Czech Mate!

The best pickup line in Prague….:)

Today was loooonnnnggggggg…

We had two very long, not so fun business visits (or wisits as they say).

We started the day with a magically large breakfast buffet at our new hotel that was absolutely exquisite!!!

This is my dream- yogurt, granola, and fruit bar with flaxseed and nuts even!!! They know me soooo well here.

Massive vats of cereal.

more vegetables and cheese for breakfast! We really need to make this happen in the states!

Bread bar. Heaven.

This is pretty much what my breakfast looked like every day.

Oh yes mama likey!!! Don't be surprised if I come back 10 pounds heavier.

Then, we headed out by 8AM to a company about 30 minutes outside Prague in the countryside of Czech Republic. It’s called Lenit and they make hospital beds…

They are number 1 in Europe and top 4 in the world in hospital bed production (really happenin’ place, huh???)…

But really, I had no idea there was so many different kinds of hospital beds.

Horrible picture, but they had "Welcome University of Tampa MBA Students" scrolling on their official board!

Baby crib! 

The tour was awful because the poor man giving it didn’t speak two licks of English, but the presentation was pretty cool, the lady was very knowledgeable and speaks excellent English, which is hard to come by in the Republic since the language is so drastically different.

Right…..nothing but the bottom gives us ANY information at all!

For those of you who don’t know, Czech Republic used to be part of Czechoslovakia before the split in 1989 when the communist rule was over. 

Here's a map to show the surrounding countries, because if you're anything like me…you really have no idea where I am right now! Ha!

Now it’s Czech Republic and Slovakia…two different countries as the map shows. And DON’T call them an Eastern European country, unless you wanna piss them off! 

And you do not want to do that to a formerly communist nation…they could really kick your ass, let's be honest.

It’s Central Europe, and don’t get it twisted, because it’s offensive to the Czechs. That’s the only thing that’ll get em goin unless you hate on their hockey team. They love Phildelphia here too, because of the Flyers! It's kind of hilarious.

Anyway, Linet was cool, they had some really effective features on the beds, especially on their ICU beds which made me think of Kara a lot since she uses these mutha f-ers erry day.

ICU bed

Pic is sideways, but the bed transforms into chair position for patients who are having trouble breathing… cool, huh?

It was kind of dry after a while though. Unlike their mulled wine which I have become addicted to since I've been here.

Then, we headed back through Prague to the other side of the country (a stone’s throw away) to an awesome town called Kunta Hora where FoxConn (our second company visit) resides.

We drove about an hour and a half through some of the greenest land ever! Can you believe Czech is THIS green in January???

Kunta Hora, Czech Republic

I couldn’t….

It was absolutely gorgeous! It used to be a huge silver mining town, so they invested in beautiful buildings before the silver market crashed…

Our tour guide, Maerk!

Cathedral where the movie Les Miserables with Uma Thurman was shot

I WANT these doors in my house.

One interesting attraction they have here is a church with an entire floor made out of human bones.

Yes…those are real human bones. No joke people. Are you puking yet? I am.

After the war here, there was tons of famine and the Black Plague and the burial grounds were filling up rapidly so they took many of the bodies already buried, burned them but kept the bones. They used these to decorate the church.

After we explored the city, we headed to the most authentic pub we’ve been to so far.

It was SO Czech since it’s in such a quaint town.

It’s kind weird they served potatoes and green beans as entire meals. So, considering my love of vegetables, I ordered the green beans, figuring there was something else to it.

Plus I just wanted to Czech it out :)

Are you sick of my Czech puns yet?

Just Czeching…

Sorry, it’s just too easy…

Anyway, I was wrong. It was simply a giant plate full of green beans.

I didn’t hate it.

Here’s an example of Czech money!!!

Loaded.

They have really big currencies, but no worries; you move the decimal to the right one, then divide by two….

So, 200 crowns equals 10 dollars.

Everything is SOOOO much cheaper than Switzerland, but then again I guess every country is poor compared to Switzerland, or at least that’s what the Czech think.

I’m pretty sure I’ve figure out how to speak Czech already.

1.)  Change every c to a k.

2.)  Add nov and nik to everything.

3.)  Add y’s in random places

4.)  Speak really, really fast.

5.)  Say ch every time there’s a c.

6.)  Switch the sounds of the letter V and W (for example, “Enjoy the rest of your wisit!” or “Vhen you get to the bridge, go to the right….”

Follow these rules and your golden! You’ll be speaking Czech in no time!

After lunch, we ventured to Foxxcon, which is a technology based company that produces data storage, racks, servers and blades for HP, Apple, and other very large tech based buyers.

VIP pass!!!! Too legit to quit

They are the second largest exporter of Czech Republic and have a crazy structure. Here's the thing- almost every single order that comes in is different, made to order for the customers (hp, apple, etc)...

Talk about making your job difficult.

So, literally when you walk through, (pictures were forbidden or I'd show you), there are people putting hardware together according to instructions on a screen.

This kind of work requires a higher level of education than much of the Czech education provides, so the company has used an agent to bring educated employees in from Slovakia (higher education leve, but can read Czech because it’s close enough to Slovak) and Romanians (who have learned English by watching Many of our American sitcoms, haha!!).

Your welcome for bad sitcoms Romania.... you can thank us later…

You could definitely tell who was Czech/Slovakian and who the Romanians were.

They look drastically different.

The Czech have more round, very stong looking faces with very prominent noses with set back eyes. They usually have lighter or medium brown hair.

The Romanians are very sharp looking with pale skin and super dark hair. All of their features seem to be much more angular and sharp than the Czech people.

The Swiss and Dutch (which I saw in hamsterdance, or Amsterdam if you’re lame) are much lighter in coloring and have striking faces. They are all very tall and slender and stand up very straight. They’re so hot.

The factory at FoxConn was pretty basic manufacturing, but with very high technology being built. The people building had to wear little spur straps on their feet to keep them from getting shocked or bringing electrical wavelengths into the building area.

The ride back was long but all of us got to bond even more (we've been really lucky to have a laid back, fun group). We all have a lot in common!

I also learned a lot of really cool facts today by having an ample amount of time for mindless chatter.

Ok, so you know how some people sneeze when they see the sun/go outside?

Do you know why this happens to many people???

Well, it's because your face is defected and wired wrong (loser)!

When your eyes squint/ or contract, your nose thinks the same and when your muscles contract, you sneeze! Neat huh?!? I thought so…

Another thing I learned about is Good king wenceslas...you know, that dude in the Christmas song??

He looked on the feast of Eden or something??

Anyway, apparently he's from here. Cool huh? I didn't even know he was real!

Ok so the story is that he actually wasn’t a king at all! Don’t you feel duped? I did!

He was the duke of Bohemia (the area we’re in right now) around the 900s…

There's the statue of him!

He was one of the first good, outspoken Christians in a land of pagans at the time.

The story goes that his brother invited him to his castle and in a power hungry struggle actually killed Duke Wenceslas in order to become the ruler of bohemia. Some say the brother was a better ruler anyway.

How did he become a Christmas character?

A princess from the UK loved the story and made a song out of it… she turned him into a King in the song, and it stuck!

Bummer, huh?


Anyway, after a lonngggggg day, we needed to spice up our lives (if you're havin' a good time!! Shake it to the left, if you know that you feel fine!!)

Indian food it was.

Carrie and I split the vegetable korma and chicken tikka marsala, it was delish!

Final fun fact of the day… there's a YMCA across the street from our hotel. Yes, our hotel in Prague. In the Czech Republic. Does anyone else think this is INSANE?!

Czech ya later alligator!!!