Chrissy at the Crossroads

This week is The Fringe Festival in Prague. Theatres throughout Malá Strana play host to 250 performers from around the world who present music, theatre, comedy, dance, improvisation, children’s shows and cabaret. Today the girls and I joined some friends and went to a show called "Chrissy at the Crossroads". The description on the Fringe Festival website says,

"Genre: Children’s Theatre, very visual and with music
Chrissy is noisy and Chrissy is loud, he shouts and sings all day, its „me, me, me” with Chrissy! A meeting at the crossroads might just change all that… Bruvvers capture and stir the imagination of children, here their stories are about trying hard, working things out and being kind to others …look out for the Hare and the tortoise and the Ant and the Grasshopper!"

Well, it was definitely loud. Sofia turned to me and said it is sooo loud. I told her she could cover her ears. I'm not sure what imagination the show stirred in the kids since it the beginning of the show had a number of children crying! I could tell it was making Sofia a little scared so I asked her if she wanted to sit on my lap. Ali was the last child to leave the circle on the stage but she too climbed on my lap to watch the show. Luckily the show got better and less scary for the kids because at the beginning I thought I was going to have to leave. It wasn't necessarily that the content of the show was scary but it was loud and the actors didn't appear to have any idea how to work with children. Children aren't big fans of booming male voices especially when that voice is directed at them. Oh well, it was an experience. I got to meet some other moms I hadn't met before which is always nice. We also went to the Wallenstein Gardens on the way to and from the show. The gardens are beautiful. I will have to go back to take pictures since I didn't have my camera but the kids loved it too. There is a big water fountain/pond area with fish that the kids could feed. It was amazing watching the fish grab the bread off the surface. The garden is also home to some big owls and some peacocks. There were 2 baby peacocks that were so cute and they still have there fluffy soft feathers. There was one giant male peacock with all his feathers up. he was neat to watch especially when a pidgeon came to close to him...he shook all his feathers which makes a rattleing sounds. I have never seen anything like it.

Clothes shopping

I have been looking for summer clothes over the last few weeks. Again I found myself at a loss at finding clothes. It seems all the styles are for tall women. The shirts are all long and many are gathered at the chest and then flow out from there. This style is fine if you are 5"10" but for me at 5"1" it is a problem. At least I would get a chuckle while trying clothes on since they all made me look pregnant. I wanted to find skirts so that I would be cool during the hot summer but the skirts were either too long or were miniskirts. When I say mini I mean they are like belts! I know I sound like an old lady but I don't know how the tall women here wear these skirts. I felt like I couldn't bend over without showing everything! Anyway, today I went into the shop next to our apartment and found two outfits. I'm not sure when I will learn my lesson, that I can find everything I need in Dejvice, but I'm happy that I found some clothes. I also bought a pair of shoes that I have been eyeing in the same shop for a while. Now I can stop shopping for a little while, at least for the next month! :)

Row, Row, Row your boat

Today we met up with friends and went into town for some ice cream and to rent boats. We all enjoyed our ice cream and then let the kids play at the playground for a bit. After that we walked over to the river and rented rowboats. Sofia had a little meltdown when she had to put on a lifejacket but we got her over that. Once we were in the boat she had a good time. We rowed (well Jason rowed and the girls and I sat.) around one of the islands in the river. It was a beautiful day and from the river we could look up and see the National Theater, Charles Bridge and Prague Castle. It was really great. The river was quite busy with paddle boats and other rowboats that I had to help jason navigate since his facing away from the front of the boat. We narrowly avoided a collision with another rowboat but our friends had a minor collission with a rowboat and ran over someone's fishing lines. Oh well, it was funny! We finished off the afternoon at a restaurant on one of the islands in the river. They had a kids area set up outside so the kids ran around and played while we had some drinks. All in all it was a great day!

Podoli Pool

This morning we headed over to the Podoli pool. It is a much bigger complex than the pool in Brevnov. There are pros and cons to this. It is big so there is a variety of things for the kids to do. There is a big kiddie pool with a slide and then attached to the big shallow kiddie pool is a slightly older kiddie pool which is deeper and a little colder. There is also a separate pool that has paddle boats for the little kids. The downside for me is that I don't get to just sit on the edge of a pool and have conversation with my friends. We had fun today though. I didn't get to talk much with the other adults but I did get to play more in the water. The girls had a fantastic time. They really love to be in the water. I'm glad that we have these two pools to go to since I was worried about the girls not being in water often enough since we are landlocked here. Another interesting tidbit about the pools is that there is an amazing amount of nudity. I was surprised by this. Young kids seem to go naked in pools...no swim diaper, no bathing suit..nothing! I would prefer swim diapers on the little ones just so that they don't pee in the pool but I am surprised by the number of 5-7 year olds who have nothing on. I would be afraid my kids would get sunburned somewhere. I guess my fear stems from growing up in the extremely saftey conscience culture of the U.S. but I don't want my child naked to protect from sunburn. In addition to the naked children there are often a number of women who are topless. I don't care of they are naked but it was just surprising to me. I am not sure that Sofia has noticed yet since she hasn't said anything to me. It will be interesting when she finally notices since she told me to wear my takini vs by bikini to protect my belly from the sun.

The BIG shop

I have been going to Tesco and having my groceries delivered so that I could buy a lot of the heavy stuff and not have to walk home with it. Today, however, my friend Shanna took me grocery shopping with her. Our babysitter was available to watch the girls so I jumped at the opportunity to get in a car and go to a grocery store. (I know, sad that this is exciting for me!) We did our shopping and then I came home. I realized then the huge benefit of home delivery...carrying everything up the stairs! It is still better b/c now I am done with shopping and I can do whatever I want in the afternoon whereas with delivery I have to be home all afternoon waiting for them. I don't have to work out today though. I was sweating like a pig carrying everything up the stairs. Keep in mind we live on the 3rd floor (the 4th floor in the US). The apartments in our building have 11 foot ceilings so being on the 3rd floor is quite a trek especially with groceries. Since I was stocking up on all my heavy items I had 36 liters of milk, 5 liters of juice, 16 liters of water plus all my other groceries. Needless to say I was exhausted after getting everything upstairs. It is nice to have a fully stocked kitchen again though.

IPod scare..

This morning I couldn't find my Ipod. I thought it had been either lost or stolen while we were in the park. I was all in a tizzy this morning and upset with myself for being so irresponsible. I went to take the girls for a walk and it dawned on me where I put it. I was being so responsible I hid it in a pocket of the stroller so that someone just walking by couldn't steal it without sitting there for a while. I guess I wasn't irresponsible just forgetful. I feel much better now!

Off to the Pool

The day was beautiful today and the temperature was in the low 80's (27 celsius). It was the perfect day for heading to a pool. There is a pool very close to our apartment. (hehehe..I feel like I say that about everything and that I should stop saying it and everyone could just assume it was close to us!) It would probably take me 20 min if I take public transit but today I went with my friend Shanna and her kids. Shanna has a car so I just put our car seats in her car and off we went. It took less than 10 minutes to get to the pool and we missed the turn on the first drive past. There is a big pool, a kiddie pool, a huge waterslide and playground equipment at the complex. It was great. Sofia and Ali love being in water. Ali was splashing for a while then she found two cups so she just kept pouring water from one cup to the other. I had to coax her out of the water since her teeth were chattering and she didn't want to come out. Since my friend's daughter, Lucy, came out of the water though Ali decided it must be ok to get out so she came out for a little bit. Sofia loved "swimming" in Lucy's swimmy tube and jumping from the side of the pool into the water. (It is a kiddie pool so the jump wasn't very big and the water was only up to her knees.) It is funny how kids can just do the same thing over and over and everytime they tell you to watch. She was so proud of her jumping! After the pool we went back to our friends house and had dinner there. I feel like we are constantly eating at Phil and Shanna's house but we have fun and the kids like eating with their friends. If it is warm tomorrow we will head back to the pool and if Friday is nice we are going to make a trip to the pool in Podoli. (Podoli is another area of Prague.) Podoli is closer to where Shanna and Phil used to live and where Shanna took the kids to the pool last summer. It will be nice to see a different pool and then we can decide where we are going to spend our summer!

Running update

I had been trying to increase my running time since I am currently running about a 9 1/2 min mile. I am happy with that pace since I have only been running for 5 months and since i have been keeping track of my per min mile I have gone from a 12 1/2 min mile to a 9 1/2 min mile. I realized on Saturday morning that I think I want to focus more on distance now than running faster. I went for a 10K run on Saturday and it felt great. I could have gone further but I didn't want to get too far away and then run out of steam before I got back. Once I was back I realized I could have gone further. Oh well, there will be plenty of other days to run further. My friend Emily and I are going to run the 1/2 marathon next year so I have something to build up to.

Dinner with friends

We went to a new park on Saturday with our friends. The park is a quick tram ride from our apartment but we had just never been up to it before. It is actually a rollerblading park. There is a place that you can rent rollerblades and then it has nice smooth walkways to rollerblade on. There is also a kids playground. We went and sat at the playground. Jason and Radek grabbed a beer and we all just hung out while the kids played. It was a beautiful day so it was nice to be sitting in the sun. After the kids played for a while we went to the restaurant in the park. They would not let us put two tables together so we went some where else for dinner. I'm glad we ended up going somewhere else for dinner. The restaurant we went to is close to Radek's office and he apparently eats there regularly so we knew it was going to be good. I had a baked salmon dish which I had been craving and it was delicious. Jason and I had seafood the night before at an expensive restaurant and it wasn't nearly as good as the salmon at the small czech restaurant and it didn't cost half has much! We hopped on the tram and came home. It was a great afternoon and night out. One of the things that I love about being here is that it is fairly cheap to eat out so it is easy to do it with friends on a regular basis.

Drying Clothing - Other issues

I have finally mastered the art of hanging clothes out to dry. I rarely get stuck with my clothes on the line when it rains. Having the pegasus tower rack helps since if I think it is going to rain I can easily hang everything on the rack and keep it inside. I learned last night however, I have not mastered the laundry. I was taking the clothes in from the line and what do I see?? Bird poop on Jason's jeans!! I suppose there is nothing to do about that but hope that the odds are in my favor that it won't happen often. It is amazing to me how many issues there are with drying clothes when you can't just stick them in a nice big american clothes dryer! I have a much greater appreciation for clothes dryers now. :)

Fun with our friends

Our friends recently moved to our side of town and it has been great. Our kids play so well together and always have a good time with each other. When we aren't with them I often here Ali saying, "Lucy, Clark" as she sits in her seat or walks around the house. It is so nice because now we can just walk over to their house. They are in an apartment in a villa. A villa is basically a house but here they are called villas. In any event, they have the first floor and the basement of the house. Their kitchen/dining area opens up onto a yard (called a garden here). It is nice to be able to walk out a door and into a yard where the kids can play. Whether it is playing inside or out the kids always seem to have fun. That makes it nice for the adults since we can hangout and chat while the kids play. We (the girls and I) had dinner over there last night and then after dinner the kids dressed up and put on a show. It was fun to see them dancing around. Sofia was a little quiet at first and didn't dance much but once the cameras were put away she joined in the fun. I haven't uploaded the pics to smugmug yet but will do so soon so you can see how much fun the kids had dancing around. This picture shows Lucy, Ali, and Annalee putting on a "show". I put a link to our friends blog on the side of this page if you want to see what they are up to.

Restaurant or Zoo??

Today the girls and I went in to town to do some shopping and we met up with Jason for lunch. People always comment on how beautiful the girls are so I am use to that. Today at the restaurant it went beyond what I am use to. The waitstaff all kept coming over to look at them because they are so pretty. I left like we were animals in a zoo with people coming around to look at us. One waitress did stop to let us no that she had children too. I guess this was her way of telling us that they weren't just weird people but it was still very odd.

We ran the 8K

Jason and I ran an 8K yesterday. For me it was both a mental and physical challenge. We got there early and got in line so we were near the front of the pack. I wanted to be near the front so that we wouldn't have to deal with a lot of jockeying for position. This worked out well and we both got out of the main pack pretty quickly. Once this challenge was through, my mental challenge started. I started getting really bummed out because a lot of people were passing me. Jason and I had bought new watches on Friday so I knew my pace was fast (for me) since my first 2 miles were at 8 min each but I was still feeling down. It took me almost half the run to get over that and start enjoying the run for me. It also took me that long to find a good stride. The rest of the run was good. There is one point in the runwhere half the road is for going out and half the road is for coming back. It was a boring section of the run but I didn't mind b/c I just kept looking for Jason since by then he was way ahead of me and I knew he would be coming back while I was still running out. Once I saw Jason there wasn't that much further for me to go to get to the turn around point. Once I made the turn around I was more pumped since I could see how many people were behind me. This gave me the little extra push to pick up my pace a little. Jason made the run in 38min 59 seconds and I did it in 46min 25 seconds. I realized at the end that I probably could have been going faster for more of the run since I picked up the pace for the last mile and then flew through the last quarter mile. I'm very happy with my first race. Now I will know what to expect whenever I do another race. We had a really good time. We ended up walking home rather than taking the metro since it was such a beautiful day and we both needed some cool down time. We were both exhausted after the run. I was surprised at how tired I was since I have been running that distance in the mornings without feeling that tired. I guess adding the mental component and going a little bit faster just exhausted me. Today we are going to watch part of the marathon. It will be fun to watch part of the marathon today and know that we aren't running it! I am going to be working at the water station at the 5th and 35th kilometer point from 1pm-2pm today but other than that I think Jason, the kids and I will just be enjoying the beautiful day today.

Celebrity life

Apparently Angelina Jolie is shooting a movie in Prague. She and Brad have rented a house to use while she is shooting the movie. Their house is not far away from our apartment. We walked by it on the way home from playgroup yesterday and I ran by it this morning on my run. Having never seen celebrity life in any way I am a little stunned. I would never want to have that life. The house they have rented has bamboo around the fence so as to block all view of the yard. All the blinds are closed on every window. That is the only way they can have any privacy. I have never seen paparazzi until now. There are probably about 30 guys standing around outside with their cameras. There is a security guard on every street surrounding the block that the house is on so as to stop any of the paparazzi that attempts to climb trees to see into the backyard. It is amazing to me! It is like they are animals in a cage. I would never want that life. It actually makes me feel sad for them that they have to live that way.

Graham's visit

Graham came to visit on Friday. It was a short visit between his business trips in Munich and Italy but it was great to see him. Jason and I decided to meet him at the airport. There is a bus that runs to the airport from the end of our road but we just missed it and we didn't want to wait for the next one so we hopped in a cab. Jason and I discussed briefly what to say to the cab driver - letiste or Ruzyne. Letiste means airport and the name of the Prague airport is Ruzyne. Jason decided on Ruzyne since we didn't want to end up at some other airport (although we don't know of any others that are close by). As we started to go we wondered why the driver was going in the direction he was but we just figured he knew a faster route. I said to Jason at one point "is there a town called Ruzyne" because we seemed to be going farther and farther away from the airport. Eventually the driver stopped and said "the metro?" and I knew we were not where we wanted to be. I said, " ne, letiste". After a few more times saying that he realized the mistake..we were in luziny! The problem with knowing some czech is that you sometimes don't always pronoucing everything right. This time, I guess, Jason didn't roll his "R" enough and the driver heard it as an "L". We got a good laugh about it and the driver was good about it. We got to the airport in plenty of time to meet Graham's flight. We met Graham and headed back to the apartment to drop off his things and then went into Old Town to see if we could get dinner. Of course the place we wanted to go to was no longer serving dinner so we had a drink and headed back out to Dejvice (our neighborhood) for dinner. We knew there was a pub that would be open late so that is where we went. On Saturday Jason and Graham went for a run so Graham was able to see Stromovka and Letna parks. Once they were back home and got cleaned up we headed up to the castle. It was amazing how many people were at the castle. It is just such a contrast from the winter when noone is there. We did a whirlwind tour of the castle and then headed down to Mala Strana for lunch. After lunch we walked over the Charles Bridge and then back to the apartment so Graham could pack his things and head to the airport. It was fun having him here and the girls loved seeing Uncle Graham.

Ladies in the park

Almost every day the girls and I bring Watson over to a little square around the corner from our apartment so that he can go potty. In the winter there was never anyone there. With the nice weather the square is usually full of people. There are two groups of older ladies who are at the park everyday. They start off as a group of 4 and a group of 2. They start off apart, sitting on different benches, and then at some point they move together. The ladies are very nice and they love the girls and Watson. It is a great way for me to practice Czech since they always talk to me in Czech. As I walked into the square esterday I heard the ladies talking to each other saying how pretty the girls are and how beautiful they are. I said thankyou in Czech. There was a fairly new lady who joined the group recently. She didn't realize that I only speak a little Czech so she just started to speak ot me in Czech very rapidly. I started to say to her that I only speak a little Czech but didn't have to finish since one of the other ladies turned to her and said "Americanka" while nudging her arm. They all then continued to speak to me but they very kindly said things slowly and repeated things for me until I figured them out and gave them basic answers. When I was there last weekend without the girls they asked me where the girls were and I told them "home, husband" since I didn't know how to say "They are at home with my husband" quickly enough. They thought it was very funny that I left the kids with my husband. It is great to speak with them though b/c I learn new things. Now next time I am there without the kids and they ask I can fully answer them. I love being able to talk to the ladies in the square. I can't imagine living here and thinking that I would never be able to communicate with these nice ladies. Seeing their enjoyment with the girls and the dog always brings a smile to my face.

African Concert

This last week someone at work sent around an email about the African Ball in Prague which is really a big music festival designed to raise money for African charities. I hadn't thought much of it until a few people on my team mentioned what a good time it was last year and when I realized it was on Friday, our baby-sitter night, it seemed like a great change of pace from dinner alone so I bought tickets for Mary and I. The concert was held in the ballroom at Lucerna which is three stories of tables overlooking a large ballroom floor and stage, all under ground (you enter at the top floor). We met a few of the guys, and one of their girlfriends, at the concert, sat down, got some wine and beer and enjoyed the music.

The mix of musical styles was interesting and we had a really very good time. There was one group that was very entertaining and played a lot of very upbeat music with trumpet, bongos, guitar, etc. that really got the crowd excited. Unfortunately we couldn't stay too late because of our baby-sitter and the concert went until well after midnight so I guess we missed a few really good acts but it was a lot of fun to do something different and we had a great time.

Running through the castle

I have wanted to run through the castle for a while but I wasn't sure if Watson would be allowed in or not so I hadn't tried. I know I could have tried but if I got to the castle and learned that I couldn't take him through then I would have to either go back the way I came (which I hate backtracking) or go down into Mala Strana and back up the really long, steep hill up to Letna. I just haven't been in the mood for the steep hill so I haven't chanced going into the castle. Well, yesterday Jason ran with Watson and then I got to run all by myself. I took the opportunity to run through the castle. It is just so cool to be able to run in through the front gates of the castle and out the side gate. Now I don't actually run inside the building but it is still neat to be able to run through two courtyards. I waved to the guards at the catle gates as I entered and as I left. I try to give them some amusement as they stoically stand there. Never in my life have I ever thought I would be running nevermind running through castles!

Day of the Witches

Yesterday was the Day of the Witches in the Czech Republic. It is a day to celebrate the coming of spring, the greening of the land, the purging of evil forces and the youthful quickening of spring love. Of course we would have had no idea if it wasn't for our friends. Kirsty and Radek invited us to go out to Roztoky with them to go to a village celebration. Since we don't have a car we took the bus out to the village and met Kirsty, Radek and Kiera in the village. Of course we could have gone the Czech way - no car seats- but I'm not willing to do that. The bus ride only take about 20 minutes so it is an easy trip. It runs up along the river so it is a pretty drive. To get up into Roztoky the bus turns away from the river and winds pretty steeply uphill. On the way into the village we came across another field of Rape flower like we had seen on our trip to Munich. It is amazing to me that there can be this farm land 10 mins from our apartment. This field is of rapeseed flower. The rapeseed is used to make canola oil.

When we got off the bus we weren't sure where to go so I called Kirsty and Radek told us to walk in the direction of the sun. He was right. We quickly saw the playground and balloons. We headed up to the area and waited for our friends. As we were standing there I couldn't believe how much the celebration just looked like a family gathering. It could have been a family reunion. I guess that is part of the beauty of village life. Once our friends arrived we went in to see what was happening. The kids really enjoyed watching other kids make bubbles. Kiera and Radek gave it a try while Sofia and Ali tried to catch the bubbles. The kids also enjoyed going down a slide and using chalk to draw on the ground. It was all very basic and not like a carnival you would see in the US. Again, it just makes me realize that the basics are just as much fun and they don't cost and arm and a leg. The pinnacle of the night was the bonfire. The bonfire had a witch on a stick over the bonfire. Sofia was a little concerned that they were going to be burning a witch but after we told her it was pretend she seemed ok with it. By the time they lit the bonfire it had turned quite chilly and Sofia enjoyed the heat of the fire. We asked the girls what their favorite part of the evening was and Sofia likes the witches the best (there were people dressed up like witches) and Ali liked the fire the best.