In Search of Style in Gangnam, Seoul

22 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by Shikha (whywasteannualleave) in Asia, South Korea

Tags

Asia, Banpo Bridge, Gangnam, Korea, Seoul, South Korea, travel

Long before I understood anything about life, I understood music.

Miss R, my ever-optimistic high school piano teacher, failed to give up on my sight-reading skills, despite all the evidence that suggested she was wasting her time. Mr H had drawn the short straw with the shoe box room in the corner of the music department and even he shovelled his cynicism beneath a gaping smile of sincerity when I declared my ambitions to play electric guitar on an international stage one day.

Time has eroded the links of cognition that once enabled me to play those piano sonatas with such poise. So too has it earned me regret for allowing my musical skills to seep away but as an angsty 14-year-old, stomping around with the conviction that I knew best, I may not have been in any mood to listen to my parents but I listened with intent to REM on 1992’s iconic Automatic for the People.

I have no recollection of my first shopping purchase, my first crush or my first restaurant but I do remember my first live gig and the ~~first~~ only time I crowd-surfed in a cloud of euphoria across a hundred thousand revellers.

Music was a medium I understood when life was a phenomenon I thought I understood.

A Plan for Gangnam

I wonder what derision my 14-year-old self would sling my way now if she caught me watching the Gangnam Style video on YouTube. Could she comprehend (could anyone) just how an indie-music loving, naïve teenager turned into a 30 something year old woman who travelled to Gangnam solely because of the worldwide acclaim of its eponymous Korean pop number.

Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountains

South Korea’s capital has far more to boast than Psy’s renowned record but one can’t argue with (at least) 2.8 billion You Tube views and one balmy Saturday night during our visit to Seoul, we somehow found ourselves alongside Seoul’s savvy adolescent masses in the bar and club laden district of Gangnam.

Just how this surreal evening unfolded, launching with rainbow fountains and ending with rainbow cakes is about to be revealed.

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The Hello Kitty Cafe in Seoul, South Korea

22 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by Shikha (whywasteannualleave) in Asia, Restaurants, South Korea, Tea & Cake

≈ 57 Comments

Tags

cafe, coffee shop, Hello Kitty, restaurants, Sanrio, Seoul, South Korea

I fear my gushy internal smile seeps to the surface when I reflect on the ways in which life with Pumpkin has skewed my tastes. Six years ago, the overlapping segment of our collective Venn diagram was barely a linear sliver but as the minutes ticked on, the country count toll rose and the experiences became increasingly memorable, our scrawny overlap ballooned like an expectant mother, as our interests and tastes meshed into an indecipherable, blurry cloud.

The influence we have had on each other is easily apparent to all those who know us well.

For starters, I now own a pair of hiking boots and he now understands the word, “amuse bouche.” He has slowed his gait after learning that my little legs struggle to keep up with his brisk pace and I have learned that travel is far more liberating when you don’t pack your hair straighteners. He has slowly come to love the uplifting, unwinding qualities of a beach break with no itinerary and I have surprised myself by volunteering to go on jungle walks in the pouring rain.

Ever since we met, he has worn his previously rarely-seen beaming smile (those are his parents’ words not me patting myself on the back here) and I have learned from him to live in the moment, on our own terms and that life can be much more of an adventure than any stereotypical societal mould would have us believe.

Even more moving though, is when Pumpkin’s tastes don’t overlap with mine – when he finds an activity I will love that he knows he will loathe that he not only agrees to participate in but actually proactively suggests. It is this form of selfless kindness that moves me the most and nothing exemplifies it better than when he accompanied me to the Hello Kitty Café in Hongdae Seoul earlier this year.