On December 19th, Jiseon invited me to the the Spanish Cultural Center at the Inter-burgo Hotel. Various universities came with their Spanish departments to celebrate the Spanish culture. It was fun seeing the food – especially the paella (a dish from Spain). We sipped wine, spoke Spanish and had a blast watching Marcos introduce the piñata culture to the Koreans.
Jiseon (right) along with my new friend Lim. We get together on Mondays in downtown Daegu and chat in Spanish! It’s nice speaking my native tongue over tea and scones ^_^
Marcos (who use to teach Spanish at Keimyung University) and Liliana (who teaches Spanish at Yeongnam University)
The Spanish professor from Daegu Catholic University.
Marcos explaining the history of the piñata. Piñatas are most commonly associated with Mexico, but their origins are considered to be in China. The idea of breaking a container filled with treats came to Europe in the 14th century, where the name, from the Italian “pignatta” was introduced. Marcos said originally they had 7 points -representing the 7 deadly sins. The candy inside represents goodness so thus you would break through the “sin” to get to the good.
Liliana made some Aztecan style food, it was great! Buñuelos are first known to have been consumed among Spain’s Morisco population. It typically consist of a simple, wheat-based yeast dough, often flavored with anise, that is thinly rolled, cut or shaped into individual pieces, then fried and finished off with a sweet topping. Buñuelos may be filled with a variety of things, sweet or savoury. They can be round in ball shapes or disc shaped. They taste like Funnel Cake!
With Dave and Jiseon. Hehe, Dave was saying all night “No hablo español” and then there would be confused faces as he would begin to speak Korean and the Koreans had to revert back to Korean.
