Una fiesta grande en Oviedo :)

Today is a holiday only celebrated in Asturias, which is the part of Spain I live in here in Oviedo. The holiday dates back to the thirteenth century to celebrate the donation made by Balesquita Giraeldez the guild of tailors in Oviedo. She used to give little "bollu preñau" or a pastry with sausage in the middle to the poor. Now on martes de campo everyone gets the day off of school and work and heads to the park for a day of fun and sausage sandwiches! My friend Katy, who lives here in Spain, invited me to go and it was SO MUCH FUN! It was an awesome time being able to really experience the holiday from the inside. We went to El Parque Invierno which is huge! Scratch that, gigantic! I swear it goes on for miles and up into the hills. They have tables, places to buy snacks, a huge indoor field house of some kind, playgrounds, skate parks, workout machines and much much more. It's basically the most fantastic park known to man. We met up with a bunch of people there [the kindest you will ever meet] and enjoyed a day of fun in the sun.

First we all played card games and if you know me you know I LOVE card games. I'm obsessed so it was great. It was really Interesting to learn the card games that kids play here compared to back in the states. They have some fun games that I came home and wrote down all the rules so I can come home and play them with my family and friends. Excited. It was also interesting being taught a game in Spanish. At times it was incredibly confusing but they were all so patient and helped. Most the games turned into a major competition and we ended up playing for hours. There was also soccer to play and this game that was sort of like steal the flag but everyone on the two teams gets assigned numbers and your race. Even the adults participated it was so fun. Then it was finally time to eat [i starve waiting for it finally to be meal time]!! They brought food for me which was so nice! I had tortilla [once again, the best thing ever], bread, and my own little bollu preñau. My host mom had given me a little sample one the night before, so cute of her, so I knew it was good but it was delicious! Then to top it off silvestor made us some "cerveza mormóm" aka cerveza, which Asturias is famous for, without the alcohol. It was so fun and delicious! And I finally got to try some cerveza... Well sort of :) so once again the food was to die for. I've just come to the conclusion that that's how all the food is in Spain. After lunch we played more and more card games and then Matthew let me take his bike for a bike ride. It was so fun to back on a bike again! I miss the bike rides on Saturday mornings with my mom! Definitely going to start those up again when I get back home. Anyways it was a great ride.

After our adventure at the park which was basically the entire day, Douk and I went and walked all over the other side of oviedo that we hadnt really been to yet. The beauty of this city just never ends. Its all so clean and full of character! The only tough thing is just the streets of Europe that make no sense with all their twists and turns! It was a great adventure. And i have found earned something from all my walking here. Some of the traffic lights take forever to go red. You could be sitting there waiting forever. But lesson learned: if the spaniards Jwalk Jwalk with them. Some how they know the perfect time to do it with the confusing lights and cars. If an American Jwalks DO NOT FOLLOW! Major danger. Words to live by I promise.

The main park where martes de campo is celebrated is el parque sanfranscico. So me and Douk stopped here on our way home and boy was it nuts! My host mom told me that's where she was headed and everyone else and she wasn't kidding! They had blow up rides, tons of food, different music playing everywhere, and a fun flee market! So we had a good time walking all through that. Check out the picture of the balloon man, what will people think of next! When I was little balloons were round and only one color! Imagine up with balloons like that! During our walk we found the best panadería [bakery] in Oviedo. Their eclairs are also the best thing ever. I'm aware I have said this about many things but it's the truth. Looks like we've found our new favorite place to hang out, they've got great food, free wifi, and tables with room to play cards (we play hearts religiously. It's cut throat).

I'm so grateful that i was able to celebrate martes de campo today. It was awesome to be surrounded by the Spanish atmosphere and just soak it all in. I learned not only new card games but spanish well! Tomorrow after school we get to go to the aquarium in Gijón should be fun so stay posted for that! Audios :)