Cow Parade

Currently, the streets of Madrid are filled with colorful cows. The one I have pictured is the Olympic cow, Madrid is a candidate city for the Olympic games in 2016. There are already plenty of interesting sites in Madrid, but so far I've found myself stopping to take pictures of cows mostly. They are all throughout the city, and I'm sure I haven't seen all of them. I have been walking around a lot, getting a feel for the city, what major streets connect to where, that sort of thing. I'll probably walking a bit less in February though, now that I have my Abono. That is my monthly pass which allows me to take the subway, train, and buses all within zone A of Madrid. And zone A is usually where I go, all of my classes are located within this area.

Mildred's school is a bit south of this zone. And occasionally, since I have a lot of free time during the day (for the moment) I'll hop on a train and visit her when she's on break at her school. On Tuesdays through Thursdays she has a break from 12:30 to 3pm so we get a good chance to spend some time together. Yesterday we bought some food at a grocery store and sat down in a secluded area of the local mall to eat. But, a security guy kicked us out into the cold and we sat in a cold park and dined on our bread, cheese, and sausage. Which didn't help Mildred much since she's been sick for over a week. We both blame her snot nosed children (and by snot nosed I mean she's wiping noses ) and the fact that her school provides little heat.

One of my flatmates Freddy, (he's Argentinian, but his mom is British, so he speaks English well) and I have been working out twice a week at the building where Mildred lives. Freddy's ex-girlfriend also lives in the same building. We get to work out and it gives us an excuse to see the both of them. But, last night Freddy went to the hospital because he injured his knee. Possibly during one of our times working out, not sure exactly. Aparently he has a bone in his knee rubbing up against some tendons that's causing him a lot of pain. Last night he was telling me that he will likely have to have surgery. He still wants to go work out though! He just won't do any running, all upper body.

Let me explain briefly the people I'm teaching English to. There's Ana: Female, around 30, works at Camper (a fine shoe company) engaged, loves cats, and is still struggling with English even though she's been studying it a lot of her life. There have been large gaps of time though when she hasn't studied (like 6 year gaps).

Enrique: Male, around 30, works with the Spanish military mapping satellite imagery. We talk mostly, and he's highly proficient with English. He shows me a lot of his stuff from work and I realized quickly that I never want anything to do with satellite imagery.

Guillermo and Lucas: Boys, 12 and 10 roughly. They like Xmen, Harry Potter, Sports, normal boy stuff. Lucas is the elder and knows a lot more English than his brother. Our time together isn't very structured and we do activitites and go through some books.

Alex: Boy, early teen. A lot more grown up than his age. We go to his room and we chat about school, and the weather, he loves talking about the weather. He's also attached to his computer and the internet at all times. If I bring something up, he's all over the internet searching for it.

Juan Antonio and Fernando: Boys, 12 and 11 roughly. Typical boys who laugh and have a good time when we are together. Their English is pretty basic so we have a fun time trying to communicate.

That's it for now, just 7 and a half hours of work during my week. I've done a few interviews and I've sent out my resume to plenty of places. Still looking for a lot more work, if I can get up to 20 or more hours I'll be doing more than alright for myself. As of now, I have just enough to pay the bills...actually maybe just a little under. But that shouldn't last for long.