Of independence, IDs, birthdays, and cakes

July and now, most of August, has blurred in a haze of multiple birthdays and farewells. Certainly time has never passed more quickly, or been marked as multiple periods end.

So here's a quick visual summary of my summer:

Perhaps ironic, yet somewhat fittingly, I got my Taiwan ID card on Independence Day, and a few days shy of my birthday. Certainly, for me it means freedom from the bureaucratic rules that shackle foreigners here.



Then it was a combined mass birthday celebration and farewell dinner at Din Tai Fung, followed by a quiet weekend that included hiking.

The following weekend was a farewell party, art show closing, and another friend's birthday. Plus, we mustn't forget Harry Potter mania!

More farewells, and birthday parties followed. (Will people stop being born in the summer, and stop leaving Taiwan?) ;-)

I made a surprise birthday cake for Neil:





Complete with crushed coconut cookie "sand," palm trees, a surfboard riding a cake wave covered in foamy "ocean surf" frosting, and Goldfish crackers frolicking in the sea.