Somusing

Two videos of Bohemian Bards playing at Staroměstské Náměstí (Old Town Square) in Prague. My videos are not very good, but these guys are great musicians! Also, I don't think I've posted a video of the famous Astronomical Clock of Prague going off, which it does every hour during the day. Thousands of people gather to watch it. It's not the most exciting show, but it's pretty cool that it's been happening for about 600 years. It's hard to see unless you maximize the video: there are four figures that move, two on each side of the astronomical clock, that represent Vanity, Greed, Death, and Pleasure. Death, the skeleton, rings a bell throughout. Above the clock, the two windows open and the Twelves Apostles parade by. At the very end, the rooster (above and between the two windows) crows, and it's kind of a hilarious sound, like he's about to die. The round dial below the astronomical clock is a calendar with all the Czech name days listed, ...

Last weekend, we took the train southwest of Prague to Beroun and then a 15-minute bus ride to Koněprusy Caves , a series of caves discovered in the '50s and since opened to the public. We went with a few members of the Prague Branch -- it was really helpful to travel with Czechs, so they could help us get where we were going -- and went on a tour through the caves. I don't have pictures because taking photos cost extra and we're cheap. They probably wouldn't have been great, anyway, and you can see photos on the website linked above. My favorite part of the tour was the last cave, which was used in the 1500s to forge counterfeit Czech coins. Someone needs to write a historical novel about that! After the tour, we walked 7 kilometers (almost 4.5 miles) to Srbsko and caught the train back to Prague. I know that looks like a scary Czech word, with all those consonants, but you just pronounce all the letters -- it sounds like "Serbsko" with a rolled "...

It seems like most of central Prague is cobblestone streets and sidewalks. Here's what it looks like when they do road work: Well, I guess they're probably working on something under the road. They pull up all the stones and put them back later in a kind of arch pattern. Then they throw sand over it and brush it into the cracks. This is just a few feet from the door to our building. You can see the New Town Hall Tower at the end of the street. You can also see that the sidewalk is cobblestone, although the stones are smaller than the road stones. And you can see a little of the pattern they often incorporate in the sidewalks. This one's really simple, with a border of darker-colored stones, but in other places, they do more complex patterns or even spell out words on the sidewalk. I took some sidewalk pictures just for you! And here's some road work being done right next to Old Town Square and a picture of the arched pattern of the cobblestone street.

Yesterday, Jon and I had a real conversation in Czech with our neighbor. It's true that we didn't understand every word and that there was a lot of repetition and rewording. But we figured things out with a minimum of made-up sign language, so I think that's a triumph. What we learned in the conversation: our neighbor is a Russian who came here 30 years ago because of her husband's work. She was very excited about and approved of our large family, especially compared to the one or two children most Czech families have. She also said something about there being a lot of history here. I think. What she found out about us: where we're from, how many kids we have and that one is studying in the US, and possibly that the kids do school at home. I'm not sure if that last part was properly conveyed or not. Okay, it's not much, but it was a whole conversation with nobody around who could translate! So I'm excited about that. In other news, the younger ...

Phin and I visited Vagharshapat, Armenia , about 18 km away from Yerevan. There was supposedly a marshrutka or bus that went there, but we couldn't find it and ended up taking an absurdly cheap old Lada taxi out there with a friendly taxi driver for about $2.50. The driver on the way back was less friendly and despite us agreeing on a fixed price before leaving, he tried to get more money out of us than agreed upon when dropping us off. Which we didn't go for. The city was known officially during Soviet times, and unofficially still, as Ejmiatsin or Echmiadzin, after the name of the Etchmiadzin Cathedral , the central cathedral of the Mother See (spiritual and administrative headquarters) of the Armenian Apostolic Church. I read that the original cathedral was built in the years 301-303 by St. Gregory the Illuminator, and the current one dates to 480, with a stone dome added in 618. The cathedral had scaffolding up when we visited. We went inside briefly, and continued to ...

Home Schooling Dream vs. Reality Our initial home schooling dream had the kids studying Latin and Greek, speaking German fluently, finished with Calculus and starting college courses by the time they were 14, and running their own successful business selling artisan cheese made from the milk of our goat herd. Also, they would never watch TV or play video games. Then the kids were born. It turns out that, in the interest of maintaining my sanity, I’m more of a Relaxed Home Schooler. This is also why I’m a Relaxed Housekeeper. We didn’t even teach the kids German, which both Jon and I speak fluently, although I maintain that the main reason for this is not laziness but our reluctance to give up our secret language. The kids are on track to do Calculus before they start college at or near 18. We never got the goats, although we have plans to get some when we return to the US, and we did have chickens for a long time. The chickens laid eggs for us, but we didn’t sell them. We just ...

Here are some interesting buildings in the area we live. This one is the (Jan) Hus House, home of the Czech Brothers' Evangelical Church (or so the front says -- I'm not sure if it's still the case or not). There's a statue of reformer Jan Hus , to the left a bible, and to the right a lamb. This extruded artwork I found interesting: Around the corner from us on a building is a plaque noting the birthplace of Jaroslav Hašek , author of the famous novel The Good Soldier Švejk . A classic example of standalone panelák apartment building: The metro bridge leading to Vyšehrad : A fun fountain in the middle of an intersection: The relatively new, brick Church of St. Ludmila (Kostel svaté Ludmily) which dominates Náměstí Míru , which means "peace square", but which we also like for its play to our ears on Mira's name: An outdoor piano for anyone to play! I think we saw one of these before somewhere else in Prague when we were here in...