Zi Bang (centre) fell in love with the most atypical experiences while travelling – the art of museum curation and the disguised beauty of language barriers. Rhonda (right), too, began to reflect on herself as a tourist after learning that Icelandic moss takes 20 years to grow, but dies instantly when stepped on. Talk about deep introspection. Read this second feature in our exchange journal series, UniverSalPals, to learn about their travel takeaways.
Names: Zi Bang and Rhonda
Exchange University: University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Tell us about a highlight of exchange!
Zi Bang: Museums. I’m a museum nerd. Throw me into a good museum with enough supplies and I can stay there for the rest of my life. Coincidentally, Europe has some of the best museums in the world. Not only do they house prized possessions, but the buildings themselves are already considered architectural wonders.
I’ve always appreciated the thought museum curators put into arranging their items. To collect a treasured item is one thing, but to know how to display the object smartly is another. Take the Accademia Gallery in Florence, for example. Walking past the main entrance, I entered a lamp-lit room with the “Rape of the Sabines” painting placed at the centre. Leading out of the room was a corridor that led to the tribune. When I looked up at the start of the corridor, David was right at the end, glistening gently under the sunshine. The light and the shade gave the marble statue an almost human-like texture, and the sudden transition from dimmer artificial light to brighter natural light rendered the statue a surreal aura. Literally everyone would stop on the spot to ‘wow’ at the famous work of Michelangelo for a moment. And that, in my opinion, is a smart way of displaying the museum’s treasures.
Rhonda: In Singapore, you never really get to see the fullness and vastness of the ocean. You can look beyond the shorelines of Singapore, and you’ll see blue – but you’ll also see the shapes of the islands around us, or the tall figures of boats and ships blocking the horizon. I’ve had the blessing to gaze upon the sea many times in my travels: at the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, at Iceland, at Cinque Terre, Italy, in the Scottish Highlands, I even got to go into the sea in Barcelona, Spain. The way the vast, blue body of water stretches to the horizon and seemed to go on forever – it’s breathtaking. I remember taking the hike from one village to the other in Cinque Terre, and gasping involuntarily every time the trail meets the sea. I love the Ocean. It has always been one of the top items on my bucket list to see the full horizon, and I am very lucky to be able to cross that off multiple times during my exchange.
What is your biggest takeaway from exchange?
Rhonda: That I can do whatever I want, whenever I want.
I used to experience a lot of hesitation, anxiety, almost paralysation, about doing things I want. Perhaps it’s society’s condemnation of solitude and doing things alone, or maybe I rarely had the freedom to go out with friends when I was younger. I always felt like I needed a reason to do things I wanted to. Sometimes, I even missed gatherings and events – simply because I didn’t want to ask for permission, or didn’t have anyone to go with. I’ve missed out on so many opportunities with this attitude of mine.
When I was on exchange, I realised I didn’t have to account and explain to anyone. I found the chance to do things I wanted – and wow, it was liberating. If I wanted to visit London the next day, I could and I didn’t need a reason to do it. What an exciting realisation! It makes me excited thinking about my future, anticipating the endless adventures and possibilities when I do take that leap of faith and follow my desires. Cheesy, but I own the cheese ha ha.
Could you share about a challenge you encountered while travelling?
Zi Bang: Arguably, one daunting thing about travelling is the language barrier. Though we made it a point to learn a few important phrases in the local language, with our limited ability in using Google Translate, travelling with a language barrier was akin to walking with a limp.
But strangely, I got addicted to that feeling of uncertainty. It became fun to guess the meaning: Does it mean orange or apple? Is he asking for the place I came from or the price of Coca Cola? Sometimes I found myself pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the conversations. When I arrived in Budapest, it was swelteringly hot and after an hour of dragging my luggage around, I was in dire need of something refreshing. I walked up to a busy Gelato store, checked the flavours – all written in Hungarian, thought to myself, Heck it, and bought a cone with an ominously black topping. My palate took a while to register the taste, but eventually it came to me: Black sesame! Not my usual go-to flavour at a Gelato parlour, but nonetheless, I was satisfied at this little adventure and mini surprise.
What is something you did not expect to learn?
Rhonda: One thing that stuck with me on my travels was: sustainable tourism. In Iceland, I learnt that the moss on the floor takes 20 years to plant, but die instantly when you step on it. In Venice, I learnt how the locals developed a system to walk on the left side of the path because of how narrow the roads are. Understanding these things makes me think about the people who doesn’t know about them – people who just step on the Icelandic moss as if it’s any other grassland, effectively ruining 20 years of hard work on those barren grounds; people who are unaware of the Venice walking system, causing annoyance and inconvenience to locals who are already sick and tired of the ever growing tourism on the island. It made me reflect on the times I behaved like an ignorant tourist, who didn’t understand the norms of the locals, causing hurt and annoyance in those countries I visited.
Icelandic moss that takes 20 years to grow
The privilege to share cultures with people of diverse backgrounds is amazing, but it needs to be sustainable and respectful. I have never really travelled much before exchange, but these 5 months opened my eyes to the importance of sustainable tourism. It helped me understand to a greater depth how tourism can ultimately lead to the destruction of dearly cherished communities and spaces.
BONUS: Shot-on-Film by Zi Bang
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UniverSalPals is an initiative that invites students who have gone for NTU-USP Study Abroad Programme for a semester to journal and share about their adventures, changes in perspectives and their growth paths on exchange. Living in a foreign environment for 5 months isn’t a long time, but you can’t say it’s short either. You’ll be surprised at how much a semester exchange abroad can teach you – both about the world and yourself.
