Finding Pat

As I sit coloring the Bible for my Precept on Precept Bible Study, a memory came and I had to share.

My brother has cerebral palsy. He can feed, dress, and toilet himself, but that is about it. He spends his days in a sheltered workshop. He also does jigsaw puzzles and knows every word to every Partridge Family song.

When he was little, he was given a little rubber squeaky lamb named Josie that he loved. Over the years, Josie has been worn out with love, like the Velveteen rabbit. Josie was replaced as long as they were still being made, and even now I hunt them down as antiques on eBay. The ones I find no longer squeak because the rubber has hardened, but they are still capable of being loved.

My brother likes to “read” books. I have no clue what he is thinking when he looks at the words. Does he understand any of it?  He can write out the words to Partridge Family songs, so he must be seeing something.   One day he got ahold of the family Bible. And the next time that my mom looked through it, she saw that the word “lamb” was underlined in every single place that it occurred. Lambs of sacrifice, lambs of the good shepherd and Lamb of God.

My mother was horrified! But now I can only smile and think that he was doing inductive study.

My grandfather, Karel Dockal, was a baker.  I never met him, since he died when my mom was 7 years old.  She remembers him making strudel on the kitchen table, the dough covering the entire table. And she remembers him rolling it up in one motion.

I went to a strudel demonstration the other day, and not only got to see it being done, but also had a hand(two hands) in the stretching.

 This is my sister-in-law, Ellen Vogel, preparing the dough.  Flour, egg, and a little sunflower oil are mixed in a round wooden bowl.  The dough is then thrown into the bowl several times, like breaking in a new baseball glove, to remove the air.  It then rests in a bath of sunflower oil for 30 minutes.

Then, on a table the size of a card table, with a tea towel on it, the dough is stretched as in the following pictures.  The dough is stretched thin enough so that you can read a newspaper through it. Then the filling is spread across half.

After that, a small margin is rolled around the sides, sunflower oil spread on the edges so that it can seal as it rolls, and the dough is rolled by lifting the edge of the towel and coaxing it along.

Here’ s a few pictures with the stab we made at it.

The finished product!I have seen 2 other techniques for rolling out strudel dough.  One was in Vienna at a strudel demonstration at the Palace.  They had a motorized lazy susan that spun while the person rolled the dough with a rolling pin.  And in Budapest, at the Strudel House, the guy threw it in the air like pizza dough. And they had savory as well as sweet fillings.

 

In the eight weeks that I have been in the Czech Republic, i have been looking for people that look like me. Often I can see it in the hair color(that I used to have). Last week, in the town of Michalovice, I met my second cousin Blanka. Several people commented on how much we looked alike. What do you think?

 

 

 

And yesterday, i went to the Slaboch reunion. I really think that this relative, Karel Slaboch, looks like my dad. I have no clue on exactly how we are related, but it seemed uncanny to me on how they looked alike

We’ve been studying hard for the past two days. The afternoon finished with a Zumba class, and that revived me for the evening activities. Tomorrow is a field trip to a castle.

Day 8 August 4, 2012

Today was my birthday.  Na, na, na, na, na.  And I had a good time!  Na, na, na, na, na.   I had the best night of sleep since I arrived and woke up refreshed and rested and ready to seize the day.  In the morning, we went to a glass blowing festival in Delsne.  In the center of the festival was a huge wood burning “pizza oven”  where they had contests to see who could make the coolest glass pieces, which would later be auctioned off.  Other vendors were etching glass, making beads, anything to do with glass.  I was watching a woman make glass beads and noticed her necklace and asked if she could make one for me.  I picked out the beads she had previously made and she strung the necklace.  Happy Birthday to me!

In the afternoon, we went to another town festival that was held all over the square.  It was fun to talk to the vendors in Czech, practicing it by buying things.  It seems like I have an ice cream cone most days.  In the evening, we went back to the same festival where there was a concert by a Queen revival band.  They were popular when I was in my 20’s so it brought back memories as we belted out “we will, we will rock you”  along with the band.

Day 9 August 5, 2012

The whole day trip – you kind of have to say it the Czech way to appreciate the phrasing of that.  We left at 9 on the bus and our first stop was at a town that specialized in making lace.  After that, we continued south and stopped at a watchtower, which we were able to climb.  Our final destination was Litomisl, which is the birthplace of Bedrich Smetana and the town also has a castle in the Italian Renaissance style.  We were able to see where Smetana was born and lived for the first seven years of his life,  and also his first violin, which he received at the age of 4 and taught himself and was proficient by the age of 6.

On the way back, we stopped at a motorest restaurant known for its meats.  I had an excellent grilled chicken salad and the best ice cream to date in the Czech republic.

Dobruska – from the top of the tower

Day 7  August 3, 2012

 

I overslept breakfast and they had scrambled eggs for the first time instead of deli meats and cheese.  Dang!  But the rest of the day made up for it.

 

Right before the break in the morning, everyone got called down to the reception area.  After we were gathered, they said that there was a birthday today and also two birthdays tomorrow!  I got to stand up in front of everyone and afterward was congratulated by several people.

 

The second part of the morning was a music lesson of Czech songs and it was very fun.  In the afternoon we took a tour of the town museum and also got to climb to the top of the tower.

 

It was supposed to rain today, so they scheduled a movie in the late afternoon.  But it turned out to be a wonderful day and so several of us went to the town pool.

 

Three of my American friends took me out to dinner tonight as a pre-birthday celebration, since we will be on the go all day tomorrow.  It was very special.  Having a summer birthday, I never got the celebrations that school year birthday kids did, so  being singled out was a treat.

Day 6 August 2, 2012

Today we held the Dobruska Olympics. We were divided into 10 teams and we were the white team. Events including things like ring toss, jump rope, and Czech sayings. We were the white team, which is Bile in Czech. For a little irony, we called ourselves the white flags and our motto was that we would not surrender, no matter the opposition.

You know how on “Survivor” they have one older person that has a hard time with the physical activities? Well, that was me today. I was very good on the puzzle kinds of things, but the 26 year old that is inside my body had a hard time with the soon to be 56 year old body. Even so, it was a very fun competition and it was a great day.

Anyway…thanks to the skills of the others, we came in 2nd!!!!! There was a medal awards ceremony, complete with medals(huge chocolate coins!!!)

Homework is done, and part of the class is singing tomorrow, so we’re sailing into the weekend on a high note.

Day 6, August 1, 2012

“It is summer and the People are thirsty, so we must make beer!”

Today was a busy day. I’m very tired right now, but it’s a good kind of tired. For the first half of the morning class, we painted a poster representing where we come from. I did a camping scene. The posters are strung up in the hallway and look very festive.

In the afternoon, we went on a field trip to the local brewery, or “pivovar” in Czech. The tour was interesting, especially the description of the yeast. “Yeast cultures are like women. They are good hard workers, but when they don’t get sex, they get hot and move to the cool side of the tank. Then they make a daughter. As they eat the sugar, they make alcohol, and since they are in the alcohol, they get drunk and settle to the bottom. And what does a good husband do to drunk wife? He takes care of her. He scoops her out of the alcohol and pours cold water on her so that she can work again.”

I’ve never been on a Surly Beer tour, so I can’t compare, but the tasting room was par excellence. Our tasting was paid for in the field trip, but it was unlimited beer and they had 24 different kinds to try. My favorite was “Chipper” a grapefruit/beer combo. The Primovar brewery makes 80 kegs/hour.