Another year older! Woo! It's kind of scary how fast time flies after you turn 20. I didn't have anything special planned for the day since we had two classes in the afternoon and didn't get out till 6:30, but it turned out really well. :) Went to my friend's afterwards, and they baked me a cake. awwww! It was good. I am forever grateful for the girls of the human sexuality program who've made life here so much easier and more fun (why isn't funner a word?).



Also for my sister and all my friends who wished me a happy birthday. It's good to feel loved and know when you're not forgotten. Thanks!! :D

One of my classmates here really wanted to see dinosaur skeletons (as she hasn't seen any in real life), so when she found out there were some on exhibition at the Brussels Natural History Museum, we decided to pay it a visit. We walked through Leopold Park (I think that's what it's called) trying to find the entrance to the museum. On arrow pointed in one direction, but then another arrow pointed in another direction ... we were confused, but it was well worth the trip because the park is really pretty now that spring is here.

The museum is pretty big, bigger than I originally thought. The interior design of the museum is actually quite nice, especially the dinosaur exhibit, which is very impressive. It's got more of a modern and industrial feel when compared to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in D.C. Alas, I don't have a camera, so I usurped my friend's camera and took a bajillion pictures. But it's still on her camera, and she's heading off to London and Greece tomorrow, so it'll be after spring break before I can get the pictures. A sample, from the museum's website ~



They also had a mammal exhibit, evolution exhibit, and a north/south pole exhibit (and more, but I can't remember off the top of my head). It was very nice, and there were students (little and big) on field trips in there. We felt like little kids as well. There's just something really awe-inspiring when you're in the same room as those full-scale dinosaur skeletons. They also had a room full of whale skeletons, and that was pretty awesome as well. You feel tiny in comparison.

After the museum, it was still early, so we walked through the park and went to Paul bakery where we just drank some coffee, ate some bread, and talked about ... life. Then it was shopping time, so we went to the shopping street in Brussels (Rue Neuve) where I ended up getting allergies along with socks. Hah. So after that, we decided to head back to Leuven since two of us still had to pack for their trips tomorrow. They're skipping classes so they can go home earlier *gasp!* Hahaha. :P Their spring break has officially started ... mine, not so much. booo!

Overall it was a really nice day. The weather was totally cooperative as well. :D I love Belgium when it's sunny, blue skies, and warm. Good times! But super tiring. I am all pooped out right now. >.<

Neglected! I don't know. Lately it's been sunny and fantastic! Except, now that spring is here, so are flowers with pollen, which means allergies! This past weekend was especially bad to the point that I actually went to bed before 12 three days in a row. Holy! That hasn't happened in a long whiles, even with jet lag I try to sleep after 12. Ah well. Maybe it's a good thing. Today the nose is much better, and it's also not as sunny. Starting to see a sad correlation here. Nooooo ... I love sun and blue skies. Sigh.

Sad news, my aunt's doggie of 12 (?) years recently passed away. He was old and sick, but it's still sad. At least he should be suffering less, and as my sister and I put it, he's probably in perpetual humping heaven. :D He was always thwarted when he was with us. We'll miss you, little guy! Even your terror-dog ways, as was chronicled at the beginning of this blog.


Look at that angelic little face. How can he not be missed? Sigh. <3

On to happier news. After the loss of my beloved fujifilm, my dad's getting me a Nikon D40. Wahahaha. Well, the order's been placed, now just have to wait for it's arrival and for me to get to the States so I can play play play with it. So exciting!!! I hope I use it to it's full capability and not just use it as a point and shoot .... then that would be a waste of money.

Spring break's in about two weeks, and I'll be heading back to D.C. :D Cherry blossom? I hope I don't die of allergies there too. Aishhhhhh.

Mini-update on life so far. :)

Two weeks ago I went to Namur (capital of Wallonia) with a friend. On the train ride to Ottagnie, I was stupid and left my camera on the train. By the time I realized, the door of our train to Namur had closed and we were on our way. Haven't heard anything from the station since, so chances of recovery are null. :( Waaaah. I'm still beating myself up over it occasionally. I mean, it was a really nice camera, and I had it only for 6 months. Gaaaaah. Now I feel naked because I normally carry my camera everywhere. Sometimes I'm like, ooo, that would make a nice picture. But now they're just pictures in my mind. Which means I'll forget about them the next day. Sigh.

Anyway, no point in dwelling on that, I guess. Must move on.

Namur's a really beautiful city, especially on a sunny, warm day (shock! in Feburary?!). My friend and I just went without a map or tour book or anything. So when we stepped out of the station, we were like, uh, where do we go? What do we do? Which way's the city? Wandering around a bit, we found the citadel, which was pretty hard to miss once you get out of the building-filled area since it stood on a pretty tall hill. We made that our destination and had a nice hike up the huge hill and surrounding areas. Thankfully my friend had her camera with her.

Pre-citadel, city shots:

Churches, cathedrals can be found everywhere, and Namur was no different. When we were wandering around, we decided to head in directions of churches since that meant there was a square or market place near it. This church allowed us to see the citadel. :D



There's a river that runs through Namur, which makes the city even more scenic, especially with the citadel being on the other side.

View of the city from the citadel, but this was when we had only started to climb. Nowhere near the top, so you can't see as much yet. But the citadel itself was so peaceful and quiet. And even though it was a really nice Saturday, there weren't as many people as I would have expected. Later, when we wandered into the center of the town, we noticed that's where everyone went. Shopping time! :P

Unfortunately, a lot of the pictures of the citadel itself didn't turn out as well. But! I bought some postcards while we were there, and this one is a pretty nice artist's rendition of the place. :)

(All pictures were taken by my friend, Mireya. Nice shots :P)

I'm not a nerd, at least that's what I tell myself. Heh. But when I'm in class, I really can't stand it when other people around me are whispering, but not in the quiet-so-others-can't-hear-you way. The loud, obvious whispering that goes on in the relatively large classes here really pisses me off. It's hard enough trying to understand what the professor is saying without other distractions going on around you. It's kind of crazy how rude some of these people are to the professors. Even the people in the very first row are chit chatting as the professor's lecturing. Argh! But the professor doesn't say anything at all, not even a glare in their direction! Errrrrrrgh. So frustratingly annoying!

/rant

Yup, it's Carnival weekend here (and the rest of the world except Asia). I never knew there was such a thing until I came here and learned that it happens in other countries as well. Yaaaah, sheltered in Taiwan? Maybe just a tad. Or I just didn't pay much attention to my surroundings. But anyway, we were going to go to Aalst today because they apparently have a pretty big parade each year. Alas, it was not meant to be. It was a rainy, gloomy, wet day, and my friend and I decided that we didn't want to go out and get wet. So instead I stayed at home and organized and cleaned the room.

Yesterday while we wandered about Leuven, there was this small musical procession. So green! Reminded us of St. Patty's Day. But yah, the music was nice. :D



Room redecoration project! First up, the walls around my bottom bunk. When I first moved in, the sofa was on the bottom, so there was no wall space. But now that I'm using the bottom as my bed, plenty of space. Lots of pictures, but not enough. I actually wanted to cover all of that white wall, until I realized I did not have enough pictures. :( The rest are Nancy Drew Postcards.


Close up of the other wall. Two of the lines of pictures are held up by string, but then I ran out of pins to string up the rest, so I just taped them on. :P Ah, I cheated.


Nancy Drew postcards! Got these (30 total) when we went to the Spy Museum in D.C. I love Nancy Drew! I think this is when my fascination with mystery novels and tv shows got its beginnings. :P

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

I sure am! Just barely. :P

It's been nearly a month since I last posted! What have I been doing, you ask? Well, um .... came back to Belgium and school started. Totally different from last semester in terms of number of classes (10!) and workload. Yup, I gots 10 classes this semester. Well, technically it's only 8, but because we have a class that's supposed to be taken in our second year plus a class we missed last semester due to some professor problems, we have 10 classes. Total. Oh. My. Yah, going to be a fun semester, I can tell already. Blah.

What classes, you ask? Well, let me list.

- Family Therapy
- Client-centered therapy
- Clinical Sexology
- Methods and Techniques in sex research
- Anthropology of Body (worst class thus far)
- Sex Education
- Culture Historical and Culture Philosophical Reflections on Sexuality
- Law of Gender, Sexuality and Reproduction
- Medical Sociology
- Sexual Psychology

In addition to all those, we need to be prepping for our master's thesis. Tien ah. So um, not sure how I'll survive this semester. :(

Lately it's been snowing/sleeting in Maryland. Lately as in ... two days ago. It rained frozen rain yesterday, so all the snow has turned to ice. It's actually quite blinding with the sun shining down, like it was today. But it's also very pretty. Took pictures, but I have been kind of too lazy to upload them to the computer, much less internet. Sigh. Laziness is bad.

Anyway, so today we were walking to the bus stop to go to Montgomery (aka Westfield) Mall. There's this slope we have to walk down, and thankfully the sidewalk had be cleaned. But there was still some ice on it, just that it was really hard to tell since it all looked wet anyway. At some point, I slid, but managed to stay on my feet by holding onto my sister. But then ... my sister went down next to me. Thankfully I had stabilized myself before then, so I didn't go down with her. But yah, she thinks she may have hurt her ankle. Oh noes!

Frozen sidewalks are a terrible thing. >.< They look so innocuous, but in reality, not so much. Woosh, ahhhhhh, splat. Ouchie.

Well, not quite. One more massive paper and then the semester ends. But at least I've pretty much finished it. Just need to do some touch ups. But at least final exams are over. Had my first oral exam today ever! So nerve wracking, I have issues talking to professors already. Can you imagine having to do an oral exam where you have to look at the professor and answer questions and he can ask followup questions and you can see how he's reacting to your answers?! ahhhhh!!! Talk about stressful. Well, that's what ran through my head before the exam.

Thankfully it wasn't that bad. We got time to prepare beforehand. He handed out the questions on paper and gave us time to write down what ideas we had. So basically we could just write out our answers and then read it to him (heh. Is what I did.). And also he just told us to go up to him whenever we were ready, one by one. So, there was plenty of time, although once people started going up to him, my concentration level went down. I really can't take exams when there's talking in the room. Although I can study with music on, I can't take exams with talking. Eh. So randomly weird. But yah. The most nerve-wracking part, besides having the prof stare at you while you talk, is that the other classmates are in the same room as well. So they can hear your answer (and you theirs, which is mind-boggling. Doesn't that make cheating too easy?) .... scary. >.<

But apparently this is the normal way of doing exams here, not our classical written exams. Ahhhhhh!!! So, I have to go through this again and again. Ugh. I'm going to develop an ulcer. Sigh.

So now I just finish that paper and stress about the results. Yay. Jk. I won't stress about it until probably the day before the results are due out (mid-Feb, I think). I'm going to enjoy my time in D.C.! Mmmhmmm ....

Oh! Before the exam, I thought I'd be a good student and show up there earlier to do some last minute cramming, so I left an hour earlier. But! At the bus stop, I thought all the buses that stopped there went to the hospital where my exam was taking place, so I just hopped on the first one that came without looking at the destination. Ugh. Not a smart thing to do. Ended up taking the wrong bus and got off as soon as I realized. But then I had to walk in the rain and strong wind to the nearest bus stop that would get me on the right bus. By this time, it was 1/2 an hour before exam time, and I was standing in the cold wet rain blowing all over me waiting for the damn bus, who took its own sweet time in getting there. I stood there for 15 minutes without a single bus going by and I started stressing. 15 minutes till exam time. Should I walk? Should I wait? It's raining! If I walk, the umbrella will be useless because the winds are too strong. I'll be soaking wet! But I can't be late! Ahhh!!! Thankfully the bus showed up, and I got to exam place with time to spare.

But it didn't make a difference! Why? Because our professor was late! He thought it was taking place in the building where we normally have exams (yah, he's very ... laid back :P). And then when he got to the right place, he realized that he'd forgotten the questions. So. Yah. Guess I wasn't the only disorganized one right before the exam. :)

Sigh. But it's over and done with, and I'm glad. Have to get used to finals season again, but at least there's no midterms season here. And finals season spreads out over a month rather than a week. I guess that's better? Well, not really considering how much I enjoy procrastinating. Doesn't make much of a difference. :P

And I thought I had difficulty with keeping a neat room during regular school days.

My room is officially a mess. I have cans and bottles and coffee and soymilk cartons all over my desk. Papers everywhere. Clothes everywhere. Dishes are still in the sink. Bed's not made ... oh wait, it's never made. :P

At least I took out the trash! But that's because my bread went moldy :(

I can't be bothered to tidy up after myself. Just sit here and study or take a break and surf the internet. Prior to my endocrinology exam, I didn't step out of my room for like three days until I had to go and buy some groceries (or starve). Ah, become a total book worm (a little too late). Heh.

But! I'm studying for my last final, and then I get to go back to Amelica. Exciting. Just ... need ... to ... survive Thursday. It's an oral exam! Who does oral exams?! It's not like I can even slack off because it'd be embarrassing to have a crappy answer when the professor is right there. Ahhhhhh. Oral exam?! really?

Well, break's over. The cramming continues. :(

This morning when I got up, I had the scariest sensation of being tilted to the right. Like when I tried to walk in a straight line, I couldn't. I'd just move towards the right and bump into everything. I can feel my body being slanted to the right even when I tried to stand straight. >.< So I decided to go back to sleep.

After I woke up again, no more slanting, but the room was spinning, making me want to throw up. I thought, maybe if I ate something it might make me feel better. Eh, no such luck. The only time when the room stops spinning is when I'm flat on my back and not moving, so I thought maybe sleeping some more would be a good idea.

Now, after the nap, the room is still spinning, but I can't sleep anymore. I still have 30 pages of notes to memorize, but it's kind of hard with my stomach on the verge of rebelling and the room non-stop spinning. Sigh. I don't know why this happens!! This isn't the first time, but it's the first time that the spinning has been this strong and non-stoppish. :( I don't know what to do. I have an exam on Tuesday and Thursday and no time to see a doctor if this problem persists.

Sigh. I'm kind of scared. >.< blaaaaah. I hope it goes away.

It's like an extreme hangover except without the alcohol the previous night. Arrrrrrrr.

I've nearly been run over by bicycles at least 3 times since I came back to Leuven. After three weeks in the States, I keep forgetting to look both ways even on one way streets. There are way too many bikes here!! >.<

Anyway. Finals season. :( I don't want to write a 10 page single spaced paper. :( SIGH. wish me luck!

Think this post is three days too late, but eh, feel like I should still do some retrospection of 2008!

It was a year with its ups and downs, more so than usual. Let's see ...

- First Chinese New Year spent back in Chia-Yi after graduating from high school. First Chinese New Year as a working person rather than a student, but still got a decent amount of Red Bag money. :P

- Applying for school in Leuven and getting in ... Woo!

- Quitting work and all the agonizing and guilt-feeling that came with that. At the same time, a lot of relief after the deed was done and could enjoy summer once more.

- Going to Kenting with sister, Picker, and Dan. Hopefully the start of a yearly tradition. Will see how this summer goes.

- Finding out parents are getting transferred to Washington, D.C. during Kenting trip ... @#!@#$!@#%$#@$%

- Finding out our grandpa had lung cancer during the trip to Kenting as well. Then finding out grandpa passed away during our flight to Belgium. Sadness. But it's a good thing we spent quite a bit of time with him that summer as well. Especially with my mom coming back for relatively long periods of time.

- During registration for school, learning that my program had been canceled. Then having the program re-opened.

- Starting school in KU Leuven. Meeting the three other classmates in my program and realizing how much we had in common even though we were all from different countries and cultures. Also bonding over how inefficient and disorganized our program was. =.=

- Wandering around Leuven taking pictures of everything and anything.

- Going to Berlin to visit JC and eating Thanksgiving dinner (it's been a while!) and doing very little sightseeing. :P

- JC visiting Brussels with his parents.

- Visiting parents in Washington, D.C. and visiting the old schools, malls, etc. Trying to recall things from the childhood and failing more often than not. Sigh. Memory sucks!!!

- Seeing old elementary school friends. Oh how we've all grown. Good times.

I think those are the main highlights/lowlights of 2008. Hope 2009 will be even better! Happy New Year everyone!

Not for me, of course. I wish.

However, first day of the new year, and I witnessed a proposal take place right in front of me. Generally I'm so unobservant that I don't notice these things. This time, though, we were at Jefferson Memorial in D.C., and this guy asks my dad to take some pictures of him and his girlfriend. My dad pushed that job to me, so while the guy was showing me how to use the camera, he said, "Be ready, I'm going to get down on my knees." At first I was confused, unsure what he meant. But then he took the ring box out of his jacket to check, and I was like, "oh shit! He's going to propose!" And that is what he did.

So I was just snapping away and watching the story unfold in front of my eyes. At first I was kind of worried about her saying no, then that would be awkward. But after some gasping, laughing, and hugging, it was clear she said yes.

Man, that was kind of scary, though. What if the pictures sucked?! I mean, this is like once in a lifetime (I hope, anyway) opportunity.

But anyway, best of luck to that happy couple and on the subject of engagements, to Wazi and John too. :D Congrats! <3