i am currently drinking a glass of red wine from a coffee mug in the kitchen of this week's home while a russian puppeteer cooks two whole pots of mushrooms; they smell marvelous. this week's home is the sculpture facility of the school where my photography classes are being held. the building looks like a big red barn and is about 3km away from our classrooms in a wooded area next to a big yellow mansion with delightful art nouveau interiors that sits high on a hill and looks out over the river. melissa and i are living in a student studio room on the first floor of the building that has been converted to a dorm for the week with the addition of two little cots; there is also a sink and a window and plenty of floor space. above us there are two light-filled loft spaces which are scattered with paint-covered easels and chairs set against voluptuous backdrops, devoid of models for the time being. in the basement is a dark maze of print-making facilities, lithography and silkscreen and who knows what else, large flat stones and gargatuan paper cutters and drying racks, old work hanging from lines and scattered on the floor as if class was just let out...except for a thin veil of dust covering it all. the whole place- all three floors- is littered with paint brushes cans thick with dried paint and scattered sofas and bottles and ceramic busts and bodies; all these faces, faces, faces, who made them? it is magical. melissa and i have been loaned some bikes belonging to the school, and we bike the 3km to and from the art building on a gravel road along a lake, in the morning, in the rain, in the twilight hour. this is our third night but class started today, and i will be spending the next week painting with light under the tutelage of jan pohribny, a professor of mine from prague two summers ago. thw whole thing is 75 euros, workshop and board and so far a little bit of food. that is what you get from a country that provides universal higher education for nothing, essentially. there is too much to say, and i will say it all later, i hope.