Another soccer tournament...

Yes, ISP played hated Riverside, a small Christian school here in Prague, in a soccer tournament on Wednesday. The weather was absolutely horrible with a steady rain that lasted all day. They played, though, and ISP crushed Riverside 7-0 in the first game and somewhere between 7-0 and 9-0 in the second game (different sources had different scores but by that point the actual score really didn't matter). The ISP side was all boys, while all but one or two of the Riverside team were girls. I make no judgement about relative ability except to say that the boys were much more aggressive in their play.

Noah loves soccer and is convinced that because he has played in Europe he will dominate when he gets back to Minnesota. We'll see. He did score 3 goals over the two games, though, so he doesn't do too badly.


Exuding confidence prior to the first game.


In action against Riverside.


Proud but damp parents.

The rapeseed bloometh...

After dinner yesterday evening Noah and I did our usual bike ride to the spa on the edge of town. The weather the last few days has been glorious - bright sunshine and highs in the 70s.

We stopped at one of the fields of rapeseed that we pass on our ride and I took some pictures.


Here is Noah this evening standing among the blooming rapeseed.


In a post just 10 days ago (on May 4) here is Noah in the exact same spot in the field. The plants are easily a foot taller and the golden blooms are now peaking.

More biking in Horomerice...

Last year on May 1st I posted on the beautiful fields of canola/rapeseed around our home town of Horomerice. The link to that old post is here. Well, it's that time of year again, and (not surprisingly) the rapeseed is again growing and in bloom.

Noah and I took a little cycle along our usual route to the nearby spa and passed the now blooming fields. We stopped and I took this picture of Noah.


As a proud father I always knew that Noah would be out standing in his field.



We took a slight detour down a side road that goes to the main road connecting Horomerice and Prague. This memorial to someone who was killed at this spot has been up since February of last year. Just as in parts of the US, it is a common practice for friends and family of a person killed on a highway to erect and maintain a memorial. This one occassionaly has lit candles.

Bowling in Horomerice...

The weekend before last we had another bowling party at the local alley and restaurant in our litle village of Horomerice. There are only four lanes so it is usually crowded, especially in the winter.

We rented two lanes for an hour and the kids bowled on one and the adults on the other. I bowled in the 170s, which is higher than the 150 that I usually bowl. When we move back to the States I may get in a bowling league again. I still have the bowling ball that I bought in 7th grade, but I would probably upgrade. Bowling, like golf, has been greatly influenced by technology and just using the latest and greatest tools will inprove scores.

Anyway, Noah did better this time. Even though the bumpers were up to prevent gutter balls he was able to (mostly) throw the ball down the middle, and actually got a strike or two.

After bowling it was upstairs to the restaurant for dinner. For a bowling alley the restauant is excellent and reasonably priced. We made reservations ahead of time and they actually took our orders while we were still bowling, which worked out well. The only problem came when two in our group ordered a chicken dish, even though it was on the menu, they no longer served. The staff decided, instead of going back and having the two people reorder, to substitute a different dish with pork. This might have worked had the two people not been Jewish. The dish had pork, ham and bacon, so it was pretty obvious that the couldn't eat it. Anyway, they replaced the meals with a different chicken dish, but it took 30 minutes to prepare those.

More of Noah's birthday...

Everything went fine yesterday at the little get together with friends. It wasn't designed as a birthday party, but there were several kids, a lot of Wii playing, and birthday cake, so it sure felt like a birthday party. Noah even got a gift from our friends - a T-shirt for the current UEFA Cup tournament.


Here is Noah with the cake that Kathy made.


Here is one of the gifts we gave Noah yesterday. He had gotten 2 Nerf pistols for Christmas and has really got a lot of use out of them. So we decided to get him the Nerf rifle. Kathy's friend, Chris, carried it over (and only after I saw it did I appreciate the size of this thing). It seems well made and is hefty, plus it shoots the Nerf darts a long way.

Today we went to church and then into the center for a belated birthday lunch at TGI Fridays. They have one in Prague. The burgers are great, just like home, and for a while you can imagine being back in the States. There are a few places in Prague with burgers, but the ones at TGIF are the best.

Noah is 10 years old today...

Noah turns the big 1-0 today. In a way the ten years seems to have gone very fast and in another way so much has happened during those ten years that is seems longer. Anyway, we are going to visit some friends at lunchtime for pizza amd Wii. There will be lots of kids there. It isn't a formal birthday party, but we will have a cake for him. His birthday party is being postponed because a lot of his friends are gone now through next weekend because they are off school. We have some gifts for him that he will get later today - we used our recent visitors as mules to carry stuff here from the States. I'll post more later.

On another Noah-related topic, even when you are 9 years old you can be reunited with an old friend. On Wednesday Noah got to see his friend William Christiansen, who moved back to Denmark after the last school year. His family cam eback for a visit and he and Noah were able to get together.

Guys' weekend - Part 2...

When we got back to the house on Saturday, Noah and I had a bike ride following our usual route - down the street to a dirt road that leads to a spa (or sanitorium as it is called here) and then back again. It's not that far, about a mile each way.

The weather was pleasant - low to mid-40s but sunny. The weather in Prague has been quite nice since a colder than nornal December and lately has been reminicient of last year's amazingly mild winter. It might be a little cooler this winter than last, but I suspect that we have had more sunshine which makes it all more bearable. The long stretches of dull grey really get old.

We went to Bohemia Bagel in the neighboring village of Nebusice (where his school is) and met several other families for dinner. They were all going to a music recital at the school at 7 PM but Noah and I decided to skip that. Bohemia Bagel just recently opened out here in the hinterland and it is great to have it here. Good burgers and fries at reasonable prices, English is understood and used by the staff (since expats are a major demographic) plus they have a kids area with free Playstation 2. Noah wanted to get there a little early to make sure he got to play some NHL 2008. Mission accomplished.

It wasn't long before everyone showed up about 15 people from four families. The kids played well together while the adults chatted. The meals for me and Noah totaled only about $20.

After we got back home we watched four episodes from season 19 of The Simpsons. I have a connection from the laptop to our big screen TV so we can watch it more comfortably. I had the big screen shipped to Prague only to discsover that it is not multi-signal and won't play the Sky TV satellite shows that are in PAL. So we can only use it to play DVDs and shows of the laptop. We have a small TV that we use to watch Sky.

After The Simpsons Noah played on the computer a bit and then I took him up to bed. We read to him every night and alst week we finished with The Hobbit and have moved on The Fellowship of the Ring.

Sunday was less interesting. We went into the city for his Sunday school at St. Thomas only to discover that there was no class this week so we had to turn around and go home (he didn't mind). We took another bike ride and then he split time between playing at a friend's house and playing on the computer. Kathy and her friends got back from Vienna about 5:30 PM and I picked them up at the Dejvicka metro.

It was a great guys' weekend - arcade games, burgers and fries, The Simpsons, bike riding, and reading a good book. I wouldn't want Kathy to be gone much, but once in a while is OK.

A guys' weekend...

Kathy hopped on a train to Vienna on Friday morning to meet up with her two friends, Kim and Chris who had left Prague for Salzburg on Monday and then went on to Vienna on Thursday.

This is Kathy's thir trip to Vienna in less than a year. We went there early last June, and then she when with her family when they came for a visit last Fall. It's a very beautiful and very civilized city no matter how many times you visit.

With Kathy gone, though, it turned this weekend into a "guys only" affair. I left work early on Friday to pick up Noah from school. We didn't do anything special on Friday night, just spaghetti and TV, but Noah seemed to like "roughing it" without mom.

The plan for Saturday was to go to the mall at Cerny Most (literally "Black Bridge). There is a pseudo Check E. Cheese's there, called Miki Land (I wonder what other kids oriented brand they are trying to rip off?). Lots of old video games that give out tickets, which you then turn in for crappy prizes. The difference between Miki Land and an actual Chuck E. Cheese is that you can get a lot of crappy things with the tickets you win instead of just a few crappy things. We had gone there not long after we moved here (maybe October of 2006) and Noah has wanted to go back ever since.

A sign for Miki Land sign greeted us outside of the mall as we entered, and we stopped at a KFC for lunch to get our energy level up for all the gammes we would be playing. Unfortunately, when we got to where Miki Land was supposed to be we found a bowling & billard pub instead. Miki Land was gone - perhaps sued out of existence by Disney.

Noah was crushed, and his spirits weren't raised when the foosball game we tried to play in the new place wouldn't work. It had suddenly gone fron a "best weekend ever" to one of the worst.

We walked around to see if Miki Land might have just relocated to a different location within the mall, but that didn't appear to be the case. I was scrambling to salvage the day and so dragged him into a sporting goods store to look for a soccer jersey or ball. He found jerseys he liked, but they were over $100 and I didn't want to pay THAT much to cheer him up.

We were just about to head home, dejected and defeated, when I remembered that there were movie theatres on the top floor of the mall. And where there are movie theatres you often find video games. This time I had called it right - there was a decent sized arcade up there with a variety of shooting, racing and sports games. He immediately perked up.

The mall at Cerny Most

I gabbed $20 in change from change machine and gave him a handful of 10 crown coins. He gravitated to a soccer game and basically was rooted there for the next 90 minutes. This soccer game, like just about every other game in the arcade, was not new. To give you an idea of how old the socer game was, you could fight for the World Cup playing as Yugoslavia.

90 minutes and about 300 crowns later we headed home. It's not quite as easy as back home. First there was the 2 block walk from the mall to the metro station. We grabbed the metro (on the yellow line) to the Mustek station where we switched to the green line and on the end at Dejvicka. Then we hopped in our car parked on the street (to save the $2 cost of parking in a lot) and 15 minutes later we were home. All in all about a 50 minute trip from the mall that is probably less than ten miles away as the crow flies.

I'll finish the detail of the guys' weekend tomorrow.

More Noah soccer...

Yesterday was the first Jaro soccer since before the holidays. Jaro is the Czech coach, and he is well known enough that his soccer classes/camps fill up quickly and have waiting lists. Noah loves it, but (as I posted before) when he started he was made fun of because his skills were so underdeveloped compared to the European kids (I don't think there are any other Americans in the group).

Noah had his new soccer uniform (more correctly known as a "football kit") consisting of shirt and shorts that we had bought at a market in Rome for 25 Euros. He loves getting new soccer clothes - this kit is from Inter Milan and it has the name of the club's star, Adriano, on the back.

Here is a short clip showing Adriano in action.


The kids do warm ups and drills for about 25 minutes and then spend the rest of the time in a game. Noah has had success recently both as a goalie and a scorer, but today his team went down to a 6-1 defeat. He spent about 1/3 of the game in goal and gave up two goals.

Noah and the rest of his football mates warm up with some skill drills.



Noah (far left) is the goalie and this shot that got by him couldn't be stopped by his defense (in blue).


Noah deflected this shot up and off the metal - the ball is visible just hitting the crossbar. It was a highlight in a game filled with lowlights.

Bowling party in Horomerice...

The RFE/RL parents' group had a bowling party at the lanes in Horomerice on Sunday. It's just a two block walk from our house to the bowling lanes so it was very convenient for us (and it meant that I could have a beer since no driving was involved).

There were probably 15-20 kids of RFE/RL parents and they all attend one of the several international schools in Prague. Most, like Noah, attend the International School of Prague (ISP) but others attend Riverside, a small Christian school, the English school or the Britich School of Prague. Many nationalities were present today, which adds to the fun.

There are just four lanes and we rented them all for three hours. It was a lot of fun and a good thing to do on a grey, dreary Sunday afternoon (but just about all Prague winter days are grey and dreary).

Noah at soccer...

Noah played soccer yesterday for the first time since having the "lucky cast" removed and it was the last soccer session before the 3-week holiday break that starts today.

He had another stellar outing, scoring 5 goals and again surprising his compatriots. Kathy told me that a couple of mothers commented to her how much better Noah is playing. So I guess it wasn't the cast.

Cast off today...

No, I don't mean in the maritime sense. Noah got the cast off his left arm this morning. The report from Kathy was that all went well and Noah is glad to be able to scratch his arm and looks forward to taking showers again.

Ironically, his performance in sports over the last week has been much higher than usual, even with his cast on. As I had posted earlier, at basketball last Saturday he had an exceptional day. Noah hasn't played much basketball so I would have expected him to be in the lower half of the kids as far as performance goes, and with his cast I was pretty sure he would be lucky to touch the rim with a shot. But he appeared to be one of the highest scorers, if not THE highest scorer on the court. Plus, he did a fair amount of passing the basketball as well, so it wasn't that he was a ball hog - he just made about 75% of his shots.

Yesterday we let him play soccer for the first time since he got the cast on. He wasn't allowed to play in goal, but everything else was fair game. Noah has taken to soccer, I suppose since it is very popular here, we get a lot if it on TV and his non-American friends don't know about baseball or American football. Noah started way behind his friends in ability since they had been playing soccer exclusively their whole lives. They even made fun of him earlier on for not making some plays that they felt were easy. Well, it turns out that yesterday he scored six goals- the most that he has ever scored - by far - and he lead the kids in scoring, just like in basketball on Saturday. From Noah's description, a couple of the goals seemed to have been accidental, having gone in on what he intended to be passes. So maybe it was just a lucky day for him. By the end of the game, though, his friends had decided the source of Noah's new sporting prowess - it was the "lucky cast".

With the cast now history we will see if his recent sporting success was 1) luck, 2) related to normal maturing and increased coordination or 3) the "lucky cast".

Basketball...

Basketball for Noah started up at ISP last Saturday, but we were in Germany, so today was today was his initial session. He still has his cast, but we decided to let him play anyway. Sports are such a big part of his life that it's almost impossible to keep him from playing.

Considering he had his cast he did very well and probably led the 25 or so kids in scoring. He was quite pleased with himself. Anyway, I would guess that basketball will overtake hockey as Noah's winter sport (and that would be OK with me).

About half way through the hour practice the coach walked up to me and said something like "I coach high school kids who won't play because they have a jammed pinky, and here I have 9 year-old who won't let a cast stop him from playing".

Thanksgiving in Prague...

As mentioned before, Noah had school on Thanksgiving and I had the day off so Kathy and I had several hours to ourselves. We visited the museum at Lidice and I will post on that later.

A bunch of us Americans arranged to rent out a private room at a restuarant/hotel in Nebusice (the village where Noah's school is). The place is called U Ade and we had not been there before even though it is within 5 minutes of our house. The room we had was very spacious and had a full stage with lights and sound. We found out that schools often rented the hall out for their school plays. T

We had the restaurant provide the turkey, corn, peas and mashed potatoes. We each brought a dish to share - Kathy brought her very popular sweet potatoes and there were also lots of desserts.

There were about 30 people in all, including about a dozen kids. The boys primarily spent their time playing on the foosball table that was in the back of the room and the girls (and a few boys) used the stage to dance and lip synch to the High School Musical soundtrack. The kids all played together very well and the evening was very pleasant. It was as close to a "normal" Thanksgiving that you could hope for while in Europe.

When we got home I turned on the satellite TV ans watched the second half of the Packers-Lions game. Perfect!


Here is the room.
















A stage and foosball table kept the kids occupied.

Noah is on the 21-day disabled list...

Noah was playing team handball after school today and was backpedaling fast when he fell backwards and fractured his left wrist. Kathy was at school at the time and took him to a clinic close by called Unicare. ISP had called ahead and they were waiting to look him over. They were great but unfortunately their x-ray technician had left for the day so Kathy had to get him to MOTOL, the largest hospital in central Europe, and where foreigners generally go.

This is where it gets a little frustrating. Kathy called me at work to let me know what had happened and that they were going to MOTOL. Even though it is only about 10 minutes away from the clinic I suggested that they take a taxi since it was rush hour and (since it was later than 4:30) pitch black. I had to figure out how to get there since it isn't on a metro line. So instead of both of us just driving there like we would in the States it was like planning an invasion.

Noah ended up convincing Kathy to drive to MOTOL and thank goodness she got directly there. We had done a driving dry run to MOTOL last spring - just in case - and it paid off. I got there about 15 minutes after them but it was a trick finding them because of the size of the complex and the language barrier. Twice I went up to an information desk and said "X-ray?" hoping they would point me in the right direction and twice the nurse picked up her phone, dialed a few numbers and handed me the receiver. Yes, I was talking to someone in the X-ray department, someone with very limited English skills. I guess they figured that calling the x-ray department was less work than trying to give me directions. Anyway, Kathy ended up texting me and got me to the orthopedic waiting room while they were getting Noah's arm X-rayed. A few minutes later they were back and we were all together.

The doctor, who had decent English, asked Noah what had happened (and I got that "son, you can tell us if your father beat you" vibe) and he relayed how he had fallen backwards at school. The doctor pressed various spots on his arm and you could really tell when he hit the "spot" as Noah almost hit the ceiling. But he was a real trooper and didn't cry.

The doctor left to review the X-rays and came back a few minutes later to say that nothing was dislocated but there was a small fracture and Noah would have to be in a cast for three weeks. So the plaster cast (yes, plaster) was on in ten minutes and we were on our way.

The good news - the whole thing only cost $50 (and we should get that back from the insurance company).

End of the year soccer...

Noah's Saturday soccer came to an end today. Afterwards there was a final game and then a lunch with hot dogs, chips, cookies. etc. He had his best game of the season so he was thrilled. He started in nets and gave up three goals - none of them weak - and then switched to offense and scored five goals. The final was 9-9 after a shootout (they normally continue the shootout until there is a winner, but the hot dogs were coming off the grill, which necessitated the draw).


Big save in the shootout.














And another.















This one got past him.

Rugby in Prague...

Noah started playing rugby today. I have always thought that his build was well suited to the more physical sports like football and rugby, and now we will get to see if that hunch is right. He plays on Sundays from 11:00-12:30. They have two groups - on for the younger kids (third grade and younger) and the second group for everyone else. The younger groups plays flag rugby, with no real contact. The older group, of which Noah is a part, is full contact, with tackling and scrums. He had a tendency to be ahead of the ball on offense, which isn't the palce to be since rugby is a game of laterals. Be he enjoyed it and made one "try" (equivalent of a touchdown).

First day of school 2007...

Tuesday was the first day of school at the International School of Prague (ISP). They start school earlier here than back home, but they get more time of during the school year. There's a week in October, three weeks at Christmas, a week in February and a week in April. All of these breaks give families the opportunity to go back home - wherever that it.

Here is Noah in his new 4th grade classroom. He has Ms. Light as a teacher. We hear that she is a bit of a disciplinarian, but that is OK with us. Noah needs structure to do well. He reported at the end of the day that he liked her so far, but he had heard that she was always nice the first day, and then got mean. I guess we'll find out today.

Rollerblading in Horomerice...

Noah strapped on Kathy's rollerblades yesterday - yes, they fit - and zoomed several times around the block. Then after supper he did it again while Kathy and I stolled leisurely around the block behind him. It was a beautiful evening after a few days of rain, so the walk was nice. Perfect temperature, around 70 degrees, and the sun low on the horizon.

We discovered that a new family had moved into the neighborhood in one of the several empty homes that are for lease. We could hear from across the fence as we walked by that they are British (or at least the mom yelling at her kids in the pool is). At the same time, one of Noah's friends, Uval, is moving to Israel with his family so that will create another opening in the neighborhood. There's always change - families coming and going. A year ago it was us, now we are "old hands".

Noah's summer in Minnesota...

Here are a couple of pictures from Noah's summer back in MN. One is his baseball team - he did very well with some improved fielding and power hitting. Being one of the bigger kids he has always batted well - you can see from the picture that he is almost a head taller than the other kids. He had a home run in the last game before coming home to Prague. The second picture is of Noah with his friend Jack. It was great that he was able to re-connect with friends over the summer. Perhaps the connection will stay until we return - that would make things easier.