>I am in my friendly neighborhood internet café, and I thought I would write an update since it has been since last month since I delivered anything.

What have I been doing? Attending classes. Often. The Children’s Literature course I am taking is really quite good, a little difficult to handle 2.5 hours of lecture at 9am without a good egg for breakfast, but I am surviving. One of the most outstanding aspects of the course is the series of conferences and colloquia that are a part of our afternoons. We are having up close and personal visits with Prize winning authors and children’s book illustrators who give us their phone numbers and email addresses or go out to eat with us. It is a really cool deal to be able to talk with them and ask questions. I have made friends with an illustrator/artist (http://www.teopuebla.com) here in Madrid who is working on an amazing mural project called GRACIAS, which consists of giant (about 6X8 foot) portraits of various historical figures who have made a grand contribution to humanity and, as a result, have died violently. Some of the portraits that are finished to date are Jesus Christ, Che Guevara, Spartacus, Martin Luther King. There are others, but I cannot remember them all right now. I was able to go to the studio this weekend to see them, up close and personal. Really quite moving. I will hopefully have some pictures of the promotional folio to share with you when I get home. A very cool experience. The artist gave me some original watercolors of illustrations that he had done for a couple of children’s books — really kind and generous.

I am still sweating like crazy over here — it has not let up. Most of my group went south to Andalucia this weekend, but I passed on that since I used to live there several years ago. I stayed here to sweat for free! Even all my Mexican pals went on a field trip for the weekend. The past two days, I ate breakfast in the dining hall completely alone!

Saturday, I went to the Museo de Reina Sofia which is co-hosting a huge Picasso exhibition with the Museo del Prado — and this time, I bought the exhibition poster so I will always have the recuerdo. I also went to a FREE exhibition called MUJERES of Gustav Klimt’s work, all studies and portraits of women that he did over the course of a few decades at the turn of the century. Very nice. Bought the poster there, too!

Only one more week of class, then we are free! I am here in Spain until the 27th, but I might take a trip this weekend to Vigo, a beach town in Galicia up North. Everyone says it is amazing and is worth the time and money. And I think I have a place to stay there, which is always a motivator!

I will go now, for I feel like I am rambling. Again. More later.