On Christmas Day, I went to AK Plaza - a huge shopping center surrounding one of the most popular subway stations in Bundang with a big open plaza in the middle that's always decorated for the season or showcasing something. I met some friends for dinner and then called it an early one since it was Sunday night. As I walked through the plaza to get to the bus, I saw a small crowd formed around a bench so I stopped to look. It was a girl and some of her friends singing Christmas songs, and Maroon 5 staples, of course. It was one of the best moments I had had in Korea so far. (Honestly, I don't even remember if I'd already blogged about it, but I'm going for a theme here...). I stood there and listened for probably 30 minutes and then they just started singing the same songs over and over. It was wonderful.
Other times when I'm out with people in Seoul at night, I see street entertainment and always wish I wasn't headed somewhere to meet people so I could stay and watch. One time, a lot of teenagers in matching clothes were having what seemed to be a break dancing competition, and one little guy danced to Beyonce and it seemed like he was doing the actual dance she does. The guys were talking to the crowd inviting everyone to dance lessons, I think.. or maybe to watch them perform again the next night. He was a little flustered when he tried to speak English to us, so I'm not entirely sure what we were invited to. Nevertheless, it was a good show.
And for grand finale of shows so far... Today, I was out shopping by myself in AK Plaza, and I went through the plaza to get to the other side when I heard loud orchestra music and piano and saw a huge crowd all filming and taking pictures of whatever was going on in the center, but I couldn't see it at all. AK is an atrium so I went up to the second floor, where it was always really crowded but I thought I'd have a better chance, and after looking for 5 minutes to find a space where I could stand and see what was going on, it's this tattooed non-Korean guy playing a grand piano so vigorously. It was amazing. I stood for a while in awe of how good he was, just taking in how lucky I'd been to stumble onto this concert, before I looked around to see a sign of who he was, which was written in Korean, but I googled what I thought it said and found him.
Croatian pianist Maksim Mrvica. Look him up.
The picture's not that great, but you can see the crowd. After the show, he stood up, bowed, and walked off into one of the stores followed by the security guards, who always stand outside of these stores anyway. So I went out to look for an American Apparel that doesn't exist, and when I came back, he was in the middle again signing autographs. I looked for how to get in line, but as you can see in the picture, the stage was a circle, so I couldn't find where a line started. He went back inside before I would have made it to him anyway. Still an extremely cool experience.
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