Saturday, October 6, 2012

We're Not So Different, You and I

I spent most of last night wondering around the streets of Hongdae, a district filled with university students and known for its countless streets of shops, restaurants, bars and cafes. I happened upon a really funky looking little boutique where a Korean girl around my age was working. I complimented her on the beautiful clothes in the store (which it turned out she owned) and from there I somehow ended up staying for over an hour, sitting and talking and eating chocolates.

She didn't speak much English but it really didn't matter. She showed me some notes with sentences she'd written from an old English class. She had written things like "I wanted to open a clothing store so I could share my style with others", "Money is not the most important thing to me" and "My dream is to travel around the world". I told her of my travel plans and she told me how she hoped she could do the same one day. She is traveling to Thailand next month she said, her first solo trip, and she expressed great interest in coming to Cambodia as well. She told me she thought I was cool, which coming from an uber-trendy Korean I took as a huge compliment.

This little anecdote just goes to show that even in a country completely different from your own where at times it may seem like you can't relate to anything, you can meet people with whom you are able to share so much, even if you don't share a common language. This is just one of many reasons why I love to travel.

2 comments:

Christine_Vienna said...

I am really proud to call you my friend! :) this story is great!

Wondering and Wandering said...

Aw thank you Christine :) and thanks for reading!!!