Mejor.

Mejor. 

Better. 

Last night I attended my first fiesta! La Fiesta de San Mateo is a week long affair with (mostly free) concerts, children's activities and theatre events, culminating in an epic fireworks display in el Parque de Invierno. Having heard about it from the ERAMUS Facebook group a few hours before, at 9pm I stood in the giant cola (queue) for the bus and was lucky to get a seat on the 3rd one to arrive. The streets were lit up with strings of lights (like Christmas!) and las calles were rammed with people. I watched Tamara, a singer from Sevilla, and the electronic set by Kresy (both I highly recommend). The fuegos artificiales (fireworks) were spectacular; fireworks always make me feel simple and childlike amazement, they're the epitome of transient beauty for me. And the noise sounded like Oviedo was about to be reduced to rubble. 

The fiesta also emphasized how much better Spain is than Britain, in regard to society. It's probably in part to do with weather, but the Spaniards are incredibly socially and family orientated. Just walking round Gijon, it seems that everyone knows each other; clusters of people on every street looking at babies in prams and chatting, old ladies walking arm in arm (linking arms is a very common social gesture here) and despite the 'recession', every bar and cafe I walked past tonight was full. Families are often together, 2 or 3 generations larking around, while teenagers are nearly always huddled with their own (and skateboards); it's all so sociable. (My foreign-ness aside) it makes me feel a little more isolated in the social jungle here, but it's wonderful to observe people who have such a togetherness and love for company. 

I feel like an awkward distant relative visiting a large family, an observer waiting to be included. At the same time it reminds me of my own family (including the ever thought-of home-fam, my friends). 

I haven't even been here a week...