Olayemi Phillips

When Nia was five and in kindergarten, she’d come home from school every day, singing “heeeeeeey, sexy lady….” She’d break into song anywhere and everywhere and I had zero clue what she was talking about. Little did I know this was actually her introduction to K-pop, through Psy’s anthem, ‘Gangnam Style!’ It’s only fitting while we are here to check out Gangnam, y’know— where it all began 😁

Nia’s Korean teacher, Stella arranged to pick us up and drive us around her district, or ‘gu’ and the first stop was to Bongeunsa temple. It’s a serene spot, set in what was once mountainous land, right behind the city mall — I guess once you’ve shopped ‘til you drop you can go to the temple and pray for more money. Stella did an awesome job of guiding us through the temple and explaining everything we ever wondered and even in the hot, soupy climate her patience never once wained. The amplified sound of the monks’ rhythmic chanting soothed our souls and followed us from building to building.

We went next to lunch, which was an eye opening spread fit for queens — and just happened to be owned by a friend of Stella’s mother. Once the food arrives, it keeps arriving for quite some time! Plates upon plates of side dishes, each one expertly prepared by it’s own chef; fresh fried fish, eggplant, bean sprouts, eggs, kimchi, rice — just a handful of the sides I can remember off the top of my head, surrounding the crown jewel…bulgogi beef. And here we were, a couple of Chocolate Chips with Chopsticks, trying desperately to complete the whole meal. If it wasn’t the amount of food that would kill us, it was the cramped hands using those deadly food pincers!!! Thanks to Stella, I can now find my way around a lunch buffet.

We drove around town — saw K-pop street and the Korean “Rodeo Drive,” before heading to view it some ancient royal tombs. With time still to spare, we crept in rush hour traffic to the Han River, where friends and families gathered for the evening. People in tents, people on bikes, old and young alike converge along the waterfront to watch the sun set as we did, eating Korean fried chicken and drinking beer, (or banana milk) in our case! Stella kept urging Nia to speak Korean and asked a young guy to practice with her — he promptly obliged but Nia was suddenly very shy and appeared to have no knowledge of such a language 🤣 I got to play ‘gawi bawi bo’ which is the Korean rock, paper, scissors and the crew were surprised and amused that I knew what it was…thank you, BTS, I knew it would come in handy some day! I received a balloon for the efforts. When we left, a young boy of maybe four years old broke away from his mother and made a beeline for me. He had the biggest smile and as he approached, he reached up his hand and I believed he was reaching for the balloon. I leaned in closer, ready to hand it to him and instead, his little hand reached for a loc of my hair, which he touched and continued on his escape! His poor mother was mortified and had no reason to be — I thought it was the sweetest thing in the world.

When we finally got back to the hotel, we were dog tired. But on our last evening in Gangnam, I realized I hadn’t done one certain thing. So at around 11pm, I wandered down the street to find the ode to Psy — the Gangnam Style statue. I felt oddly at ease there, at past eleven pm, alone and 6,000+ miles away from home. There was a safety to be felt unlike being in my own neighborhood and it was quite a startling comparison; people walking dogs, small groups of friends chatting, a skateboarder here or a tourist there. I found the statue, lit up for the night and knew that in one day, we’d experienced the old and new, fast and slow, natural and man made, traditional and contemporary, all that is wonderful Gangnam.Read more