Language lessons

I met with my Czech language tutor last night. We discussed what book she thought we should use and what each session would include. My tutors name is Marta and she is a native Czech who is currently in University. She will be coming every Monday for an hour. I went out this morning and bought my text book, activity book, and grammar basics laminated pamphlet. I started some of the work today. I have a week to get through each lesson before I meet with marta again. Since she will expect me to know enough to have basic conversation I have to really start to study. I'm looking forward to learning more Czech. It is a different learning process now....or maybe it is just learning rather than figuring out the answers to get a good grade! I want my Czech ability to be greater than my Spanish ability. I got great grades in Spanish because I knew the answers not because I could speak the language. Something that is interesting about Czech is that there is a Prague- Czech and then proper czech spoken outside Prague. Since Marta knowss both she will teach me proper czech but point out where the Prague-Czech differs so that I will know what people are saying here in Prague. One of those difference I have already learned from my friend. The word apple is jablko in proper czech. Prague Czech just pronounces it as jabko.

We have been reading Czech books with the girls so that they can also learn Czech. In addition to us reading to them our babysitter is Czech and is going to start speaking Czech to them so that they learn the language. We had to laugh since we will have to start bringing Sofia with us places to translate. Just another reason to really buckle down and learn Czech so that my child isn't more fluent than I.

VZP Success!!!

We all are finally covered by the Czech national health insurance!! Getting Sofia covered was the last step. I brought her to Motol (a different hospital from where we went before) because she needed to have her heart checked since she had an innocent murmur. Motol has the appropriate testing euipmet for children so that is where we went. I thought the process would be more difficult at Motol since it seemed to me to be a much more Czech oriented hospital. I was pleasantly surprised when everyone was really helpful. We arrived at the hospital and I didn't see any signs for foreigner check in so I just decided to go to the pediatrics area. I got to a waiting room and asked someone there is they knew where the pediatrics department was and they told me to take a number. (this was really all done without words since the woman didn't speak English.) I took a number and waited my turn. I got to the window and found out I was in the wrong place and was told to go down stairs. I went downstairs and a nurse brought me to the pediatrics department. Luckily one of the doctors was behind the check-in desk and he spoke English. I was told to go back upstairs to the foreigners check in and then come back down with the appropriate paperwork. The doctor gave me some basic directions to the foreigners check-in and I headed back upstairs. The foreigners desk actually spoke English very well which was a surprise. We filled out the paperwork and brought the appropriate paperwork back down to pediatrics and waited our turn. The nurse came out and got us and we went back into a room with the echo cardiogram machine. I thought that Fi would flip when I saw all the things that were going to be attached to her but she did great. There was a clip on both ankles and both wrists as well as 6 suction things to her chest. We pretended that it was an octopus which she thought was funny. After that was done we went and waited the the waiting room for the doctor. The doctor came and got us and we went into a room with an ultrasound machine. Fi was a little unsure at first but when I told her that she was lucky to be able to see her heart when even mommy and daddy haven't seen their own hearts she thought it was pretty neat. After those tests the doctor told us what we already knew - that Fi was fine and there was nothing wrong with her heart. Kids her age get innocent murmurs that mean nothing. We then headed back upstairs with our paperwork to check out at the foreigners desk. The woman was very nice and she told me should would write up the invoice. We waited and then she came over and told me that the echo was going to cost about 400Kc but the other test (the ultrasound) was very expensive. I was thinking, great there goes another $1,000 - $2,000USD since an Ultrasound in the US would be that expensive. She then proceeded to tell me it was 2000Kc. I looked very serious and said that it was OK. It was all I could do to not show a big sign of relief since 2000Kc is about $100USD. If she only knew how expensive these things were in the US she never would have been concerned. (Not that I really wanted to part with $100USD either). I went directly to VZP on Friday to drop off the results and was told to come back on Monday. I went back today and paid for Sofia's coverage. Now we can rest assured that we have health insurance. Now I just have to find a pediatrician and schedule and appointment for the girls shots.

BubbleClownery

Today we went to a bubbleclownery show. It is basically a guy who does all different kinds of bubbles. Here is a link if you want to learn more about it. http://www.bubbleshow-strasser.com/

It was a fun show and the kids really enjoyed it. Jason and I got a kick out of it because it was fun but some things you would never have happen in the US. The first part of the show was your basic bubbles but then the second part of the show was smoke filled bubbles. In the US if there were smoke filled bubbles the smoke would be made with some fake smoke. In the Czech Republic the smoke is made with cigarrettes! We were a little surprised when the bubble guy lit up a cigarette in the middle of the performance. He proceeded to fill bubbles with smoke since as he was blowing on the bubbles smoke was coming out of his mouth. It was interesting since the bubbles floated better and they did fill with smoke but we still couldn't believe it. Then to make it even more mind boggling he proceeded to fan the bubbles out above the crowd of children where the bubble would pop and the smoke/soap would fall on kids heads. Luckily we were sitting in the back and didn't have to experience that. The show was only 20 minutes long so we didn't have to stay in the smokey room too long which was good. Despite the complete difference in culture with the smoking it was still a fun show and the kids really enjoyed it.

Watson and the Rhodesian Ridgeback

Watson and I took a walk today in Stromovka Park. It was the first time I have ever seen another dog make Watson tired! Near the end of our walk in the park Watson started playing with a Rhodesian ridgeback. Watson loves to play chase but usually dogs are too slow for Watson and he gets bored quickly. The ridgeback was very fast (he was taller than Watson too so had longer legs) and Watson had a blast chasing him around in a huge circle. I couldn't believe my eyes when Watson actually started to slow down and the ridgeback was still going. Watson started cutting off parts of the circle to keep up!! Eventually he just plopped down in a mud pit and I called him over to me so that we could head home. I was actually wondering if he was going to come or if he was too tired. He did come but he was definitely tired and he fell asleep as soon as we got home.

On a side note: On the way leaving the park I saw the strangest thing....a ferret on a leash being walked!

The land of skinny giants??

I went clothes shopping the other day and the only thing I could find to fit me was a hand bag! Apparently women hear are skinny giants. I was hard pressed to find any pants with an inseam of 30". Most pants were a 32 or 34! Yes, I do see a lot of women here who are tall but not all of them. Where do the short people shop?? I also don't consider myself a big girl (I think most people would agree) and a lot of the pants were tight on my thighs!

I made one last ditch effort this morning after my friend told me about a British store called Next. I did finally have some success. The pants are still a little long (but all pants are long on me) but a least they generally fit. Now I just have to find a tailor. I'm sure that will be an adventure.

Another runnning lost moment...

I went for a run on Sunday. Since it was Sunday I was running a little later in the morning so I decided to run through Stromovka Park. (I think I have mentioned that I don't run there early in the morning because it it too secluded for me to feel safe.) Stromovka is a really nice park and is quite busy with people during the day. My intent was to run from one end of Stromovka to the other end and then out onto the streets up to Letna park and then back home. I reviewed the map before I went and knew I needed to come out of Stromovka and make 2 rights. Well, when I came out of Stromovka I just wasn't thinking and thought "this is the way to Letna". Unfortunately my internal direction was off. I didn't even think about what I had looked at on the map I just continued running. as I was running I was thinking "where is Letna? I thought I would be there by now." Then I came upon a church...uh, oh...I know that church! It is the church near the Vltavska metro. Once I recognized the church I knew where I was and it was not where I wanted to be. I was further away then I intended. I had to run all the way up hill to get back to Letna. I didn't run quite as far in Letna as planned since I was feeling quite tired since I had run the whole way with only 1 stop for a traffic light. I headed home and checked my mileage on google earth. I ran 4.88 miles at a rate of about 11 min a mile. My total distance was about what I had intended so I was glad I had cut out part of my Letna route. It was a good run overall. I find that getting lost actually helps me run because it distracts me from the actual running. Watson seemed pretty tired after our run. He loves to run and running through Stromovka and Letna gives him a chance to really stretch his legs.

Musical Playgroup

The girls and I have joined a musical playgroup. We go every Monday for an hour or so and the girls have a great time. They get some free playtime and then we sit in a circle and sing songs and play instruments. The first week both girls were a little in awe but this last week they both started to sing and dance. Ali LOVES the hokey pokey especially when we "put our head in and shake it all about". It is very cute. The playgroup is an interesting group. There are quite a few non-czech moms who are married to Czech men. There are also a couple of Czech moms in the group. Everyone is really nice and the leader of the group is very laid back so if a child doesn't want to do something they don't have to.

Shops

One of the things that really adds to the character of Prague are the many small, charming, apparently family-run stores. On my way into work this morning I stopped at the bakery to pick up something to eat since we didn't have much at the house for breakfast. I then stopped at the green grocer down the road to pick up some bananas to have at work. Then I stopped to get some nuts from the small stand in the Hradcanska metro station that sells nuts and dried fruits.

I realize that many of the things that I am enjoying about Prague are just some of the benefits of living in a city. However, Prague is stunning city with great history and charm that is affordable and allows us to live very close to the historic center while still being in a residential area near parks and historical sites. I doubt there are many cities where those benefits all combine quite so nicely.

Hang Man

Apparently Hang Man is a universal children's game. The other night I took Watson for his evening stroll to Puskinovo namesti, a nice little green square near us with trees, a playground a couple paved paths crossing through it, that is the common evening meeting place for locals and their dogs. I have met a few interesting people there and Watson often gets to play with other dogs for a bit. Anyway, the other night I noticed that some kids had been playing Hang Man with chalk on one of the paths. It's always fun to see the similarities and differences between kids activities, toys, etc. in different places. It made me wonder when and where children began playing Hang Man. Of course, not knowing the language made the game I saw seem so much more challenging because the word they had been working with was "hračkářství" (toy store). Oh well, I guess it will be a while before I will be able to compete with the local kids.

VZP....2/3 there

I took Ali to the doctor again last week for more tests for VZP. I bundled up the kids and took the tram to the bus and got to the hospital. When I got there I could have killed myself because I forgot all my paperwork at home! I couldn't believe I did it but I had to just go into the hospital anyway since there was no way I was going to go back home and back in time for Ali's appointment. I took the white elevator (the elevators are color coded) up to the 7th floor and checked in. The ladies at the check-in are very nice although they spoke very limited English they were helpful. They called someone who spoke English and I was told that I had to go back down to the 1st floor to get Ali's file and to pay for the visit. You think no big deal but alas it is not so easy. I had to take the white elevator down to the 5th floor and transfer to the green elevator. The elevators are not right next to each other either. I get down to pediatrics and get Ali's file and pay for the visit and then head back up to the 7th floor ....green elevator to 5th floor and then transfer to the white elevator. I then waited for the doctor. I didn't mind the wait though because Ali had fallen asleep in the stroller. Once we got in with the doctor and told her why we were there the doctor took a look at Ali. She spoke limited Engish but from what I could gather she also thought it was ridiculous that VZP wanted Ali checked before insuring her. Oh well, at least the issue that Ali was having is now fixed. We left the hospital and heading to VZP to drop off the paperwork from the doctor. Unfortunately VZP was closed so I went back on Monday. After dropping the paperwork off I was told to come back on Friday. I went back this morning (Friday) and enrolled Ali in VZP. She is covered for everything now except her strawberry birthmark! The only thing I can think is that they don't want to cover for cosmetic removal because other than that you don't treat a strawberry birthmark. It is just so odd to me that they would go out of there way to but that in as part of the policy though since cosmetic surgery is not covered anyway. Who know....it is an interesting beauracracy.

Now I only have to get Sofia onto VZP. We go to the doctor again on Feb 23rd so hopefully we can get Sofia covered starting March 1st.

I've never seen so many Barbie Dolls...

We took the girls to the Toy museum this last weekend. The toy museum is housed in a building in Prague Castle. You have to walk up a tower to get to the museum so I carried Ali while Sofia walked and Jason carried the stroller up the stairs. We went into the museum and all the toys are in glass cases which is great since then I didn't have to keep saying, "don't touch". The kids loved seeing the old toys.... dolls, wooden animals, trains, planes, stuffed animals. I kept wondering where the Barbie Dolls where though since I had seen a sign about the Barbie exhibit. I gave up and thought that maybe the sign was old so we decided to leave. As we were heading out the door we saw the sign that the Barbie exhibit was upstairs. This should have been my first clue that there was a lot of Barbies'. We go up one floor and there they are in multiple rooms..hundreds of Barbie Dolls! I had no idea there were so many Barbie Dolls in existence. Seeing them all together like that you actually noticed differences between the dolls. Maybe people notice that anyway but I never did (granted I played with soccer balls and basketballs much more than I played with Barbie Dolls). Anyway, the Barbie Dolls actually had differnet shaped faces - some with full cheeks, some with sharper cheek bones, full lips, thin lips, different shape eyes. It was interesting to see. I think I might have enjoyed that more than the girls. :)

missing socks...

With no dryer in our apartment in Prague I thought I would no longer have the problem of dissappearing socks. We all know that dryers just eat socks...how else can you explain the mulitude of unmatched socks in the world? I have another explanation.....the wind takes them! I was never quite sure if I was always bringing in the same amount of clothing that I put out on the line. Today confirmed that things can, in fact, fall off the clothesline even when secured by clothespins. I went downstairs today to get my mail and what did I find in our mailbox??? Ali's sock!! Some kind person in our building must have seen it and picked it up and put it in our mailbox. Luckily we are the only apartment with kids in the building so there was no question as to who the owner of the sock was. Now I have to wonder if other things have fallen off that I just didn't notice.

Crazy weather

The weather is still freakishly warm here. All the flowers are coming up! It is about 50 degrees out today. When I went for my run this morning it was 38 degrees at 7am. The only snowy period we have had was when Jason's mom was visiting. The temperature has rarely been below 32 degrees and when it has it was only about 25 degrees or so. I hear that it has gotten cold in New England so maybe that cold weather will come across the atlantic. At this point I would be happy if it didn't get really cold. I don't want the flowers to all be killed if we get a really cold snap.

Pre-school

Jason and I have decided on a pre-school for Sofia. There are Czech pre-schools here but we have opted for a private English pre-school. While we know that kids pick up languages easily we just aren't prepared to put Sofia into a new situation where not only is everything new but noone speaks English. We figure she will have enough changes to adapt to without adding that. After making that decision we did our research to find all the English language preschools that were easily commutable. That left ten potential preschools. We crossed one off the list immediately since they wanted about $17,000 USD a year for preschool!! The rest were all more or less in the ame ball park for price ~$500-$900 a month. Some of those only offered full day programs. We felt that Sofia wasn't quite ready to start school with 5 full days a week so we crossed those off the list as well. We visited a preschool that was walking distance from our apartment and another that was a bus trip away but only about 25min door to door. The preschool that we could walk to was nice but it felt more like a daycare than a school to me. It also had a long day. It wasn't quite a full day but more like a 3/4 day which I was still unsure about. The school that requires a bus trip was perfect! It is a non-profit christian school which basically means it doesn't cost as much as the other private schools. The school has about 300 kids in it from grades pre-k through 12. The high school kids are in a separate building which is nice. The turn-over rate is very low at this school which is unusual for Prague English preschools. The school requires a 2 year contract from all their teachers and most renew their contract for another 2 years. We have met Sofia's teacher and we know that he will be the same teacher when Sofia starts in the fall. The school is in a nice quite area along the Vltava river with its own play area outside. They have a well thought out curriculum even for preschool. They involve the parents a lot and even have a parent room at the school. If I drop Sofia off and she is having a hard time I can sit with her in the parent room or if I drop Sofia off and I am having a hard time I can hang out in the parent room and then go back and check on Sofia. The teachers in the school are all from the U.S. or U.K. The preschool teacher is from Scotland. So between hearing us, her teacher, the other teachers/administrators in the school, other students from countries all over the world, her friends from playgroup (german, american, french, czech) she will have an interesting accent or maybe no accent at all. Sofia is excited about school but we keep telling her it isn't until September. After living with Graham and Beth Sofia always talks about Alex and Justin going to school and she can't wait to be big like her cousins.

VZP - 1/3 success, 2/3 more work

I have passed the tests for VZP and I am now enrolled in the government health insurance as of March 1st. I went to VZP this morning to pay and complete the paperwork. Payment processing is very interesting here. It seems like someone else is always getting a cut of the money. When we pay our internet bil I have to go to the post office to pay the bill and the post office charges me 20Kc. I go to pay VZP and find out I have to take the money to the bank that VZP uses which is CSOB. The woman from VZP gives me a deposit slip and I go to the bank which is just around the corner from the VZP office. I pay the banker and she informs me that there is a 30Kc charge. I paid it of course with no comment but I couldn't help but laugh inside....they are charging me to deposit money into someone's account! Oh well, at least I have health insurance. The girls on the other hand have to have more tests before they will be approved for VZP. I managed to call the hospital and make the appointment for Ali with minimal difficulty. Making the appointment for Sofia was impossible. When I went back to VZP to pay them I asked the woman there if she would mind calling the hospital and figuring out how I get an appointment. Thank goodness I had her do it. She was on the phone for 10 minutes speaking rapid Czech. It turns out that I have to bring Sofia to a different hospital then the one we had been to since the one we had gone to does not have a pediatric cardiology department. (If I didn't mention it before she has an "innocent" heart murmur which most kids her age have at some point and generally means nothing but I guess they want to make sure it is nothing before they insure her.) At least we are still making progress even if it is stressful and frustrating at times.

Back to Basics

Much of our new life here in Prague has been about getting back to basics. Perhaps it is the antiquity surrounding us that helps us not miss some of the modern conveniences we had become so accustomed to. Or perhaps challenging ourselves and our comforts to take on this challenge has opened our eyes to the core simple pleasures of our life. Whatever the reasons we have happily begun a new stage of our life here without a clothes dryer, microwave oven, television or cars. We hang clothes out to dry, we reheat food on the stove, we read and listen to music much more and we walk or take public transportation everywhere. There's certainly nothing special about any of those things yet it is a large change from the way we lived our life before; a change we have both easily fallen into.

St Nicholas and Mala Strana

We took a day and went to St. Nicholas church in Mala Strana. It is so big and the inside is so beautiful. There are concerts held here from Spring to Fall everyday except Tuesdays. Jason and I are looking forward to going to one of the concerts. Here is a link to more info on St Nicholas church for those interested. http://www.psalterium.cz/en/o_kostele_en.php

After being in awe of the church we took a stroll around Mala Strana. It is a really neat area with old buildings and winding narrow streets. We stopped in a cafe and enjoyed some warmth. I had hot white chocolate which was almost like pudding. Diane had hazelnut hot chocolate and Jason had coffee while the girls had cake. After warming up we found a secluded park down by the river which gave the kids a chance to run around. We were ready to head back home when we saw a bunch of swans and ducks down by the river so we walked down to the river to watch them. A lot of people were feeding them which the kids found interesting.

Jewish Quarter

We went to the Jewish Quarter this week. It was very sobering to go into the Pinkas Synagogue which was turned into a memorial to the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia murdered by the Nazis. The 80,000 names and personal information of the Jewish victims are printed on all the walls. The Jewish Cemetary was amazing. The first tombstone dates to 1439 and the last burial took place in 1787. The cemetary contains 12,000 tombstones but there are many more people buried there. The area is not that big so more dirt was brought in to add further layers. It is assumed that the cemetary contains several burial layers superimposed one on top of the other. Since Ali was being a little rambuctious by the time we got to the old-new synagogue I didn't get a change to go in so I will let Jason post more about that. The Spanish Synagogue was beautiful and done in the Moorish style. It is not an actively used Synagogue so even though Ali was making noise I was able to go in and take a look.

VZP

Today I went back to the hospital to pick up my test results and meet with the doctor. I had assumed that there would be some kind of physical done since I was meeting with the doctor but I was wrong. The only thing the doctor did was fill out the form for VZP with the test results from my blood work. I took the completed paperwork and went down to the pediatrics department to get the paperwork for the kids. After getting all the necessary paperwork I headed to the VZP office in Dejvice. I got to the "insurance for foreigners" office and everything was in Czech which I think is just funny. I walk into a room that has 4 doors all of which are closed. I'm standing in a room by myself wondering what I'm suppose to do. I see that there is a number system above the doors so I look around for a place to get a ticket. I find the ticket machine and there are four options which I can choose from. The only problem was that, of course, they were all written in Czech! I decided, what the heck, and I pressed one of the buttons. My number came up and I went in through the appropriate door. Needless to say I had chosen the wrong option. The women who was sitting at the desk didn't speak English but I showed her my forms and she knew what I needed to do. She walked out to the waiting area and pressed the right button for me. I waited for my number again. My number came up and I went in and gave the woman my completed forms from the hospital along with the enrollment forms they gave us a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the enrollment forms that I completed were changed in the last few weeks so I had to complete new enrollment forms. I got all that done and now have to go back next Thursday to see if we have been approved for insurance. In the meantime I signed up for the emergency insurance. In order to sign up for emergency insurance I had to go back out to the waiting room and get a number again. My number came up and the first woman who helped me was the one I needed to get the emergency insurance. I filled out more forms and paid some money and we are now covered in the event of some emergency for the next month.