El meu Nadal i Any nou a Corea // My Christmas and New Year in Korea

Avui us presento un post una mica diferent al normal: em dedicaré a explicar que he fet aquests dies festius aquí a Corea, i una mica, que és el que la gent fa o no fa aquests dies. Així que si voleu xafardejar una mica per aquí, crec que veureu un parell de coses força curioses!

El dia de la nit de Nadal, com ja us havia explicat, vaig anar a classe, com si fos un dia més :'(. Però la profe ens va donar una cosa que no pot faltar en cap Nadal de família catalana/espanyola/casa d'Isabel Preisler:

Today I present a post a little bit different than usual: I'm going to explain what I did these past holidays here in Korea, and what koreans do on these dates. So, if you wanna gossip a little bit around here, surely you'll find a couple of curious things!

On Christmas' Eve, as I told you before, I went class, like any other day :'( (In Spain is always holiday from the 22th of December to the 7th of January). But our teacher gave a thing that cannot be missing in any Catalan/Spanish home in Christmas: 

Sí nois sí!! La profe em va tocar la meva fibra sensible...! Cada any ma àvia, vull dir, el tió, em regala una caixa plena de Ferreros... snif snif...
Yes yes!! She gave us one Ferrero Rocher!!! She touched a nerve... Every year my grandma, I mean, the Cagatió (you remember our magic trunk?) presented me with a box of these.. snif snif

Però bé deixem-nos de tonterietes i anem a lo maco de la jornada. Per Nadal havíem quedat amb els amics del Taesung per fer un sopar de Nadal. Així que ens vam passar tot el sant dia cuinant. Bé, cuinant i fent el vago una mica. Ens havíem proposat fer turró la nit abans, però fent honor a la llei de Murphy se'n va anar la llum durant tota la nit (--'). Així que tot ho vam fer el dia 25. Aquest va ser el resultat de la nostra feina!

But let's talk about the nice thing of Christmas. On Christmas day we agreed to meet with Taesung's friends, to make a Christmas dinner all together. So we spend all the day cooking. Well, cooking and lazing around a little. But it was Christmas so it was ok. We wanted to cook "Turrón" a classic dessert for Christmas holidays, a sweet and nice Spanish dessert. We thought it could be nice to cook it the night before, but in honor of Murphy's law, there was a blackout (but only in our building...why? Perhaps someone was very interested in preventing us to do Turrón?). So we finally cook it the 25th. And this was the result of our hard work!

Sé que la presentació no és la millor. Us prometo que durant el sopar el vam posar en un plat maco, però just quan em disposava a fer la foto...ja havia volat. Sí nois, la veritat és que estava súper bo! Des d'aquí us animo a probar de fer turró a casa, no és tan difícil com sembla. I bé, se suposava que era turró de xixona, però tampoc és que fos el que es diu...tou. Però tampoc era dur com altres turrons. Que estava bo, vamos. 
I know that the presentation of the photo is not the best in the world. I swear that during the dinner we put it in a nice plate, but when I wanted to do a photo...it was already over. Yes, to tell the truth, it was super tasty! There's nothing to it, so I encourage you guys to try it at home. It was suposed to be very soft. Actually it wasn't that soft, but it was neither hard, so I think it was a total success!
 

I pel que fa al sopar, davant de la impossibilitat de trobar els ingredients pels canelons (no sabeu al preu que va la carn picada, i no vaig trobar làmines de caneló per enlloc). Em vaig decidir a fer pinxos diversos, truita de patates, rissotto, pa amb tomàquet i patates braves, de patata i de moniato! I fins i tot em vaig arriscar a fer allioli! I per veure, sangría i vi. Sembla senzill sí, però la veritat és que si no ets català és un menjar ben exòtic! 
And regarding the dinner, I wanted to cook canelons, a typical dish for Christmas, but I found it impossible. The hamburguer meat is super expensive, and I couldn't find the pasta sheets i needed, so I changed my plan. We made different king of pinchos, spanish omelette, mushroom and chicken rissotto, Pa amb tomàquet (bread with tomato, typical Catalan dish) and Patatas Bravas ( a Must of the Spanish tapas cuisine), with both sweet potato and normal potato. I even dared to make Allioli, a garlic maionaisse! And for drinking, wine and Sangria. It may be it's simple, but if you are not Spanish all this food seems pretty exotic!
 

En un menjar coreà normal hi ha molts platets petits dels quals tothom va agafant el que vol menjar, i normalment l'únic plat individual que tenen és el d'arròs. Així que aquest tipus de menjar pica-pica és bastant semblant al concepte que tenen de menjar. I per acabar-ho de conjuntar, vaig posar el rissotto en els bols individuals d'arròs. Suposo que es pot dir que això és cuina de fusió! (Flipada...¬¬)
Usually in korean meals there are a lot of small side dishes, and everybody takes what they want, but share everything. I think our dinner was pretty much korean style in this sense. And usually the only individual dish they have is a little bowl with rice. So we put the rissotto in the rice bowls. I guess that this is what is called fusion cuisine. (freak ¬¬)

Però el moment dolç de la jornada va ser...
But the sweet moment of the night was...

Doncs sí nois, no podia ser passar el Nadal a Seül sense un pastís de Nadal. Serà friki però el detallet em va encantar. Vam bufar les espelmes (¿?) tots junts per desitjar un bon Nadal, i vam brindar dient "Salut"! A més el pastís estava boníssim, era una mena de Brownie molt esponjós. Bé amb la pinta ja paga. Estava igual de bo que goig fa de veure.
It's true: I couldn't spend my Christmas Day in Seoul without a Christmas cake. Maybe it looks also a little bit freak but the thing is I loved it. We blowed the candles (whose birthday??) all together, and wished a Merry Christmas, and we made a toast saying "Salut!", which is the Catalan/Spanish "Cheers"! It was a delicious cake, something like a fluffy brownie. Well I think that its appearance talks by itself. 

I el moment sorprenent de la jornada va ser...
And the amazing moment of the night was...

Serà possible!! Menjant el pastís amb palillos!!! Hahaha crec que en un mes d'estada he descobert més usos per als palillos dels que pensava que podien existir! A més tothom ho feia. Jo vaig anar a aprovisionar-me d'una forquilla com qui no vol la cosa...
Could be true?? Eating a cake with chopsticks!! Amazing!! After a month living here I discovered more uses for chopsticks than I never thought possible! Besides, everyone did it. I went to equip myself with a fork...

Va ser una bona experiència! Totally good experience!

Pel que fa al Cap d'Any, la gent aquí n'hi ha que ho celebren i n'hi ha que no, més que res perquè, tot i que segueixen el calendari occidental, també segueixen el xinès, i el cap d'any no coincideix.  La idea inicial era anar-nos-en a Nami Island, que es veu que és tan maca, però les previsions del temps deien que venia fred Siberià (i ara entenc que quan diuen això a Barcelona és algun tipus de broma que es porten els homes del temps), així que ho vam cancelar. Així que vam decidir anar a fer una cosa més típica de Seül: anar a sopar en un restaurant i després al temple on van les campanades!!
 In Korea there are people who celebrate New year and people who don't. The thing is, they follow western calendar, but also Chinese lunar calendar, so the New Years in both calendar rarely match. Our initial plan was going to Nami Island, but the forecast strongly emphasized that we had to change our plan. So decided to go to a typical place for New year's celebration in Seoul, and have dinner before around there.

Que guapos que som eh? Aquí sembla que no porti gaire roba però anava amb dues samarretes tèrmiques, pantalons tèrmics, un jersei enorme i la jaqueta més gran que tinc.  
 We are good-looking, aren't we? Maybe it seems I'm not wearing a lot of clothes, but I was wearing two thermic shirts, inner pants, a huge jersey and the biggest and warmest coat I have. 

M'encanten aquests restaurants (ells els anomenen bars) de Corea. Com diu el Taesung són espais que estan separats i alhora junts. En aquest cas, les fustes marquen una separació entre les diferents taules, però et deixen veure que estàs envoltant de gent. 
I love this kind of restaurants (they call them bars) in Korea. The tables are together, but appart at the same time. In this case, as Taesung pointed, the wood bars marked space between the tables, but they allow you to see what's happening next to you.

Molt monito i acollidor. El pobre Taesung va estar una bona estona buscant a veure on podíem anar. En aquest restaurant vam menjar una espècie de paella amb carn, verduretes i arròs (como no!), molt bo. Després vam canviar i vam anar a un altre on feien pizza coreana de kimchi. Molt bo tot! 
So cute and cozy place. My poor Taesung was searching for this place for a while. We ate some kind of bulcogi with vegetables and rice (of course). After that we went to another bar and ate a kimchi korean pizza. Very nice!

Aquí la gent no menja raïm (o olives, com fan alguns...) mentres fa el compte enrere. Però aquí servidora anava preparada!
In Spain it's tradition to eat 12 grapes (or olives, as some people do... ¬¬) while we do the countdown to the New Year. And of course, I came prepared from home...
Catalan CAVA (our champangne in Catalunya) and 12 grapes for starting luckily the New year!

 Si us penseu que pel fet d'estar a Seül anava a deixar de fer les campanades, anaveu ben equivocats!! Des del lloc on estavem es veia un escenari on algú (evidentment estava a petar de gent i no vaig veure gran cosa) parlava (evidentment no vaig entendre res) i de cop va començar a comptar en coreà 15,14,13... i em va agafar d'improvist, però ho vaig solucionar a temps perquè ja tenia el raïm preparat des de feia estona! Només perquè us feu una idea de l'ambien, (i no per les seves qualitat artístiques), poso la següent foto:
Of course I was not going to miss the chance of eating the grapes just because I'm in Seoul. From our place it was possible to see some stage where someone (I couldn't see almost anything) was speaking (obviously in korean) and suddently started sayin 15,14,13... It took me unaware, but I was prepared and I started eating the grapes at top speed! And for the sake of good understanding of my situation (and not because of its artistics qualities) I decided to put the following photo. 
 

I també us agradarà saber que estic aprenent més sobre el tema de les emputxades. Després de viure la jornada d'ahir...activament, diguéssim m'he adonat compte que aquesta gent veu com una cosa normal lo d'anar-se emputxant. M'explico. 

Ahir, com es pot apreciar a la foto, hi havia molta gent (més o menys la mateixa gent que al metro pel matí... però sense haver-nos d'encabir en vagons gràcies a Déu). Quan es van acabar les campanades, molta gent volia marxar, però també molta gent volia avançar cap a l'escenari per aprofitar i situar-se una mica més aprop. Per aconseguir això tota aquesta gent, més que emputxar, "forçava" el seu pas, sense gaire delicadesa, però tampoc sense ser violents ni res, sinó com una cosa normal. Quan em vaig adonar que era una cosa normal va ser quan vaig veure famílies senceres amb nens petits, els quals eren emputxats al seu torn, i ningú pensava que fos res escandalós, i els seus propis pares no s'alarmaven. Crec que el meu pare hauria posat el crit al cel si algú m'hagués emputxat, i de fet jo estava més preocupada per vigilar que ningú emputxés al nen que tenia al davant que el seu propi pare. Suposo que és simplement una diferència cultural. Seguiré treient conclusions sobre aquest tema.

Perhaps you will be happy to know that I'm learning more about the "pushing" issue. After yesterday's night...we could say, actively, I realised that koreans regards pushes as a normal thing. let me explain it carefully.

Yesterday, as you can appreciate in the photo, there was A LOT of people (more or less the same amount of people that are in the morning in the metro, but thanks God, at least we were not all trying to get inside the same carriage). After the bells ringing (or the countdown or whatever this is called in English) a lot of people wanted to go away from there, but also a lot of people wanted to get closer to the stage, because there was some show going on. To achieve that purpose, they pushed, (or they forced their way in, I would say), without being very delicate, but neither violent. They were just passing. I realised that was a normal thing when I saw some families with little kids among all the people. The kids were being pushed a lot, just as any other adult, with the difference that they are smaller, and no one seemed to care. Not even them or their parents, it seemed a normal situation for them. No one thought it was a cause of concern. I think my father would have been worried in this situation, and actually i was more worried to that little kid than his own father. In my guess this is one of this cultural differences. I will research more about this.


Com que li he agafat gust a això de fer vídeos cutres en penjo un altre per mostrar millor l'ambient d'ahir a la nit. 
And because it seems I enjoy uploading tacky videos, this one shows better the ambience of yesterday's Seoul:

A més amb aquest vídeo podreu jugar a agafar tortículis perquè em debia que pensar que era l'iphone i el vaig grabar del revés... sense comentaris.
And besides you will not understand anything because its in Catalan, it's a nice way to get some torticollis, because I recorded all the video upside-down... no comments.

Però bé, crec que ha sigut un resum bastant completet del que és el Nadal i el Cap d'any pels coreans. Encara que jo segueixo fent classe cada dia, almenys he tingut festa aquests dos dies. 
Well, in my opinon this is pretty much a complete review of what's like Christmas and New year for koreans. At least I could enjoy this two days of holiday :D

Em despedeixo adelantant que demà tindré llest el post sobre MENJAR DE CARRER. Crec que us pot semblar suculent... o si més no, com sempre, molt curiós!! 

Ben aviat, més curiositats made in Corea! 

It's time to say goodbye, but I can say in advance that tomorrow my post about STREET FOOD will be totally ready, both in English and Catalan. I think you will find it tasty...or at least, curious.

Soon, more curiosities Made in Korea!