Prague wine harvesting festival

It was a beautiful day last Sunday. It would have been a waste to stay home, so we decided to participate in the Prague wine harvesting festival. Our participation consisted of only our young fermenting wine tasting . It is called "burcak" in Czech and the tasting and drinking of it has been part of Czech fall since I can remember. Basically, burcak is very young grape juice that is just starting fermenting. It is high in sugar and low in alcohol, but throughout fermentation the ratio between them is changing in favor of alcohol and wine is being born. I'm no expert at wine, but I know a little about flavor, color and taste. The most productive part of the Czech Republic for wine growing is the southeast part of Moravia. Although we do have some vineyards in the other part of the Czech Republic called Bohemia and there are a few vineyards even in Prague, the location of Moravia with its plentiful sunshine, fertile soil and the right amount of rain gives grapes an excellent color, flavor and taste that give the wine the best quality that can be compared to quality of French and Italian wine . The only disadvantage of Moravian and Bohemian wines is that they are not as known as the French and Italian wines. It is very hard and I would say almost impossible to get a bottle of wine from the Czech Republic in the States, but if you have a chance to get it taste at least, and please, don't hesitate! The wine was among a few things I missed in the U.S.

I start today's pictures with a photo of St. Vitus Cathedral taken from the main street in our neighborhood near our apartment. St. Vitus Cathedral is the view point of the whole Prague Castle premises.

The next one was taken from a street leading to Prague Castle.

The last one of St. Vitus Cathedral was taken from the Prague Castle premises near the Royal Garden where the festival took place.

The welcome board in front of the Royal Garden gate states: "The third annual Prague Castle wine harvesting during the weekend of 4 - 5 October 2008 from 11am to 5pm at the Royal Garden.

There is no need for a comment about the next picture, but for those who may not know. Two nice young men are actually and finally tasting burcak.

More united colors of Fall

I took a walk yesterday to clean up the mess in my head. Since I still don't have a job and it is unexpectedly hard to get one for me, the situation got me yesterday. Jesse is doing a heck of a good job with his translations so there are no worries about being short of money and I do have some savings for bad times, but after all the years without my own income, it is tough not to have one here. It is also truth that I have low self confidence and I have no idea what I would like to be doing here. I made a plan for my life in the States, even though I had never done planning before, because I hadn't wanted to jinx anything in my life whatsoever. I'm not saying that every part of my plan would have worked out, but it would have certainly deserved to get a try. Frankly, I have never told Jesse about this plan and this is going to be first time for him either to read about it. Because he and his family did so much for me, I wanted to give them something back. By finishing my college and getting my associate degree I wanted to get a good job in the cooking industry or even to open my own small business. Sound daring? Yes, it does, but I was told by all my chefs that I was excellently skilled and that I had very high chance to get really good job since I was that good. I got all A's in my first semester and I wanted to be this way throughout all of them. I even wanted to get the Dean's reward for the best students to show all that I was good and that people had to count me in. You all who know me can be sure I would have worked very hard to achieve this. With this in my mind and with my diploma in my pocket I would have worked hard so that Jesse could have taken a break in his job and gotten a rest since I knew he was under stress all the time and didn't much like the job. He would have deserved it for sure. I actually looked forward to that and to making all members of our American family happy and proud of me and of us. They would have deserved that, too. Sadly, these plans and dreams are gone now. Because of that and not having a job yet, I felt down yesterday and that's why I took the walk during which I also took more pictures of our neighborhood and of the colors of fall.

Picture from a park located above our apartment building.

Close up.

The next one is the view from top of the hill over our building roof. Well, it cannot be seen, because it is hidden in trees. I was surprised my self that I could see some mountain there. Wow!


This is the view from the other side of the hill where our current apartment is located and yes, it is still Prague.

It's fall already

I know it's October already and the weather is the way it is supposed to be, at least in Czechia, but I don't like it. When I was in the U.S. I didn't miss cold mornings, rainy and windy days in September. Sure, they will come in any places where the weather changes, and there are countries with really bad weather , such as Ireland and Great Britain, however these cold days come to the Czech Republic pretty early for my taste. You guys in the New York metropolitan area and even Grandmom in Ohio are having such nice days. Well, it may be foggy, but at least it is not cold. Since I have my weather Internet tool on my screen, I can check the temperatures every day. Therefore I know that the temperatures there are above 60 F during nights and around 70 F during days, but on the other hand, the temperatures here have been around 40 F at night and 50 F during days since the second week of September. What a cold!!! We have already had to turn our heater on. Yes, we had two days of Indian summer last weekend, but that was it. It is very windy, gloomy with a few showers, and the temperature is supposed to drop below the freezing point on Sunday. Brr!!! This weather is in contrast to last year's fall weather in Bayonne and New York. I remember wearing my shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops until the middle of October. Well, I cannot change the weather. Nonetheless I can have my warm memories of better days.
Leaves have already turned yellow in our backyard as you can see on pictures below. That is a view from our bedroom window.

Chrudim

I'm bringing you today a few pictures of my hometown Chrudim. They may be a little blurry and I apologize for that, but I still think it is worth showing them.

Where is my home?

When I wrote my last post, I didn't imagine, not even in my wildest dreams, that I would not be able to return back. I planned my visit for 3 weeks only or so. Yet, my stay has taken an unfortunate turn. Because a jerk at the U.S. Embassy decided not to renew my student visa only after a five minute conversation and for him doing so I was practically banned to go back, I had to stay in the Czech Republic. Unprepared. I left almost everything in the States. I came here with two suitcases full of Christmas gifts and only with a few personal belongings. Jesse was there at home in Bayonne. Yes, I call it our home. You know, I usually have a hard time to get accustomed to a new place to live, but this time I just got used to the apartment in Bayonne and to the town itself so fast. I also felt I found the calling of my life in studying a culinary arts major at Hudson County Community College. It is true that I had to be pushed to do so by Jesse, other members of our American family, and I should not forget to mention also my friend and former teacher at Bell School Jonathan. He really believed in me like the others, but the thing is he was a bit of a stranger since he was only my teacher at first and not a member of my family. I miss him so much, and it is a pity that we kind of lost touch, although I sent him an email a few days ago. Let's see, maybe everything is not lost forever. How the situation was absurd can be seen in that that I even had dough for my pies ready in a fridge. We were supposed to celebrate Christmas when I would get back.
Even though it 's already been 9 months, I still live in cultural shock the same way I lived in it when I moved to the U.S.A. Living in the States for 4 years left deep marks on my habits, my thinking and on my soul. There is no doubt about it and if anyone says otherwise then he or she is plainly wrong. Now I understand Jesse when he talked about being uprooted from his culture and at the same time not belonging to the Czech one. I feel the same way now. The sad thing is that this experience should have helped us to better understand each other and brought us closer, but it is not so. We are still far apart away on this issue, however our points of view have changed. Jesse is closer to Czech culture than I am now. He always says I complain a lot about life in Czechia and don't appreciate my country. Well, the truth is somewhere in the middle. I like my country in the way a citizen can like his country. Nonetheless it looks to me along with the European Union very Socialist and I definitely don't like that. What I really appreciate is liberalism here which is not in the U.S. under the rule of neo-conservatives in the White House. That is my general impression. Let's take a look at something practical. You can call me a materialist, but when I compare technology, services and meeting basic needs of people, the U.S. comes up as a winner. I know that for many folks here 'the bigger, the better' saying sounds funny, but I have to say it is true. Everything seems to be small. For example, we used to have a very nice wide and large stove range. The ones here look like they are taken from doll houses. The roads here are narrower, and I don't mention highways that are clogged by traffic, because they are not fitted for traffic nowadays since they were built, the oldest ones, in the 70's. There is no such thing as Netflix, people here don't know a rice cooker and you cannot use your credit card whenever you want or where it makes sense. My point is that when you take these small ordinary things for granted, it is hard not to compare them and also to get used to something else and accept that just because it is smaller, it doesn't mean it is worse. However it is only human nature to make a comparison. I am also aware of the fact that it was not always like that. I remember well our beginnings in the States. They were quite tough, but we overcame them. I always ask myself if my feelings toward the U.S. would have been the same if I had left while we were living in Jersey City, because I don't have as nice memories from it as I do from Bayonne. What if it had been a different season and not around Christmas which I love very much. Would it have been different? I don't have the answer. It may have been.
I know that I will get used to living here. Sooner or later. Nevertheless, it doesn't mean I will stop missing New York, college, Bayonne, the Hudson River, the Atlantic ocean, Hoboken with its beautiful waterfront promenades and our trips to Ohio, just to mention a few. It doesn't mean I will stop considering the U.S.A. as my second home and it certainly doesn't mean I will stop trying to come back. Like it or not.

Remember the time

Coming soon...

My new post is coming soon from Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. This time I would like to dedicate the blog to our family in the United States of America and because of that I intend to write in English. Before I do that, please accept my apology for my bad English, because I haven't been using it on a daily basis since my harsh return to Czechia. I used to be quite confident in proper English, but I'm not anymore.