Still here

I was searching for a place to post some students videos and someone said to try a blog. Of course it didn't work, but in the process I realized that it has been forever since I have posted. We just celebrated our 6 year anniversary of the move to the Czech Republic,..it seems unreal that so much time has slipped by, but it has and now we are preparing for our departure. Ken has already left and I am just finishing up this teaching year. The movers should come in September. Of course it will be bitter-sweet. So much we have loved about living here,..and so many cultural differences that we never quite got accustomed to. For now I do a little packing each day and count them off until Ken returns to help. So with this quick update,..I will end the posting today and honestly plan to add more during our final months of this great adventure.

Portugal and the last 6 months

So here is the blog I tried to post last week. Does that mean I am only a week behind?
The pictures are of the Atlantic off of Portugal, Maria, the lady where we stayed in the Duoro River Valley, The Valley and Lisbon view from our room.

I am sitting watching Julie on Julia and I am feeling guilty about not posting on the blog for so long. So much has happened since we last wrote. We went to the states for Conner's Graduation (YEA!!!!)He had his final recital and it was wonderful. Quentin and Alanna and our good friend Carson and Tim came. Also Ken's two sisters came for the weekend. It was really a wonderful time.
When we returned to Europe we made a quick trip to Madrid. I had a conference that was basically boring,,,,but Madrid was wonderful. It had been almost 30 years since we had been there and it was exciting and fun. The wine and food were also great.
Then we were back to Olomouc for our "summer of guest". Ken's cousin and his wife came and we had a wonderful time. We are finally getting a handle on Prague and now we are pretty good tour guides. Later our old friends from Mass. Jon and Bruna came to visit. Two weeks and we traveled all about including going to Poland. Another great time.
In between there were other trips to Berlin and finally in September we took off for two weeks in Portugal. There we met our dear friends, Leslie and Dennis. What a wonderful trip. The Portuguese people were the friendliest people I have ever met. The scenery was gorgeous and the wine and food unbelievable. Perhaps the best part was the 5 days we spent in the Duoro river valley, staying in a small village on the side of a mountain, in a vineyard with a lovely couple who made us feel so at home. Their wine was excellent and we drank a lot of it!!
So now it is back to teaching and Ken to his painting.
Remember you have only about a year to visit us here, so get your room at the Lewis resort booked early!

A Czech Hospital Adventure

I went in for my knee surgery and I must tell you all that this is another Great Czech Adventure. I had to be at the hospital at 7:00 am on the day before the surgery to check in. They spent about a hour checking my papers,…you have to go to a clinic the week before the surgery and have all your blood work, ekg, xrays etc done. This seems very efficient, however, that means that the rest of the first day, there is nothing to do. So I sat and corrected all of the exams from my students and when I was done, I read the first book I brought along. I must admit that the Doctors and nurses all seem excellent. The orthopedic department has its own mini hospital. They are in a separate building which has two operating rooms and 8 patient rooms. The regular clinic where you go for check ups and consultations is on the main floor and the others are up the stairs. Unfortunately the building is VERY old and scheduled to be replaced next year. The operating rooms seem to be fairly modern,..what I saw of them, but the rest of the facilities are right out of a 1930’s “B” movie. My first clue was when I tried to go from the clinic on the first floor where I check in to the ward, on the 3^rd floor, and discovered that the elevator no longer worked. Strange for a place that does orthopedic surgery! The rooms on the ward are large with 4 bed in each. These are the old, iron hospital beds with the cranks to raise and lower them. In the room are the beds, a small table to eat at, three chairs and a sink. The toilet and shower are down the hall. Yes, down the hall is three toilets in one room, two marked for women and one for men. This is for 30+ patients! Oh, I almost forgot to mention, you have to bring your own toilet paper and towels. None are provided. After seeing the toilet,…very old with the water closet hanging from high on the wall, I didn’t even look at the shower. The one nurse who spoke English, advised me to not use it. The food is classic Czech. In the morning for breakfast, two rollicks (or two pieces of rye bread) and jam or cheese spread. Lunch is the hot meal,…today it was fried, breaded spam and boiled potatoes. Dinner is two rollicks (rolls) and yogurt or meat spread. Oh, I forgot, because I am diabetic, I get a snack in the afternoon,…a rollick. All of this is served with weak fruit tea. Saturday, the day after my surgery, Ken saved me, by bringing me a big thermos of coffee.

It isn’t all bad. Twice a day, someone comes in and washes and disinfects the floors, sink and counter tops. The nurses regularly check on everyone and are friendly and helpful, even though none of them speak English. My room mates have enjoyed having this strange American in the room and we manage to communicate with Chenglish (Czech, English and lots of pantomime). My Doctor came and re-examined me the morning of my surgery at 7:00 am. Then he spoke to me again right before the surgery, around 10:00. At 4:00pm, he stopped in to explain about the surgery and then came back again at 7:00pm to see if I had any questions or needed anything. The anesthesiologist was fast, efficient and spoke pretty good English. I was only under for about an hour and woke with no lingering side effects and absolutely no pain. They let you bring your own medication and they even let me check my own sugar levels with my monitor. That is pretty good service!

Visitors can come anytime and mostly they bring food. It seems that during the communist times there was an extreme shortage of fruits and vegetables so it became a custom to bring oranges or bananas when you visited someone in the hospital. They still do that today. I kinda like that tradition!

I am hopeful that I will go home tomorrow or else Ken may need to bring me a Big Mac!! Oh, about my knee. It seems that the meniscus was not torn, but something called a lateral and the main problem was some sort of degeneration of something. So they fixed what they could and I will start therapy and hopefully will improve. In the meantime, it is crutches for 5 weeks!

p.s. They gave me a bill when I left and warned me that I had to pay it within 8 days. Total cost for everything,...181CZK about $9.00,... I guess I can bring my own toilet paper!

Family and Friends

Well, where to start?…November was warm and beautiful here. Temperatures in the high 60’s and low 70’s. Beautiful days and cool evenings. Then the end of the month, our friends, Jackie and Ed came to visit. We had planned a wonderful week and a “Czech” thanksgiving feast. Unfortunately, Ed’s father died and they had to cut their trip short. We had a wonderful time while they were here and were again reminded of how much we miss our friends. Hopefully the little taste of the Czech Republic will make them want to come back for more.

The end of the month, Conner and his girl friend Kate arrived. It has been wonderful having them here. We have been running around, showing them the sights and just taking some time to lay around and watch movies and talk. Kate even helped me make some Christmas crafts and together we all put up the tree. Unfortunately the weather has turned cold and it is difficult to tramp around in 10F. We have had a little snow but it comes and goes. We did go to Prague for a few days and took Kate to the Castle, across Charles Bridge and to see the infant of Prague. It was really fun and we spent a little time at the Prague Christmas Market. I have to say that I like the Olomouc market better. Our market may not be so big, but it is filled with hand made items including some of the most wonderful, homemade sausages! The also have these big whole hams turning on spits on open wood fires and you get a chuck of meat with some great rye bread and a daub of mustard. Wonderful!!! Of course you need to drink the “punc”, a hot wine with fruit in it. This year they have even set up an ice skating rink in the middle of the old square and you can bring your skates and go skating under the shadows of the beautiful renaissance and art nouveau buildings! We managed to get over and spent a wonderful evening with my cousin Frantisek, his wife and one of their sons. We had a great meal and managed to communicate. The big news is that Frantisek and his oldest son, Petr have taken over the business of a Pension and restaurant in the Mountains in Northern CZ where they will run a ski resort in the winter and a hiking lodge in the summer. You can check out the place at their web site. www.penszionjavor.cz So any of you who wish to come and go skiing,..we can arrange that! So now we are busy planning Christmas and so happy that at least Conner and Kate can be here with us. Hopefully some time Quentin and Alana will be able to come.

Ljubljana Slovenia

So the Lewises head for another place that we have never been to and knew little about. Pam got a long weekend because of a national holiday in the C.R, their Independence Day. We decided to head south for decent weather and were not disappointed. The car trip took us through the gorgeous mountains of Austria then into Slovenia which used to be part of the former Yugoslavia. A glorious warm fall day was illuminated by the sun in a cloudless sky. The trees were in high peak color and the mountains were on fire with that color. This was highlighted by the snow-capped Alps in the background. Our destination, Ljubljana, is the capitol of the small country of Slovenia. It is filled with university students, 65,000 of them. Many of them sit at cafes next to the Sava river and sip espresso discussing everything. Our visit included a trip to the national museum of art, a fine place with excellent works, and the city museum which gave a history of the city and environs, dating back well before the Romans. Both places included artifact titles in English. In fact most of the people we talked to there were speakers of English. The other major sight we visited was the castle which overlooks the city high on a rocky crag above. There were magnificent views of the town and environs with a particularly good vista of the eastern Alps. The restaurant food we got was delish and there was plenty of it. On Saturday, we visited a small nearby medieval type town called Kranj. I can't tell you how it's pronounced but it was a very pleasant place to stroll away the warm afternoon and have some coffee and goo. Sunday morning before we left we stopped at the flea market and of course bought some junk. Another gem from central Europe and only six hours away by car.

Fall in the Czech Republic is now at peak color. When the sun shines the landscape glows so brilliantly you feel like you are floating or levitating in yellow ,red and orange. It is very reminiscent of fall in New England, perhaps western Mass. or Vermont. Pam and I took the required road trip into the local mountains for a viewing, something the Czechs don't do much. We have never seen a tour bus of retired folks checking out the countryside scenery,..too bad as it is wonderful. We took pictures. Here they are.

Wroclaw,Poland

A few weeks ago in September our friends from Germany had us meet them in the city of Wroclaw Poland. WWII nearly destroyed the place(estimates say about 70% of the historic center was in rubble) but the city decided to completely restore that part. They used as much of the original material as possible.Now the center is beautifully magnificent. Pam and I took the train. It took about five hours. This was an amazingly short time considering that we stopped at every small pig and chicken whistle stop on the line. We arrived none the worse for wear,however, and boarded a tram to our hotel. It was nice and friendly. Even though Pam's knee is not in great shape she braved some walking so we could explore that great place. The old center was thrilling to see. Of course, a visit to the city history and art museum was enjoyed by everyone. We all enjoyed eating pyrogies and other tasty Polish treats, drank some good wine, gambled a little in one of the local casinos, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset and night skyline from the sixth story window of our friends room. On the last day before leaving we visited Wroclaw University. It is an ornate Baroque building outside and in. It contains a display of photographs showing the destruction caused by the war. Sobering but inspiring to think of how the Poles have rebuilt their city. The journey home went faster and smoother.Home by supper time. A mighty fine visit.