We Brought the Weather with Us

Well, we are in for week two of uncharacteristically cold, wet, gray weather here. Go figure, must be our fault. All is well though, we're accustomed to it. Unfortunately, the language may take years to develop an ear for. I am overwhelmed by it, and will totally consider myself a stupid American after experiencing Shrek last weekend.
Our friend pointed out that Shrek would be playing at the local cinema. It is an American film, so we asked how they handle that, and he replied that they do it differently, sometimes they have Czech subtitles, and sometimes English. Well, I think something was lost in translation because, why would an American children's film have subtitles? We didn't think about it, we just got excited at the prospect of watching & listening to something else in English other than the Backyardigans DVD's we brought. "Your backyard friends..." if you don't know the tune, you really are missing out. Anyway, we got ourselves together with snacks, the appropriate amount of $ and carted Thomas off to his first movie theater experience. The woman at the ticket counter was perplexed by our presence, and kept repeating some word in Czech louder and louder and faster and faster as we attempted to pay for our tickets. Well, contrary to popular belief, speaking louder and faster in a foreign language doesn't help a someone who doesn't speak said language understand. The ticket attendant at the door came to our aid, but unfortunately in the confusion of being yelled at and thumbing through my Czech dictionary, and trying to control a very excited toddler Chad & I missed something. I kept repeating "It's okay, " (translation,"Chad, please ignore getting yelled at and help me find this phrase in our book") while wildly grabbing for my book as the attendant, who did speak a bit of English repeated "In Czech, in Czech," and the counter woman was yelling a stream of words I have yet to find in my dictionary at Chad. The attendant looked at me, heard "it's okay," and we got our ticket, I mistakenly said good day instead of thank you and we got in. We happily settled in for a rollicking good laugh, started crunching on fish crackers with poppy and sesame seeds, and the opening began. I sat there for the first 30 seconds of the film, wondering why the sound quality was so poor and why prince charming was speaking in old english, so thick a child couldn't understand it, I mean it was a fairy tale and all, but what child would actually understand the thick old Shakespearean accent, and where were the subtitles? Then my brain actually started to work and I remembered that I was in a foreign country that spoke, get this, it's crazy....the Czech language, and the movie had been dubbed in that language. Thomas still enjoyed about an hour of it, and I have to say the graphics told the tale well, so hats off to the animation team. I'm off to find some milk for my humble pie.