About me

Ah, my life. I guess ‘East meets West’ describes me best. Originally born in Taiwan, I’ve lived most of my life in the Netherlands. Childhood was not exactly all happy and dandy, and throughout my school years I’ve always been a very ‘closed off’ and shy someone. With parents working abroad, I started living all by myself at around 13. It was hard, but like many (difficult) things in life I accepted and faced it, and it made me stronger. I guess things started to change for the better when I had my first of many new (s)experiences at 17. It was the year of love, loving another and loving me, of coming out, of coming to terms with my past and present self.

Decided to hop over to London for my undergrad studies in Law and Politics, with the idea(l) that perhaps someday I could make a difference to the world, if only a little one. For the three years at SOAS, I immersed myself in left-leaning liberal thinking, fish and chips and student demonstrations…and my studies, of course.

Had a life-changing year of travel around Asia last year, living in Buddhist monasteries and coming to terms with various personal issues. It was my year of discovery, an attempt to find myself and what I want in life. Still have no clue yet, but I’m not that worried (yet). Have a year of masters ahead of me before I’m confronted with the question what it is that I want, that I really, really want in life.

For now, I guess like everything I do and how I approach life, I try to take things one step at a time, and do the best I can with what I have, wherever I may be.
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands (aka Holland!)
Height: 181cm Weight: 63kg (a little underweight…)
Languages I speak: English (duh!), Dutch, German, Mandarin, Taiwanese
Birth date: 21 February 1984 (Pisces)
What I do now: studying a masters in Public International Law, and part-time postman
Hobbies: Writing, reading, cooking, helping people, cycling, hiking, traveling/backpacking
Favorite Color: Purple, light blue, green
Things I love: my cat, walking when it’s drizzling, deep conversations with a person over a hot cup of tea, cycling with the wind, watching movies and munching on chocolates with whole pieces of hazelnuts, a walk in the forest in Autumn when the leaves are red, yellow, orange, brown and falling, that feeling you get after you’ve done something to make someone’s life a little bit better, a warm cuddle followed by an intimate and passionate kiss (but must have someone first…)
Things I don’t like: drugs (even though soft drugs here is ‘legal’), smoking, pretentious people, bigotry, hypocrisy, discrimination, prejudice, injustice and abuses of human rights, countries that believe they can do anything they like and make up phony excuses to invade others in the pursuit of self-interest (and all of the above)
My Strength: An open heart and mind to listen and share, compassion and understanding, warmth, sincerity, and a big smile

My Weakness: Poor self-esteem, confidence and trust in myself and my own abilities, shyness to the extent that people think I’m just anti-social, nail biting

Bizarre things I’ve done (so far):

• stayed almost two weeks in a monastery without talking to anyone and with no contact with the outside world (no TV, radio, telephone, internet, nothing!)
• played chess with a Bosnian refugee I couldn’t communicate with in any language every week for a whole year
• trekked 25km in the middle of the night through dense forests and dark dunes for charity (twice)
• spent around two months with a friend who is a single-mother just before and after she gave birth
• spent one whole month living in Indonesia despite not speaking the language (that well)
• traveled to 9 countries within twelfth months