Carpe Diem

Hey, everyone!

Due to very recent events, my parents have become slightly paranoid that if I step outside the house, something terrible is going to happen to me, *knocks on wood*. Obviously I understand their concern, they just want me to be safe. But locking myself up in my room is not the way to live either.

I'd been planning and looking forward to attend three concerts in the past two months, and I had to miss out on every one of them, partially because my parents wouldn't allow me to go. I can't even begin to explain how much it emotionally hurts me to pass up an opportunity to see my favorite artists live. I'm a huge concert lover, and I will continue to attend them in the future. I feel most alive while dancing and singing along to my favorite songs being performed live. The thrill and excitement of being in the same room as those artists, plus hundreds or thousands of people attending for the same reason, it gives me an endless amount of joy.

As you already know, I love to travel. I want to see the world, so I will continue travelling. Car and plane accidents can happen at any moment, and yet I'm not scared to step into either one. The chance that something goes wrong is so small it's almost non-existent.
To go out there and travel is the best way to see and learn more about this planet, and trust me when I say it can do wonders for your soul. At least with travelling, I'll be doing something that I love, and isn't that what's most important? I refuse to let myself live a miserable life just because it's potentially unsafe. To live life is dangerous. I will not be afraid of taking risks, no matter how small or big, because I know I'll proudly look back on it someday.

Wall art in Los Angeles. Photo by me ©

Do not let fear stop you from doing the things that you love. Go ahead and leave your mark on this world. Your life is not measured by how long you live, it's measured by the goals you reach.

"I'd rather die on an adventure than live standing still." – V.E. Schwab

Lots of love, Faith

Get To Know Me

Happy Monday!

It's a beautiful 28°C degrees here, I'm sipping some coffee and thought I'd type out a little post. As this is my second post on this blog, I figured I'll just let you get to know me a little better. I found some "Get To Know Me" questions, which are actually for a YouTube tag, but I mean, I might as well answer them right here!

1. What is your middle name?
I don't have one, but I do however have a Chinese name. This is how you write it: 刘佩真.

2. What is your favorite color?
My favorite color is purple and has been for a very long time. I find almost any shade of purple nice, but I especially love lilac.

3. Who was your first best friend?
My first best friend was a girl that I'd met when I was around 4 years old. We were friends all the way through elementary school until we seperated ways, when we went to different secondary schools. It was only then that I realized how wrong we were for each other. I was a very quiet and shy girl, and I kind of just followed her around and did whatever she wanted. I'm actually very glad I got out of that.

4. How tall are you?
I'm 1.70m. If I'm not mistaken, in feet that's about 5'5/5'6.

5. Cats or dogs?
Dogs, definitely. I like cats, don't get me wrong, but dogs are just my favorite. I'd really love to have one of my own, but my parents aren't as keen about a pet that requires so much attention. When I move out, I will for sure consider getting one.

6. Funniest moment throughout school?
It's hard to pinpoint only one funny moment, but one thing I'll never forget is when I was in secondary school, a couple of my friends and me were in the art classroom creating decorations for Valentine's Day. The thing is, we came in via another connected classroom and closed the door because the teacher was still teaching a class over there. We sat in the other room for so long that we didn't realize the students and teacher had left and locked the door. So we sat there with about six people locked up with absolutely no way out. One of my friends decided to climb through the window and walk across the roof to the next room to get help. It was just so hilarious.

7. How many countries have you visited?
Same number as this question, 7! Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, USA and China (including Hong Kong).

8. Are you in / have you gone to college?
I'm going to college right after this summer!

9. What was your favorite / worst subject in high school?
My favorite subject in the first few years would have had to be art, because it felt very freeing and I could do what I wanted, but over the years English had also become a favorite.
My worst subject was without a doubt history. I just completely sucked at it and it took all my motivation for studying away.

10. What is your favorite drink?
Coffee! Seriously, I wouldn't survive without.

11. What is your favorite animal?
Tigers, they're just so fierce and beautiful and I just adore them. Also, my Chinese zodiac is a tiger, hah.

12. What is your favorite perfume?
Heat Rush by Beyoncé. Some of you might know, she's got a whole range of scents, and this is the one in the orange bottle. That was actually my first purchase of a fragrance ever, and I didn't even buy it for myself originally. I had bought it for Mother's Day, but my mom ended up not really using it, so I kind of claimed it back.

13. Tea or coffee?
I think we've established I really like coffee, but I wouldn't say no to tea either. It really just depends on my mood.

14. What would you name your children?
I have thought about this before, but not with 100% seriousness. I'm still young, after all. I did always like the sound of 'Luna', though, so if I ever get a girl, that could be an option.

15. What sports do you play / have you played?
I don't do any specific sports right now apart from a bit of fitness from time to time. I used to take swimming lessons and after that I'd taken over three years of streetdance classes. I really enjoyed those, and have even performed in front of audiences several times. However, I eventually had to stop because school work was taking up too much time. If I'm being honest, I do really miss dancing, and would not hesitate to pick that back up again.

16. What is your favorite book?
If you know me well, this shouldn't be hard, because it's basically the only thing I ever talk about. It's Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire. Essentially, it's about a good girl named Abby and a bad boy named Travis who become friends. Abby tries to keep everything platonic, but that doesn't go as well as she thought it would. It sounds very predictable and maybe a bit cliché, but I swear it's such an incredible book and I very highly recommend to check it out if you like romance / drama stories. Jamie is an amazing writer and deserves all the praise! (And if you finish that, also check out Walking Disaster, the same story but told from Travis' perspective.) (There are many more books in the entire series! You can check them all out on Jamie's website: jamiemcguire.com) (This is not a sponsor I swear, I just really love the books.)

17. Who are some of your favorite YouTubers?
I have a lot of YouTubers that I adore, but the one that I watch the most is Zoe Sugg aka Zoella. I hardly ever miss a video or vlog. She's such an inspiration and her positivity and joyfulness is contagious. I love following her and seeing her go about her daily life.
I also love Jess & Gabriel Conte. I've only started watching them recently, but the first video I saw of them was the one of their wedding and I was immediately hooked. Their story is so special and unique and they're so incredibly ambitious, I love that about them.

18. What is your favorite movie? 
Like my favorite book, something I can never seem to shut up about; The Vow. The lead roles are played by Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, two actors whom I adore. It's a pretty known movie, but it's basically about a married couple, Leo and Paige, they get into a car accident and Paige loses her memory from the past five years. She doesn't remember being married or even have met Leo and he obviously tries everything he can to make her remember him and fall in love with him again. Might sound a bit cheesy, but I'm a hopeless romantic and I have shed many tears watching and re-watching this movie.
A very close second is Divergent, but that might just be only because I love seeing Theo James in action.

19. Are you single or taken? 
Single, have been my whole life.

20. What's your idea of an ideal first date? 
I hate making conversation, because I always run out of things to say and make things more awkward than they have to be. So anything to keep active is always good for me. There's a fun fair in my town twice every year, which sounds like a really fun thing to go to on a date.

21. How many girlfriends / boyfriends have you had? 
None! There was a time that I'd been on a few dates with a guy, but that didn't really turn into anything. It was very awkward and I just couldn't get comfortable around him, so I stopped seeing him pretty quickly.

22. Favorite memory from childhood? 
This would probably be the time I went to Keukenhof. It's a place in the Netherlands and it's basically a huge flower park. Everywhere you walk you see flowers. I went there with my family and at the time I loathed everything; the heat, the walking, the endless picture taking. But looking back at it now, it was actually a pretty good time.

23. Do you speak any different languages and how well? 
Yes! Apart from Dutch, I speak English quite fluently (figures). I speak Cantonese-Chinese because I speak that at home, and a teeny tiny bit of Mandarin-Chinese, it's very bad but I can manage to follow some conversations without difficulty. Then French and German, which are both on quite a low level, but I'm able to translate things slowly, and maybe with a little bit of help.

24. Do you have any siblings? 
Yes, I have one sister. She's 14 years old, making her about 4 years younger than me. We're very close.

25. How would you describe your fashion sense? 
Hard to say. I don't feel right limiting my style to only a few sentences. If I had to just summarize it quickly though, I'd say I like to keep things simple. Most days I'm good with a good pair of black skinny jeans, a T-shirt and some black sneakers. Apart from a watch and maybe a necklace, I don't fuss around too much with accessories. Nothing with too much print or text. I love to get something basic and then just mix and match it with what I already have.

26. What is your favorite restaurant? 
I recently ate brunch at a restaurant called Bagels & Beans in Breda (The Netherlands). I've got to say that is surely some of the best food I've had in a while. It's definitely worth a visit.

27. What are some of your favorite TV shows? 
Gossip Girl, Friends and How I Met Your Mother are shows that I can just keep rewatching without it ever getting boring. Some others are Stranger Things, The 100 and Modern Family.

28. PC or Mac? 
I'm currently using a Macbook and I have to say I just love using it, so yeah, Mac.

29. What phone do you have? 
iPhone 7. I got it almost right after it launched last year, but to be honest I only got it because my previous phone broke down and I needed a quick replacement. I'm slightly gutted that I didn't get the 7+ instead because of the insane pictures it takes, but it's alright, I would've found it too big anyway.

30. Tell us one of your bad habits! 
I'm one of the most impatient persons you'll ever meet. I hate waiting and if in any situation I have to wait for something, I'll complain about it out loud if not in my head.

Hope you enjoyed reading these! Until next time!

Love, Faith

Welcome!

Hello everyone!

If you've stumbled upon my little blog, allow me to introduce myself!

My name's Faith and I'm a 19-year old girl from the Netherlands, born and raised. Both my parents are from China, making me 100% Chinese by blood, but deep in my heart I'm a Dutchie. So, I was raised bilingually; I speak Dutch and Cantonese-Chinese (I say this even though my Chinese sucks, oops). Maybe it's the fact that I was raised with two completely different languages that caused this, but over the years I discovered that I had quite the skills for learning new languages. English has always been rather easy, and I loved French from the moment I started. In my second year of secondary school, I was juggling 7 different languages at once; Dutch, Chinese, English, French, German, Latin and Greek. However, that didn't last long. I quickly dropped Latin and Greek because they were just too hard to handle for me. And even though I'm not fluent in French and German, I am able to understand parts of it, if you just give me a little time to figure it out. Now, five years later, I'm about to add Spanish to the list and I'm creating a blog fully in English, so bear with me if I make any grammar/spelling mistakes or if I mix up British-English and American-English, I'm only human!

With my huge interest for languages, I think it's safe to say that's one of the main reasons why I've come to love travelling. But there are so many other valuable reasons too. Even though I can't remember it, my first time on a plane was when I was two years old. My grandparents on my mother's side are still living in China, so I visit them whenever I can, about every few years. Until about age 14, I hadn't gone to any other countries other than Belgium, China and France. After that, something inside me switched, and I asked my parents to take me to other countries. So in the summer of '13, we went to the UK for the first time. I had a great time, but I think my love for travelling really started on a school trip to Paris not long after that. See, the thing is, whenever I went on holiday with my parents, they booked us a guided tour. I absolutely loathed them and it ruined most of the experiences for me. On the Paris trip, my teacher obviously showed us around, but we had more freedom. We weren't stuck to a tight schedule. I discovered the exhilirating feeling of exploring on your own and I fell in love with it. That was only a couple years ago. Since then, I've been to Switzerland, Italy, Paris again, Los Angeles, plus I've spent a beautiful 8 months in New York (which I will tell more about later!).

The world is so huge and there's so many more places for me to wander around. I'm absolutely gutted at my younger self for not pushing my parents earlier to take me to different countries, but I'm not too bothered about it. It just means I can go out and travel more on my own right now. I'm already saving up for my next adventure.

Travel is one of my biggest passions, I could tell you so much more and I will. But that's not the only thing I'll be writing about. This blog captures my life, my thoughts, my experiences, my dreams and aspirations.
I hope you'll stick by me as I jump aboard this train. Next stop; to be announced.