Today started quite early in the am once again, I woke up at 5, went back to bed, woke up at 730, went back to bed, then woke up again at 930...what a good sleep huh! After that I got ready, as I had a casting at 12 for a jean commercial. I got to the casting and was told I had to pose like a warrior..what the heck? My first thought is, uhhhh since when do warriors wear jeans...? I thought they wore like metal shrapnel and all that jazz, but apparently I was wrong. Also, the lady told me not to be a model, to pose like a warrior, no model posing at all. Soo I'm trying to be as warrior like as I can, not so sure how I did with that... I leave that casting and get off the MTR, leave the station and am about to cross the crosswalk. Side note here: in Hong Kong, pedestrians do NOT have the right of way, the people here have the mindset that vehicles have the right of way, so as a pedestrian you always have to be looking for oncoming vehicles, even if you have the little walking signal to go across the street. Anyway, so I'm about to cross the road, and the light turns red for cars, and the signal for people to walk is about to go on so people start to cross the street, when all of a sudden a vehicle comes flying out of the intersection (yes they had a red light, so they ran a red light) and clipped the umbrella of a pedestrian who happened to be about a meter away from myself. I do believe this hit damaged the side mirror of the vehicle and there were many screams as well as I almost had a heart attack. WHAT THE HECK?! I was aware that a red light meant stop, not go through the light and see how many pedestrians we can hit? Goodness. So anyway, the lady driving the vehicle gets out and yells at the old chinese lady she almost hit, even though it was the drivers fault, like hello, you ran the red light and almost killed someone, don't get angry at them, geeesh. I cross the street, am on my way home and I hear the pounding of a shoe on a brick, meaning the old ladies are at work, putting a hex on someone, hope its not me! I had the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted, so I went to the gym and just hung out for awhile. The first thunder/lighting storm occurred as well, that was fun. After that I went over to Joe's cafe and hung out with him Judy and Andy for awhile. Some things I learned about cellular devices aka cell phones from Joe today:

1. Buying an "international" phone in Canada has strings attached:

-first, the phones in Canada are all locked, meaning it may be difficult to use in other places other than Canada. It might have to get unlocked before all of its capabilities are able to put to use. Example: my blackberry is said to be an international phone, meaning I should be able to use it over here aka "internationally", but when i got here, it didn't work. The sim card was in, my mom had activated the international roaming, but it didn't work! Judy took me to a phone store and we discovered that it was locked, and that it needed to be decoded and unlocked before it was able to be used here. LAME!

-second, roaming charges are expensive, everyone knows that

-third, international phones are expensive in Canada, they are cheaper in Hong Kong, also, I believe most phones here have the capability to be international, where as in Canada there are only a select few.

2. Getting your phone unlocked here is noooot easy. Not many places are able to do that, so you have to really do your research to find somewhere that does, plus it probably is quite expensive to get it done

3. iPhones in Hong Kong are the cheapest in the world currently

4. Phones here come all unlocked, so if you buy one and take it anywhere else in the world it will work. All you have to do is put in a sim card from the country you are in and it will work. No roaming charges, no worrying about if your phone will work or not, it just will, as long as you have a sim card in it that is from the country you are in, you are good to go.

5. Sim cards can be bought pay as you go, so all you have to do is buy one with money on it and your good to go, re-loading when needed. You can also get sim cards with plans attached so if you are staying in the place permanently you might do this, so you won't have to keep re-loading, you will just get a bill every month like a normal plan.

So my final thought here is, why the heck don't I buy a phone here? I can use it anywhere I go and it just seems to be less of a hassle then the one I currently have. As far as I'm concerned, my phone from Canada is of no use to me while I am away. Buying a phone here would save me the trouble of having to pay to rent a phone from the agency in each place I go to! The next decision is, what phone am I going to get?