Today’s important Czech word

Více – which is pronounced vee-tse. It means “More”. So, Více pivo, prosím. It is going to be a grand time in Prague.

This Czech word is critical.

Today’s word is:

Pivo (Pronounced like you think, if you think like someone who speaks Czech. I have no clue. But I will make it work.)

Pivo is Beer. Everyone knows the Czechs are famous for their beers. This is a word I will remember for the rest of my life.

Czech phrase/word of the day.

We all remember:

Ahoj = Hello [Pronounced like “Ahoy, Matey” (without the “Matey”), but with accent on the first syllable. (The Czech always accent the first syllable, so keep that in mind.)]

Prosím = Please (Prounounced “pro-seem” – remember which syllable gets accented. Oh, and roll your “r”)

Our new phrase:

Kde je nákupni centrum? = Where’s a shopping mall? (Pronounced “gde ye na-kup-nyee tsen-trum”, of course. I mean, that is so obvious!)

I think I have a few sisters who would find this a key phrase in Prague. (And I bet they are trying to memorize it as we speak!)

Computer crisis.

Saturday morning, we awoke to a dead computer. There was a lot of cursing and gnashing of teeth and general poor dispositions for a couple of hours. I’m really trying to avoid making us sound like crotchety old men. But we are. And it’s finals week and Richard really needs to be able to get online. (He is teaching an online class this quarter.)

Finally, reaching desperation, I pulled our old computer downstairs and jump-started the poor dude. He coughed and sputtered and gave weak signs of life. We instantly remembered why we bought a new computer. There were vultures gathering outside the window, waiting for the old plastic box with Intel inside to take its last breath. But with some mechanical nursing, good thoughts and a nearby sledgehammer, our Vaio beat the odds and returned to the living: the very slow living. And Richard didn’t have to drive the 33 miles for our house to the college every day this week. He could curse from home!

But for all the unpleasantries, there has been a silver lining. All my genealogy crap is on the old computer that we just brought back to life. I was unable to transfer it to the new computer when we did the switch-over. (Hence the old computer has not been recycled, as I knew new technology was coming.) And, maybe the new technology to use to move the data to a new home on whatever computer we end up with, has come. (Our current ‘new’ computer is at the local geekery. I believe he is in ICU. But if he pulls through, we may keep him for a while.) So, that is good.

Second, I found some great pictures I had forgotten about.

Ask the linguistic expert.

I have deemed myself a linguistic expert as I speak English like a native of a certain education level; my French is flawless, as twenty secular geese will attest; and I am conversant in Dutch, as long as the conversation is about, “Vijf youngen springen op de tafel.” After that, I get a little confused.

In honor of our upcoming trip to Prague, I have turned my linguistic prowess to the Czech language. Some of you may not be aware, but many experts consider Czech to be the third most difficult language to learn, right after Mandarin Chinese and Estonian. I know little about Chinese or Estonian, but Holy Toledo, if they are harder to learn the Czech, I ain’t going any where near them.

First of all, the Czech are stingy with vowels. Apparently, many, many moons ago when they were creating the Czech language (Čestina, as they say), they were dirt poor and couldn’t afford to buy vowels (damn you, Pat and Vanna), so when it came to words like “krk” and “prst”, they were forced to forgo the luxury of being able to pronounce the words. Then a few years later, they had an evil archduke with a speech impediment. He made this unbelievable sound, like a rolled ‘r’ with a ‘zh’ behind it. He deemed it a letter, “Ř” and got it inserted into a large number of words. Just a bunch more words that can’t be pronounced.

Throw into that mess, nouns are either male, female or neuter and every adjective changes depending on the gender of the noun. It is a friggin’ nightmare. And is ‘neuter’ really a gender?

So far I have learned two words, “Ahoj” and “Prosím”, (“Hello” and “Please”). I’m guessing I won’t be having long, intimate chats with any of my new Czech friends.

The summer of 2012: Prague, Salzburg and Vienna

Planning has begun in earnest. We have our airline tickets. We leave Portland on July 29th on a flight to Amsterdam. From there we catch a flight to Prague in the Czech Republic. We arrive the following day at something like 1 in the afternoon. My first thought is that it is a shame that the Czech Republic and Slovakia spit in to separate countries. Czechoslovakia was the neatest named country in the world. Now they are both just, well… blah. My second thought is that this will be Richard any my first trip to the other side of the Iron Curtain. For those of you too young or too history deprived to know, the Iron Curtain was this amazing barrier that the Soviet Union built across the continent of Europe. The curtain rods were amazing as the Iron Curtain itself was astonishingly heavy. Short of the Great Wall of China, it was one of the most amazing feats of limitation ever created by man. Oh, but we are building damn near as sweet of a barrier along our border with Mexico. But, I digress.

We will spend four nights in Prague. We have one day trip planned, to Terezín. Some of you may know it better as Theresienstadt. It was a "gathering" area for the Jews of Czechoslovakia used by the Germans. (That translates to "ghetto".) Although not a death camp, the vast majority who entered Theresienstadt died. If I had a bucket list, visiting a concentration camp would be on it. And while Terezín doesn’t quite fit the bill, but unless I can someday get to Auschwitz, I’ll let it count.

From Prague we go to Salzburg, Austria for three nights. You will be all stunned to hear that Salzburg has a theatre festival going on while we are there. It is such an amazing coincidence. I was shocked when Richard told me. I’ve heard that there are five things not to like about Salzburg. Three of them have escaped my memory. But I do recall: it is so expensive it makes Vienna look dirt cheap and whatever you do in Salzburg, you will do with 500,000 of your best friends, so get used to being crushed.

From Salzburg, we go to Vienna for six nights. We have rented an apartment on the edge of gay Vienna. I think that is appropriate. We are planning two side trips from Vienna; one to Bratislava in Slovakia, and one to Sopron in Hungary. They pad the old passport.

Then we head back to Prague for two nights before returning home.

It's National Doughnut Day!

I'd tell you more, but my fingers are all sticky and there are crumbs everywhere!