Music Break

I thought I'd take a break from the travel posts to blog about something a little different - music. As much as I love reminiscing about exchange, I realise that it's not very healthy (nor conducive to moving on) to spend so much time with my head buried in the past. At least that's what I tell myself as I scroll through photos from the past year all the while mentally screaming YOU NEED TO DELETE ALL THIS STUFF FROM YOUR PHONE GURL. 

Anyway.

Hold - Vera Blue 

Have you guys heard of Vera Blue? If not, maybe Celia Pavey, the girl who blew the judges away on the 2013 The Voice Australia auditions with her rendition of Scarborough Fair. For a while, it'd seemed like she'd dropped out of public awareness to do her own thing. I'm glad that she did though because she came back with a new stage name - Vera Blue - and she's absolutely smashed it with the song Hold.

I say this with 100% sincerity - she's the best vocalist Australia has right now. And the song is phenomenal. Just listen to that vocal layering in the pre-chorus. It's actually impossible to listen to this without feeling how incredibly emotionally invested she must have been when she wrote it. 

Someone That Loves You - Honne & Izzy Bizu

I'm extremely grateful for this song because it introduced me to the musical genius that is Honne and Izzy Bizu's sweeter-than-caramel voice (props to the algorithm behind YouTube's recommended videos). The tune is ridiculously catchy and the video is a nostalgic punch to the gut - bringing back all the feels from last summer's Japan trip (which I will get around to blogging about...eventually).

I initially thought that this was a happy song. It's hard not to because the tune's just so uplifting. But when you actually tune in to the lyrics, you realise otherwise.

Don't touch me, boy I want you
Not allowed to
You have someone that loves you, I'm waiting
And I'm patient, I'm deluded
You have someone that loves you

Ouch. 

Drive It Like You Stole It - Sing Street 

If you haven't seen the movie Sing Street, you need to get on that, asap. It's about a group of Irish school boys who decide to form a band for the sole purpose of impressing a girl. It's full of catchy songs, which is what you'd expect from the director of Once and Begin Again. I'd describe it as a coming of age film set in the '80s with a healthy dose of comedy and drama. Check it out if you get the chance.

I chose this song because it kind of encapsulates the entire spirit of the film but honestly speaking, all the songs from the soundtrack are great.

Sweet Child O' Mine - The cast of Captain Fantastic 

Speaking of songs from movies, I also really loved this cover of Sweet Child O' Mine from Captain Fantastic. It's sung by the relatively young cast at a pivotal point of the movie so I'm not sure if it'd have the same resonance to someone who hasn't seen the film but just in case anyone's a fan of uplifting covers of this song, I've posted it here anyway. Check it out.

Flume - Say It feat. Tove Lo (Illenium Remix)

I know I'm jumping genres here and that this remix has been around for several months now but it wouldn't be right if I didn't include my most played song of 2016 in this list. I love Flume and I love Tove Lo so this song is basically an eargasm of epic proportions for me. (But for real though, qqmusic says I've played this song over 81 times in the last five months...)

The beat dropped harder than my mood after coming back from exchange :')

On the topic of Tove Lo, how great is her new album? I especially loved Flashes and True Disaster. Now I just gotta wait for Illenium to remix those two as well. 

10 Best Memories of China (Continued)

This is a continuation of my 10 Best Memories of China post. Click here for part 1.

6. Food

All. The. Food.

Food in China is relatively cheap. For example, a basic Chinese dinner could cost you about $4. Meals do cost more if you're going for something non-Chinese but by more expensive, I still only mean about $10 to stuff yourself...

I found that China was over saturated with Korean and Japanese food. Western food such as pizzas, pastas and burgers were also not that hard to find. Just be prepared to fork out a bit more cash. Second semester saw a whole bunch of Western restaurants such as Mojitos and College Bar spring up around campus, no doubt capitalising on the number of hungry international students. However, south-east Asian food was a bit harder to track down.

Also yes, brunch is a thing in China if you know where to find it.

7. Hangouts in the Fourth Floor Kitchen

Some of my best memories of exchange were not the epic travel adventures or big nights out, but rather the moments where we just stayed in and hung out in the communal kitchens or spaces of our dorm.

In semester 1, it was the giant 15-person mafia nights that helped create friendships (or I suppose enemies). Then we realised that because we were in China, it was not that hard to get your hands on knock-off board games (bless China and it's lack of copyright enforcement). So mafia nights turned into Cards Against Humanity, Code Names and UNO nights. I also loved that we would cram 10 people into a tiny dorm room for a couple of rounds of charades. (Special mention to Kay for her epic impression of BDSM, gurl that was legendary).

8. Class

Okay let's be honest, the most I learnt in class throughout the year was how to fake paying attention whilst actually catching up on sleep in class. However, classes at Zhejiang University were still a big part of the experience and like, sometimes they were fun. Speaking classes for example were great for playing games in the name of "education".

Studying hard? Or hardly studying?

I also learnt a lot about other cultures in class, since the teachers always made us do presentations on our own country.

Sidenote: It's actually really hard doing any sort of presentation on Australia. What's a national dish of ours? Uh...vegemite...? What's our national costume? Thongs and budgie smugglers? What's a national holiday? Uh...Australia Day, also known as the National Day of Invasion. Actually no let's not get into that.

Don't you just love it when the Thai students wrap up their presentations on beautiful traditional Thai style dresses and then you follow it up by whipping out this old beaut:

Everybody this is the traditional Australian style "cork hat". We use it to keep away the giant, poisonous flies that we breed over here.

9. Turning 22 in China

Made me feel very appreciated. Especially when I woke up to find a colourful balloon curtain in front of my door and when people actually suited up for the birthday dinner. 'Twas cute.

10. Karaoke Nights 

So I tried to find a photo of us at karaoke (or "KTV") but either we were too wasted or too caught up in belting along to ABBA's Dancing Queen that we didn't take one. Ridiculous when you think about how many times we actually went to KTV. Almost every week, really...

I don't really like karaoke in Sydney. It's overpriced and you have to travel all the way into the city for it. But in China, KTV is one of the most common things people do with their friends, more so than clubbing or bar hopping. You're more likely to find a KTV than a club when walking down the street.

I don't know. There's just something immensely therapeutic about screaming along to Bon Jovi at 3am in the morning and then going for KFC next door because they're open 24/7. Sometimes we even stayed at KTV until 5am when they'd kick us out.

*****

Anyway, that was my list of Top 10 memories in China. Looking back, a lot of my top memories are top memories because of the people involved. Xi'an, for all its good food and great sites, would not have been that memorable if it wasn't for the company that came along. Christmas would not have been as nice if half of our international family had been missing. I honestly think that the best thing that comes out of exchange or study abroad are the relationships you make. Over time the specifics of what I did in China will fade but not the feelings of connection and friendship that I was lucky enough to experience when I was there.

10 Best Memories of China

Since I got back from China, I've been making an effort to catch up with people and hear about the things that I probably would've known if it wasn't for my year of minimal Facebook exposure.

In the midst of conversation: "Oh yeah no, I totally knew you were in a relationship."
Internal thought process: "Go home and stalk X person's Facebook/blog to find out name of person they're dating, how they started dating and when they started dating, so I don't look like a shit friend."

What It's Like to Come Home From Exchange

Basically, it will suck.

So a few years ago, I went on a one-month volunteering trip to Thailand and had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. When I got back, I wrote a blog post about how post-travel depressed I felt and how I just wanted to get back there and relive the whole experience.

Oh 2015 Cynthia, my child, how unprepared you were.

Fast forward to today, 7 February 2017. It's been a week since I got back from my one year exchange in Hangzhou, China and although it's been quite nice to breathe smog-free air again and not almost get killed every time I try to cross the road, I can't say it's been easy to be back.

Let's not sugercoat it guys, it sucks. Like epic-ly. It's like going through a breakup but worse because you don't even get to keep the friends you made since they've all moved overseas. So then you try to distract yourself with activities before remembering that you're a student who gave up your job before going overseas, ergo poor AF. Consequently, you end up curled in your bed like a total loser, scrolling through old photos until your mum yells at you to take the trash out because of course, you've gone back to living at home.

As far as first world problems go, trying to readjust after coming back from exchange is pretty high up there. If I was to look at it objectively, it does seem pretty ridiculous. After all, I only spent one of my twenty-two years of existence overseas, where did all that pre-existing loyalty and love for my own country go?

But as those who've been on exchange probably know, in that one year or 6 months, you grow so much as a person. You basically build an entire life over there from scratch. And every day is an adventure, an opportunity to experience something new, so the return to mundane routine feels like regression, like you've taken 100 steps back. The friendships also feel accelerated when you're on exchange. It's easier to get close to people when you basically see them everyday, travel together frequently and spend many a night making full use of those 5 kuai ($1 AUD) tequilo shots at 9bar. It feels like I've known them for three years instead of one.

I miss the routine I had in China; the familiarity of the dorms, the campus, the city, and the way the lake changes every season. I miss the way we all became each other's family and hung out in the kitchens playing board games when the weather got too cold for going outside. I miss being able to meet people from all around the world, and see that there is more to offer from life.

Class 3.7, Semester 2, Zhejiang University (Yuquan)

But in saying that, I also know that exchange-life is not a sustainable lifestyle. As an exchange student, you don't have to deal with the responsibilities of work or long-term planning. Everything is about the here and now which I guess is why you are able to have such an amazing, carefree time.

I'm lucky enough to still have a foundation here, a home, a family, friends. Shout-out to my friends by the way. I appreciate that y'all still wanna hang out with me. And that most of you are cool enough to pretend to listen and be interested in my year overseas. (Even if you don't, 100% do not blame you because it's hard to be interested in something that didn't happen to you personally.)

Sidenote: Last night I told my mum I was feeling sad about being back in Sydney and she basically gave me the best wake up call ever. She said, "Well imagine if you had to leave your country permanently because of war. And you had to say goodbye to your friends and family, not knowing if they would ever see them again, or if they would even survive."

Mama Vuong, givin' it to me straight

I don't want this to be a post about me complaining about being back home - because it's not. Sydney is great and I know that with time, I will discover again all the reasons that I love it. And over these last few days, I've read a whole range of articles about people feeling similar emotions after coming back from exchange, with many saying that they'd done their year abroad in Australia. It just comes to show that it's not necessarily the place, but rather the people and connections that we make abroad that we end up valuing the most.

So to all those who've done exchange or study abroad before, I just want to say that I now understand what it's like. And to those who are about to go or planning to go, I hope you make the most of your time as it is one of the most amazing things you will ever experience in life.

West Lake, Hangzhou (西湖，杭州)