Czech out Grace

yes, yes, yes - I do have homework. but sometimes, homework has to come second. like right now.
there's lots that i want to talk about.
i'm gonna start by putting the cutest video of Grace on here. she's started this new thing where she scrunches up her whole face - kinda creepy, but since she's only 7 months old it's actually cute.


well i sure hope that worked! here's another one of me feeding her about a month ago when she started eating "big girl food" [coming soon! i can't find it on my computer!]

of course this is a big Grace post because i just came from being with her. it's always hard to leave her! today was a gorgeous day, so julia and i went for a walk to cvs with Grace. she's definitely a head turner, and she's already got the fellas opening doors for her ;-)

but moving on - i wanted to talk a little bit about czech since that's mostly why i created this blog. here's some facts about the country:
-it's surrounded by Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Poland (one time when I was there, we hiked into Poland!)
-it used to be joined with Slovakia - hence why some people still refer to the country as "Czechoslovakia." they hate being called this because they are a republic now. this is because...
-Czechoslovakia had once been taken over by Soviet rule, and for decades they were under communist rule. i have friends (in their mid-20s) who still remember these communist camps that they had to go to, and they had to pledge to the communist party. but in 1989, the Velvet Revolution began, and by 1993 Czechoslovakia split into the Czech and Slovak Republics. They are very much two different countries.
-Czech Republic is about the size of South Carolina, and it is split into western Bohemia and eastern Moravia (many gypsies still reside in Czech, if Bohemia gave any indication of that). Apparently, there is a certain dialect of the Czech language within these two sections.
-politically, Czech Republic is a very neutral country. they don't want to take any sides. recently, the US wanted to place a military base in CZ, and many of the locals were unwilling because they didn't want to seem to take sides.

there's not much more to say right now, but there's so much about the culture to appreciate. i hope that my journey will help you to understand and know more about Eastern European culture!