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Farewell 2006

posted by Marion @ 2:10 PM Comments: 0

2006 - The good, the bad and the ugly

I've done more than 2006 things this year. I've attempted things that I thought I'd never do and I've learned so much more about life, people and most important... myself.

Highlights outweigh the low points and a lot of it has to do with my new theory on life. Cut out the "energy vampires". Gosh, life is short and life is hard, and the last thing one needs in your life is someone who brings you down and make you feel much worse about who you are. I can seriously suggest this to all of you. Make a list of all your friends. Tick the names of the people that make you happy, people that always smile and care. And then seriously consider those who only phone you with problems or to tell you exactly how bad life is.

My year started by going to the Phillipines. What an amazing country, people and adventure. Part is this was because I spent it with two of my favorite people in the world. We met such amazing people and even had pictures with Tarsiers, the smallest monkey like creatures I've ever seen.


One of my most amazing highlights was my trip to the fabulous New Zealand - The land of the long white cloud. I pushed myself to the limits by doing so many things for the first time. Like Zorbing, white water rafting and my first skydive. I'll never forget that 13000 ft plunge! Bring it on any day!! I loved the people there and I want to go back there again. I also made amazing friends and I had the honor to learn about each one of them.







I also started my own business with a friend of mine in Taiwan. Pie*Say T-shirts hit the island with a storm and the ones who have them... love them. I found that so many places have nice souvenir shirts. Taiwan didn't... and if you see a need, fill it. That sounds like something Donald Trump would say. Haha. Here I'm in the McD's with my shirt. Check the girl taking a picture behind me. She thinks that I don't know what the shirt means. It reads in Chinese: "Although I'm smart, I'm still too stupid to read my own shirt!" Check out our other shirts at http://www.piesay.com

Well, after a long thought process, I decided on 2 movies which were my favorites this year. The first is the final installment of X-Men. Loved it. "Go out with a bang", I always say.. and that's just what they did. It was worth the wait.

Another movie which was totally differerent was OPEN SEASON. Of all the computer animated movies I saw this year (and I basically saw them all), I liked this one most. I haven't enjoyed a movie like this in a very long time.
















My favorite song was and still is NO PROMISES from SHAYNE WARD. Wow. This song just stirrs me in all the right places! Go Shayne! Keep up the good work...

Click on the picture to view it on on YOUTUBE. It's just out of this world.

posted by Marion @ 6:44 PM Comments: 0

Largest Earthquakes in 100 years Shake Southern Taiwan

How scary is it for someone that's from a country with very little earthquake history, to experience what I did last night. I was teaching in the countryside on the fifth floor in a class filled with 34 students.

At around 20:26, the kids started shouting "DI ZHEN". I told them "No Chinese", but then I realized they were saying Earthquake. Suddenly the whole building started shaking and stirring. Everyone was seated except for me. I almost fell down and grabbed onto the white board and the nearby cubboard.

Half the kids were hysterical. The other half were laughing. In a situation like this, it gets very scary, because what do you do? Go on? Or go out? I knew it would be impossible for us all to get down in a minute, so I told them to sit still and wait it out. As soon as everything seemed okay, another earthquake shook us up and down 8 minutes later.

This time more kids looked scared and we immediately moved to a lower floor. The quakes were measured 6.9 on the richter scale, but Americans measured them at 7.1 and 7.0.

As far as I know only one person was killed and a few injured, which is a miracle concerning the power of the quakes. There was also no Tsunami alert.

This now happened 2 years after the huge Tsunami swept across the Indian Ocean.

I think that Boxing day should honestly be considered the next Friday the 13th.

posted by Marion @ 11:00 AM Comments: 0

AFRO-DIZZY-ACT... just after Christmas

It's with great pleasure that I want to share the following link with you.

As you know, I'm publishing my very first book in Taiwan soon. After lots of discussions, it was decided that AFRO-DIZZY-ACT : A potent adventure of a foreigner in Taiwan would be out at the end of January.

I'm not allowed to share too much of this book with you yet, but we have a local magazine here that got permission to use an excerpt of the book. I'd love to share it with you.

If you come to visit Taiwan, whether you're the Queen Mother herself, there's something you can't avoid. And that is the day that you walk into a squatting toilet.

Read all about my first experience with the porcelain hole. Click on the picture below:

posted by Marion @ 9:38 AM Comments: 0

Karma is out there!

posted by Marion @ 10:56 AM Comments: 0

Don't Give Up - Because You Are Loved

posted by Marion @ 9:23 AM Comments: 0