Christmas is coming, the carp is getting fat...

It seems in the US the Christmas countdown has 2 groups ... those who start listening to Christmas music as early as possible, love all the excitement and a couple months ago posted "100 days left till Christmas" (and will keep posting the countdown update throughout the season), and those who definitely won't have anything to do with it until after Thanksgiving and even then it's iffy.

In the Czech, there is no Thanksgiving, so Christmas basically starts in November - though it's never  to the extent that Americans do it. But all around are signs of Christmas, and friends are asking if I've started Christmas shopping or what plans are for Christmas. In case you don't remember, Christmas holidays are December 24-26 - all three days are State holidays. I'm not sure yet what my plans will be, but I still have time. :)

I look forward to the Christmas season in Prague. Because the winter is so dark and cold, for at least 1 month there are lights and decorations and Christmas markets and all kinds of Christmas events. It makes the otherwise dreary season quite festive. So I'm counting down... 14 days until the first Christmas market opens! :)

What has been fun this year is that my choir is singing Handel's Messiah. Not the whole thing, but a number of the more well-known chorus pieces. A fun challenge for me is that I've always sung soprano, and this year I'm singing alto. And even more fun is that the Czechs don't know the Messiah, so it's exciting to explain that it's so commonly sung in the US around Christmas. And for once in this group I feel like I have a small part to contribute with pronunciation. Let me first say that I admire Czechs who have learned or are learning English (especially because so many know multiple languages), but one thing about Czech, and most other languages, is that they don't contain the "th" sound. It often comes out sounding like "d" or "t" at the beginning of word and "s" at the end of words. So funny story from the other evening at rehearsal... we were practicing "And the glory of the Lord" and the last line is "the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Except that "mouth" comes out more like "mouse"... resulting in the mouse of the Lord speaking. :) Oh, the joys of language and culture.