California IX - Plastics in the oceans

By coincidence, Laku showed me yesterday this interesting video. It is honestly quite alarming, so are we turning eco? :)

California VIII - Food Wasting

Today I would like to give a short thought to this general IN-trend of saving, saving energy, saving sources, saving our planet. Everybody today who doesn't want to be considered a moron and a reactionary declares how she/he back-ups recycling and saving the environment and as I have Americans right now all around myself I have to be prepared to listen to a half hour speech (they call it dialog) about how they, meaning their family, live modestly and effectively and save every resource that enters there household. Water, gas, paper, tin cans, energies etc.

But then, I went to a Valentine's party at David's local pre-school. The kids were treated with ice cream with all sorts of toppings, as chocolate spread, sugar sprinkles, whipped cream, caramel sauce and cut fresh fruit. They were offered by helping parents all these goodies and they were given what they asked for. But after a while when they started to be distracted by other kids playing around or just to be filled up, they started to throw their left-overs away in a huge nearby standing garbage bin. Full plates of a very good (most likely organic) ice cream were disposed into a big black rubbish bag. No one was surprised neither trying to stop them, not even me, I just made sure that David finished his portion of his treat. They practice it at school in a similar way everyday at snack time, kids help themselves with cereals, milk, cheese, crackers, fruit or whatever they have and when they feel they want to stop they take the paper plates with rest of the food to the bin. So you can see a boy carrying a bowl filled to the rim with milk and cheerios, splattering the stuff all over the floor, heading to the bin.

I am sure that without this basic private forehanded custom these kids won't be able to save more important resources in future and act considerately to the environment. And it throws a significant shadow for me on their parents' proclamations about their responsible recycling family policy. I've just read that Americans (each and everyone) in average throw away 0.5kg of food a day which sounds surreal to me. And that more arrogant around the world are only British (hence the flourishing foxes in cities) and Japanese. On the other end of the scale, the most progressive within the Euro-American civilization are Swedish who are far far ahead in trying to handle there energy consumption vs. environment conflict in a reasonable and honorable manner. Not that I am an environmentalist fanatic or an alternative no carbon person, I just try to be as effective and moderate as possible and do have, probably because of my Central European past, my limits still little lower and, in the end it saves our family money a bit, too.

California VII - Dejduv babylon

Tak jsme v posledni dobe s Laku sklouzli do categorie 'hey, guys'. Dejda prejima stale vic a vic anglickych slov a tak misto tradicniho 'mili rodicove', jsme jen guys, 'hey guys, co takhle si zahrat nejakou hru'. Do bezne mluvy se mu vyrazy ze skolky dostavaji cim dal casteji a tak zacinam mit pocit, ze je to trochu boj s vetrnymi mlyny, nutit ho mluvit cesky. Nastesti uz je dost stary, ze si uvedomuje, ze mluvi dvema jazyky, a kdyz se soustredi, tak je schopen drzet se jednoho nebo druheho jazyka, coz se ted snazim prosadit. Bud jednim nebo druhym, nemixovat prosim. Bohuzel v ani jednom jazyce nema slovni zasobu jako v obou dohromady. Takze kamaradovi na navsteve rikal: 'Now you can't see my kolenas' a doma nam vypravi nejake bojove situace asi v tomhle stylu: 'Pak prijel tenhle ship a udelal velkou shotku a tohle auto takhle flipped.' Smutne, ja vim, ale ocekavatelne a snad s postupem casu i zvladatelne. Nicmene to stejne zachranim jen pro nej, dalsi generace tady v tomhle prostredi uz nema sanci. Nejvetsi moje ostuda je, ze v cestine neni stale schopen dopocitat ani do deseti, v anglictine pocita uz skoro do stovky, obcas se mu sice plete poradi, ale zna ta slova aspon. Do toho je ve skolce uci pocitat i spanelsky a taky dny v tydnu atp, protoze jednak spousta deti je z hispanskych rodin a jednak je to tu oficialni jazyk, ktery budou mit i pozdeji ve skole. Takze se mi zda, ze tuhle bitvu zvolna prohravame a kdyz zustaneme delsi dobu, vlastnejsi mu asi bude anglictina. A to mluvime doma vsichni cesky a cteme ceske knizky, tak 1:1 s anglickymi, a sleduje ceske pohadky, ale stejne kamaradi a skola jsou holt dulezitejsi.

Wordle Image - Letter to a Friend in Czech

Original muzete videt na adrese http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/494509/Czech_Letter. Zkuste si to take, www.wordle.net.

California V - leden 2009

Jeli jsme s Dejdou pres San Mateo Bridge v Californii na projizdku k Lake Chabot a poslouchali pohadku od Jana Wericha 'A more, strycku, proc je slane?'. Zvlastni pocit.

Amerika IV - zimni svatky

Tak aby to nebylo moc dlouhe, Mikulase a vanoce jsem se rozhodla postihnout v dalsim prispevku.


O Mikulasovi nam rekli nasi novi znami Cecho-Holandani Jana a Maarten (4), kteri tu jsou uz pres tri roky a tak maji ruzne konexe a vedi, co se kde deje. Na besidku se prihlasovalo pres stranku bayczech.com (čti bejček) a cely formular o neplechach ci naopak uspesich ci zajmech ditete byl anglicky, tak jsem tam napsala o Dejdovi cesky. Jak se pozdeji ukazalo, nadprirozene bytosti zvladaly samozrejme oba (vsechny) jazyky, a tak komunikovaly tak, jak bylo treba. Hned vedle nas sedela babicka, zjevne ceskeho puvodu, s dvema sikmookymi vnoucaty, ktere nechapave koukaly kolem, nicemu nerozumely, ale kdyz prislo na vec, bravurne a nahlas prednesly svoje pisnicky a odnesly si zaslouzene darecky. Babicka se pak nezinyrovala a snedla asi pet taliru ruzneho obcerstveni, ktere meli zucastneni prinest, jako vanocka, strudl, vanilkove rohlicky, kokosove kulicky, asi ji ty chute z detstvi chybi, ale i koupeneho, toho doma vyrobeneho tam nakonec bylo asi v mensine.

No, a na druhe fotce muzete videt, jak to vypadalo, kdyz se vyslo ven z komunit niho centra v Sunnyvale, kde se Mikulas konal. Typicka mikulasska romanticka prosincova nalada.

Vanocni masaz tady probiha na vsech frontach uz od zacatku prosince. V obchodech hraji jen otresne vanocni odrhovacky, v televizi jdou celodenne vanocni a rodinne filmy, lidi maji ozdobene svetylkujicimi ornamenty, snehulaky a Santa Clausy na motorkach cele predzahradky a v kazdem okne se pysni preplacane ozdobeny stromecek. Ne vazne, oni ho zdobi uz se zacatkem adventu a maji je tak mohutne ozdobene, ze skoro nevidite zelenou hmotu. O kvalite stromu ani nemluve, jsou to totalne symetricti, asi osmipatrovi chlupaci, pri vzpomince na vyber z tripatrovych na jednu stranu rostlych borovicek se musim usmat. My jsme ve vyhode, ze zdobime stromecek az na Stedry den, to uz bude vsechno v 85% sleve, jestli tedy jeste neco bude. Vedle toho tady funguji farmy na vanocni stromky, kam si prijedete, vyberete si stromek presne dle svych predstav a na miste si ho uriznete. Znama mi povidala, ze si takhle dojeli pro stromek a stalo to $85.

Ve skolce nam zorganizovali vanocni vylet, jak se tady rika 'field trip', kdy jedete svym autem a s ditetem nekam na misto srazu a tam se pak neco kona. Tentokrat to bylo do Eucalyptus Road, San Carlos na prochazku a podivani se na vanocni svetla. Absolutne to predcilo moje ocekavani. Cela ulice s velkymi soukromymi californskymi drevenymi domy (jeden byl na prodej za 1.9mil $) byla naprosto absolutne vyzdobena vanocnimi svetly, sprezenimi Santa Clause, sviticimi darky se samohybne se otvirajicimi viky, tucnaky, igloo, lednimi medvedy a smerovkami na 'North Pole', samozrejme vanocnimi stromky a podobne. Na ulici bylo svetlo jak ve dne a zjevne to byla tradicni atrakce. Po ulici se prochazely houfy rodin oblecenych do zimniho obleceni - cepice, saly, rukavice, kozacky a bundy, prestoze ve vzduchu bylo asi deset stupnu a salu a rukavice je v Californii obtizne koupit. A pry tam maji jeste tenhle vikend navozit snih, aby klam byl dokonaly, ani se nesnazim uz resit odkud a jaky, proste jste v Americe a neni treba slevovat z niceho.

Jeste na zaver, ve skolce se uci zpivat koledy jako Jingle Bells a We wish you a Merry Christmas, coz je v poradku, az do te chvile, nez jsem v refrenu slysela zpivat 'We wish you a Merry Kwanzaa, we wish you a Merry Hanukkah, we wish you a Merry Christmas'. Musim se priznat, ze jsem si musela najit, co je kwanzaa, i kdyz jsem odtusila, ze to bude neco kolem africkych tradic a korenu a docetla jsem se, ze je to afro-americky svatek, ktery vymyslel Dr.Karenga v roce 1966, aby americti cernosi mohli slavit svuj vlastni svatek a odkazovat se na sve africke koreny a hodnoty a nemuseli jen slepe prebirat svatek bile vetsiny. Ty deti asi moc netusi, ale vedou je uz odmala k vedomi, ze svatky jsou ruzneho druhu a vsechny uznavame. Ale je pravda, ze ty deti, ktere evidentne maji africke koreny (mluvim slovy o dvou detech ze 36), ne jako Dejda:), si vyrabely v hodine umeni Kwanzaa korunu se sedmi svickami a hrde v ni pak pochodovaly domu. Prekvapuje me, ze neni taky varianta pro deti asijskeho puvodu, tech maji ve skolce tak deset, ale ti asi s podrizenosti nemaji problem.

Takze vam vsem prejeme vesele svatky, at uz se pri tom dusevne spojujete s predky jakekoliv rasy, narodnosti a vyznani!

K predvanocnimu zamysleni

Bruce Naumanova 'socha': One Hundred Times Live and Die