What is home?

I visited Chatswood today, and it felt like home.

Chatswood is a suburb in North Sydney—in terms that a non Sydneyite (Sydneyian? would understand: 10 km north(west) of the Central Business District (CBD) where the Sydney Opera House is located and about an hour’s public transportation ride (a combination of train + metro) from where I’m staying in St Peters (part of the Inner West region of Sydney). In New York terms, it’s like taking the subway from Greenpoint down to Sunset Park.

Chatswood is essentially the Chinatown of North Sydney, although there are many shops and restaurants of other East Asian cultures, and it’s much more vibrant—and bigger—than the Chinatown in Haymarket, in the CBD. I’d been meaning to check out Chatswood for a while for two things but the same reason: Asian food and Asian culture to help alleviate homesickness.

The moment I stepped off the metro into Chatswood, I could feel tension melt away from my shoulders—tension I didn’t even realize that I was holding—and stand up a little straighter. It’s funny how just being around people who look similar to me can make me feel so much more at ease. I loved hearing the different East Asian languages filter through the crowd, listening to the local performer sing in Chinese, and recognizing the Chinese characters on signs hanging outside storefronts.

It’s been a tough end to the week but spending some time in an environment that feels familiar, even though it’s thousands of miles away from home, brought me a moment of peace and feeling like I belong.