Home for the Holidays :)

Ho ho ho, Merry Midwest Christmas! We hadn't been back for Christmas in the four years we've lived in the Czech Republic, so a trip home this winter was long overdue. Also, with our pending adoption, we weren't sure when we could next leave the EU. Thus, in December we packed the pup in her little red carrier and flew to the US with suitcases full of presents.

The highlight of the trip was meeting our 6-mo-old baby nephew and baptizing him as Godparents in our parents' church in North Dakota. He lives in Washington, so it was monumental for us to all be together!

We had planned to split our time between Minnesota and North Dakota... but if you've ever been to the American Midwest, you know that blizzard season makes travel unpredictable. So Minnesota kept us a bit longer than we'd planned on. Part of that time was spent in a sketchy hotel room off the interstate, eating Walmart fried chicken when we nearly got blown off the road driving toward the North Dakota border.

In Minnesota, we ate and ate and ate, as evidenced by the many photos I have of us sitting around large dining tables. An extra-special event was visiting BW's grandparents at their Jordan, MN, farm; aside from being marvelous people, they've got a stuffed bobcat, a pole barn full of antique cars, and a collection of photos from relatives through the generations. We also saw friends, renewed our drivers' licenses, celebrated Christmas #1 and bought American things we can't get in Prague, like Crystal Light drink mix and proper Chapstick.

We only had a measly four full days in North Dakota. Nonetheless, we celebrated Christmas #2, had the baptism, saw dear friends and family, and journeyed through the snowdrifts to a cabin that my dad built waaaaaay out on the prairie. It's been extraordinary watching him build it by hand bit by bit these last few years, and it reminds me of Czech chata (cottage) culture. Oh, and we ate more,

It was difficult saying goodbye, but we've been assured by loved ones that they'll visit this Spring, Summer and Fall, so that makes us feel a touch better. So does not having to deal with blizzard conditions and ice-coated roads. Ha.

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I'm so North Dakota

My heart is running amok as we near the end of our two weeks in North Dakota. True, this unsung state is chock-full of fantastical sites like the painted rocks at Theodore National Park and the earthlodges near Mandan. But this post is more personal. It's a reaching back into roots and a tongue-in-cheek look at identifying with the place of one's upbringing.

I'm so North Dakota, my family plays whist on a Friday night... with "Report All Poaching" playing cards.

I'm so North Dakota, I attend Larimore Days, my tiny rural hometown's annual celebration. There's a parade, a softball tourney and a couple of street dances. We used to play mud volleyball but liability issues cancelled that; we'd have to duct-tape our feet to save them from sharp rocks in the mud.

I'm so North Dakota, I drink stout under the stairs during a tornado warning... and then drive into town the next day to survey the damage. (No one was hurt!)

I'm so North Dakota, I run through the splash park fully clothed with my brother and sister. We didn't have swimsuits along. And we were dry by the time we went out for dinner. Classy all around.

I'm so North Dakota, my pa is single-handedly building a little retirement cabin on the plains. It's pretty remote and you have to haul water, but he's decided to add a pit toilet now (thank goodness).

I'm so North Dakota, my family visits mammoth outdoors sporting stores together. Ma likes to check out kayak prices, Pa sees if dehydrated hiking food is on sale, BW peruses the boots and I take pictures of funny things like camouflage bikinis.

I'm so North Dakota, I pick fresh raspberries from the family patch. My dad has one of the wickedest raspberry gardens in the region, and my mom makes this unbelievable fresh raspberry coffee cake.

I'm so North Dakota, I eat Thai takeout with my best friend's grandma's chocolate chip cookies. And french fries smothered in cheese and bacon from Larson's Drive-In. And s'mores around a bonfire at my senior class president's house :)

I'm so North Dakota, I take pictures of cows. Moo. And grain elevators.

I'm so North Dakota, I whipped out handmade decorations and nosh for my ma's retirement party. We did a "journey" theme and had international foods, like the Czech chlebicky below.

Xx. Love you guys.

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Electricity and gelato

When we left the U.S., all I had to do with our electrical service was call Xcel Energy, tell them we'd like it stopped on a certain date, and pay the final bill online. Que facil.

Here in the Czech Republic, I've already made 2 headache-inducing trips to the PRE utility company headquarters in the center of Prague to get gas and electric service changed over from my landlord's name to mine. And we had to get a Czech friend to be a "guarantor" for utilities - basically a co-signer who agrees to pay our debts if we skip town. Getting electricity is as serious as securing a car loan!

Awkward people in a screen shot from our utility company's web page

Utilities services work like this: You guess roughly what you'll be spending each month on gas and electricity and have the amount deducted from your bank account. (And if you don't do e-banking, you receive a bill in the mail and then pay it at the post office.) At the end of the year, you either pay more in or get money back.

Anyhow, the trips to PRE took about 3 hours; it would have taken me three minutes to do the same in Minnesota. I figured gelato would be an apt reward for weathering the long lines, so I headed for the nearby Lucerna (Lantern) passage on Wenceslaus square. A tangle of passages were constructed in the ground floors of a number of the square's grand old buildings in the early 1900s, and they're fascinating to poke around in.

An old cinema in the passage had a collection of vintage Czechoslovak posters:

I like the bird riding the hairbrush on the bottom left.

This shot from the inside of the passage doesn't do the stained glass on the ceiling justice. I was taking pictures with my phone.

Walking into the belly of the building

Avant garde Czech artist David Cerny made this hanging creation as a parody of the beloved St. Wenceslaus statue that crowns Wenceslaus Square. It's called "Horse" and it's meant to poke fun at the institution.

Apparently the horse's tongue gets stolen a lot

I got hazelnut gelato. Pretty sure it's one of the most divine tastes on the planet. And in the solar system.

Yum.

Then it was back home to BW and J-dog, who will now have hot water, cooking gas, lights and a warm home this Fall thanks to PRE (and a Czech friend willing to take on all our debts should we skip town).

She's saying, "Where's my gelato?"

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Found a 'hood

We will not have to sneak J-dog into a hotel or sleep under beer garden benches our first few nights in Prague; we've found a furnished apartment (or flat, as they're called over there). We send the deposit today and hope that someday we'll get to meet the owner of that jazzy purple car out front.

The flat is located just a stone's throw from the city's historical center AND to BW's delight, it has bright orange leather furniture. 

Here's a link to the neighborhood we'll be living in:

http://www.expats.cz/prague/article/czech-culture/prague-districts-vinohrady-part1/

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