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Your March 2017 postcard from Norm!

2/27/2017

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 Island hopping 101 with 7,500 islands to visit in the Philippines

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The Philippines is one of the coolest countries on earth with 7,500 islands inviting you to visit, play, and enjoy. A couple of weeks ago, an old friend from the U.S. visited, giving me the chance to take an epic trip island hopping and showing him around.
 
Here are some notes and highlights of our trip, and you can check out these 20 incredible facts about the Philippines in this article I wrote for the Huffington post Travel. 

21st annual Hot Air Balloon Festival at Clark Airfield, Pampanga
Every year, a hot air balloon festival takes place in the province of Pampanga just north of Manila, and for years, I've wanted to go. So when I heard that this year's festival started on my birthday, I immediately booked a (too expensive) ticket.
 
The ride at sunrise in the 8-passenger balloon lasted about 40 minutes, taking us 35 miles into the countryside amid bright morning skies. One of the highlights was looking down and getting amazing aerial shots of the farms, fields, small barangays (neighborhoods) and children running out to wave at us.
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​Tagaytay and Taal Volcano
The day after my birthday, I raced down to Manila to meet my buddy, Trevor, who was flying in from Austin, Texas for two weeks of island hopping. I figured Trev wouldn't want to jump on another plane the next morning, so I arranged a car ride down to Tagaytay, a picturesqe mountain province a few hours south of Manila where wealthy city folk spend weekends and vacations. The highlight of Tagaytay was our day trip to Taal Volcano.
 
Get this: Taal is a tiny island that sits in a lake in the middle of a volcanic crater on a bigger island, which sits on a huge lake on the giant island of Luzon. The car ride, boat ride, and hike up the volcano was arduous but well worth it (we chose not to take a donkey ride up like most tourists). The scenery was gorgeous, and it was a blast hitting golf balls off of the volcano lip into the lake at the tiny island as a target!
 
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​Coron Island, Palawan
After a driver back to Manila, we took a midday flight to Coron Island in the island province of Palawan, which is commonly ranked as one of the best islands in the world. The three most common tourist destinations on Palawan include the underground river outside of the main city, Puerta Princessa, island hopping off of El Nido, and the island of Coron.
 
In my book, Coron is one of the most amazing places in the world, and Trev and I were lucky enough to get invited by two vacationing movie producers from Los Angeles to jump on their boat (the drone photos were taken by Taylor). We spent a day island hopping among uninhabited slices of white sand beach, sandbars, idyllic swimming lagoons, partially submerged caves, inhospitable volcanic cliffs, and other scenery seemingly straight out of The Jungle Book.
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While that was out of this world, the coolest experience may have been our last morning when we decided to take a little stroll around the village of Coron, cameras in hand. Getting lost on purpose on progressively smaller roads, we ended up in a very humble local hamlet amid mangrove swamps, their bamboo and plywood houses (with no electricity and definitely no aircon) on stilts for when it flooded. The people warmly welcomed us into their community, amid roosters, skinny yard dogs, men chopping firewood with machetes, women hanging laundry and cooking over a fire outdoors, and endless kids with big smiles following us around, but still shy amid a foreigner's presence.
 
It was a precious reminder that a simple connection with other human beings who are nothing like you can be one of the best things in your life.
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​It was also in Cebu that I almost put on a shirt containing one of the biggest *#%! spiders I've seen in my life! I picked up a shirt that had been sitting on the floor (I'm a slob) and was about to put it on when this prehistoric arachnid fell out.

So before you get too excited about island hopping, as well, ask yourself if you could put up with this critter in your clothes?

If you want to see the video of my cursing like a sailor right when it happened, click here. 

​Cebu city and island
Back to reality, we spent a couple of days in the city of Cebu, which I spent working. But Trev took advantage of our time by taking a day tour exploring Cebu island. He got to swim with giant whale sharks in Oslob and go canyoneering, cliff jumping, and swimming and splashing in majestic Kawasan Falls. No worries, since Cebu is my home city for the moment, I've already done these things several times and, most importantly, Trev loved it.
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​Camiguin Island
The next morning, we had a 4 am flight to the small island of Camiguin, which holds a unique distinction: it's the only island in the world with more volcanos than towns (7 to 5). Called the Island Born of Fire, the volcanos have been dormant since the 1950s, and Camiguin is one of the greenest and most lush places I've been. A sandbar, nature reserve on another tiny island, natural springs, ruins from Spanish settlements in the 1500s, and incredible 250-foot waterfalls kept us busy for two days.
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San Fernando, ​La Union
A brutal travel schedule with a 3 am wake-up time to catch a flight, followed by a 5-hour car ride found us in the small beachside town of San Fernando in La Union. Trev and I first met in Costa Rica and then Nicaragua, where he was surfing and I was geeking out writing books, so he wanted to catch a wave in the Philippines, too.
 
While the waves weren't great, he did get out on his board, and our Awesome Hotel (no, really – it's called Awesome Hotel) was a perfect place to catch up on work and train to preperare for my upcoming Kyokushin Karate camp in Thailand. 
 
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Another early morning long car ride and we were back in Manila, where Trev and I both flew out the next morning – after gorging ourselves on street tacos at El Chupacabre that night.

​It was a great trip – I'm sunburnt, exhausted and smiling - and just a small sample of the island hopping possible in the Philippines. I can't wait until the next friend comes to visit so I have an excuse to get out and travel!
​
 Only about 7,4187 islands to go before I see them all! 
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Commemorating Black History Month with these 10 pioneers

2/4/2017

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February is Black History Month, a time to applaud and commemorate the many heroes that have impacted the US civil rights movement and African American culture.
 
Initiated by Carter G. Woodsen in 1921 as only a week, this period to celebrate Black History was placed in February because it marked the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. It was later expanded to a full month in 1970 after urging by Kent State students. In 1976, Black History Month was officially recognized by the U.S. Government as part of the Bicentennial celebration. It's since become universal in the United States, Canada, and Germany, and in the United Kingdom in October.

​There are far too many pioneers of civll rights and African American culture to document them all, but here are a few I'd like to spotlight:

Ruby Nell Bridges Hall 
(September 8, 1954-present)

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Ruby was the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South, William Frantz Elementary, in the spring of 1960.  It came as a result of the court-ordered integration of schools in New Orleans that qualified six children to attend all-white schools.  Two of the six kids decided to stay at their schools, three were transferred to the mixed Mcdonough School, and Ruby was the only one who went to an all-white school by herself.  She was accompanied by National Guardsman amid death threats and hostile crowds and had to spend her whole first day in the principal's office for safety.  Some white parents pulled their kids from school and Ruby had to bring her lunch from home every day in case her school lunch was poisoned.  The only teacher who agreed to work with Ruby was Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, so for over a year, the entire classroom consisted of her and Ruby.

W.E.B. Du Bois
(February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963)

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Du Bois was a sociologist, author, historian, and civil rights activist.  He graduated from Harvard and became the first black man to earn a doctorate and became a university professor.  He went on to co-found the NAACP and dedicate his life to a storied career as a civil rights leader, educator, and storyteller.

Hiriam R. Revels
(September 27, 1827 - January 16, 1901)

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Revels was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church but took to politics and became the first African American to serve in the Senate in 1871, and first in Congress when he was voted in by Mississippi during Civil War Reconstruction.

Hattie McDaniel 
(June 10, 1895-October 26, 1952)

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The youngest of 13 children from Wichita, Kansas, the talented Hattie became an accomplished singer, comedian, radio personality, and actress.  She became the first African-American to win an Academy Award, winning Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939).  She led the way for other African-American Academy Award winners like Sydney Poitier (1963,) Louis Gossett Jr. (1982,) and later Holly Berry, the first to win Best Actress in 2001.

Jackie Robinson 
(January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972)

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Classy and charismatic, Robinson was the first African-American to play Major League Baseball debuting in 1947 with Branch Rickey's Brooklyn Dodgers.  He was the first black man to play any integrated professional sport, but the real victory was that he distinguished himself with honor, temperance, and civility amidst constant racist threats, violence, and criticism, and he was also a hell of a ball player!  Amazingly, Robinson's feats came a year before the US Army was integrated, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education, eight years before Rosa Parks' accomplishments and before Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggles, making him a true pioneer.

Vivien Thomas 
(August 29, 1910 – November 26, 1985)

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Vivien Thomas, a groundbreaking surgical technician, developed heart surgery techniques to cure blue baby syndrome in newborns.  He practiced medicine at Vanderbilt University Hospital and later Johns Hopkins University despite a racist system that wouldn't let him advance past a formal high school education.  Still, he worked as an apprentice and became so proficient at surgery that he became one of the top cardiologists in the country and a teacher to many top recognized surgeons. His story was told in a recent TV movie with Mos Def playing Thomas.

Booker T. Washington 
(April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915)

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Booker T. Washington was an educator, author, orator, and political advisor to several US presidents.  Being of the last generation born into slavery, he represented their voice against Jim Crow law and became the first African-American person to receive an invite to the White House when Theodore Roosevelt extended the offer. Washington was also the first black man to have his likeness dedicated to a postage stamp.  Foremost, he was an advocate for equal rights and worked tirelessly for that cause through Washington’s political machine.

Thurgood Marshall
(July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993)

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Born right after the turn of the century in a time when Jim Crow laws and racial segregation were the status quo, Marshall undertook to fight for civil rights through the law, becoming a distinguished attorney in the process.  He presented more than 30 civil rights cases before the Supreme Court Between 1938 and 196 and amazingly won 29 of them, including the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation in public schools. By law, black and white students had to attend separate public schools. He went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in American history, serving from 1967 to 1991.

Rosa Parks
(February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005)

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Rosa Parks has been called "the first lady of civil rights by the US Congress, but her career started with humble beginnings as a secretary of the NAACP in Montgomery, Alabama.  On December 1, 1955, she boarded a bus to work but was ordered to give up her seat in the front for a white passenger, and instead to go sit in the back.  She refused and was arrested, sparking a civil rights protest and the Montgomery Bus Boycott for a whole year, until the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional.  For her role as a civil rights pioneer, Parks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall.

Arthur Ashe
(July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) 

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Ashe was one of the best tennis players of all time, winning three Grand Slam titles and become #1 in the world. But he was also a civil rights icon and groundbreaker in an all-white sport, shattering barriers when he became the first African American to be named to the US Davis Cup team as well as the only black man ever to win Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. He was an outspoken advocate for societal change and civil rights using sports as a medium, and after his retirement continued his activism, writing pieces for the New York Times and the Washington Post. Even with all of his success and fame Ashe was a man of action, a staunch anti-apartheidist who visiting South Africa as a delegate and was arrested outside their embassy for protesting, as well as being arrested outside the White House for protesting the treatment of Haitian refugees. Tragically contracting HIV from a blood transfusion, Ashe founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of Aids and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, courageously and tirelessly fighting to make our world a better place until the day he died.


***
 
There are so many more men and women that deserve recognition and praise during Black History Month, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The Little Rock 9, the Greensboro Four, the Tuskegee Airmen, Jack Johnson, Buck Williams, Daisy Bates, Diane Nash, Arthur Ashe, Julian Bond, James Baldwin, Frederick Douglass, Medgar Evans, Amiri Baraka, Jesse Jackson, Jesse Owens, Barack Obama, and others. 

​To find out more about these heroes and pioneers or more information about African American History, got to 
AfricanAmericanHistory.gov.

-Norm  :-)
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Your February 2017 postcard from Norm

2/1/2017

7 Comments

 
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Happy February, y'all! With all of the craziness in the world today (and the heated arguments on Facebook thanks to a certain U.S. politician who will remain nameless!) I figured we all could use a little laughter. So I'm dedicating this postcard to content that will make you smile and laugh (I hope!). Enjoy and check out the bottom photo with the guy jogging in his drawers (I never thought I'd type that) for a chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card!

Happy February and hahahahaha!

Your buddy,

Norm  :-)

The science behind smiling and laughing

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When was the last time you laughed?
 
I mean REALLY busted up and fell out uncontrollably; jaw hurting; snorting out of your nose; almost peeing your pants; like you were drunk with your best friend-laughed? It felt pretty good, didn't it? Well, that's no accident, as there are actually scientifically-proven benefits to smiling and laughing, both physically, mentally and emotionally, and, of course, socially.
 
"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." -Thich Nhat Hanh
 

The health benefits of smiling and laughing:
 
Smiling and laughing release the feel-good neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, flooding our bodies with messages that manifest in health benefits.

​To read more go here.

The craziest, funniest, and least fashionable t-shirts you'll see in Asia

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The line between fashion and outright insanity is pretty thin in Asia.
 
In some places like Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, fashion, design, and technology are years ahead of what we currently have in the United States. While in other locales, like Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and just about everywhere else in Southeast Asia, their choice of garments ranges from genius...to outright ludicrous. But no matter where they're from, young Asians love to emulate U.S. culture - including the quintessential American printed t-shirt.
 
Of course it makes no difference if they even understand the writing on the clothes they wear, or if the messages are highly offensive - just having English letters on an American-style t-shirt is usually enough to classify them as cool. 
 
So to celebrate the circus of hilarity that is daily life in the Far East, here are the funniest and LEAST fashionable t-shirts (and sweatshirts) you'll see in Asia:

​To see them all go here.

How do people laugh around the world? We "hahaha" but they "jajaja," "555" and "MDR"

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In English and many western languages, we express laughter in writing as “Hahahaha," which is onomatopoeia for the actual sound of laughter. But around the world, many cultures and countries describe their laughter differently. But though our chuckles, giggles, and hysterics may be foreign, the joyful sentiment is the same for all human beings! 
 
Here are some examples of how people express laughter in writing around the world:
 
Read how people laugh around the world here.

The funniest sh*t you'll see in Southeast Asia

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There is NO place on earth that will make you laugh like in Southeast Asia, where the wild, hilarious, and downright bizarre are a daily occurrence. From Cambodia to Laos, Vietnam to Myanmar, and Thailand to the Philippines, the intersection of cultures, necessity born from dire poverty, and the spirit to enjoy life to the fullest provides grand comedy.
 
Over the last couple years I started collecting some of the social media posts that made me hahaha (or '555' as they say in Thailand) - many of them by my friends - as well some photos I took myself. Remember that we are laughing AT them, not WITH them (wait - did I get that wrong?) as you enjoy the funniest shit you'll see in Southeast Asia. - See more at:
 
See the funniest S#*t in Southeast Asia here.

​The top 9 reasons why this is perfectly acceptable
(Give me another good reason and win a $20 Starbucks gift card!)
 

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I was walking down the street in Thailand one day, minding my business, and I saw this man jogging.

Not one quick to judge someone as a drug user, I came up with nine perfectly good explanations for why someone would wear their tighty-whitey red underwear in public while jogging. You can read them here.

I'd love to hear your reason why this is perfectly acceptable!

You can email me, post on social media, or leave a comment on this blog.

On February 10th I'll pick the best one and the winner will get a $20 Starbucks gift card.




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    Norm Schriever

    Norm Schriever is a best-selling author, expat, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. He travels the globe, telling the stories of the people he finds, and hopes to make the world a little bit better place with his words.   

    Norm is a professional blogger, digital marketer for smart brands around the world,  and writes for the Huffington Post, Hotels.com, and others.

    Check out South of Normal his Amazon.com best-selling book about life as an expat in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

    Cambodia's School of Hope explores education and empowerment in impoverished Cambodia, with 100% of sales going to that school.

    The Book Marketing Bible provides 99 essential strategies for authors and marketers.

    Pushups in the Prayer Room, is a wild, irreverent memoir about a year backpacking around the world.  

    Follow Norm on Twitter @NormSchriever or email any time to say hi!

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