Dutch Weekend in Seoul

Seoul colored orange for me last weekend (figuratively) . Last Friday I went together with two other Dutch guys (with three of us, we represent the whole Dutch community in Daejeon, against 1.6 million citizens total), to Seoul. There we visited Hanguk Whedae, which is a university in North-East Seoul which is specialized in linguistics. I did not know before, but at this university Koreans are able to major in Dutch-language. At this particular Friday night a group which consisted of solely Koreans performed the musical Romeo & Julia. As you already expect....the musical was completely performed in Dutch!

Pronunciation was astonishing good, especially when you take into consideration that most of them started studying Dutch from March this year! (see for yourself: movie below)

The next day, Saturday December 2nd. I met Sinterklaas next to the Han-river in sparkling Seoul. The old man dared to take a trip to the Korean capital in order to bring heaps of present for the Dutch children in Seoul. together with the Dutch expat's in Seoul, I enjoyed Dutch delicacies; delicious 'pepernoten', 'banketstaaf' and finally 'patat' with Heineken beer (ofcause!). I really had some difficulties to switch to speaking Dutch, but I could pick it up again quite quickly. Later that afternoon the Sint and his servants had to leave for Netherlands again, in order to be able to fill the shoes of the Dutch kids in the Netherlands and be able to deliver even more present the 5th of December.

I returned that night to Daejeon again, filled with delicious food and exiting Dutch experiences. Celebrating Sinterklaas (although being 8600km from home) filled me with happiness and gratitude. I wish the Sint good luck with his business in Netherlands in the coming (very busy) week!

• for pictures --> see link on the right hand side of this site
• for impression of Romeo & Julia --> see YouTube movie below
• voor een Nederlanse blog over Sinterklaas in Seoul: www.vanhaarlemnaarkorea.nl