Peanut R.I.P.

We had to bury Peanut yesterday.  It was awful.

A freak accident, she fell and must have hit her head, it was immediate (thankfully)

The kids are extremely upset, of course, as are we.  Such a little creature, that has stirred up so much emotion.  I really felt as though I was a 9 year old girl again..

We came on this journey to Prague together, and now we're missing one family member...

At least she had a few weeks to enjoy the sunshine, dandelions the size of her, and the lovely garden in which she is now buried.






We miss her squeaks for food, and the way she stuck her chin out

for a little rub.  She had such a fun personality.

We love you Peanut.

Writing...it's overrated

When my youngest showed me the handwriting that he was doing at school, I was astonished….frankly surprised that he could write like this.  Back in London we'd only learnt a few Czech letters (thanks to our lovely Czech teacher) and now he was joining them up and writing sentences. I was amazed.

Imagine my further astonishment and surprise when he told me it was wrong.

Wrong I said? WRONG….???    (poor kid was wishing he’d never said anything)

Yes mummy, I’m not doing it properly.

What do you mean you’re not doing it properly, it’s lovely?!!

Then he showed me his other writing book.  

It was all here in black and white, or rather in red ink  

To further hammer in the point, the teacher called me over and told me in no such words that he was moving his hand at the wrong angle when he wrote...

In fact both kids teachers have noticed that my kids don’t hold their pens properly or at the right angle – who knew?!

The point though, is what’s the point?

           

It seems kind of draconian to spend all this time on handwriting and perfecting this script when we live in a computer age?  

Apparently there is some movement to change the curriculum to reflect this - but I don't think it'll be happening any time soon, and certaintly not in the time that my kids are at school here.

One thing I do appreciate though, I suppose on reflection, is being told.  In the UK teachers don't tell you anything until parents evening, months after a problem arises. In fact everything is wrapped up in nice gooey words to make you feel good as a parent, 'she/ he is doing well/ excellent/ good job, he/she is slight above average/above average/ higher than average/ (delete as applicable).

There's no such fluff here.  Kids are scored on their work.  Every day.
1 for high - 5 for low... you know exactly how your kid is performing.  And if you still don't get it, the teacher will come up to you and tell you.

Eeeeeeek.

Mushrooms, fungi….and things to find in the forest

It’s mushroom season in the Czech republic.

Well technically it’s mushroom season from July- November but it’s especially good picking after it’s been warm and then rains, like now.

When I first started dating my husband over 10 years ago I was surprised when he took me ‘mushroom’ picking with his family in the Czech forests.  At that time I was deep into clubbing and experimenting with the odd illegal substance so naturally I thought it was foraging for the hallucinogenic kind.  I soon realised that this wasn't the case.  

Years late when we lived in the UK, friends were FREAKED OUT when my husband picked a wild mushroom from Epping forest and then offered it up as a delicacy, people visably backed away. We are conditioned as children DO NOT PICK MUSHROOMS AND NEVER EAT THEM.  

It’s quite the opposite here.  

‘Shroom picking is a national pastime for Czechs.  So much so that mushroom are a part of the national curruriculm.  

I kid you not.  

My son’s maths book contains questions like, ‘if there were X type of mushrooms in the basket and X of this other type (which is a poisonous one) how many edible ones would be left?’  They are taught how to draw mushrooms in art classes, AND they are required to learn the 120 varieties off by heart as part of their studies.

According to Stats:  7 out of 10 Czechs pick mushrooms and a whopping 25 million kilograms are harvested from the forests a year.   It’s serious business.  And if you’re a serious mushroom picker you rise at a 6am with your basket and never ever let your destination known to others – it's always kept as a guarded secret.

Hubby was home for the weekend (hurrah!!) and on the way to a local castle we stopped at a forest just outside of Prague where we found lots of broken & picked stalks where we'd obviously arrived too late...

I did find one mushroom, but is this poisonous? don't ask me!

the kids also caught a few things!

















Here's one castle that had survived and another one in ruins

And finally - I couldn't resist taking this picture of a guy on the metro (by the door) who'd obviously just come back from mushrooming...can you imagine seeing this on the underground?!

O Vikendu

At the weekend

The good thing about Prague is that it’s a small city, and it’s close to some really nice nature that’s relatively simple to get to.  Even for me.

I might be terrified of going to the school to pick up the kids, scared of bumping into my neighbours in case I have to try attempt to have a conversation, but I’m ok at driving around.  Thank god.  Otherwise I’d be going stir crazy alone without hubby, just me and the kids and the four walls, ahhhhhh.

As it was hot hot hot this week, the thermometer read 29 degrees we decided to get out of town and go swimming.

Being a land locked country, Czechs don’t do beaches, but they do the next best thing, they do lots (and I mean lots) of swimming in natural ponds, dams, pools and rivers.  The water is usually freezing and the so called ‘sandy’ bank tends to be a euphemism for mud, but the settings usually make up for it.

This was a pretty lake we went to about a 20 mile drive away.

It was kind of like a beach...

and...yes the water was cold!

It was very nice and I'm glad that I was brave enough to go there alone...but I definitely wasn't brave enough to try this section of the beach...

  I don't think it needs translating....

Czech's it seem don't have a problem baring all.  When I was researching pools online there were lots of family outdoor swimming pools and water parks.  I was looking into going into one of them - then to my surprise, this pop up opened up on a family-friendly website.

I'll translate this one...

Nature party

17th September from 8pm to 1130pm

Swim without swimming costumes, concessionary ticket (I'm not sure if that means you get a concession from having no costume on? or whether it means you need to buy a ticket to enter). 

Either way, this isn't something I've ever seen in the local baths back at home....!

Crossed wires

This is our mess of English/czech wires under the telly.  I’m terrified I’m going to blow something up – it’s a sort of international tangle, a bit like my life at the moment.

…I’m still having difficulty understanding when I can pick the children up, what time lunch finishes, are they in after school club?  I've yet to get my head around the system. 

When I arrive at the school there are 2 bells to ring – one for each after school club where presumably my children are.  Parents line up to ring the bell and request their child, then the child comes down and is taken home. Seems simple enough.

When it comes to my turn they a) don’t understand me  b) don’t know where my children are c)  there’s always some unknown drama that they are doing something else or in another class (daughter was in an art class yesterday that I wasn’t aware of)

So of course this daily ritual of embarrassing myself n front of the other parents who stare at the foreigner is beginning to get a bit traumatic… The old lady on the school reception desk is my saviour – she’s helped me a few times, and now poor thing has started to get involved.  I see her watching to make sure my children have arrived safely.  She tries to help me by saying the odd word in English like ‘Monday' whilst nodding her head earnestly and I nod back smiling - thinking what have I got myself into?

….I should really congratulate myself, so far I have managed somehow to get both kids everyday.

The dictionary was our saviour this morning before school. Youngest had his first swimming class and didn’t want to go.  It took me a while to get to the bottom of it and finally discovered it was because he was worried if he would know the Czech terms for front crawl - ‘plavat kraul’,  breaststroke  - ‘plavat prsa’ we couldn’t find backstroke, but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad…  After we looked them up he felt more assured and went happily into the classroom : )

We also needed the dictionary when my daughter came home with her homework – Czech grammer.  Hmmmm, maths I can deal with but Czech grammer???  We used an interesting mix of resources to help us – first we had to translate the questions using Google translate and the good old dictionary and when we got really stuck we scanned in the homework sheet to daddy who back in his desk in London helped us solve the missing blanks (shhhh don’t tell the teacher….)  thank god for technology….!!

And I haven't mentioned the guineas for ages..here's Peanut also looking a bit traumatised 

Downer...

Every up must have a down

Today, I’m feeling very flat.  I think the euphoria and excitement of moving has worn off slightly and I feel a bit like up the creek without a paddle (or really up shit creek without a paddle)

It started yesterday morning when I saw my youngest slope off into his classroom and sit there alone while the other kids chatted to each other.  It’s always heartbreaking seeing your kids left out, I know it’s only 3^rd day of school but….it’s soooo hard watching them go through this transition.  None of them are complaining and happily go to school so I should take a leaf out of their book but it’s incredibly hard.

I think the kids have noticed that mummy is losing the plot a bit too because they are acting up and seeing what they can get away with.   They may look sweet and innocent here, but siblings have a wonderful way of pushing each other’s buttons (and mine).  It’s worse than fighting, it’s that annoying, pernickerty way (you moved my things, you touched my arm, you ...you breathed on me ) grrrr I wish they would just slug it out in the ring and be done with it….

We also saw friends on Skype – which seems like a wonderful idea at the time, but then you are reminded of home, and actually you’d really rather prefer to be in their kitchen having a coffee and chatting face to face and the kids can run off and play.  I’m definitely missing home : (

And to compound it all, husband is flying back to London tomorrow for 10 days!

How will I cope?

- Found the Czech/English dictionary in the bottom of a box

- Google translate is on my desktop

- Or I could just hide for about 10 days but that might be difficult as I have to take the children to school and we might go a bit stir crazy at home

I've also had enough of shopping.  

I have to go everyday it seems to buy something more for the kids to take to school.  The first list I’m beginning to realise was just a teaser, an introduction – since then we come home with more requests, more money for books, for supplies, more toilet paper!  I think I’ve supplied enough toilet paper, paper napkins, and packs of tissue for the whole of the Czech republic to shit for a year!

The headteacher and her assistant took us aside today to ask if we were all ok, ‘how are you liking the school?’ she enquired in Czech to me as I had a stack of loo rolls in my hand.  ‘Yes good’ I nodded politely.

But, although I feel incredibly frustrated trying to find our way around and trying to understand the Czech school system there are some really good things.  I thought I would hate getting kids to school by 7.45am, but actually if you’re a working parent everyone can take their kids to school and then leave for work, there is really cheap after school care that the school provides onsite for everyone as a matter of course. It’s so much more geared to helping parents.  

Also on a positive note, my son’s class teacher just informed us there will be swimming once a week, brilliant! 

And my daughter's class have a pet mouse which she is thrilled about...

yipeeeeeee health and safety hasn't reached here yet!!

shoes....and school shoes...

Czech’s have a funny thing about shoes.

My husband is well known for wearing his socks and sandals rain or shine, and we’ve even seen them out in the depths of winter when it’s been snowing.  But now that I’m here I can put it all in context, I’m in the the land of socks and sandals – he blends in perfectly.

Even the Lego statue in the mall had socks and sandals…

The other thing Czech’s do is take their shoes off when they get to the door and put on their 'bačkory', essentially ‘slippers’ or indoor shoes. When you go to someone’s house there are a pile of bačkory, and you just put a pair on, whether they really fit or not, usually they don’t and you flop around in a pair of ugly shoes until you leave.

Bačkory were also on our school list, as the kids have to also change shoes when they get to school.  When our daughter saw the choice in the shops she was horror struck.

‘Why would I be seen dead in a pair of old man’s slippers?’ she demanded.

I agreed completely, but I probably shouldn’t have done because I then had a battle trying to get her in a pair before school started today. After trudging around various shoe stores we eventually settled on these as a compromise.

There are very definite differences here between an outdoor shoe, and an indoor shoe and never the twain shall meet. I prefer to go barefoot myself…

First Day at School

Was a joke…the kids had ONE HOUR, yes one hour of lessons then they could go home!  I opted for them to stay in the after school club until 12pm and picked them up then so they could at least get used to being there.

Tomorrow school is TWO HOURS LONG!!  

I think (hope) it’s normal school next week because it’s quite confusing.  On the positive side both kids came out happy and seemed normal and unstressed, unlike their mother who spend the morning moving furniture around obsessively and worrying....