Don't feed the British K-pop fans

It creates flash mobs all over the world, it crashes ticket websites, it has snubbed Britney Spears of an EMA award and it has sold out Madison Square Garden in minutes.

In just a few years, Korean pop music (K-pop for short), with its upbeat-dance-friendly tunes, colourful fashion, dynamic dancing and a ridiculous amount of group members, has seen a great surge in popularity all over the Western world – not least in the UK.

Last night's 'MBC Korean Culture Festival' at the Indigo2 (smaller venue at O2) in London, which featured both traditional and modern Korean acts, saw no exception in the British fans' enthusiasm for everything Korean.

All eyes on the Koreans Photo: Me

The concert, which is a part of 'All Eyes On Korea', a 100 day event promoting and honouring South Korea and its culture, saw 2000 plus Korean culture enthusiasts cheer and scream (mostly the latter) for traditional Korean music acts as well K-pop groups.

While the traditional cultural acts included performances with drums and traditional instruments, dancing and a fashion show of 'Hanbok', traditional Korean dress received loud cheers and woo's, it was obvious that the K-pop performance was the concert's main attraction.

Volume Up: Hyuna from 4Minute Photo:Mine

The first taste of the crowds' excitement came when an introduction video of the first K-pop act, girl group 4Minute, came on the big screen. It could have been a video of one of the One Direction boys getting undressed and the reaction would have been about the same.

Not deterred by the fact that the songs are entirely in Korean (except for the occasional oh yeah's and other nonsensical words) the fans sang heartedly - and loudly - along.

Contrasting the sensual  performance by the five-member girl group, were the comedic duo Norazo - combining funny dancing with humorous singing about everything from Curry to Supermen (I could only assume).

EXO-K performing their title song 'MAMA' Photo: Mine

However loud and excited the audience might have been during these acts (not to mention the dance performances of popular K-pop songs by international dance crews), it was nothing compared to the hysteria that exploded in the venue when 6-piece boy group EXO-K took to the stage. The group, which debuted less than three months ago, performed the most elaborate and energetic dances of the evening to ear-deafening cheers and screams - all worthy the likes of Take That and The Wanted.

The concert is the latest evidence that the British K-pop fans' are not to be underestimated.

Because I'm a sh*t blogger

And in pain, I'll just post a few hipster photos for you. Please love me.

That was me done

That's the 27 page dissertation I handed in this Tuesday, right there. Surreal.

Three years - 36 months - 1095 days and now I'm done with university. In fact, I might be done with school forever (please never let me do a masters, please please).

I looked forward to that last day of handing in my dissertation for so long with such an immense loathing of studying I actually thought I would burst into tears once it was all done, but I didn't. Instead I was quite freaked out. Never having to go to school ever again? Never having to study ever again? Studying is all I've ever known, what now? It was like a wish I should've carefully wished for.

As of right now, I'm looking forward to a week and a half holiday back in Swedenland, back to London for a few months of work, graduate from university properly (with gowns, diplomas and all those fancy stuff) in September and then, who knows - might stay in London, might go back to Sweden, might go to China. Who knows.

I have a dissertation to write but I made this instead.

10 ways to spot a tourist in London

People go to London. I get that.  We got Big Ben. I get that. We got a K-pop section at HMV. I get that. Still, the sheer volume of tourists that are walking down these already-crammed London streets is mind boggling. In fact tourists have become so common in my daily life that I've learnt how to spot them miles away (I take boring tube rides).

So why won't I share some of that tourist spotting knowledge of mine to anyone who may want to avoid them for any weird reason - especially this summer.

A person is probably a tourist if he or she is:

1. Carrying around a (any kind of) book that says London in the front (or Londres, Londra, ロンドン etc)

2. Travelling in a pack of more than 4 people in the same age (teenagers and pensioners are dead give aways - except for Chinese people because they might just some rich men off spring studying at UCL)

3. Carrying a plastic/paper bag from any of these places: Natural History Museum (or any museum except for the artsy ones because half of them might just be hipsters), Disney store or M&M world

4. Overdressed, especially those with a down jacket, scarves and gloves. (I tell you no real Londoner owns a down jacket)

5. Carrying a London tube map

6. Having their picture taken (together with someone else is a give away) in a place where they're clearly obstructing other pedestrians.

7. Carrying a paper travel ticket and isn't wearing a suit or any other formal clothing.

8. Carrying a large plastic/paper bag from any of these places: Primark, HMV or Whittard of Chelsea.

9. Walking down Oxford Street slowly.

10. Within 5 metre radius of Buckingham Palace

(NB: These applies to any location in London, except for Oxford Street where there's a 80% chance that a person is a tourist)

Happy tourist spotting!

Once Upon a time in Tweeter Street

My article on Verve Media

A while ago I got the chance to interview this awesome fellow about his just as awesome photography project, Tweeter Street where he captures Twitter users re-enacting one of their tweets at the location they tweeted it.

I did an article on it and was lucky enough to get it featured on our student magazine wesbite, Verve media.

Please have a read here (or the picture above) if you've run out of socks to fold and beans to separate or something. Cheers!