Antonín had to memorize this little poem/nursery rhyme for school (illustrating the difference in pronunciation between the long & the short A, in theory).

Pizza, We Love You (or try to)

We finally decided it was time to step out &  begin our search for the pizza we can all love (it's been over two months!). We chose Grossetto's in Dejvice, as it's been there a long time, gives a nice "Italian restaurant" impression & is relatively close to home.

Of course, the fact that we've been there a few times (albeit many years ago) & didn't recall the food one way or another, should maybe have tipped us off.  The food was fine.  Expensive.  The atmosphere was very pleasant.

The pizza,  was, of course, not exactly right.  Too many odd ingredients.  The "pepperoni" wasn't pepperoni at all- more of a bacon with a lot of bell peppers & chilli.  The "margarita" was okay- the mozarella came in odd little plops but at least the basil was in large enough leafs to easily remove.

Lily was unhappy that she couldn't find an alfredo sauce & turned her nose up at the green pasta with mushrooms that she did order (although it was fairly tasty).  The crust was nice & thin. The lemon beverages that the kids had tasted like fresh-squeezed lemon juice (& about as sweet).  It was fun to go out, the place was nice, but, in the end, will be crossed off our Pizza Quest list.  Pizza is, after all, a serious business.

dismissal

We're still trying to sort out the picking-up of the kids from school. They all get out at different times- & the times they're out vary from day to day (perhaps by spring, we'll have sorted it out)...

September 11th- the part to celebrate...

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Thank you for being such a wonderful mother & grandmother.

Have a lovely time today- we miss you!

Delicious

Today's Lunch Option #2:  Liver & onions- that old favorite of children everywhere (luckily they also had the refreshing beverage option of green tea, to help wash it down)...

What Doesn't Kill Us

It seems that the kids in the school (at least the older ones) are put in a "homeroom" class based on the foreign language they've chosen.  That group of kids then has pretty much the same schedule through the day.  Our kids were given teachers based on which teacher would deal best with a non-czech-speaker in their class.  Nikolaj's class has both English & French- so he gets to take English (although he thinks he'd prefer French, as his English teacher keeps using him to illustrate various points or- more distressing- write things on the board).  Lily, on the other hand (being older) was put with a wonderful teacher (who, much to Miss Lily's displeasure) has a Spanish-tracked class- & 2nd-year Spanish at that.  What doesn't kill us makes us stronger...

The 2nd-graders in this school are ahead of our La Conner brethren.  Antonín likes to gaze off into space during school.  Antonín has a lot of homework.

Yesterday was another day with the Foreign Police- this time in the distant office for long-term residency.  This office is in a remote industrial district, & we were lucky that Zdenek had been there before, as the entire street has just one number (because it's all the same business- up until the foreign police).  We were not so lucky that we had already given my photos to the Other foreign police, as we were sent away to find a place to take some more- before we could even go in.  After the return trek & the inevitable wait, it seems we didn't need the photos afterall.

policing the foreigners

Another day, another morning killed at the foreign police.  This time, it appears that we're making a little progress & someone has finally taken the lead & decided how to progress with an expired long-term residency (rather than just send us willy-nilly to another part of Prague).  Tomorrow we head to, well, another part of Prague (just not willy-nilly) to a different office of the foreign police, hopefully now with the correct paperwork to enable me to, in time, be granted (once again) my long-term residency- rather than another two years of temporary as was threatened. So we'll see.

Today is the first day that the kids get a choice of hot lunch- there are three options that they put up on the school website (the girls in Lily's class told her that #1 is, virtually always, the option to go with)- & we knew that you were supposed to order a day ahead but when we tried to do it on-line (where we thought we were supposed to) we failed.  They are supposed to make these arrangments themselves, in person (& in advance- no judging by what actually looks good), to complicate things.  Of course.

Today after school they also have their first afternoon of Czech for foreigners- a 45 minute class once a week- & you'd think they were being sent to pick up trash at the train station with all of the kicking & screaming.

re: The House Dinner

It was very nice, pan Hatle (the owner) started off with a champagne (something akin to juice it was so sweet) toast & then proceded to grill many rich pork products.  The frittata was good- although not as delicious as we know it should be- not as creamy & considerably spicier. The people are very pleasant.  Our children behaved very nicely.  The (very ill-behaved) little boys from downstairs came late & got sent to bed early.  It didn't rain on us.  All in all, a nice evening.