Iker Casillas must be the most romantic football player in the world!

...and Sara Carbonero is one lucky woman!

Iker Casillas, the Spanish goalkeeper, is currently dating one of the most beautiful Spanish journalists Sara Carbonero. After the game, they tried to do an interview, but you can imagine being a couple and holding back your emotions in the given circumstances is really hard. Iker just couldn't bear it anymore and he gave us one of the most romantic moments in sport history. I'm so glad we have YouTube. I almost teared up, when I saw the clip. Girls, what do you think?

Iker Casillas sealed Spain's World Cup win with a kiss in front of millions of watching TV fans.

Spain beat Holland and won the World Cup 2010

The game was a bit disappointing, but there was drama

The Dutch Nigel De Jong kicking Xabi Alonso in the chest like Bruce Lee!

Spain beat the Netherlands 1:0 and won the 19th FIFA World Cup. Congratulations! The game was sometimes really hard to watch, because there were too many fouls and too many yellow cards. The game was ugly, it was a battle. Neither Holland, nor Spain played for the spectators, the fought to win. And after 90min we had no winner, it took Spain 116min to finally score, just few minutes before we expected penalty shootouts. It must've really been painful for the Dutch fans to see how they lost almost in last minute. What a pity. I really rooted for the Netherlands, but in the end, Spain was the better team and they deserved to win. They're dominating world football in the recent years, it's unbelievable how strong they are. Will they face their downfall in 2012? We'll see. I can't wait for the qualifications to start, I hope Slovenia will qualify.

The man of the Match: Andrés Iniesta, who scored 1:0, thanked Paul for his divine help ;-)

You gotta see this clip! It's hilarious!!! :-)

I think everyone would like to be Wesley Snijder tonight. The girl below is his current girlfriend and I'm sure she'll console him tonight. Hey, it's not so bad to lose the World Cup finals after all, is it? :-P

Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen, half Spanish, half Dutch model.

THIS IS MY LAST WORLD CUP 2010 POST. It was really an entertaining month for me. I was lucky too see most of the games, if not all of them. Sometimes I stopped watching one, because it was pretty boring, but that was in the beginning, before the elimination phase, Chile - Honduras would be one of these games. But even though some games were not really good during the first 2 weeks, I really loved those days, where I could see 2 games a day and my home country Slovenia was part of all that. I'm always watching the World Cup (since 1990), but when you have your own country participating, it gives you extra thrills. I wish every football fan would have the chance to see his own country be part of the biggest sports event in the world, it's an unforgettable experience. Lucky those from Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Brazil and Argentina! Your teams are almost always qualifying. Nevertheless, I'm happy to be from Slovenia and proud of our young team, that was one of big surprises of the tournament.

Maybe I'll blow this vuvuzela soon O.o

ABOUT THE WORLD CUP: Congratulations to South Africa, the World Cup was organized perfectly. You have a great nation with a great future. I really hope we will see more World Cups in Africa in the future. Everything was top, only one thing could've been less dominant: the vuvuzela. I'm happy not to hear the beehive sound anymore, but my girlfriend just bought one (for fun) and I guess, if I misbehave, she'll punish me by blowing that thing in my ear :-P Ok, I admit, I wasn't really bothered by the vuvuzela so much in the elimination phase, that sound somehow became part of the game, it was like white noise. We'll see, how the vuvuzela story continues in the upcoming months.

Like every World Cup, this one also made some people (and pulpas) rise to fame. Diego Forlán became the best player of the tournament, Paul the Octopus Almighty predicted all the games right, the top 3 teams of the tournament were European. New stars emerged like the Uruguayan Diego Forlán, Thomas Müller and Mesut Ösil from Germany, David Villa from Spain, Wesley Snijder from Netherlands and many more. But there were also so called superstars who totally disappointed like Rooney and Messi. Big teams like Italy, France, Argentina and Brazil went home pretty early and surprised everybody, especially those who love to bet. Underdogs like Uruguay, Paraguay and Ghana came pretty far. And who would've predicted Holland in the finals? Well.. I did. :-P But I totally missed Spain, I thought Argentina will go all the way... I was so wrong. But that's football. The most exciting thing in the world (besides sex, hohoho). I'm looking forward to Brazil 2014, how about you?

• How did you like this World Cup?
• What were your best and worst moments?
• What or who surprised you the most?

[Photos 1, 2, 3: Source, Vuvuzela photo by MKL, 2010]

My LOLcat is hot

My family has a new cat named Mica (pronounced Meetsa). It's so hot here these days, but we don't have an aircon, so she sometimes lifts up her long tail to get some fresh air to her bottom area (or so I assume). She's really funny. And only 3 months old, but so noisy and playful and always making funny noises. Not meowing, but more like murmuring. I think she'll give me many LOLcat moments. I'll post some more pics in the future, in case I capture a funny one. I think Mica looks a bit like Jaimie Tse's Iris, but she's less fluffy. Who's the biggest LOLcat? I say it's Mica. What say you, Jaimie?

[photo by MKL, 2010]

Paul the Octopus fed up with Germany: Spain wins!

Spain beat Germany in one of their best games so far - Germans are devastated

Everyone was talking about Germany lately, about the supposedly strongest team at the FIFA World Cup 2010. Even Germans themselves thought so, they were full of pride and confidence. Everything seemed to be going fine for them, they were winning like there's no tomorrow and laughing at their competitors. But then they made one big mistake: They messed with Paul the Octopus! They mocked him. German TV RTL dared to say that he will be wrong and if he's right, he'll be deep fried. That was a deadly joke. Spain beat Germany 1:0 tonight and German players were devastated after the game, crying and sobbing like little boys.

From now on everyone knows: Paul is always right. Paul doesn't predict the result, he makes the result! Never question Paul, never threaten Paul. Paul is holy.

This is what happened: Germany had one of the easiest Groups, however they beat the weak Aussies, lost against the medium strong Serbians and struggled against the surprisingly strong Ghana. And then they faced England in the Round of 16.

Germany won 4:1 and made fun of them.

Every German was happy and confident.

Then they beat Argentina 4:0.

That was the only great game they played.

But the match was overshadowed by Boogergate.

And then there were the semi finals. Spain, the current European champions, were the competitor and Germany dared to pester Paul the Octopus again, because they wanted to know, whether they will win or not. They thought Paul predicts the winner. They were so wrong. He was already fed up with them and all the jokes about other nations' teams.

Paul the Octopus decided Spain should win.

In all fairness to the Germans, England had their own share of confidence, that was beyond the common sense. But well... all that is part of football :-)

Those were the times, huh? :-P

I'm just happy, that we'll get a totally new World Cup winner. And although I think Spain has a better chance to win, I will be rooting for the Netherlands. On July 11, I will be wearing oranje. Both teams deserve to win, but who would not like to see the sexy Dutch football fans go crazy?

Who are you rooting for, Spain or Oranjelands?

[Photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7]

About obnoxious Western people in the Far East

And the racist media, that drives the stereotypes

I found this short video on YouTube of a bunch of young Americans (or were they Canadians?) taking the subway in Japan (most probably in Tokyo) and being noisy, pestering people around them and talking nonsense. Sorry to say to my American friends, but your reputation in East Asia is not good, especially in South Korea and parts of Japan (due to heavy military presence), China (political issues) and Taiwan (young expatriates). And Canadians are slowly catching up, because of some people who come to work as English teachers and get drunk one too many times or even get involved in fights or generally disrespect the local culture and women. And behavior like seen in the video doesn't help to improve the bad image, does it? Even, if you're just a visitor, a tourist, it doesn't give you the right to behave the way you do at home. But I guess some people just don't care. And then things like this happen and I'm not surprised at all.

Of course on the other side, there's also a lot of nationalism or racism in East Asian countries as well. Sometimes all foreigners from the West are lumped together and seen as "bad, arrogant, aloof, criminals, having no morals, disregarding the local culture etc." And it's not only driven by common people, but mostly by the media. It's a vicious circle and that's certainly not good for both sides. Europeans are still lucky, but that's because we're less known. We weren't really engaged in East Asia a lot in the past 50 years, be it militarily or as expatriate language teachers, like the current flock of young people, who most often come from USA, Canada and Australia. And believe me, we have some pretty obnoxious people in Europe, too.

With all that said, let me stress, that I do not believe (or try to imply here) that the majority of Americans and Canadians, who go to Asia, behave in a bad way (or that Europeans are better than them). I'm just talking about the stereotypes. Those who behave bad are in a big minority. And of course the media will rather drive (or blow up) the the story of a drunk foreign English teacher involved in a brawl rather than tell the stories of hundreds of polite foreigners, who respect the locals, speak their language and blend in perfectly. The media in the Far East, especially in South Korea, is constantly implying "that foreigners were going out there with the intent to make trouble..." (Metropolitician, 2008, Tips To Avoid Being Assaulted in Korea). Media making up or distorting a story about foreigners in East Asia is not a new thing and we (the foreigners) need to be very careful not to give them unneccessary material. And another thing I need to add: The White Westerners have it much easier in the Far East than those foreigners of African descent. I'm fully aware of that while writing this, but that's a whole 'nother topic. You can read more about that here.

When I'm in Asia, I try my best to represent my culture and my country well. I usually say I'm Slovenian or European (or both), depends on the situation. Sometimes I'm too tired to explain where Slovenia is, so I just say I'm from Europe. It's funny how people almost by default assume I was American. And if you read the paragraphs above, being seen as American in Asia is not always good. On the other hand, my girlfriend says I totally look "European" on the outside (whatever "looking European" is), and dress and behave like one (?). I wonder, what makes us Europeans so different from North Americans on the outside. Any ideas?

I must say, it's not only the bad reputation of Canadians and Americans in East Asia, that makes me stress my Slovenian and European heritage, but it's the pride of being who I am and where I come from and the fact, that we're still different, even though we're all Westerners. Even Americans and Canadians are different and don't want to be seen as same (even though they many times are seen as same). In the end, I hope people would be seen as the individuals they are and without prejudice or stereotypes, that are attached to the group they belong. Of course, that's wishful thinking, because foreigners face prejudice everywhere, in East Asia, in North America and also in Europe. That's why the struggle goes on. We'll need decades to really get to know each other well. But will we really get along and respect each other? I'm positive and I'll say eventually we will.

• What do you think about the people in the video?
• What are your thoughts on all the issues I pointed out?

Adrift

You know, life bears many surprises, every day, every week, every month, every year. Would you have known where you are today a year ago? Probably not. Young people of today are dynamic, we travel cross the world, we live a bit here, a bit there... and the we blog about it. We share our experiences. And what did I realize? I realized that living in another country bears many challenges, but it's also very rewarding. But one thing it's for sure: It never gets boring.

My Taiwan adventure has come to halt for now. I'm officially back in Slovenia, but I take this more as vacation than anything else. I had to return home for reasons I don't want to disclose here, all I can say is, I had a great time in the past few months. Although my blog gave you the impression that I'm constantly traveling and enjoying myself with my cute girlfriend, that wasn't always the case. Yes, I had a lot of fun, especially on the weekends, where my girl and I had time to go to places and spend the days together. But in between she was working and I was working, too. It was a very valuable experience for me, the people who I was working for, were very sad to see me leave, on the last day they even gathered to wish me good luck on my way back. This chapter is now closed for me, but I need to add: I will be back soon. Oh yeah. I decided to spend the summer here and my Taiwanese girlfriend will visit me next month! I'm so excited :-D I will show her a little bit of Vienna and a whole lot of Slovenia, maybe even parts of Italy or Hungary. We'll see what's possible in the 2 weeks she'll stay here at my family's house.

Sometimes we do our best, but it's still not enough and we have to stop for a moment, accept the facts and set new objectives for ourselves. At the time when that happens, we feel frustrated, but then our life goes on. And in a year, two or three we look back again to that same moment and realize that what seemed to be bad luck turns out as a blessing in disguise. I believe that this is the case in my current situation. I'm actually totally fine now, but one thing is really hard: I'm missing my girl. I'm missing her every day, every moment. I have never cried so hard at any airport so far. She's totally under my skin... I love her. But I'm not looking back anymore, only forward. I'll greet her in Europe soon and then you'll be able to read "Cute Taiwanese girl's Slovenia adventures" :-) I'm sure it'll be tons of fun. I'll still be blogging about Taiwan, less here on my blue blog and more on my green blog, which will also be full of not only Taiwan related topics, but also a lot about my travels from the past, which I haven't written about yet (such as Hong Kong...), Asian women, funny crazy stuff, random.. Expect the unexpected (business as usual, hehe).

Please subscribe to my green blog, if you're interested or follow via Google friend connect. And keep following here, too. I really appreciate it. I'm a bit adrift these days, trying to realize, that my body is in Slovenia, while my head is still in Taiwan. Your support really means a lot to me, your comments crack me up. I love you, guys. Let's have a great 2010 together, shall we? :-)

[Photo from Bangkok airport, stopover on the way home, by MKL, 2010]

I have no fashion sense!

Read about my fashion fail

Imagine it's summer and your girlfriend says she bought a pair of new high heels. Of course you're excited, because which man doesn't like to see his girl showing off her sexy legs in the hottest of the seasons? Well, I certainly do. That's why I was very happy, when she told me, that she got a pair of new fashionable shoes with high heels, that are very popular in Taiwan. Of course I was picturing shoes like the ones on the left photo. Hey, I'm a simple guy and when it comes to fashion, I like things simple and sexy. But... women are different. So what happened?

Well, she bought these shoes:

I thought: What is that upper part for? O.o

Are these heels or boots? Or should I call them "hoots"? :-P [Source and more photos]

I was shocked first and thought the shoes really don't look good. Actually they wouldn't look so bad to me, if it wasn't for the upper part. I mean it's summer, why do you need that for? So when my girl told me, that these shoes are totally in now, I replied that it may be popular in Taiwan, but certainly not in Slovenia or Europe. I said, I'll ask my sister, who's working at a shoe shop, about her opinion. I expected she'll say something like: The shoes are ugly. Guess what? I was wrong again. O.o My sister also loves them and she says they're totally in now and look very good. I apologized to my girlfriend and acknowledged, that I totally have no clue about the latest shoe fashion, even if I follow bloggers such as Carina or Karen ×_×

Now tell me, did I totally fail, because the shoes look really great?
Or are you on my side and think the shoes don't look good at all?

[Photo 1 by Kendo, Photos 2, 3]