All things considered, today has been an excellent day. I slept in, then woke up and listened to the rain inconsistently pound against the window. Did a load of laundry, ate some breakfast, watched Polish MTV and British Top 40 videos for a while. Then I got dressed and went to a soccer game- KSP Polonia vs. Lech Poznań.

I was a little late because the traffic getting there was horrendous, and the line for tickets was long. But I stood in it with everyone else and watched bits of the game through the fence. I finally got to the counter, all prepared to pay my 20 złoty, and asked for one ticket. The woman asked if it was for me, I warily said yes, and she said, "Oh! Women get in free today. Just go to the gate." Well! *That* was a nice surprise. Sure enough, the gate attendants just let me in for free. I staked out a good standing spot at the top of the Galeria Kammiena and watched the game from there.

Pretty exciting! No scoring for about 30 minutes in the first half, then all of a sudden, this one Polonia player, Filip Ivanovski (#8), scored a *beautiful* goal. His playing style reminds me a lot of the Sharks's #8, Joe Pavelski- they're both fast, accurate, and *always* seem to be in exactly the right spot to make a great assist or goal. Must be something about that number. In this case, Jarosław Lato brought the ball all the way down the sideline, then passed it over to Mariusz Zasada. He passed it to Ivanovski who put it straight into the goal. Just glorious! Daniel Mąka scored a second goal about 5 minutes later, leaving the score 2-0 before halftime.

They didn't do so well in the second half. Poznań scored a couple of really easy goals that should NOT have gotten through. But toward the end of the half, Ivanovski scored his second goal of the game, from a perfect spot *right* by the left goalpost. Poznań's goaltender never saw it coming. Poznań scored their third goal about 5 minutes before the game ended, and the final score was a 3-3 tie. Pretty good game!

I had a beer in a nice place down the road called Karafka- I think I've *finally* found a comfy, non-trendy and reasonably-priced place to drink beer! Nice interior, good energy- reminded me of the pub back home. After that, I took the bus down to Nowy Świat and picked up more coffee at Starbucks. Before I left, a sweet friend had kindly given me a huge bag of Christmas Blend, my favorite, which I took with me. I've got about one more mug left, then it'll be gone- sad! But I picked up a bag of Sumatra, and they even ground it for my French press.

Bought a strawberry turnover from a little patisserie called Vincent for later, then came home, picked up milk and water, and am now about to put on my Kelly Clarkson and Behemoth cds and do some MAJOR cleaning.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!