czech republic part 3: brno

While we were in Trebic, we took a day trip to Brno, where my mom worked and went to university. Here is the church where my parents were married. The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul located on Petrov Hill; a Gothic church rebuilt in the Baroque style during the 18th century, later partially reconstructed in the Neo-Gothic style, it has two characteristic towers (81 m high) since 1905; cathedral since 1777. You definitely get a sense of awe and a healthy dose of humiliy from the architecture and history of European cathedrals.

Here's a little information fact sheet on the university my mom went to, probably too small to read, but maybe you can zoom in (?) The Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry. She left the country in 1968 just short of finishing her Master's degree, but (bless her!) never looked back. My mom likes to live life in a "no regrets" way that I would love to emulate.

Here's a map of the place:

One of my cousins, Ivo, works at the university, but unfortunately we missed him because when we visited, he was vacationing in Mexico, we'll have to catch him next time!

I liked Brno and the stories my mom told...like about how she and her friend would receive 5 or 10 minutes notice from another friend to get ready to go see an opera because cheap tickets were only available at the very last minute...and also about the places my mom lived near the university, and the people she knew...she visited her old lab and talked with a former student's daughter who works there now. I loved the added insights into my mom's pre-Canadian life. As a mom myself now, I can appreciate that she had a life before my brothers and I came along!

czech republic part 2: trebic

First stop after Prague was to Trebic to visit my mom's oldest brother Joseph. Like my grandfather, he was a doctor and is retired now. He liked to hunt, collected knives and swords and had an impressive collection of antlers on his wall.

We had fun taking these!

See the sword on the right of this picture? He also showed us his pistols! Since that's one major difference between Canada and the USA, we were rather impressed and wondered what in the world he had them for.

There they are, brother and sister. It was funny to be able to relate to my mom not only as mother-daughter but mutually understand our lot in life as youngest children and only girls in our families of origin. I forgot we had this in common!

My uncle Joseph has four sons, only one of which had I met before. This is Pavel (Paul), he now works as an oncologist in London, England and is a member of the prestigious Royal Council of Physicians. He came to Canada when I was still in grade school (I forget how old I was), I just remember being a walking Engish dictionary for him, so I think it is safe to say I had something to do with his success in mastering English!

We went for a walk to the Jewish Quarter.

And so did these ducks.

My uncle took us on a tour of the Basilica (12th century) in Trebic. The basilica is a jewel of European medieval architecture. Its design represents a transition between the Romanesque style and the Gothic style. At some points in its history it was used as a market, beer cellar...even a stable to keep horses, until it was finally restored.

Here we are walking out with the guides, one of whom was just learning how to be a guide. She was from Mongolia and her Czech was great!

czech republic part 1: chilly prague spring

Well, for those of you who don't know, I got the chance to go to the Czech Republic for two weeks with my mom. I like to think of it as a 30th birthday present from my parents and Scott. I had never been to Europe, nor had I met many of my relatives before, so this was really special for me.

Here I am with my mom and Lukas (my mom's cousin's son...does that make him my second cousin?, I get confused with all those terms...). He graciously let us stay in his apartment whenever we were in Prague, which we returned to a few times between train rides to other relatives' houses.

Here I am with Jiri and Zorka (my mom's cousin). They helped us out start to finish, driving us around Prague, to and from the airport and even lending us their mobile phone for the duration of our trip.

We also needed them to hold our hands on the way to catch the subway, the escalator is fast and steep! On our first day, they showed us around some of the historical sites in Prague, a beautiful city even in gray, cold March when we were there.

Here's the Astronomical Clock (1891) located in the Old Town. My mom said that after the clock-maker finished building this, the powers that were took out his eyes so he could never build another one like it. Brutal!

My first Czech meal (potato pancake, roll and a sausage) almost 100% Czech except I opted for green tea instead of beer. Horrors! (I know dad...).

My parents have one of these types of carvings at their house, so I took a picture. I found myself distinguishing between what in my family life experience was distinctly "Czech" and what was just "us." I even made a list in my journal of random things that made the not just "us" list such as: changing into comfortable clothes (teplaki) when you get home from being out; picking mushrooms: blowing your nose as hard as you can and not just politely wiping it; Jesus, not Santa coming to give you gifts at Christmas...It's not strange or weird! It's just Czech!

Jiri works in restoring old artwork in historical Prague, so he knows a lot about the different types of artwork associated with each era. We had our own personal tour-guide, complete with an excellent sense of humour!

This is the ceiling in the St. Nicolas cathedral at Malostranske Namesti (1703). This is the largest of Prague's churches founded by the Jesuits. Particularly impressive is the dome fresco from Franz Palko, showing The Celebration of the Holy Trinity, filling the 70m high dome.

A view after crossing Charles Bridge.

A menacing statue against the blue sky...don't be fooled though, it was cold! I had to borrow a toque and gloves from Lukas.

This is Karlstein Castle (1348) which is about 30 km southwest of Prague. Jiri and Zorka drove us out to do some sightseeing. It became the place for safekeeping of the Czech coronation jewels, which were kept here, with the exception of several short-time breaks, for nearly 200 years.

Near Karlstein was the cemetary where my mom's uncle (Zorka's father) was buried. I had never been to a relative's grave before, it was a meaningful experience, these flowers were at the gravesite, so we picked a few and put them on his gravestone.

Also nearby is the house that my mom and Zorka inherited from their grandmother. She saw fit to give it to her only granddaughters as an inheritance, I thought this was rather amazing and forward-thinking for the time in which she lived. My mom often talks with fondness about this grandmother, she displayed a lot of wisdom in her life and had a joyful disposition, often able to smooth out the differences between people.

Zorka and my mom have long since sold this house. If I remember correctly it is near the birthplace of Martina Navratilova (the famous Czech tennis player).

big snowman and big news!

We got more snow! It only lasted a day so we had to take the opportunity to make a snowman, as (this time) the snow was actually sticky enough to roll and build a snowman. While Scott and I worked on the snowman (Scott made the bottom and middle, I just made the head), the kids fended for themselves at the little playground.

We couldn't and didn't let Eli wreck the snowman we were building so he had to satisfy that need by kicking the snow off some shrubs instead.

Here's Eli on the teeter-totter.

And Dana (the more cautious one) assessing the danger on the slide...

She did go down after all.

Voila! Our finished work--the best-looking (well most typical anyway) snowman I have ever made, not to mention the tallest (~six feet tall!). Scott and I had to both lift the middle section together to get it on its bottom section.

And Scott, the one who did the lion's share of the work:

The one on the left just received a full three-year scholarship to do a Master's degree in Modern Chinese Literature! We are really excited at this opportunity! Without the scholarship, we could not, would not consider doing this, but all is paid for! He even has an office on campus that he uses as his study space. Scott has been reading as much as he can as fast as he can as a result(yes, in Mandarin!), he has really jumped in with both feet!

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Since Scott has a study space on campus, we have decided to move to a slightly smaller place closer to Eli's school. Eli and Dana share a room now (since Thailand) and so a 2 bedroom is all we really need. It didn't take long to find a suitable one and now we are poised to move on May 1st.

thailand part 2: early morning impressions

For the last few days of our holiday, I got in the habit of getting up and out of the house bright and early. These pictures were taken on the last day of our time in Thailand. Here's a shot of a monk walking along the beach. I didn't want to be too obvious and so in my haste, the shot was blurred. I imagine his life a lonely one, I wonder what his life is really like...

I sat down on sun-bed that I didn't have to rent because it was still so early and just read a bit and took in the sunrise. I don't want to miss another sunrise when I am in such a picturesque place again. I am definitely more of a sunrise person rather than a sunset, as it's the beginning of a day and there's still hope and ideas for what might happen.

Oh that delicious feeling of toes in fine, wet sand! I took this picture because I never want to forget what that feels like. There is so much pleasure in the little things sometimes.

And now, here comes the sun...

--And here's the dog that took in this scene with me, I was pleased to get his profile just so. It was a great way to start the day and a memorable way to end our vacation.

thailand part 1: great family times

Okay, so one of the first things we had to do in Thailand was go to Swensens for ice cream. Eli had been talking for some time about "strawberry ice-cream with a cherry on top" and that's just what he got, with a cone thrown in, which he ate first.

Of course we had to get the exact same thing for Dana...

Scott got some kind of chocolate-y kind with pour-it-yourself fudge on the side.

Besides eating, we went and played either at the beach or the pool most days. This is a poolside picture in which the kids are playing in the showers...turning them all on and running through them like sprinklers, filling up cups and watering the plants nearby. (Eli also did a different sort of "watering" of the plants which I more than once pretended not to see...)

Eli and Dana in their "dragonboat" in the pool. Eli's sunglasses fit me too, I was originally going to buy them for myself, but they became Eli's when he tried them on. He wears them right side up most of the time.

We went out one afternoon to get pictures for the kids' visas as they had expired, so they had naps in the stroller as we went along afterwards.

Eli used some of his own money (given to him for Chinese New Year) to buy a toy "tuk tuk" which he fell asleep clutching in his lap.

Some of Eli and Dana's favourite foods at the restaurant where we were staying was spaghetti and meatballs. It got so we just stripped them down and didn't bother with shirts or bibs...you can see why...

And if one dropped a meatball, so did the other...we had a good conversation about the song "On Top of Spaghetti..."after this happened...

One of the fun things that Scott got to do for three afternoons was rent a scooter and go exploring. He almost made it to Burma one afternoon, and he came back later than expected. I was so relieved when I saw him, I was reallly already imagining him bleeding in a ditch all alone somewhere...the things husbands put their wives through! The helmet was too small for Scott, but at least he had one that at least looked more durable than a coconut.

Ahhhh...the best part. The ocean, and the beach where we played in the sand, and jumped into the water on an alternating basis. I would hold Dana in my arms and wade in and she would point to the middle of the ocean and say "DIS WAY!" she just wanted to stay in the water and keep going further out with me.

The kids got short rides on the scooter in our parking lot. They (especially Eli) loved it. I like how Eli is trying to figure out how the scooter works in this picture.

A good shot of Dana concentrating on her "rainbows" which are actually toy horseshoes.

I'll never forget chasing Eli along the beach with a pail full of water to dump on him, or dipping Dana in the water and singing goofy songs to her, Thailand was a very refreshing time indeed.