This is what Rotterdam looked like most of the evening. This is around midnight and it kept up, about like this, until around 3 am. These are not the official city fireworks (those were out over the Erasmusbrug which is on the other side of my building). These are all personal fireworks which, apparently, every Rotterdammer and his brother had bought by the truck load.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
New Year's Resolution
New Year's Resolution: Next year, I plan to live in a paternalistic society which prohibits the use of firecrackers in residential areas (or at least in places near me) or in a place so boring they don't do anything bigger than a sparkler.
This is what Rotterdam looked like most of the evening. This is around midnight and it kept up, about like this, until around 3 am. These are not the official city fireworks (those were out over the Erasmusbrug which is on the other side of my building). These are all personal fireworks which, apparently, every Rotterdammer and his brother had bought by the truck load.
This is what Rotterdam looked like most of the evening. This is around midnight and it kept up, about like this, until around 3 am. These are not the official city fireworks (those were out over the Erasmusbrug which is on the other side of my building). These are all personal fireworks which, apparently, every Rotterdammer and his brother had bought by the truck load.
Meeting the Czechs, part 1
When I was in Prague I got to meet different people and I had a really good time. The first night I was in Prague, I was the only person in the hotel. The second night, though, three other people came as well. They were older Czechs, maybe in their early 60's, friends who were coming to Prague for Christmas because they didn't have any family around. One of the ladies was also called Hana and the other two (a guy and a lady) had very Czech names with lots of Zs and Js.
I first met them when I back to the hotel after an evening out at the Christmas Markets. I came back to the hotel and, as I was going through the lobby into my room:
"Dobry den (hello)" said the guy.
"Dobry den" I replied in my best Czech accent. And then he started talking to me in Czech.
"I'm sorry" I said, "I don't speak Czech. Do you speak English?"
He shook his head. "Sprechen Sie Deutsch? (Do you speak German?)"
"Nur ein bisschen (only a little bit)" I replied. And then I went into my room. I heard them chatting in the lobby (which was right outside my room) and I decided to go sit in the lobby, have a cappuccino, make plans for the next day, and be sociable.
When I was finishing up, they invited me over and they produced a computer with a translating program. Then, with the Czech version of Google Translate, the overlap of my Dutch and their German, their few words of English, and lots of miming, we talked about politics, history, religion, and Czech culture for the next couple of hours. It was a lot of fun.
They were actually from near the town of Zlin, which is the area where the Andersons are currently working as missionaries. I had been reading in a guide book about the Czech Republic and knew that there were three cultural divisions--Bohemia (which was where Prague is), Silesia, and a third that I couldn't remember (it's Moravia). I was trying to think of good questions to keep up a good conversation so I asked if they were from the Silesian part of the Czech Republic. I figured I had a 50% chance of not looking like an idiot by mentioning Silesia and it worked out. (Although, considering the relative sizes of the regions, it was really more like a 10% chance) The guy was from the Silesian part, although the ladies were not. He was really impressed that I knew the name because they associated the term with religious differentiation rather than cultural or dialectical distinctions and he wondered why an American would know about a weird, tiny, fundamentalist religious minority in the Eastern Czech Republic (if you click here it will open up a new window with a map showing the regions of the Czech Republic). I blamed it on Dad and said that he had taught us a lot about religious history, which also intrigued them and they wondered if we were Catholic (they crossed themselves a lot to ask that question) and if Dad taught at a religious school or had taken holy orders.
The Czech folks had the doors to their rooms open and the guy had the soccer game on so that he could listen to it. At one point, the announcer started cheering and the guy shouted "Point". I asked who was playing and the ladies laughed and said that he didn't know and that it didn't matter. It was just whatever game they happened to have on at Christmas.
They also shared Christmas cookies--which were delicious. They had some that where exactly like Russian Tea Cakes--in the crescent shape and everything, although I think they used regular walnuts, not black ones--but they didn't call them "Russian". I looked them up, to find the real Czech name for them but all I came up with was "Vanilkové rohlíčky" which means "Vanilla Rolls". However, I don't think that is what they called them--the translator called the "Hell Hesky", or something like that (the translator had fairly frequent contextual issues) and now I can't figure out what they called them. Vanilla Rolls just sounds so boring. By the by, though, when I was looking for the name, there was a site that mentioned that the popularity of the name "Mexican Wedding Cake" rose during the Cold War, I guess in the same way that "Freedom Fries" became a not-so-subtle political statement.
I first met them when I back to the hotel after an evening out at the Christmas Markets. I came back to the hotel and, as I was going through the lobby into my room:
"Dobry den (hello)" said the guy.
"Dobry den" I replied in my best Czech accent. And then he started talking to me in Czech.
"I'm sorry" I said, "I don't speak Czech. Do you speak English?"
He shook his head. "Sprechen Sie Deutsch? (Do you speak German?)"
"Nur ein bisschen (only a little bit)" I replied. And then I went into my room. I heard them chatting in the lobby (which was right outside my room) and I decided to go sit in the lobby, have a cappuccino, make plans for the next day, and be sociable.
When I was finishing up, they invited me over and they produced a computer with a translating program. Then, with the Czech version of Google Translate, the overlap of my Dutch and their German, their few words of English, and lots of miming, we talked about politics, history, religion, and Czech culture for the next couple of hours. It was a lot of fun.
They were actually from near the town of Zlin, which is the area where the Andersons are currently working as missionaries. I had been reading in a guide book about the Czech Republic and knew that there were three cultural divisions--Bohemia (which was where Prague is), Silesia, and a third that I couldn't remember (it's Moravia). I was trying to think of good questions to keep up a good conversation so I asked if they were from the Silesian part of the Czech Republic. I figured I had a 50% chance of not looking like an idiot by mentioning Silesia and it worked out. (Although, considering the relative sizes of the regions, it was really more like a 10% chance) The guy was from the Silesian part, although the ladies were not. He was really impressed that I knew the name because they associated the term with religious differentiation rather than cultural or dialectical distinctions and he wondered why an American would know about a weird, tiny, fundamentalist religious minority in the Eastern Czech Republic (if you click here it will open up a new window with a map showing the regions of the Czech Republic). I blamed it on Dad and said that he had taught us a lot about religious history, which also intrigued them and they wondered if we were Catholic (they crossed themselves a lot to ask that question) and if Dad taught at a religious school or had taken holy orders.
The Czech folks had the doors to their rooms open and the guy had the soccer game on so that he could listen to it. At one point, the announcer started cheering and the guy shouted "Point". I asked who was playing and the ladies laughed and said that he didn't know and that it didn't matter. It was just whatever game they happened to have on at Christmas.
They also shared Christmas cookies--which were delicious. They had some that where exactly like Russian Tea Cakes--in the crescent shape and everything, although I think they used regular walnuts, not black ones--but they didn't call them "Russian". I looked them up, to find the real Czech name for them but all I came up with was "Vanilkové rohlíčky" which means "Vanilla Rolls". However, I don't think that is what they called them--the translator called the "Hell Hesky", or something like that (the translator had fairly frequent contextual issues) and now I can't figure out what they called them. Vanilla Rolls just sounds so boring. By the by, though, when I was looking for the name, there was a site that mentioned that the popularity of the name "Mexican Wedding Cake" rose during the Cold War, I guess in the same way that "Freedom Fries" became a not-so-subtle political statement.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Zetor
When I was in the Czech Republic, I saw three tractors. All of them were red and all of them had the same manufactures name which I did not recognize (and I didn't get any good pictures because I saw most of them while I was riding the train through the middle of the Czech country side) but, in the interest of nephews, I thought I would do a little research. (I feel a real need to introduce you guys to a world outside of John Deere.) I am happy to say that all of the tractors I saw were national products.
Zetor is a Czech company which has been making tractors for sixty some years. Apparently they are fairly popular because I found auction sites selling used Zetor tractors for between $7,000 and $18,000 in the UK (and the Zetor website is available in English or Czech). They have distributors on five continents (nothing in Asia or Antarctica) and their only US distributor is in Pennsylvania. If you want to read all kinds of stuff about Zetor development--from where they got their name to their gear boxes with "electrohydraulic reverse shifting"--Wikipedia has a pretty detailed article (I think it may have been written by the company) which you can see here.
It looks like there is some popular appeal for the Zetor around Europe, though. Apparently, in Finland, there is a restaurant that is, literally, built around Zetor tractors. You can go in and have a drink or eat some supper while sitting at an old Zetor tractor. If you click on this link, it will take you to the restaurant's website and you can see pictures of the restaurant (just "x" out the little pop-up and use the direction arrows to spin the picture around) or click on the "Kuvagalleria" link on the left, which will bring up a bunch of photos (clicking on the photo will bring up the next picture). It looks like it would be a pretty interesting place.
Zetor also has model tractor toys for kids. This picture comes from a nifty blog called "Swifty's Garage" that is entirely about model cars and other model vehicles (it is actually pretty interesting because there is information about the toy car and the real car with a little social/economic history thrown in). The Zetor 5511 was the "Tractor of the Week" just about a year ago.
The new tractors have fancy new electronic systems and they advertise themselves as "the first smart tractor". They say they have an intelligent "hitchtronic" system. I do not know what that is. But, if it is what it sounds like--something that hitches the tractor to other equipment--as someone who has spent quite a bit of time pulling on grease collars while trying to get the stupid hydraulic hoses hooked up, I am pretty much in favor. It looks like they have six or seven models, of varying size and power but not the incredibly massive ones that you see sometimes in the US, probably reflecting the different face of agriculture in Europe. If you want to see more (and bigger) pictures, this link will take you right to the Zetor home page's image section.
Zetor is a Czech company which has been making tractors for sixty some years. Apparently they are fairly popular because I found auction sites selling used Zetor tractors for between $7,000 and $18,000 in the UK (and the Zetor website is available in English or Czech). They have distributors on five continents (nothing in Asia or Antarctica) and their only US distributor is in Pennsylvania. If you want to read all kinds of stuff about Zetor development--from where they got their name to their gear boxes with "electrohydraulic reverse shifting"--Wikipedia has a pretty detailed article (I think it may have been written by the company) which you can see here.
It looks like there is some popular appeal for the Zetor around Europe, though. Apparently, in Finland, there is a restaurant that is, literally, built around Zetor tractors. You can go in and have a drink or eat some supper while sitting at an old Zetor tractor. If you click on this link, it will take you to the restaurant's website and you can see pictures of the restaurant (just "x" out the little pop-up and use the direction arrows to spin the picture around) or click on the "Kuvagalleria" link on the left, which will bring up a bunch of photos (clicking on the photo will bring up the next picture). It looks like it would be a pretty interesting place.
Zetor also has model tractor toys for kids. This picture comes from a nifty blog called "Swifty's Garage" that is entirely about model cars and other model vehicles (it is actually pretty interesting because there is information about the toy car and the real car with a little social/economic history thrown in). The Zetor 5511 was the "Tractor of the Week" just about a year ago.
The new tractors have fancy new electronic systems and they advertise themselves as "the first smart tractor". They say they have an intelligent "hitchtronic" system. I do not know what that is. But, if it is what it sounds like--something that hitches the tractor to other equipment--as someone who has spent quite a bit of time pulling on grease collars while trying to get the stupid hydraulic hoses hooked up, I am pretty much in favor. It looks like they have six or seven models, of varying size and power but not the incredibly massive ones that you see sometimes in the US, probably reflecting the different face of agriculture in Europe. If you want to see more (and bigger) pictures, this link will take you right to the Zetor home page's image section.
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