Centre Stage || Han River, KOREA

Let me tell you what happened here..
or you could say,   what didn't happen
..as we sat still by this deserted, gloomy, and drenched stage by the Han River.
   
But first, let me tell you how we got here.

 As you might have guessed, it was - again - my fault. They said there was a fountain show at the Banpo Bridge which starts at around 7-8pm and lasts for a few minutes of nothing but spectacular.. And seeing most of our plans in the morning didn't push through due to the uncooperative weather, I told Goody and Carlo we should just head to the bridge for a must-see in Seoul! It was quite far from where we were, but in the end, I convinced them to travel all the way here to at least say we accomplished something for the day. 
And guess what, when we arrived, no single soul could be seen around the area, except for those few who were jogging by the river. 
What's going on?? No one else wanted to see the light show??? Are we at the wrong bridge??
Being the optimist that I am, I said maybe we just arrived too early. 
Ans so we waited. We were already there, after all.
 
Sitting for a while without having to do anything, especially when you're waiting, makes you notice your surroundings a little bit more than usual. But there was simply nothing to observe there, except for the river's constant ripples and Seoul's skyline, overcast with growing rainclouds. 
One interesting spot though, was a sunken area, close to the edge of the river - a stage of some sort, enclosed in a few steps of bleachers for seating.  If it weren't for the rain, my guess was that it's rarely devoid of people, especially with a view like that. I could imagine what sort of performances and music festivals were being held there, but on that rainy day, it was empty.
Most people would probably worry about getting wet, while I, on the other hand, thought: 
"Oh yes, this is my stage, my time to shine!"

The rain didn't stop me from (literally) taking centre stage. ..An audience could have had, though. haha!
      

Only a handful of people braved the weather, and among those few wandering around, I guess no one else enjoyed the rain or at least was fine in getting drenched like I do...       So when I think about it, it's not "the rain stopped me from taking centre stage." Quite the contrary! Oddly, yet quite expected of me, it was actually the rain that made me take centre stage.
*insert deeper life analogies here* ;)

Enjoying the stage to myself made another hour of waiting quickly pass by. 
It continued to drizzle,.. and my credibility drowned with every minute that passed. You see, Goody and Carlo aren't the most patient friends (sorry, guys), but they're good at laughing at misfortunes, so I didn't really worry about them haha! (Thanks for understanding!) 
But I was worried because we might have been wasting precious time and waiting for possibly nothing at all! 
Time continued to tick, as the skies grew darker and the rain, stronger.

   

There was no light show that happened.  

But what we saw was something equally stunning:
the heart of Seoul, outlined by the dark, ominous sky and beautifully illuminated with city lights.

Tired and quite disappointed at how things turned out, our way home wasn't quite a walk in the park, although we did pass through one. Our clothes and shoes were wet, Carlo was walking on one shoe, and Goody was sneezing here and there. I, on the other hand, couldn't feel my toes. It was a long journey, and we were already dripping wet.
The funny thing was, we still decided to walk along the river to the next train station just to have that view of the city for a little longer, as if we we hadn't looked at it for 3 hours already.
A thousand steps after and we came across one lady who probably took pity on us and decided to walk us back to the closest station (it wasn't, but she was kind). Apart from the interesting things she told us, she also mentioned that the light shows get cancelled when there's rain.
Oh, great. Good to know after spending xxx hours waiting for it. Oh, well. Oh, life!

I'm not so sure if my friends would say the same thing, but I don't regret our decision to "go see the light show at the bridge" and ending up spending precious hours under the rain. I had a good laugh, and if we came on a normal day, I think it would have just been like any other day in the park.

And clearly, I'm more into bigger, or more unusual experiences than that. ;)

It wasn't the best day ever, but it was still - in all honesty and regardless of the weather - a pleasant day for me. :)
LESSON LEARNED: 1. Checking the weather forecast has its advantages. 2. The weather doesn't matter if you know how to enjoy yourself.
***  September 21, 2012  Han River  Seoul, KOREA