Milujeme kulturu (we love the culture)

Monday, October 14, 2013

A few things we love about Czech culture, in no particular order:

A PENCHANT FOR GATHERINGS AND GETTING OUTSIDE
On any given weekend, there are countless things to do out-of-doors, from block parties and open-air theater in the city to bike races and mushroom picking in the country. Czechs seem to be an active bunch, and they make it hard to stay inside and clean the house on a Saturday.
At a block party in our 'hood

LOVE OF ALL THINGS CANINE
Dogs are welcome (almost) everywhere and whenever we're walking Jayda, little old ladies swarm to her and start telling us about their own dogs in Czech and we nod like we can actually understand what they're saying. She's also a magnet for toddlers, college students, professionals, bums - pretty much everyone. They love their dogs here.
Jayda laps up the vestiges of Ben's kulajda soup at Kavarna Velryba
SPLURGING ON FRESH FLOWERS
There are cheery flower shops (květinářství) on practically every block. Czechs buy a LOT of fresh flowers; it's status quo to bring them to friends' homes when invited over for dinner.
 A flower stand near our closest metro stop

PUNCTUALITY
Czechs in general pay attention to detail and are on time. This holds true for business meetings, high school classes and even transportation; trams, buses and the metro arrive almost always on the dot. Having a transport mode be even a couple of minutes late is unusual. And Czech airlines was ranked last year as being the most punctual airline in the world.
Waiting for the highly efficient metro. I'm on time here (shocker!) because it's impolite to be late!

A PROLIFERATION OF BREAD
We're eating like Czechs, who consume bread at nearly every meal. It's not uncommon to see people on their way to work buying a sack of rohliks (breadsticks) and cheese or pate for lunch, and a basket of rye is served with dinner at every Czech restaurant, whether you ask for it or not. This is not to mention bread dumplings, breakfast pastries, chlebicek (open-faced sandwiches), etc. What's ironic is neither BW nor I were huge bread fans in the United States.
We store our hordes of bread - croissants, rohliks, loaves and rolls - in our microwave to keep them fresh. 

FILM-FRIENDLINESS
The Czech Republic is known for being a highly talented and inexpensive place to film movies and commercials. Loads of cinema hits have been made here, including The Illusionist, which one of my students was an extra in. In addition, Czech film itself is really phenomenal. Watch anything by Milos Forman or Jiri Menzel and prepare to be impressed.

We saw the crew from the Ridley Scott movie "Child 44" setting up in a metro station. 


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