia missed celebrating its 21st birthday in 1939 by six months before Nazi Germany came in and annexed the rest of the country. The historical lesson of the century was that appeasement doesn't work when dealing with a maniacal powermonger.
Czechoslovakia was 're-born' in 1945, released from Nazi Germany. But now as part of the Warsaw Pact, Czechoslovakia wasn't exactly "free." In the spring of 1968 (dubbed The Prague Spring), the leaders decided to "put a human face on socialism" turning Czechoslovakia into the most liberal country in the Eastern Bloc, allowing all sorts of human rights and freedoms. Most of the locals loved Prague Spring. The Soviets didn't. On August 21, 1968, the Soviets rolled between 5000 and 7000 tanks through Prague to show their displeasure.
It took a revolution (the Velvet Revolution) in 1989 to give Czechoslovakia its third birth as a nation. Finally, on January 1st, 1993, the nation split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Happy Birthday.
21 October 2006
Home Sweet Home & the Sweet Smell of Maple Syrup
Huge Thanks and a Sad Goodbye to Grammy. Though we made the most we could of every day, in the end the 3 weeks seemed to fly by. Grammy flew back to the US Midwest last Thursday.
This weekend was catch up on some housework, some cooking, and preparing for a one-day trip to Munich tomorrow. Yup, we're making a long awaited run to the Czech Embassy in Munich to pick up our long-term residency visas, approved after the obligatory 3-4 months of processing. Now, we're official but as it's only good for a year at a time, it's still short of having "permanent residency" as in the US.
Chantal!!! - thank you!!!
We got absolutely spoiled with a carepackage from Vermont, complete with hot cocoa, pancake mix, maple-flavored popcorn and a variety of maple syrups. Incredible. Words cannot describe May's reaction to seeing the maple syrups...so, I'll just slip in this small, but candid video.
Chantal may not realize this, but we even enjoyed just reading the Vermont newspapers she used to wrap up things! Thank you Chantal...we're sipping hot cocoa as we type this. :) May doing her best "Gollum" impression...
Last, but far from least, our Las Vegas buddy Eric just returned from a 2-week stay in Korea and has an incredible suite of pictures to show for it. All who were at our wedding will recall Eric as our Master of Ceremonies, the one with stunning good looks and irresistible charm. Eric visited mutual friends, Kit & Tom. I dare say Eric accomplished as much in 2 weeks as May and I did during our year there. His website makes browsing pictures very easy. Don't forget the blog, too!
14 October 2006
Whew! We've been busy having fun with Grammy...
and so we've been slow to update all of you on the fun we're having! So what have we been doing? We've been to most of the major sights in Prague. Here we are with St. Vitus' Cathedral/Prague Castle in the background.
We've been eating lots of good food...in particular checking out child-friendly locales. There are a number of restaurants that have small play areas either inside or outside in their garden. (These are thrilling to find because the alternative is child-unfriendly restaurants...as in no changing table, no high chairs, etc.) We even found one (Ambiente Pizza Nuova) that includes a caregiver on weekends from 11am to 7pm. No, you can't drop your child off and go shopping for the day - (we checked!) - you actually have to be dining at the restaurant to use the service. Another child-friendly spot, Albio, also serves only YUMMY organic food and is just across the street from Marilyn's apartment. So, we've been there a number of times. Yesterday, we made our way to Žofín on Slovansky Ostrov (island). Gorgeous setting with a play area in the restaurant garden AND a playground next door. Ella is asleep under my jacket in the stroller....
We've also been frequenting playgrounds around the city so that Marilyn can see where Ella and I spend a significant portion of our time! Actually, the weather has been amazing so we are trying to enjoy the outdoors as much as we can before it gets cold and wet. No matter how big or small, old or new the playground is, Ella ALWAYS loves the sand and stones! (Future geologist?!?)
We've shown Marilyn some of the sights in our neighbourhood, like this crazy "Baby Tower".
Oh yeah! And we finally decided to get a car!!!!! It was a tough choice.
What do you think we picked? The Lamborghini or the Bentley?
Our visit with Grammy is winding down. She'll be leaving us Thursday morning...things will seem quiet after she's gone.
Mějte se hezky!
Maylia
