Cesky Krumlov

When I ask people, "what should I visit in the Czech Republic?" the most common recommendation is Cesky Krumlov. So last week my friend from college, who is doing chemistry research in Germany, and I traveled to Cesky Krumlov to see what it is all about. We arrived by train at night and fog was beginning to settle all around this medieval town, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and located in Southern Bohemia (near the Austrian border). We walked through the windy, cobblestone streets to our hostel, which happened to be in an old brick oven bakery. This place was so magical looking! I felt like I was in a fairytale town. Actually, many fairytale and mystical movies are filmed in Cesky Krumlov. I narrate this post in photos, so you can also experience my trip.

Our first night we wondered to a restaurant and had a traditional medieval feast! While my friend ate rabbit, I had the vegetarian version. It consisted of different grains and vegetables, as well as bramboraky and knedliky. To authenticate the meal, I drank mead. It tasted very similar to a millet drink I had in Nepal.

On Saturday, we walked around the town, and the castle - its garden and grounds. The main castle is fortified with real bears, which were apparently hibernating.

It was so beautiful out and all the leaves were changing colors, so we continued to walk along the river that engulfs the town and its many parks. We even made a pile of leaves and jumped in them. We also walked to a local brewery to have Cesky Krumlov’s Eggenberg beer and eat snacks.

Before having a vegetarian dinner, we climbed up the castle tower to look out over the town.

Then we hiked up a hill to watch the sunset over Cesky Krumlov and the beautiful trees.

Finally, we went to listen to classical guitarists. However, the music was slow and we were hungry, so we searched for a new place. Friday night we had gone to a Roma (Gypsy) bar to listen to traditional music, but they had not been playing. When we walked through the town on Saturday we heard music coming from the bar and decided to try it again. The band was playing beautiful music that sounded almost like Klezmer. A couple was dancing in the middle of packed tables. It was so crowded that my friend and I shared a table with two Czech men and a couple. At one point, I heard an old man who was smoking a wooden pipe curse at another man and out of my teacher-like-reflexes I turned my head in surprise. Both men also looked surprised and asked me if I spoke Czech. I responded by saying "nemluvim cesky" (I don't speak Czech). This definitely confused them because by now I have practiced "I don't speak Czech" so much that it sounds fluent. So I then explained that I teach English in Plzen and one man responded that he understood and we both returned to our respective conversations. I then ate a wonderful snack of fried cauliflower, which tasted better than my school's version.

On Sunday morning, my friend and I packed up and left for Cesky Budejovice. Cesky Budejovice is a larger town on the way back to Plzen and is home to the Original Budweiser beer. It is debated whether the American or the Czech Budweiser came first, but somehow they settled the debate by actually naming the Czech beer "the Original Budweiser." It was misty outside and early on Sunday, so there were very few people in its town square or on the streets, but it was nice to see another city in the CR!

Here are some other photos from my trip:

HC Plzen vs. Kladno

Last Thursday night I went to a hockey match with another teacher, many students, and 8,000+ people from Plzen! The stadium was completely filled, as this was not just a battle of and about hockey. It was a battle between the HC Plzen Indians and HC Kladno Knights, and its two professional NHL players. (Note: for those who don’t know, the NHL is the National Hockey League, consisting of Canadian and American teams.) Two players had returned from playing in the NHL to join their original team in the Czech Republic, making them superstars. Apparently, most matches only have 5,000 fans watching. But because this night was extra special the stadium was sold out. After munching on some snacks outside, I entered the stadium and made the trek up to the top of the stadium into the standing-room-only section. That's correct, for almost three hours I stood beside students and strangers!

At first, both teams warmed up. Then the Zamboni resurfaced the rink and a man dressed in an HC Plzen Indian regalia came skating around! While I would love to talk about the irony in this, I will skip to what happened next: the teams were introduced, all the fans lit sparklers and chanted, and then the first of three periods began. This game was a nail-biter. Kladno scored in the first period and Plzen in the second! After the score all the fans whipped their scarves in the air. The tie continued in the third period causing the match to go into overtime. Finally, each team had to take five penalty shots, which resulted in a win for Plzen! The crowd went wild! Only, they had been going wild throughout the entire time. My standing section also happened to be the cheering section! Most people had HC Plzen jerseys, scarves, and hats and there were huge banners that occasionally covered the entire section! One man brought his drum and people took turns pounding it. Chants were either sung in unison with the entire stadium or call-and-repeat with different sections taking their turns. Most chants involved some kind of swearing at the referees and Kladno players. However, there were a few that sounded similar to cheers at a baseball or basketball game in the US (I have never been to an NHL game, so I can't compare). Once they sang "Olay, Olay, Olay, Olay," but added the names "Plzen" and "Škoda" at the end. Škoda is the biggest car manufacturer in the Czech Republic and biggest Czech exporter, and they also happen to have a factory in Plzen! The crowd also chanted "modrá bílá," which means "blue white" because of those are the team colors, and a song to the tune of "Oh My Darling Clementine." After every period, there were 15-minute intermissions where the HC Plzen Indian mascot would come out and play a game with different audience members. Sometimes they had to pull a canoe across the rink, run on ice, or roll dice to win prizes.

Attending this hockey game was a very engaging and fun cultural event! Hockey and soccer are the two most popular sports in Plzen! Prior to the macth, students and teachers were going nuts about this match! My students without tickets were extremely envious. The only students not excited were four students who came to my lunch table and explained that they prefer to LARP (Live Action Role Play) and CosPlay (dressing up in costumes) than watch sports. To each, his own. Sports have become a theme in my life and will be the topic for a few future posts!

Go Plzen!

My students and me (I am not actually that short! I am standing on a lower step!):

Exciting Moments:

Chanovice Honey Festival

Two English teachers invited me to an “open-air museum” in Chanovice, a small village about an hour from Plzen. Both teachers have been active in moving and restoring historical barns and houses to an open field in Chanovice, thus it is an open-air museum. The oldest barn dated back to the 1350s. While many people went to Chanovice for the weekend to restore these buildings, I was invited primarily to enjoy a Honey Festival.

Upon arrival at the festival, we met one of the teacher’s husband and son who were manning a walnut alcohol stand. They immediately handed me two shots of walnut alcohol and told me to drink them! It was around 11:30 AM. Knowing the people who helped establish this museum came with many perks, such as free entrance and samples of honey-related goods. My teacher’s entire family was in attendance, so I met the family babička's (grandmothers) and cousins. We ate Bramboraky (Czech potato pancakes/latkes), pastries, and honey samples. I also was able to buy an enormous jar of honey for the equivalent of six dollars. Many people I talked with explained different medicinal benefits of honey and how to properly put honey in your tea to gain all the benefits - the tea must not be too hot or too cold. Also, honey will help decrease seasonal allergies if you get honey made during the season you have the worst allergic reactions and from the region you live in.

In the CR, grocery stores sell honey, but manufactured honey it is not commonly bought. Typically, people get honey from people they know and trust – sometimes a relative, a friend, or a friend of a friend. I have noticed that there is an off-the-grid economy where people trade their goods for other goods or they just give their excess goods to friends and family. For example, a teacher at my school has four apple trees that were each very prosperous this year. Her family cannot eat all the apples so she gave me about two-dozen and she has given me two liters of homemade apple cider! She said that she has given about the same amount to each of the teachers. I also tutored a student in English and was given apples and homemade pickles in return. (Needless to say, I am eating a lot of apples!) Another teacher explained that this type of generosity, as well as buying honey and other products from friends is a characteristic left over from the socialist era, when many things could not be bought in stores and you had to know someone to get certain goods. Long story short, I will be eating a lot of apples with honey for the next month!

Back to the festival: In addition to eating, I received the grand tour of Chanovice and the museum. It started with a walk to a cabin at the edge of the forest and set back from the rest of the structures. This was supposed to be where a hunter lived, which makes sense to me because my fairytale stereotype of hunters are people a little recluse and away from the village who also need to be close to their work. Then we walked around the other barns until we reached the end of the museum and the beginning of the modern-day village. Here we went to a visitor center, a school, and ran into a fashion show! Nearby there is a high school specialized in fashion and art, so students were wearing their designs down a catwalk – equally exciting was the fact that I received free gingerbread for showing up! After my teacher-tour-guide-friend talked with the Chanovice’s mayor, we hiked up a forested hill to a lookout tower. All the leaves are changing colors, so there was a magnificent view and in the distance I could see the Šumava mountain range.

After returning to the festival, I rested and listened to a traditional band play, while my teacher-friend socialized with more of her family. People were drinking and dancing and enjoying the warm weather. There were about 550 people at the festival – mostly from Chanovice or connected to the construction of the museum. It was a great way to get out of my small city and enjoy the fresh air. Especially because there will not be many more sunny days (today it is raining)!

Before returning to Plzen, we stopped by the ruins of the largest Czech castle, the Rabi Castle. No Rabbis lived there though!!! It was mostly used by noblemen and as resting place along a trade route. The castle is dated back to the 14th century and is protected by a limestone hill. Due to the fact that the CR was part of many different historical empires, there are many castles and chateaus. I also went to the Kozel Castle (literally translated as goat castle), where there were many paintings of Maria Theresa, although, she never visited the castle. I am sure I will visit others, so this will not be the last you hear about places nobility lived long ago.

Things I Ate for Internet Access

After many trials and tribulations I finally have internet in my apartment! This means that for the first time this weekend I can stay up late and skype my family and friends in distant timezones. During my first month in the CR I relied on my school's internet during the week. Everyday at school and between classes I would try to cram in all my emailing. Lacking internet meant lacking a news outlet, so at school I downloaded news-oriented podcasts, which I would watch and listen to without the internet. Relying on my school for internet meant that on the weekends, when the school was closed, I had to find alternative ways to get internet access. There are very few internet cafes in Plzen, but there are many cafes with internet. In order to validate mooching off a cafes' internet I bought something to eat and drink. After trying a few fast food joints, restaurants, and cafes I found that a cafe named "Ooo La La" had the fastest wifi connection. At that cafe I mostly ate little pastries and once even tried hot chocolate. Here are some photos of the things I had to eat for internet!

P.S. It is officially Fall here! The leaves have changed colors and sporadic gusts of wind knock them, acorns, and needles off trees. It is beautiful! Below is a photo of a double rainbow I saw walking home from the zoo yesterday.

The Lunchroom

Something that I had not thought about when preparing myself mentally for returning to high school was the lunchroom experience. In my own high school in the United States, I knew who I was going to sit with and where I was going to sit for lunch every single day. If we weren't eating in the cafeteria, my friends and I would eat in the University District. All in all, it was pleasant. College was more difficult because everyone had a different schedule everyday. I had to plan out my meals if I wanted to eat with friends or I could chance it and see who was there because I knew someone would show up in the dinning hall. If the timing didn't work out, I had to sit alone with a book. This often lead to an awkward feeling and me eating quickly.

I don't know how my students feel when they eat in the dinning hall at our school, but it is one of those daunting boxy rooms with many long tables under a high ceiling and unattractive florescent lighting. Luckily for me, there are two tables at the north side of the cafeteria reserved for teachers and if I plan on eating in the cafeteria I can ask the teachers in my office or that I have a class with before the lunch period if they want to eat together. So far, they have always said yes. However, I introduced an English language lunch table to the school, so that every Thursday students can come during the two lunch periods and sit and practice their English. Usually, this results in my getting asked by students to join their afternoon activities. Unfortunately, the first Thursday was a little lonely. The idea of sitting and speaking English was foreign to many students and many forget that the table would in fact be on Thursdays. I definitely had that awkward feeling displayed in High School dramas. The next week was better with five people the first lunch period and a full table the next. Some of the students were not even from my classes! I am excited to see what happens this week!

In regards to the cafeteria food, I have to order it on a machine a few days before. Usually, I have a Czech teacher translate the meals for me to find out if there are any appetizing vegetarian options. On days that I take the risk and eat from the cafeteria, I cut the line (something I feel guilty about) where all the students are waiting to get their meals. I grab a fork, knife, and tray, and then swipe my transportation card over a reader. This tells the kitchen staff what I ordered and they put it on my tray. This is something new to me since my high school and college were buffet style. A lot of the food I have tried are things I would not normally eat, but something went awry during the translation process. Other times I have been pleasantly surprised. Half of the students I have polled enjoy the cafeteria food and half dislike it. Sometimes I look at it and can't figure out what it is. Apparently, the students can't either. I will list some of the food I have tasted and let you guess which were the good ones: 1. fired cheese with potatoes and tartar sauce 2. fried cauliflower with potatoes and tartar sauce 3. not bread-pudding, but bread with hot pudding on top 5. fried pancakes with cheese and ketchup 4. Mediterranean salad. The answer key is at the bottom of this blog post. Typically, the meal comes with soup and a fruit. Everyday there are three options and two always have meat and usually a traditional Czech dumpling or Knedliky. I have always wanted to try either potato or bread Knedliky, but in restaurants they are served with meat dishes. Knedliky are different from dim-sum or gyoza because they are not thin nor stuffed. While I have yet to eat them, I think they look more like half-dollar to palm-of-your-hand sized gnocchi. Anyway, on days that I am not sitting with my students or eating cafeteria food I bring a good ol' fashion peanut butter sandwich or leftovers from home.

Happy Eating! And for those of you celebrating Yom Kippur, I hope you have an easy and delicious break the fast!


Answers: 1 without the tartar sauce and 4

Plzen vs. Prague

I have just returned to Plzen from two days of free time and four days in a Fulbright meeting in Prague. In Prague, I grew accustom to comparing towns and cities because some of the other Fulbrighters created a game entitled, “what does Miriam’s town have that mine does not.” Due to the fact that Plzen is the fourth largest town in the CR (not to be confused with Costa Rica), it has many amenities. There is a diversity of restaurants and grocery stores from which to choose. Unlike smaller towns these grocery stores sell peanut butter, which is a rare commodity here. While my amigos' towns have plenty of bars and restaurants, they lack movie theaters and malls (my town has multiples of both). Overall, I feel pretty lucky to be placed in such an accommodating city, not to mention my wonderful school! Yet, I am often envious of the fact that other Fulbrighters are celebrities in their towns because everyone knows them or the fact that they are easily able to meet people our age (the majority of my new friends are teachers and students).

In the spirit of comparison, and because I have yet to fully describe Plzen and what it is like, I will do so in the context of Prague. Prague is the only city in the CR to be considered a major/large city. However, it is so small that it cannot be considered a metropolis like New York or Tokyo. Prague’s 2.3 million population means that the city has a lot less subway lines, bus, and tram routes than the major cities on the East Coast of the US, but more than the rest of the country. Although, there are a few tall lookout towers and church steeples, Prague is also not a tall city – there are no skyscrapers in its downtown. It is a big city in the sense that it offers different genres of food, stores, people, culture, etc, and it is physically more expansive than the rest of the cities in the CR.

Plzen, like Prague, has a main square with a large cathedral and many brightly colored buildings surrounding it. There are shops, restaurants, and cafes overlooking the square, and many side streets lead to more. In fact, a popular street a few blocks from the main square is named Americka – on one end of the street there is a McDonalds and the other end there is a memorial that reads “Thank you America!” General Patton liberated Plzen in 1945, but memorials dedicated to him and the liberation were removed during the communist era and American Street was then called Moscow Street. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, which ended communism, the street was named American Street and memorials dedicated to the US were created. Many people I meet in the CR explain that I live in the most Pro-American city in all of Europe because every May there are festivals dedicated to the liberation and thanking the US. Ironically, I have only met two Americans in Plzen and they were missionaries. Side note: there are two vegetarian/vegan restaurants off of Americka, and I have befriended the Nepali owners of an Indian restaurant.

Something that Plzen has and Prague does not is the largest beer brewery and factory in all of the Czech Republic. I took a tour of the bottling factory and old underground cellars, which were pretty enormous. The factory itself bottles multiple labels of beer and supplies the entire country. Plzen is considered more industrial than Prague because it also has a Skoda car-part manufacturing plant.

Plzen also has five rivers and is surrounded by lakes. There are many trails behind my neighborhood of communist era apartment buildings that lead to some of these lakes. The majority of people on these trails are women pushing strollers, people with their dogs, and mountain bikers. Whether it is correct of not, my impression of people in Plzen is that they are extremely fit because there are many trails for bikes and roller-blades. I even went to a special outdoor rollerblading track with two teachers and their two-children each. Additionally, I joined an “outdoor” group that meets every Tuesday to play soccer, hockey, and basketball. Occasionally, this group does gymnastics, and goes camping, hiking, and skiing.

Similar to how “everything is bigger and better in Texas,” things are definitely larger and more glamorous in Prague. Keeping in perspective that I am perfectly happy in Plzen and very content with my situation. An American saying is “the grass is always greener in someone else’s yard.” What looks good is not always a good fit or the most comfortable situation for everyone. All that is left to say is that I am very happy and healthy in Plzen.

Prague's Main Square and Astronomical Clock:

Plzen's Cathedral, Main Square, and Buildings in my Neighborhood:

škola

I am currently teaching 16 different classes per week at my škola. Every five-weeks my classes will change I will teach 16 new classes, with new students because the school wants me to meet and interact will each of its 1,000 students. This means I will be doing a lot of icebreakers and memorizing a lot of names. This week alone I have learned and maybe forgotten at least 250 students names, plus the names of the other teachers, people in my soccer league, etc.

My first week of school was smooth and fun. The thought of creating different lesson plans for my classes and appeasing the 11 teachers I am working with is daunting. Some teachers have been very flexible and have given me free-range over their classes – which will allow me to do fun activities and recycle lesson plans from other classes. On the other hand, some teachers have specific ideas of lessons for their class and I feel like I am limited by their expectations. Some lessons are geared towards a large exam that every student takes in order to graduate from high school. The topics range from American culture and traditions to family and relationships to shopping etiquette.

For the next five weeks I am teaching 3rd and 4th year English. Recently, they have been studying the Czech educational system, so I have been teaching them about the American school system and having them compare it to the Czech system. This has been a very easy topic for me because I have been through the system. One of the stereotypes that the students have about American schools is that students wear uniforms everyday. The two biggest differences in the school systems are: (1) Americans begin preschool and day care at an earlier age. Czech women have three to four years of paid maternity leave, and are sometimes guaranteed a job at their place of employment when they return. This means that there are very few preschools or nurseries in the Czech Republic. (2) Many high schools here specialize in a specific field. For example there are high schools the focus on engineering, hotels and hospitality, medicine, music, etc. While magnet schools are becoming more popular in the US, students in the specialty schools in the Czech Republic are on a set career path. In the US, you can choose one subject and change many times before you decide what you want to major in and that is in college! This makes for an interesting topic teach.

Other subjects I have to make lessons about include environmental issues, world issues, American cities, interesting facts about the US, and British versus American English. The topic that seems to be the scariest for me is “problems of the world.” How can I fit all the problems of the world into one 45-minute lesson? Obviously the big issues are hunger, poverty, and war. How do I condense them? They are so important and there is so much to say about each one! I am planning to ask if I can split them into individual lessons.

Many students have asked me to go with them to the pub, to play sports, to the zoo, to the movies, etc. It is very hard for me to deny their invitations, especially because I am just getting to know them. However, there are so many students that I have decided that if they want to spend time with me or they just want to practice their English, they can sit with me during lunch on Thursdays in the cafeteria. I created and “English Lunch Table” sign and they are allowed to sit and eat with me during either of two lunch periods. Hopefully, this helps. In the meantime I will play basketball with students on Thursday and go climbing with them the next Thursday, help a student who wants to apply to American technical colleges and one who wants to improve their English, and I will go to the Zoo next Wednesday! Life is getting busy and picking up! After four-years of college with no class earlier than 9 AM, I forgot what it was like to wake up early for high school!