Cada Dia, Estoy Más Aquí de Allí (Every day, I am more here than there)

The primary advantage to living in another country for a year (or longer, God I wish it had been longer) is that it forces you out of yourself and in doing so cures you of a kind of blindness. There is, for example, a spectacular view of hills which I had been driving past for seven or eight years and had never seen because I never looked up until I returned from Brno. As I drove that stretch of road, I was always watching the road, thinking about where I was going and what I had to do. For the longest time after we returned from Czechia, I was constantly aware of what my world must look like to a stranger. To be honest, I had always hated living in this town; I thought it ugly and the people most unpleasingly provincial. It is only in perceiving home as as strange culture that I began to really see some beauty in it. Last fall, the trees with their changing leaves were so vibrant that I wept for the intensity of the colors, just as I had wept at the beauty of the Czech countryside.

And this fall, though the weather forecasters promised only brown trees, there is once again such intensity of color that it is a real sensuous experience for me. I look at the colors, the chartreuse, alizarin, crimson, yellow ocre, burnt umber--pure color in the tree leaves and it positively takes my breath away. Everyone always says that the sun on such trees sets them ablaze, that they are like fire, and so they are, fires of pure color, waving, vibrating pigment. It is quite a change from the fall I knew in Brno where I learned to see and appreciate the the greys, the whites, the blacks, the silvers against the cerulean and cobalt skies of deep fall and an epic winter, and the very different quality of sound there. Though sounds are softer here because they are muffled by trees and by buildings framed in wood, I miss the clear, taught quality of sound and the sounds of my old home. I miss the church bells, the many sounds of the tramvays, the sounds of another language around me. It's just that now it seems I am more here than there; I am still not sure that I like it. In Brno, I was always "más aquí de allí". Here, it is a new experience for me. So I was wondering, do you know the movie,"The Wizard of Oz"? Have you any ruby slippers you might lend me?

City, Snow, Mountains, Desert

There are words in the English language which no one should be allowed to use in any ordinary context. These words are awesome, magnificent, glorious, astonishing, breathtaking. And so are these places. Last week we spent five days out West. I have wanted to see the landscapes of the West firsthand since the first time I ever saw a cowboy movie. Of course, the cowboy movies I saw were probably actually filmed in Italy, but maybe not. I was hoping to see something very different from the natural world I know, and I was not disappointed.
We arrived in Denver on Halloween, and saw not one sign of Halloween once we left the airport, where most of the airline employees had made rather lame efforts to be in costume. One flight attendant was wearing what looked like an orange potholder on her head; I think her intention was to be a pumpkin, but she hadn't the clothing or the body for it since, unlike most Americans, she was not yet thirty kilograms or more overweight. They might just as well have worn no costumes and been their usual selves. That would have been quite scary enough.
We spent Thursday in Denver, touring the U.S. Mint, the State Capitol building, and the Colorado History Museum. What we were all struck by was the effort and expense that were put into making the capitol and mint buildings such beautiful places. Looking at the marble and onyx walls, the brass drinking fountains and etched elevator doors that looked like the Baptistry doors in Florence, the half ton chandeliers, the hand carved white oak, Thomas and I breathed to each other, "It's like the churches and castles in Europe!" Except that here, ownership is an issue, and a democratic one, at that. Both of our tour guides made a point of reminding us that these buildings belong to the people. Edna, the capitol doscent wasn't happpy until she was sure that every child in the school group we joined for our tour could tell her that there are 6 million citizens of Colorado and that each and every one has a stake that building, and that it is the people who make the government and not the other way around. Until I go into such places here (state buildings and banks, for example), I usually walk around thinking about what poor aesthetic sense we Americans have, and how we lack any appreciation for the grand. After all, we have no castles, only few cathedrals. It is our banks and official buildings that seem to merit such effort because it is an iconic show of the priorities of a democratic, capitalist country.
In contrast, what the Colorado History Museum presented in its exhibitions were the every day lives and struggles of the people and peoples who lived or suffered for the self-reliant ideal of America. Unlike the capitol and the palace-like banks, their homes and lives glittered more with dreams than brass and crystal chandeliers and marbled walls. Interestingly, nearly all of this museum was underground, as if deliberate effort had been made to avoid the grand and palacial.
On Saturday, we saw the truly grand. Thomas drove us more than 400 miles to Utah to just outside of Dinosaur National Monument. Bram was of course thrilled with the park. We hiked and climbed to dizzying heights. We saw petroglyphs and pictographs (So this was art in America before the Middle Ages!) and all around us were real honest-to-God dinosuar fossils in the rock, and beautiful tiny gemstones on the sand. We stayed in a pension (here we call it a bed and breakfast) just outside of the park. One major difference seems to be that in a bed and breakfast, part of the 'fee' includes mandatory socializing with the owner. I never did get the courage to speak Spanish with her, though her cat, Tito seemed to understand me just fine. On Saturday, Thomas drove the long way back to Denver, through Flaming Gorge Utah and Wyoming and yet more awesome, magnificent, glorious, astonishing, breathtaking country.

Halloween: It Really is About the Candy

Let's face it. While there are all kinds of interesting stories (okay, maybe only a few) about Halloween and its icons, Halloween is really and truly a candy holiday. When I was a child, we rarely got candy, and we never ever got as much as we did going trick-or-treating at Halloween. It was my favorite holiday because it combined my two most favorite things; dressing up and getting candy. It was almost magical, the power a child has over adults (and strangers at that) at Halloween. You knock on the door, and when the person answers it, you say three words--3! words-- "trick-or-treat" and you got candy. If you were smart, you could really work this grif. And we were smart, employing double bagging and on occasion, double costumes, to get extra.
Our average haul was a third to a half of what was then known as a "grocery bag". You can see it in the photo here. The wine has nothing to do with Halloween or candy (except that maybe now wine is my candy); the bottle is there to show you the size of the bag. The candy in front of it is what is left of Bram's haul (nothing compared to what we used to get, but then, he gets candy all of the time). The candy in the dish is what is known as candy corn. Hmmmm candy corn. First of all, there is nothing in Europe as cloyingly sweet to compare it to. Perhaps if you tried to imagine a jam with much too much sugar, cooked too long and sweetened with honey, too, you could get an idea of it. Anyway, candy corn is a seasonal candy; you know what that is. It is like those little brambory shaped marzapan candies you can get in Brno only around Advent, for Mikulaš Day.

To get an idea of just how big a holiday Halloween is here, think about these statistics from the National Retail Federation (who knew there was such a thing?)
This year, 58% of consumers will celebrate Halloween. They are expected to spend an estimated 5.1 billion US dollars on candy, decorations and costumes. For each of these consumers that is an average of $64.82 ($27 on decorations, $19 on candy, and $23 on costumes). Another third of a billion dollars will go for greeting cards. 7.4 million Americans will also dress their pets in costumes. And here is the real shocker: Halloween is only the sixth largest spending holiday in the US! As Markéta would say, "It's enough."

Monday: Meet Bill Clinton

Do you know who this is? Do you know how I managed to get such a close-up photo? It's that time again. Actually, it's a bit early for that time again, but South Carolina is a politically powerful state because it votes early in the nomination process. The party primaries in South Carolina follow those in Iowa and New Hampshire. This year, the primaries are so early because the bigger states like Florida, Michigan, and California moved theirs to an earlier date oddly, to compete with the early primaries in the little states (Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. With Bush's unpopularity, it will be interesting to see what happens in this very Republican state.
So, I met Bill Clinton. I listened to his speech (he uses words like "obviate"--the kind of word that the current President couldn't spell even with it right in front of him), and he seems to me more genuine than any Republican candidate I have ever known. I like Bill. I always have. But, I still might not vote for Hillary. We'll see. I am what is known as a Yellow Dog Democrat. That means I have very strong party loyalties: I would vote for a yellow dog if he were the Democratic candidate. I guess it is like my mother-in-law says, "You can't beat out of the blood what's bred into the bone." Bill. sigh. My hero.

Time to Carve the Pumpkins

Actually, I think it is past time to carve the pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween. I like to carve them far enough in advance to enjoy them some before I put them out on the porch at night. This year, as usual, we all went for impromptu, hand drawn designs of our own rather than using pumpkin carving templates. Last year, I used a template. Pumpkins in the stores this year range in price from $2.99 (about 60Kc)at Wal Mart to $6.00 (about 120 Kc) for smallish ones at grocery and home improvement stores. None of the pumpkins at this price are nearly as huge as the one we got at a Brno florist's for 50 Kc. A pumpkin of that size here would be around $20 (about 500Kc).


Yesterday evening we went to a church for what they call "Trunk-or-Treat", trick-or-treating in the church parking lot. Members of the congregation park their cars in the lot, open the trunks or hatchbacks and stand around for children to come by and say "trick-or-treat." Traditionally, Halloween trick-or-treating was done on Halloween in one's own or a nearby neighborhood. We knocked on the doors of strangers, said, "Trick-or-Treat", said thank you and went on to the next house as fast as we could. In our case because we lived so far out of town, we went to my grandmother's house and trick-or-treated in her neighborhood.Sometimes, there were so many children participating that it was possible to go to the same house twice without getting caught. These days, however, there are quite a few conservative Christians who believe that Halloween is some form of devil worship,and some take a very hard line against any and every thing Halloween. To avoid giving the devil his due, many churches here now offer Fall Festivals to compete with Halloween. It is already the case that in the public schools here that there can be no images of witches or black cats at Halloween, that Halloween can't be called Halloween (it's Fall Festival) and that the holiday's official colors have gone from the traditional black and orange to purple and orange. Lord only knows what will become of Christmas once those conservatives learn the pagan origins of December festivities. It is a good thing Bram goes to an excellent International Baccalaureate school, where they can say the Pledge of Allegiance and learn about other religions of the world, and learn to respect and tolerate them all. Reciting the Pledge is not allowed in the public schools Here's why. This is thanks to the mongers of political correctness. At Bram's school, they can celebrate Halloween and Christmas, and Easter too and call the celebrations by their right names. And when the Hindi, Jewish, and Moslem children want to share something about their religions, they are encouraged to do so. It is a shame that in America this is now a privilege that one must pay for.
We had a great time at Trunk-or-Treat. Most of the people giving out candy had decorated the backs of their cars, and a few even wore cotumes themselves. It was especially fun to see the very young children in their costumes going from car to car to get their candy. Some of them were too small to say, "Trick or treat"! There were even girls dressed as witches, though they were in burgandy and purple rather than predominantly black costumes. Bram went dressed a huge sack of potatoes, and no one was the wiser to the connection of this costume to Brambory Den. By the way, Happy Czech National Day!

Halloween-- The Stuff

Here is a list of the available Halloween items at Wal-Mart: Halloween greeting cards (with and without sound effects), CDs with scary sounds and music, lots of Halloween candy, costumes and masks, decorated paper napkins, cups, plates, decorated plastic cups, plates and cutlery in orange, black and purple; party favors including, though not limited to plastic spiders, ghosts, witches all on rings or separate, pop-up goblin heads, pencils, erasers, pens, with and without "toppers"--little things that you can stick on the top of your pencil-- slinkies, snakes, skeletons. There are hair bows, earrings, t-shirts, underwear, panties, and thongs(!), pajamas, real pumpkins, artificial pumpkins already carved into jack-o-lanterns with electric lights, and uncarved ones, plastic bowls and tubs in varying sizes and shapes which are to be used for serving candy, bobbing for apples, cooling drinks, etc. There are also "belly washers"-- large plastic bottles of artificially colored sugary drinks which have large plastic or rubber caps in various shapes, cookies and cookie cutters, cakes and cake pans, cupcakes made and decorated for Halloween, cupcake cups and orange, purple and black icing, the usual cookies, snack cakes and breakfast cereals colored and packaged specifically for the season. There are also a large number of large inflatable yard decorations, windsocks, door decorations, and sigh, candles in various sizes,shapes, and scents, in oranges, browns, blacks and purple.

Halloween Has a Website

Halloween has a website. Now that Halloween is the second most popular holiday for decorating, and the 6th most profitable one in the United States, that should surprise no one. It's Halloween.com. I think that just about anything you would like to know about this particular holiday can be found here, including the history, costume ideas, printable activities for teaching about Halloween, screensavers, masks, costume ideas, Halloween jokes, crafts, decorations, and stories. There is a link to how to carve pumpkins which include ideas for pumpkin carving, among other rather odd and funny things. Unfortunately, the link to the design templates page wasn't working, but you can find plenty of other sites by searching "pumpkin carving templates" on Google.
Since it is so easy now to learn all about Halloween online, I will limit my posting to what it looks like here.

Czech This Out

This is turning into a nice week. Bram has been steadily working on a project for school which he will finish tomorrow, a full 5 days before it is due. I have baked two cakes in less than a week (and three in less than two weeks). Friend Lenka has mailed me Becherovka, which should be arriving soon, and today has been the best day so far. Thomas and Bram and I were unsuccessful in our search of the thrift stores today for dinosaur toys, but we did find a bommerang and a glass pie dish. And we went to the Spartanburg International Festival, where Bram discovered an unknown talent for cricket, and we found CZECHS! Well, they are Americans now, but they were all born in Brno. I took a few photos of a few of the displays, so you can see what good ambassadors for the Czech Republic this family is. I realize that my great fondness for all things Czech could cloud my judgment in such matters, but I am sure that the Czech tent was the most professional, most thorough, most interesting and attractive booth at the festival. Do you know how I can say this? It was always the most crowded, of course! But honestly, maybe it was the charm of the Czechs who created and tended it that drew so many people.

Holiday Creep

Holiday creep. No, it isn't an especially festive version of a weirdo. The term officially refers to the habit of retailers to increase the time for selling seasonal or holiday merchandise so that they can make more money. You know it already. I am told that in Brno, Olomouc and Prague, merchants are already filling their stores with Christmas decorations and merchandise, and here I can tell you that the stores are full, and I mean full, of Halloween candy, costumes and decorations, and have been for the last couple of weeks. Halloween is another four weeks away! And next to the orange and black, the ghosts and goblins and jack-o-lanterns and witches they are beginning to add the red and green, the Santas and elves and candy canes of Christmas. I don't know where the stuff for Thanksgiving will go, or what that "stuff" might be. Turkey cups? Pilgrim pants? These days, when I hear "holiday creep", I don't think of it in the sense of a lengthened buying season, but as gradual infiltration of holiday icons and decorations into more and more products. I am used to the M&Ms (candy covered chocolates like Lentilky) changing colors for Christmas, Easter, and Valentine's Day, but now they are not only sporting Halloween colors (orange and brown, for candy), but little Jack-o-lantern faces,too. And I'm used to the cookies and cakes that come in orange and black for a few weeks, to the and the sudden availability of orange plastic wrap and cutlery. This isn't such a big deal, really, but now I really must protest the preponderance of Halloween icons on underwear. This is a fine example of what I call "holiday creep-y".
I kid you not. Here is the selection of ladies Halloween panties which are still available at Wal-Mart. They were all sold out at the Dollar Tree. They must be immensely popular; it has only been a few days since I was in and saw them the first time, and now, as you can see, there aren't even any orange and black Halloween thongs left! That's okay, though. I am not sure that I could endure the jokes from Thomas about pumpkins and black cats, anyway. See those catchy little phrases printed on the panties? I'll be discussing that phenomenon with you later.

Fresh Bread and What I Love about the South

I went out this morning to buy coffee and bread and I had the good sense to go to Publix, the grocery store chain whose motto is "Where shopping is a pleasure." Who knew that grocery stores had mottos? I wonder if they have a flag, too? Any way, I am happy to report that this Publix makes bread fresh, from scratch, not just daily, but several times a day, and that this store is just 6 minutes, by car of course, from my house. The baker was very friendly, offering suggestions for the breads I might try I order to satisfy my craving for rohliky. In the less than 3 minutes time we talked, I learned her name, where she is from, her own preferences for bread, her favorite hard-to-find dish (saganaki, Greek flaming cheese) and where I could get it, and that I could look for a Chicago bakery that bakes Czech bread from which I might order some. Amazing, isn't it, that strangers should learn so much so quickly? In the South, this is quite ordinary, though it is less common than it used to be. Encounters with strangers which last longer than the obligatory "Hey" quickly lead to "who are you, where are you from, and who are your people?" And if we don't get beyond the initial "hey", we still speak to that same person every time, almost, that we see them, even if we see them several times a day. It is what I was taught was "being friendly" and "mannerly". It is just plain rude to pass a stranger without some courteous gesture of acknowledgement. You don't have to speak, but you should at least smile a little, nod your head, or if you are a man, touch or tip your hat.
Children--- good, Southern children are also taught to address their elders with respect; this means, saying "ma'm" to women and "sir" to men. Bram was resisting this lately, but when I explained to him that it was as much a part of his heritage and who he is as Babicka, "Dobry den" and removing your shoes in the house is to the Czechs, his response was to answer me with "yes, ma'm." He hasn't missed it since.

When I went out to my car, I was happy to learn that good old southern chilvary is still something I can see every day. I found that some other Southern women had reared their sons in the Southern tradition when two men came from different directions to offer their assistance to an old woman who was having car trouble. They approached us, one smiling, the other touching the brim of his cap, addressed up both as "ma'm" and assured the woman that they would take care of the problem for her. I think Southern men should tip their hats and speak, say "ma'm" and "sir", open doors for women,and offer their help to anybody who seems to need it. And the rest of us should offer our help to anyone who seems to need it, especially the old and the very young. It isn't a rule. It isn't a law. It is habit. It is who we are. There is a slogan you can see on bumperstickers, caps, and tee-shirts sometimes: "American by birth. Southern by the grace of God" I rather like that. Yes, ma'm. Yes, sir, I do.