Wang Wang Lai Bank

Picture(2.jpg
Originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

Why would anyone tear a $500 bill into pieces? Well, seems Sarah was feeling so UNLUCKY after receiving this as change from a taxi driver late last night that she ripped it to shreds! After arriving in the office today, she taped it together to reveal that it was labeled in big red letters with "Wang Wang Lai In-hang" (Lucky Bank)! Haven't actually seen this bank on any Taipei streets so far... If I do, I will tell them to use better glue so the two sides of the bill don't separate when ripped.

Rabbit

Rabbit
Originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

Do you think the new Managing Director would like to see how we spend late Sunday nights in the office? Finding elementary school teaching aids in forgotten drawers is almost as fun as going home... ALMOST!

Mouse

Mouse
Originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

And yet another amazing photo of Remarkable Rita! (Although I think Terrific Tammi as Rabbit wins the animal look-alike contest.

Monkey 1

Monkey 1
Originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

Monkey see, Monkey do...

Monkey 2

Monkey 2
Originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

Monkey do the same as you!

Lunch Party

Lunch Party, originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

Aren't you glad you don't have to lunch with this crew?

Remarkable Rita

Remarkable Rita
Originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

"Look Mom, no hands!" It's always nice to discover a new talent. Next lunch hour we plan to discover what she can do with her fork.

Shelia's Taipei Farewell

tres+chicas+calientes
Originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

Went dancing for the first time in a long time at the WALL (corner of Jilung and Roosevelt) on Thursday(was it last week or two weeks ago)? Time keeps lying by (must be because I'm having so much fun trying to finish up all my work?).

Anyway, Shelia completed her course at Taida and is off to the US for grad school. Wish her lots of luck and can't wait to meet up with her (and her king-of-the-salsa-floor partner in NY sometime soon). Too bad we were never quite able to catch up with her "on 2" NY stylings.

See you in NY Sheila.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Final Farewell

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Final Farewell:

Can you believe that I only just now read this poem (1999) attributed to Marquez when friends thought he was dying...

The Puppet
If for a moment God would forget that I am a rag doll and give me a scrap of life, possibly I would not say everything that I think, but I would definitely think everything that I say.
I would value things not for how much they are worth but rather for what they mean.
I would sleep little, dream more. I know that for each minute that we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.
I would walk when the others loiter; I would awaken when the others sleep.
I would listen when the others speak, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream.
If God would bestow on me a scrap of life, I would dress simply, I would throw myself flat under the sun, exposing not only my body but also my soul.
My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hatred on ice and wait for the sun to come out. With a dream of Van Gogh I would paint on the stars a poem by Benedetti, and a song by Serrat would be my serenade to the moon.
With my tears I would water the roses, to feel the pain of their thorns and the incarnated kiss of their petals...My God, if I only had a scrap of life...
I wouldn't let a single day go by without saying to people I love, that I love them.
I would convince each woman or man that they are my favourites and I would live in love with love.
I would prove to the men how mistaken they are in thinking that they no longer fall in love when they grow old--not knowing that they grow old when they stop falling in love. To a child I would give wings, but I would let him learn how to fly by himself. To the old I would teach that death comes not with old age but with forgetting. I have learned so much from you men....
I have learned that everybody wants to live at the top of the mountain without realizing that true happiness lies in the way we climb the slope.
I have learned that when a newborn first squeezes his father's finger in his tiny fist, he has caught him forever.

I have learned that a man only has the right to look down on another man when it is to help him to stand up. I have learned so many things from you, but in the end most of it will be no use because when they put me inside that suitcase, unfortunately I will be dying.

translated by Matthew Taylor and Rosa Arelis Taylor

Imagine! This was in actuality written for a real puppet by a Mexican ventriloquist!