^Some bulls from the bus ride to school!  I learned that the town my school is in is a big bull fighting neighborhood -- and a big bull breeding ground, too.  Explains the skewed bull to cow ratio.

One of the teachers also told me that the name "Colmenar Viejo" comes from "colmena," which means beehive in Spanish.  She said there used to be a lot of bee farms in Colmenar as well as bull ranches.

I wanted to post a longer video, but because the internet is too slow these photos, which I took accidentally while trying to record a video, will have to suffice:

Part of what makes work so great is that I get to spend one hour every week making a new bulletin board design for the lobby.  I'm lucky that my interests align so well with elementary school activities: music time, arts and crafts time, nap time. 

This was a collaboration between me and the other auxiliares:

The outside of Carlos's apartment building (where I was staying up until today):

That's Carlos's/my place on the right, level with the stop sign, and a church/park on the left.

And finally, my new room:

I'm sharing my piso with 3 guys:

1) A 20 year-old Italian, on erasmus in Madrid.  His girlfriend, also from Italy, is over often.

2) A 25 year-old Texan of Mexican decent, in the same program as me.  He just made flautas and guac for the suite.  I love it.  I feel like I'm at home.

3) A 27(?) year-old Spaniard from the Canary Islands.  He's apparently studying sound-engineering here.  I showed him Carlos's electric mandolin and he said I should pop by his room and plug it in to his amplifier some time.  He's got really nice equipment.

Gotta eat, but I'll post more soon!