One of the things I miss most about home is my computer. More specifically, I miss my computer because my computer is hooked up to a pair of high quality monitor speakers. The clarity of sound which these speakers create is unmatched by the headphones I brought along with me to Cambridge, and none of the speakers at the center come within a mile of their quality. At home, I like to spend a few hours browsing through blogs and discovering new music. It’s nice to discover a new band, and then find that you’ve stumbled onto a blog that posts music from tons of different artists who are extremely similar. Best of all, most of the music is independent and released for free. So, I can get loads of free music legally.
This is a stall in the Cambridge market which I frequent quite often. And, just to let you know, these pictures have little to do with this blog post other than the fact that they were taken in Cambridge.
The trouble with gathering a music collection in this way is that no one is likely to have heard of a band who has only six hundred views on YouTube and maybe a website. Combine this with the fact that I rarely decide to commit each artist’s name to memory, and when I’m asked, “What kind of music do you like?” I’m left stammering, “Well, electronic, but not techno. Kind of folk, but also jazz. Like – what’s the band’s name, I just found them today – like… Well, the songs use lush synths; echoey stuff.” I know how to find what I like, but I discard it all so easily that I have trouble sharing the music with anyone else. Add on top of this the fact that I’m one who enjoys little to no background music when I’m speaking with people – despite the fact that most of the music I enjoy fades easily into the background – and the opportunities for sharing music shrink even lower.
Parker's Piece is a large field near the city centre which I pass on the way to my once a week class at Anglia Ruskin University.
Enjoying music that fades into the background means that it can be hard to share my musical tastes with people because the best experience of this type of music comes when one allows oneself to be completely enveloped by it. For this to happen between multiple people, a large degree of intimacy has to have been already established, because the music, if focused on, requires the people to embark on a journey together in which they drop nearly everything but the raw emotions the music evokes. Depending on what each person is going through, the emotions that arise may be completely different for each person. Sharing this type of music feels akin to meeting someone for the first time and asking them to divulge their innermost thoughts and feelings.
After an intense staring contest, the wax man and I had a heart to heart.
I spoke with a friend from home last night. She wanted to know all about my trip and what had happened so far. Despite being here for a few months, I felt unable to explain to her what had been happening to me so far. Each time I recounted an event to her, I felt as if something was lacking behind what I said. I wasn’t able to completely capture the experience and the way it made me feel. Now I know why.
Studying abroad has been like living within one of those echoey, jazz-folk-electronic songs I enjoy so much. To get everything out of this experience, I’ve had to completely drop everything: culture, home turf, and friends – to name a few. So, when my friend from home asked me to describe my experience, I felt as if a song had been interrupted. The experience isn’t over yet. And, while I could put the song on pause to stop and recount the ways Europe has affected me so far, this is a song I’d rather listen to all the way through.
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