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22 birthdays

10/23/2017

In light of it being my 22nd birthday today, I thought a little post about my past birthdays would be fun. Finding these pictures was both fun and scary (the teenage years especially) and I couldn't have done it without the help of my mom who looked for all these baby pictures that were hidden in boxes at home in America (thanks mom).

October 23, 1996

This little chubby baby turns 1, after a year that probably consisted of pooping, eating, and sleeping. All I know is that in every picture I saw from this birthday, I was stuffing my face with cake. Don't let the spoon in my hand fool you, I was going in with only my hands. 21 years later and I actually still eat like this...

october 23, 1997

2 year old me still has to learn how to eat cake with a fork. However, I totally get it. Eating with your hands gets the job done way quicker = more time for more cake. I am also still sitting in the same chair as 1 year ago, so luckily eating all this cake hadn't caught up to me yet.

october 23, 1998

I had finally circled around the sun 3 times, while in the meantime being a little bossy angel to my family. As you can see, I got one of those kid make-up sets for my birthday that my cousin and I ended up covering my grandmother's face with later that night.

october 23, 1999

4 years of putting my hands in the cake and still going strong! (mom doesn't seem so psyched about it though) Also, I have such a cool family for dressing up as these Belgian cartoon characters for my birthday party that year. Still wondering why most of these kids look extremely terrified though...

october 23, 2000

This year, I shared my birthday party with my childhood friend whose birthday is the day before mine. To this day, my mom and his mom still talk about the amount of stress they had taking 12+ kids to a kid theater show for our party.

Here come the scary "I want to dress myself and do my own hair" days. My 5th birthday also marks the first time my little brother was there to celebrate it with me. Even though all he could do then was poop and cry, I was excited to be a big sister.

october 23, 2001

My brother seems more excited about my 6th birthday than I do. Also, I don't know what I have on my head-- best to just ignore it. This is the year where I looked like a boy more than ever before; amazing haircut.

october 23, 2002

One year older, same cake pictures. I have stopped putting my hands in the cake, decided on a more subtle hairstyle, but I still have a devious look on my face.. which doesn't change anytime soon.

october 23, 2003

I turned 8 at the beginning of a new school year at a new school. Cool to see that my brother is still excited to celebrate my birthday and I have yet to stop eating in all my birthday photos. We went to the cinema this afternoon to watch.. "watch" Pirates of the Caribbean. What we really did was run around the cinema room for 2.5 hours. Sorry, mom.

october 23, 2004

So 2004 seems to be a black hole in my family's photo boxes/albums. One of the only pictures we found from that year, taken fairly close to my birthday, is one with my brother and cousins. I look happy as ever, and we all weirdly have matching colors on. My 9th birthday was my last birthday in Belgium, so I really wish I could remember what we did that year.

october 23, 2005

My 10th birthday was the first birthday I spent in America. We had just moved two months earlier, my English was not the greatest, and I had no friends; sooo... I spent it hanging out with my family. My grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle came to visit from Belgium. That whole span of 10 days are what I think back on when I think of my 10th birthday. Yeah and I got this cool walkie-talkie thing that made me feel like I had a cell phone so..🤙🏼

october 23, 2006

This year, we moved to Vermont. So again, I had not that many friends yet to have a little 11th birthday party with. I do, however, remember getting a portable DVD player and it was the coolest thing ever (I could lay in my bed at night and watch a movie without anyone knowing!!!). To help you see where I was during the beginning of my awkward teenage years, these were taken during my 6th grade year... (it gets worse).

october 23, 2007

In 2007, what was cooler than a 12 year old having a pink Motorola Razr? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was so happy to finaaaalllly get a cell phone, more specifically the phone that EVERYONE had that year. I had a huge sleepover with my friends this year, with more drama and bitching that I had prepared myself for.

october 23, 2008

We felt cooler than what we actually were in 8th grade. Turning 13 (finally a teenager), I was still very much in that awkward phase when, for example, you wear a skirt over jeans or 3 layers of tank tops which you then called "fashion". And I guess doing things like this -> were considered acceptable.

october 23, 2009

First year of high school, 14 years old, I had no idea what I was doing. Writing lyrics on your pictures was a trend and I made sure I was in the middle of it. I guess I don't have any pictures of my birthday this year, so I hope this is good enough. I mean, taking pictures of myself was kind of all I was doing in 2009 so it represents being 14 pretty well.

october 23, 2010

"Fifteen" by Taylor Swift finally applied for me so this year was already off to a great start. Seeing that October is basically a whole month of Halloween, the only thing to do where I lived was go to the Great Escape Halloween Nights. The pictures we took this night could be the most cringe-worthy birthday pictures I have ever taken (worse than the ones below).

october 23, 2011

My dad, sister, and brother came to visit from France for my 16th birthday. We look so young, it's insane. On my birthday itself I was invited to this Halloween party with all my friends. The next day, we went to the Great Escape (again). But most excitingly, because my dad and siblings were here, we went to NYC later that week!
16 also meant that I could finally go for my license🚙

october 23, 2012

Senior year has arrived, so did my 17th birthday. I honestly can not tell you what I did for my birthday this year, only that someone hit the back of my car that day🙃. Later that week, I went out with friends to the Halloween parade, so we can pretend that this was considered my "party".

october 23, 2013

18!!! A legal adult !!!! This year, my birthday was celebrated in France. Because I was studying there for a year, my mom and my brother came to visit me for my birthday. The days before my birthday, my mom, brother, and I drove to different cities and hung out by the coast. We had cake with my family in France on my birthday, and then a couple days later we went to Belgium to celebrate with my family there.

october 23, 2014

Ok so I moved again... this year, back home to Vermont. I was gonna apply for colleges and whatever this gap year, but I ended up working and traveling. For my birthday, I didn't do anything but eat this Ben & Jerry's ice cream cake (which was bomb). The next day I got to go help my parents at an event they had with their company ~~exciting~~

october 23, 2015

"Hi, I am in my 20s". Aaaand I was, again, somewhere else for this year's birthday; this time, back in my Belgium where I am enrolled for school. Like always, because my birthday is in the beginning of the year, I never really organize a thing with people I just met. I treated myself to some Ladurée macarons, got my phone stolen during class (surprise selfies), and later went to my grandparents' house with the rest of my family. Funny how each birthday, I have less and less pictures of myself or 'big' parties to celebrate...

october 23, 2016

21 might actually be my favorite birthday yet. My mom and her friend, Lora, came to visit me in Belgium for my birthday. We spent 10 days visiting family, going to dinners, sightseeing in Belgium; it was amazing. For my birthday, my friends had organized a little surprise party in my mom's apartment. It was perfect; my birthday night, my mom being in Belgium, everything.

october 23, 2017

This year, I will be starting my 22nd year on this Earth in Taiwan. I am not 100% sure what I will be doing tonight, but I have invited some friends for dinner and drinks (and darts🎯 & mozzarella sticks) later in the evening. I am excited to add this year's birthday to my list of birthday memories.

So this was way longer than I expected, who knew 22 years of birthdays could be this much? What they say about each birthday getting less and less fun is kind of true. You can see this from my pictures and what I did for my birthday each year. I don't like too much attention anymore so maybe that's why my birthday parties got smaller and smaller, but I like them regardless.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully it was kind of entertaining. If not, I am sorry haha. I had a lot of fun looking back at all these birthdays and baby pictures (teenage pictures not so much, though).

With love
Sara

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MY LIFE IN TAIWAN // FIRST MONTH

10/16/2017

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As many of you know (and if you read my first blog post), I am currently living and studying (kind of) in Taiwan. I am doing this through the erasmus exchange program my school in Belgium offered to us. We arrived here in September, and it currently is mid-October, so I have already gotten a good feel of what life is like in Taiwan. Has it been all fun and games? Mostly, yes. Am I completely in my comfort zone? Nope. It has been an interesting first month...

What I want to say right off the bat - the thing I found the most difficult to get used to here is that no one understands me. Here, I literally became so illiterate since I can't even say the most basic of things. Like I would like to think that I am like average smart and have fairly good language skills, but here I feel so dumb. I can say thank you and hello, but "No sugar, please", for example, is sometimes very difficult to get across. And this is of course not the locals fault; I am the foreigner here, I should be the one adjusting and making sure I am understandable enough to them, but it can be very challenging sometimes (and always a surprise with what you thought you ordered vs. what you actually receive).

We arrived here on the evening of September 4th. The landlords greeted us, we signed our papers, drove to our apartment; yes, very exciting. Because of the traveling we had done throughout the summer and the two weeks prior to arriving in Taiwan, it hadn't really hit me yet that this is where I'd be living for the next coming 5ish months. The next couple of days, we took it very relaxed in getting to know our surroundings. The way I am when I move to a new city is that I really need to stay at home for a few days to get used to my new 'home'. This is not how everyone does it (my boyfriend was very eager each morning to go out into the city) but that is just personally how I mentally get comfortable with my surroundings. It was the same in France, it was the same in Antwerp; it's just what I do.

Our neighborhood is very busy, with a night market, restaurants, bubble tea stands, ❤️7-eleven❤️, no sidewalks, and a shit ton of scooters. EVERYWHERE. When I say that there are more scooters here than anything else, I am not over-exaggerating. Also, because there are no sidewalks, we have to walk on the side of the road. So, add in some 100s of scooters and a couple busses, cars, trucks on the roads, it is quiet a trip going from my apartment to a 7-eleven down the street for a late night snack. If I do not get hit or run over by a scooter these coming 5 months, I will honestly be surprised.

The moment I really started to realize that this is not vacation is when we went to our orientation day at school. Meeting (or at least trying to meet) new people was cool, but talking about classes and course descriptions really helps you lose that vacation feeling😂. The following day our school had organized a day-trip to a popular tourist attraction called Sun Moon Lake. Most of the people I saw during orientation were there, so even though I am shy as f***, I actually talked to people and we even went out to a club in the evening -- let me remind you that I am 75% introvert and most definitely a home-body so doing this, on the first day of meeting people, is not what I usually do.

The Monday that followed, was our first day of classes (yay...). Seeing that our schedule is very light and I really have nothing to complain about, going to school for a couple hours 4 days a week is not that bad. This first week, all we did was go over the syllabus and introduce ourselves with a 2 minute mini presentation... In. Each. Class. I have some people in more than one of my classes so I am sure they were getting sick of hearing, "Hi, my name is Sara. I am almost 22 years old and I am from Belgium" (original, I know👑). But little did I know, at the end of this first week of school I would already being going on my first weekend trip with friends.

We decided on the Thursday of that first week that we would leave the next day for the south of Taiwan, more specifically Kenting. It was a great way to create stronger bonds with the group of people I had already gotten to know a little bit. Click on our picture to go to my blog post -----> about Kenting!

Starting a new week of school, I was getting into the 'back to school' rhythm. I am not gonna talk much about school, as it is basically the same every week so not that exciting (trust me..). Our school week in a nutshell: group works, group presentations, scrolling endlessly through Facebook/Instagram, not being able to order lunch because everything is in Chinese... That's basically it.

To end the week off, our group of friends decided to go to the biggest night market in Taiwan. Fengjia Night Market is located in Taichung City and it was so good. There are shops, there are food stands, there is bubble tea, crazy Taiwan foods (like stinky tofu, not recommending it🙊), and it gives you a real 'Taiwan' vibe. We went by bike, which is just a whole other experience on its own. Driving through the busy streets, with all the scooters, cars, busses... it was so much fun though. I loved it.
The day after the night market, we went to visit the Gao Mei Wetlands located in Taichung. This was mostly (for me) just to go out and do something with my free day. There were a lot of little crabs on the wetlands, and the sun was going down = instagram picture heaven. After, we ate at a local Taiwanese restaurant where they bring a shit ton of huge plates with food and you all share. Very, very cool evening.

*school routine continues as normal the following week*... still not able to order lunch properly.

September ended on a pretty bad-ass note (if I may say so myself). It was our friend's birthday, and he invited us to go do archery. I don't know why but this was so exciting for me. I had never done this (except for on Wii...) so I assumed I was probably gonna suck. BUT GUESS WHAT... I actually didn't suck this one time. It was such a cool thing to go do, and I am definitely going back if I ever wanna show up someone with my shooting skills.😈 We ended the night by celebrating in one of our kitchens with pizza, cheesecake, and lots of drinks.

This month was packed with a bunch of experiences I didn't think I would be doing already. The weather is still super hot... super hot. Throughout September it was easily 31 degrees Celsius everyday. I love fall weather, like nice crisp morning air😍😭, so this definitely needs some getting used to.
Besides sweating my ass off every time I go outside (getting extra shiny due to nerve sweat from the scooters flying around), this first month was incredible and it only makes me more excited to see what the remaining months have in store.

Thank you for listening to me talk to myself😚

With love,
Sara