the June quotes are here

I have just added Jonah's quotes from last month to the list of his quotes of the day.

The highlights include:

"My poison makes people hard like salami."

"Does America speak magic?"

and

"Mom, I put dad in jail. You'll stay with me. You're my friend. You're my police girl."

More quotes here.

cousin gets married

Yesteday we attended my oldest cousin's wedding. He's my dad's brother's oldest son. The wedding was outside and it rained only during the ten minutes of the ceremony. People whispered it was raining happiness on them. The setting was quite unique: the top of the Dancing House, from where the views of the city are really something.

Below you can see the bride and groom (with bride's father) in front of the Dancing House and one of the beautiful views from the top. More pictures here.

Jonah writes!

Today, for the first time, Jonah sat down and began, with a noteworthy amount of attention span and intention, to learn and write down letters.

He had been drawing circles for a while now, but today he started writing x's and then I taught him A's and T's. Using chalk, he wrote them with a gusto and a surprising precision for a three-year-old. He tried writing J's too, but kept reversing them, which is natural for younger kids, I believe.

A few hours later Jonah actually remembered the letters he learned earlier, writing them down again on a fresh piece of paper with a pen. How exciting!

ol' college friends

It's amazing how much my friends from college resurface. One of them, a musician, musicologist and teacher, currently lives in a town three hours away from Prague, which I visited while my sister played there. Scott took me around, showing me some of the town's jewels, about which he knows so much more than I. Photos from that visit here.



(My friend Scott is the one on the left)

Another, a filmmaker, writer and sculptor, just came to visit Prague and we hung out for the first time in eight years. Fun times!



(My friend Oscar is on the left, his friend Charity on the right)

Jonah's aunt's visit

My sister was here on a concert tour for two weeks. She was very busy with work, but was able to sneak in a couple of visits with us. Like the good groupie that I am, I followed her for a couple of out-of-town concerts as well, one of those times with the whole family for maximum impact.

Jonah loved his time with his auntie, who, between shows, a live television interview and performance, a screening of a film she acted in, also managed to record her new album in the Czech Republic. The new album should be out in the fall. Yay!

Some photos (more here):

Mother's Day

Last month, Jonah's school held an event to celebrate Mother's Day. The kids did a demonstration of their morning yoga exercises and sang folk songs. Their Christmas performance was very similar, but at that time Jonah had only been in preschool a short time. He was still shy and didn't know much Czech, so it was hard to motivate him to participate in the group. This time, he not only participated, but actually enjoyed himself. At the end of the show, he brought me a flower and a card he made.

He's doing well in preschool. His teacher loves him and he loves her. She already told me she will miss him terribly when we move.

May quotes

I've been a little behind on my blogging here. Still, I have faithfully continued to write down interesting things Jonah says. Here are a few morsels from the month of May:

"I'm making metal armor, my wife."

"Mommy, don't worry. I'll always protect you."

"Smell me, 'cause I smell right, like the Boba Fetts that smell right."

More here.

Greece

What an incredible time we had on our trip to Athens this month! The first impression that greeted us (other than getting ripped off when buying our bus fair to town at the airport and the awfully crowded ride to town) was the smell of jasmine. It had rained in Athens and the air smelled like jasmine tea.

Our hotel was perfect. A two-bedroom apartment, complete with a kitchen and balcony overlooking a few busy streets, parks, and the Hill of the Wolves (Lykavittos Hill). Very central too.

We saw so much in the four days we were there: The Acropolis with its temples, green spaces, and ancient amphitheater; the Ancient Agora, the nerve center of commerce and culture in old Greece; Kerameikos, the most important ancient burial ground in Athens; the National Gardens, a lush jungle-like park in the heart of the Greek capitol; an old turkish-style bath house, beautifully restored; remnants of ancient Roman baths; the fabulous National Archeological Museum, which houses the famous Mask of Agamemnon and other awe-inspiring artifacts.

We also took a day trip 70 km down the coast to Cape Sounion where the Temple of Poseidon punctuates the landscape, the striking white columns contrasting with the vibrant blues of the sky and sea. There we got to swim in the cool, but welcoming Aegean Sea.

In Greece, I tasted the freshest and most marvelous orange juice and the sweetest and most fragrant strawberries I had ever eaten in my life. I got the latter from a fruit seller in Monastiraki Square, a place where the various histories of Athens meet.

The oranges and lemons on the fruit trees were ripe. The temperature was perfect. Between 24 and 28 °C (that's 75 and 82 °F). The sun was out. It sprinkled only for about an hour upon our arrival the first day.

Jonah did fine. Transitions can be a bit difficult with him. This fickleness manifests itself in him throwing tantrums. We managed dissipating those sucessfully most of the time. Considering that most of what we did was grown-up oriented (read sightseeing), he did great. We did give him opportunities to play as well.


The only drawback of traveling to Greece with a child (and no babysitter) is that one cannot enjoy Greek nightlife, for which the country is so famous or proper Greek food. The customary way to eat is late at night -- 10 pm at the earliest -- and most restaurants don't even open their kitchens till then, so I was glad we had our own kitchen at the hotel. With a child who goes to sleep by 8 pm that is a must in the Mediterranean. The tastiest food we had eaten was from a skewered meat seller at a flea market. Each skewer of tender and perfectly seasoned pork for only 1 Euro!

For nights I have had dreams about building ancient cities, which began while still in Greece. As I sit here now in the much-colder Prague, my mind is still half-way in Greece. As I've said to my friends, I left my heart in Athens. Jonah, fortunately, assures me that he still has his heart inside him.

For more pics, go here.

the family protests

Today, our little family of three participated in a protest against neo-nazism in the Czech Republic. We went to express our solidarity with the Roma (Gypsy) community, who has been experiencing an increasing amount of tension, harassment, and violence at the hands of the white majority.

I wrote about our participation at the demonstration on another blog, Roma Rights.

my little sweetheart