YUM!

Two weeks in and things are starting to get interesting....

A little afternoon girl time over some Szarlotka and tea at our favorite cafe. It's a bookstore in the front and a cafe in back. You can see the books in the background. Everything is made in house (even their tea bags) and delicious!

The girls and I often meet at Cafe Bona on our three hour break between morning and afternoon classes or sometimes we grab some coffee and visit when our classes start in the afternoon. It's a darling little bookstore/cafe. I like to read the children's board books in Polish. I usually don't know even half of the words! But we have lots of laughs here. We keep meaning to go to other places, but we like Bona so much that it's hard to go somewhere else.

(Left to Right) Doro, William and Shelley on our first cooking adventure!

William decided to treat us all to some French Cuisine, as he just spent the last few years in France. None of us have a complete set of dishes or cooking utensils, so we had to make a patchwork of what we all had. It turned out brilliantly, and we had a delicious meal together. It was sort of an Italian-French-Polish dish in the end. Pasta with a fresh tomato and meat sauce. We were going to add wine to the mix, but we forgot to get a corkscrew, so we had to settle for Krupnik  as an apertif (of course we had a bottle lying around). 

William fancied my 'jumper' as they call them in the U.K., so naturally we had to swap

I've also had some random interactions this week. I was running one morning and this older man stopped me and said, "good run?!" with a big smile on his face. I was completely out of breath and couldn't reply, but it made me smile. It was nice because people often give me odd looks when I'm out running. I've only seen about 3 runners, the entire time I've been here. 

I also met a boy at the tram stop the other day. He started yammering away to me in Polish and I had to tell him I didn't understand what he was saying, and asked if he knew any English (all in Polish). I helped him with the tram route and then he said I had a pretty good accent in Polish and wanted to know where I was from! He's a mathematics student at the Jagiellonian University. We talked for awhile on the tram and then went our separate ways. 

I also met my friends roommate who is Polish, 'Kinga.' She is very sweet and is fluent in German and Polish, and understands English, but doesn't speak very much. I had the most hilarious conversation with her. She would speak to me in German mostly, and I would answer in Polish and sometimes in English. When we couldn't understand each other quite, Doro would step in and translate for me. Kinga told me that I need to learn not only the language, but the culture, the people and Kraków while I am in Poland and that anytime I want to go out with her, she will take me along. She's such a dear!