We went to our Dutch friend Noor's place yesterday to celebrate the Dutch holiday Sinterklaas. Apparently in the Netherlands they have two holidays when we have one. Sinterklaas means just what it sounds like it means: Santa Claus. So whereas we've smashed together a christian holy day and a more secular day of gift giving into one mega-holiday, the Dutch, as well as many of our other European cousins, have two separate days. One Santa Claus day and a separate jesus birthday.
On Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, you exchange gifts. Children wake up to get gifts from stockings, just like Christmas. And families gather etc. Another interesting tradition that is a bit more unusual is that it is common to write rude poems about everyone in attendance. Normally, each person writes a rude poem for someone else. But since Noor was the only Dutch person at her Sinterklaas party, she took it upon herself to write a short poem for all of the guests that came. She tried to walk a fine line between preserving the Sinterklaas rude poem tradition, and not pissing off all of her rather new friends, in other words, what we received were apparently watered down versions of a real Sinterklaas poem. I think she was pretty successful though. My poem was something along the lines of: your better at playing the Wii than you are at Noraebang.
It was interesting to experience a different culture translated around the world like that. Perhaps back home it would seem strange. But, in Asia, when you meet others from European countries, you realize just how closely related the European cultures are, and America is a European culture. So Sinterklaas feels not at all unfamiliar. Of course, if everyone was speaking Dutch it might have been a bit different. But I don't think any European holiday would feel as weird as a traditional Korean Chuseok festival complete with making an entire meal for your dead ancestors....
- by Richy
So Sinterklaas was nice, but the highlight of the weekend for me was the housewarming party we went to on Saturday.
The day started out less than ideal. Richy and I rolled out of the house in the early afternoon to check our bank statements in Suyu, get some lunch and pick up some gifts to bring to our two weekend parties (because we're such social butterflies). I had a run-in with a curb at the bank, which left me with a sore ankle, dirty knees, and scraped up hands --- then at our fancy McDonald's lunch, I spilled my full soda all over the floor, much to the delight of the depressed-looking cleaning girl. Then we headed off to Dongdaemun Stadium, which is the shopping mecca of Seoul, where I was entranced by the garish displays of Christmas lights and bought the bitterest grapefruit juice drink I have ever tasted (only drinkable after considerable watering down). We went to the 1,000 won store (the Korean version of the dollar store) to get some good white elephant-style gifts for the Sinterklaas party, and I found a glowing pink mushroom lamp and Richy found a "classic" mini globe. Korea is the best place I've found yet for buying cheap, hilarious crap (haven't been to China and Japan yet though).
Then we took the short subway ride to Min-Hwa's tiny apartment housewarming party. Although the place is a small studio, she's done an excellent job decorating it with candles, a pretty rug, some houseplants, and the centerpiece of her entertainment center: two very perky-breasted African woman figures. Her mother (who lives in the southern seaside city of Busan) sent a large styrofoam package of Korean king crabs. Although there was only 5 of us, we had 8 huge crabs to share, plus six bottles of wine (which we didn't finish thankfully). Housewarming seems to be a pretty big deal in Korea, but I am glad Richy and I never had one because A: I don't want all my co-teachers to come to my house (I'm afraid my housekeeping may not be up to Korean standards) B: We don't need all that stuff to get rid of when we leave. We spent our post-crab time playing wii sports until Min-Hwa fell asleep and we took the amazingly short cab ride home (typically early morning cab rides seem to take an hour and cost close to 20,000 won, where as this one only cost 8,000). This was the highlight of my weekend because I love crab. We're going to have to make it out to Busan one of these days.
Then we had Sinterklaas, which Richy already covered. Next weekend we may go see the Van Gogh exhibit...
- by Katie
No comments:
Post a Comment