Here I am, my friends. Writing dutifully from Madrid, spain. Trying to manage with a foreign keyboard.

We�ve been here abotu three days. Hard to remember how many days really because we sort of skipped a day on the way here. Anyway, we left new york on the 11th, you can do the math.

We are staying in the Hotel Paris, which is at the head of Madrid�s "time square" if you might call it that. If you�re familiar at all with Madrid, it�s the building directly beneath the tio papa sign.

This trip has been a matter of putting clues together. for example, I got an idea of why spanish liturature is so delightfully bizarre. the whole surrealist bent on authors such as gabriel garcia marquez and julio cortazar has nothing to do with their freely creative minds. it�s all strickly a matter of upbringing. We are staying in a place famous for its "uncle father" sign, which is on a square notable for having a sculpture of a bear eating from a strawberry tree (strawberry tree?) and the center of the country from which everything is measured by is here on the ground next to our hotel, even though it�s nowhere near the center of anything. And then there�s the whole deal with sleeping through the afternoon and then staying up until four in the morning. what�s up with that?

there are a few other examples of just how strange thnigs are here but i�m too tired to remember them all.

on another note, the sweet�s grandmother is giving everyone a good scare back in upstate new york. she�s quit eating, which has left her dehydrated and malnourished. nobody knows what to do with her, including us. We�ve been getting updates via email but nothing has changed. she�s still in the hospital and nobody has any sort of solution.

Tomorrow we leave for Barcelona. It will be a great trip. yay!