My Winter Break
I can’t believe break is almost over! Our winter break is about three weeks long, but it seems like time flew by and in a couple days, I’ll be back in Nashville for the spring semester. After a hectic whirlwind of finals, projects, and papers, winter break is well-deserved time off. I use this time to catch up on sleep, binge watch TV shows, meet up with friends, stuff myself with homemade quality Asian food and lots of boba, and of course, practice because unfortunately, Blair music majors can’t take a break from practicing. Here’s a summary of what I did over break!
Before I left Nashville, I went to Cheekwood Gardens with three friends to celebrate the completion of the semester. During the holidays, the vast expanse of gardens is decorated with one million lights and it was a beautiful sight.
Soon after I arrived back in California, I brought my cello to a renowned San Francisco luthier to have it serviced. The weather is very cold and dry during the winter in Nashville, and this causes the wood of my cello to shrink, which creates a whole bunch of problems. Thankfully, it doesn’t get that cold in California, but in order to prevent more problems, I bought a mini humidifier to put in my cello case when I bring my cello back to Nashville. (It’s very expensive and sometimes irritating to be a musician…)
As much as I love Nashville, I miss the quality Asian food I took for granted while growing up in California. So, every time I come home, I beg my mom to cook traditional Chinese food for me and also take me to the plethora of delicious Asian restaurants around the Bay Area. Here are some pictures of food we cooked or ate out.
I love meeting up with friends over meals, so I caught up with my friends from preschool since they were in the area. We talked about everything from college life to kpop over steaming bowls of ramen. It’s incredible that we’ve been friends for fourteen years! I also met up with an elementary school friend and we talked for hours over huge cups of milk tea. It was so nice to catch up with old friends; it was as if no time had passed.
When I wasn’t practicing, eating, or doing all the chores (thanks, mom), I finished the first book of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy and caught up on my TV shows/dramas. Though the movie was amazing, I highly recommend reading the book because there’s so much detail and many scenes that the movie didn’t include (and should have!). I barely have any time to do leisurely reading anymore, because I have so much required reading for classes now…As for Netflix shows, I caught up on The Good Place (super funny), finished Love O2O, and started Strong Girl Bong-Soon (also super funny) and A Love So Beautiful. (FYI, the last three shows are Asian dramas.) I love the storylines and I’m just a sucker for cute guys and romcoms.
I can’t believe that I’m halfway done with junior year, but I’m excited for this next semester and the rest of 2019! If you want to hear more about my winter break, TV show, music, or food recommendations, feel free to email me at meghan.leong@vanderbilt.edu!