The Shawshank Redemption

I 'heart' this movie to death. One of my all time favorites.

Morgan Freeman has one of the best narrating voices around and many memorable lines in the film.

Red: [narrating] I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

Typhoooooon!

Taiwan was hit with yet another typhoon this past Sunday night/Monday morning. Central and Southern Taiwan were hit the hardest-- major flooding and whatnots. I was relatively unscathed from the whole ordeal. Meaning I woke up around 10am (no work!), watched TV, took a nap, watched more tv, got a foot massage, watched some more TV and went to bed. Good stuff~

I went down to Taichung (central Taiwan) on Sunday to visit my uncle. He took me out with his friends for some really good food and during the dinner meal, one of his friends got drunk off of Gao Liang (clearish liquor that's popular in China). Anyway, his friend turns to me and asks "what do think of my son?" (who happened to sit next to me) He then continues with "Do you have a boyfriend? Do you want to be my daughter in law?" Fuckin gao liang!~ Yes, he was drunk off his ass, but it was nonetheless embarassing and yes, I started to panic a lil cuz everyone was chipping in... "yeah, you should consider. how old are you? can you speak Taiwanese? where are your parents? what line of work do you do? etc, etc, etc..."

Needless to say, I was extremely relieved when dinner was over. Yeesh~ if my life could be a sitcom....

Debrief - Kunming

Complete series of Friends.... check!

Muahaha! One of the great things about China is pirated dvd's!! Yes, my collection of movies have grown just a lil bit (didn't want to buy too many for fear of getting shot at immigration).

Ate fried baby bees (apparently full of protien) so I can totally conquer any fear factor event in the future.

Hiked, took a horse, hiked, took a horse carriage and hiked some more (3 miles total up a mutha freakin steep ass hill) to witness the breath taking views on the Western Hills.

Stayed at classy 5 star hotels and ate one too many spicy dishes (Yunan province is known for mouth numbing spices).

Met 4 older foriegn gentlemen at The Hump (its not as dirty as it sounds) for an evening of great conversation.

Tons of pics that are already posted on facebook, but will do a collage for le blog later this week.

Happy to be back in Taipei, but will be prepping for Hamburg, Hong Kong and maybe Macau in the upcoming weeks.

Will post a more detailed entry about my biz trip to Kunming along with the pics.

Tarot Cards

I'm blogging at a park. I feel part poser, wannabe, nomad and chicken shit. Why chicken shit, cuz there's this mini lizard thingy that was on a tree, but is slowly inching towards me. Yes, I'm aware that I tower over the lil fellow, but he's quick! He can totally climb up my leg, hop over my lap top and attack!!!

Anyway, I'm at the park cuz I'm waiting for a friend to arrive (speak of the devil, he's here!)

[2 hours later]

Ok, my friend Vico is a copywriter for an ad agency that I used to work for. He's a great guy and he know's how to read palm and more~ He read my palm about 6 weeks ago and none of the things that were supposed to happen, happened. So to regain his reputation, he said tarot cards would be more precise.

In the span of 2 hours, I pretty much found out my fate for the next 6 months. Keeping in line with the fortune teller my mom nagged me to go to before Chinese New Year, I am a career oriented woman! Most of the cards I picked had coins (which represents money). The point of the tarot cards was to ask about relationships and not surprisingly, there's none on the horizon. Lol~

Keep in mind, I believe in destiny and that things always change, so with the reading, its just for funsies. But yeah, to some extent, the cards were dead on regarding personality, current goals and expectations.

Da da dum!

Travel Bug

Plans are set, tickets are booked, watch out world, I'ma coming!

1. Jul 15-19 Kunming, China
2. Jul 19 HK (just a day trip)
3. Aug 4-10 Hamburg, Germany
4. End Aug HK again

Me likey traveling to all these places.

[muahhahahaha]

TGIF

I am an international death stick marketer! Biz trip to Kunming, China has been confirmed. I will be flying over on the 15th for a quick trip and will stop by HK to visit Carrie and ultimately check off HK on my list of "places where I have been a typical American tourist". It's funny, I've been in Taiwan for 4-5 years and I've never traveled HK -- transferring flights there doesn't really count right?

There's also talks of a workshop in Germany and the company might be sending lil ol me to represent the TW crew. Wassssup!

It's the 4th of July and since I'm in TW, no parades, fireworks, American flags, star spangle banner tune... just a cloudy overcast in 90+ degree weather and well, that's it.

Oh say can you seeeee......

Timesheet

Turned in my timesheet for Elite last nite. I only taught 6 hours last month - only 6!!!! Shiet.

I also paid rent and my credit card bill and I'm left with nothing. I'm of course lying, but I seriously need more teaching hours. One of the ladies at Elite asked if I would be available to teach a Biz class on Tuesdays and I jumped at the chance. That's NT4800 extra a month!

Cosmo had an article in last month's issue on how we're always accumulating new things and never taking the time to appreciate the things we currently have. But what if we don't have certain things -- say digital camera, foldable bike, the complete set of Friends DVD, etc? K, I'll admit that I don't really the complete set of Friends DVD (even tho I really want it!) and that I can just use my cell phone's camera and I do have scooter.

But that's not the point. Hmm, I forget what the point is...