Had a really good weekend. On Friday, I took the tram out to Arkadia. There are several large malls in Warsaw, and this one is by far the biggest and most impressive. Wandered around there all evening, picked up some new books and things, discovered a great world food store that has many of the Japanese snacks I've seen in Mitsuwa. Wandered around downtown for a bit after that, then ate dinner and read the new Anne Tyler novel I'd picked up. I love her writing- next to Steinbeck, I think she's probably my favorite author. Slept well.

Slept in a bit on Saturday, but didn't spend much time inside because the sun came out for a while. Walked around my neighborhood, then headed out to Krakowskie Przedmiescie for a late lunch at a sandwich shop I like. Enjoyed tomato soup, panini, orange juice and espresso, read my book, and listened to this fascinatingly perky Polish music on the stereo. There was one song that sounded particularly catchy, and it ended up sticking in my head all weekend. The cafe guy said the artist was a man named Marek Grechuta. After lunch, I took the bus down to the University Library for an evening of studying Japanese.

It's such an odd feeling to walk into a place that's not a house and feel like you're *home*. That's how walking up the steps to the main floor of the library felt. I really miss university libraries, their resources, departments, rhythm, environment. I just walked around for a while, exploring and figuring out where things were. They have a very small Asian history section, but some interesting books. And a rather *random* literature selection. They had quite a collection of sci-fi and fantasy books, and a lone copy of Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I can't check anything out, unfortunately, but they have comfy chairs for reading, so I'll have to return again sometime.

Worked on Japanese for a while, then went out for coffee. The Gentle Barbarian was completely packed, so I ended up at Coffee Heaven. Had THE most delicious gingerbread latte ever, read some more, just relaxed. Then came home, picked up milk, talked for absolutely ages with a dear friend back home. Conversations with him always put me at ease, so I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep after that. Had blurry, watercolor-like dreams.

Woke up early-ish on Sunday, picked up coffee, then got a ride with friends out to Praga, the area of Warsaw on the non-center side of the river. A friend of ours was giving a walking tour of the area that afternoon. It was really interesting! We saw churches, old vodka factories-turned-mint, cafes, Jewish cultural centers and bath houses, old bazars, and some really old architecture. 90% of Praga survived the war, so many of the buildings there are original. It was a big group, and we had a lot of fun walking around. After the tour, some of us went to dinner at a local restaurant, then out for vodka and herring downtown. It was a really fun day, and educational!

Came home, talked to another wonderful friend for quite a while, which was nice- we hadn't had a proper chat since before I left. Put away some laundry after that and watched Supernatural, then headed to sleep. What a weekend!

Today, I had a nice dinner in a patisserie on Nowy Swiat that I love, finished the Anne Tyler book. Went to Empik and found a CD of the Polish music- the addicting song turns out to be called Dni, Których Nie Znamy. Very cute!

Hope everyone is having a good week!