Heyyyoooo!

Long time no blog. Just a little update/heads up on what is to come!

I'm currently living in Toronto doing my modelling/acting thang here. I also had a part time job at a clothing store called Scotch and Soda, it's from Amsterdam if your wondering, check it out on ze internet, it's pretty snazzy. That pretty much sums up the last 3.5 months in a nutshell! I did two jobs for MuchMusic while I was here. One being a promo ad with The Midway State (which also aired during an award show...either the EMA's or AMA's...can't remember). That was a fun shoot, lasted until about 5 am. The second was an internet thing, for Shell and MM, partnering together to do a contest for environmental issues. Also fairly swell. The most recent job I did was for the Toronto Bridal Show, which I also did the spring one in April.. all I can say is I ate to many cupcakes!
Next stop...HOME!!
I am set to leave the big TO on the 16 to go back to good ol' GP where there is snow and weather below 0.. I shall reside there until January 4, which will then bring me back to Toronto for a day and then jetting off to Bangkok for another 2-3 month trip! Shall be a great time I'd say. Can't wait to catch up with family and friends back home!
Bangkok on the other hand..
I will be living with my moms cousin and family, so that should be fun and exciting, no more lonely large apartment in Wangthonglang for me! This will also keep me away from the stray evil dogs....

I may possibly blog through the holidays but we'll see how busy or if not busy, lazy, I am! If you don't hear from me, then I'll be picking up full swing come January!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night..

Okay so since I last blogged a bit has occurred over here, so I'll fill you in. First, I had a job on the 25 and 26, it was a fashion show. There were 8 of us girls, all from the same agency. We thought it was for clothing, but when we got there it turns out it was for jewelry. It was at some Gem and Jewel fair that is held at this big convention center thing. We arrived at 7am on the 25, the show not starting until 130.. what the heck right? Long story short, they made us rehearse a ridiculous amount of times, and made it way way more complicated than it needed to be. They gave us all name tags (mine being spelt "Coutney"). We basically had to teach them what they wanted instead of them teaching us. They had us all color coated and drew it out on a board and everything, but when it came to teaching us, apparently they were clueless! So we basically figured it out on our own. There was a lot of waiting around to say the least! The jewelry we had to wear was a different story.. Not to be mean, but this is going to be mean, it was all fairly unattractive.. many of the pieces looked very outdated and sort of like costume jewelry, not what I expected at a huge jewelry convention fair thing. Anyway that was 2 days, one show on the 25 and 2 on the 26, by the end of it all of us were going crazy! The people were very unorganized and were getting on everyones nerves. Oh did I forget to mention that there was only 1 hair stylist and 1 makeup artist. 8 girls. They started doing hair and makeup about 2.5 hours before the show is supposed to start. Picture how that went.... Girls had to start doing their own makeup because we wouldn't of all finished in time! Talk about a slight mistake in the pre-show preparation. 1 makeup artist and hair stylist for 8 girls doesn't exactly work out so great! After the show on the 26, I went to ISB, where the International Food Fair was! The food was great! Soo good. Beaver tails were great, so was the poutine, apple pie etc etc.. I probably ate more than I should of, but it was so good who can stop? I spent Saturday and Sunday there, just hanging out as per usual. I don't know if I mentioned in previous blogs or not, but they got a new dog! His name is Leo, so so so cute! He is a chow chow, purple tongue and all! He is somewhere between 2 and 4 months old and he is so fluffy! They are only little for a short time though, they grow to be quite large dogs! On Monday I had another job. It was for one of the or the biggest department store in Thailand. CentralPlaza is the name. There are Central malls in cities across Thailand, Central also being the name of the department store inside. So me and another model did this ad for the "Summer Trend Update" together. We shot at the mall in a vintage furniture store, which was pretty cool! The ad should be coming out at the end of March, so once I receive it, the rest of you can take a look! Yesterday I didn't do anything, either than decide that I want to go home. I was originally supposed to go to Hong Kong after here, but I decided I don't want to anymore, I would rather just go home, so once Sunday rolls around I'll be heading back to the cold, freezing temperatures of Canada! (obviously that being the downside, along with the year long plane ride to get there!). Im so excited to be coming home though! Today I went to the agency and finalized all my expenses and all that jazz, tomorrow I have to go back to do a final casting video, one for basically everything and anything (skin care, lotion, drink and who knows what else). They want to do it so that when I'm at home they can send the certain video to clients and then can direct book me! Friday I have my last job before I leave. After Friday I will be able to say I have appeared in 2 music videos, thats the job, another music video! I don't think it's for the same band, but I'm sure it will be something similar. Saturday I plan on going to Brandie and Myron's for one last time and then Sunday morning I leave to go home! I don't know what time my plane leaves from here to Hong Kong, but I leave Hong Kong at 1230 in the afternoon and I will arrive in Edmonton sometime after 2:30 pm. Just a short 2 hour flight! NOT. Forgot to mention that I will be going 14 hours back in time, I'm basically just a time traveller, no big deal. I guess I'll get 2 Sunday March 6's, instead of 1! Lucky me. A couple of things to mention before I end this huge blog entry:

1. In Canada we have Colossal mascara, in the yellow tube. Here, its the same brand, same tube everything, but it's called Magnum, not Colossal. Weird right?

2. I used a payphone the other day and put in the 5 baht it asked for. After I hung up the phone, it gave me back the money I didn't use! I thought that was kind of cool. In Canada, if I am re-calling correctly, you put in your 50 cents or whatever and thats it, you lose the whole thing, don't get any of it back.

3. A huge fad I noticed here are these nose inhaler things. I don't really know the purpose of them, if it clears your nose or if it smells nice or both or non of the above.. But so many people here have them! I always see people taking these little things out of their pockets and putting it up to each nostril. Odd right?

4. I am in a taxi today, I look over, a man driving a car, in the passenger seat his wife (I assume) with a child in her lap! Uhhhh I do think that is illegal? Does every person not have to have their own seat. WTF is all I can say basically. I feel this is thoroughly unsafe for your child, especially considering the driving here is ridiculously crazy! Weaving in and out of traffic, lots of traffic all the time, people cutting you off, people ignoring speed limits (if there are any), taxi drivers that do not know how to drive a standard (terrible shifting technique, really jerky and just bad). Note to mother and father of this child: put the kid in the back seat where he belongs, with his own seatbelt!

5. Taxi's don't have seatbelts, only the front seats do. DANGEROUS. As you would have read above, the driving is unlike anything you've seen or experienced in Canada, it is mega wild and dangerous and any other word similar. Which brings up the question, why the no seatbelt? I feel like there is a definite need for them here! Also because the accident rate is probably like 8 out of 10 cars. Who knows, but I feel like it should be that high, seriously.




6. Last but not least, I went to MBK today, a large mall here. I bought to phone cases for my phone, one that looks like a shoe (has the laces and everything) and a hello kitty one (obviously a classic buy for someone in my position). Clearly both purchases that needed to be made. I mean I love shoes, I have many pairs, so why not buy one for my phone? And I'm Asian, which brings on the stereotype of the love of Hello Kitty, which is true in my case, sooo yea I'll post them below!

The jewelry fashion show my name spelled wrong as well as our lovely outfits and jewelry...

This one is from the Central job

Nothing to interesting happening over on this side of the world lately. Castings have still been slow, not many for me to go to, maybe its just because all of the castings are for jobs that will be shooting after I leave.. not sure. I'm still sick, same thing as last week, still not really getting any better. I went and got medicine from a pharmacy that is close by, and the lady spoke english which was good. She gave me two types of medicine and they didn't seem to help! My mom thought I might have a sinus infection, as my symptoms apparently told her it could be that, so I went back to the pharmacy yesterday and got another kind of medicine, which will hopefully make me better soon!! On the weekend I went out to Brandie and Myron's again, for our girls weekend. We watched a movie, made nanaimo bars for the International Food Fair that is at the kids school on Saturday, got foot massages and just relaxed all weekend. I was still feeling pretty crappy, but took Neocitron and some Canadian cold medicine! This apparently didn't really help my illness, so hopefully that means I have the sinus infection (since the cold medicine didn't work) and that this new medicine I got yesterday will help! So far this week I've had 4 castings, so it seems to be picking up I suppose, hopefully I land one of the jobs! Friday and Saturday I'm doing a show, its for dresses, not really sure what the company is, the dresses looked all different and I think they were even different brands.. Anyway, that is Friday and Saturday starting at 7am and finishing around 330pm. After Saturday's show I am rushing over to Nichada (the area where Brandie and Myron live) and going straight to ISB (the kids school), to attend/help out/eat all of the food at the food fair! I am so excited for that, should be tasty! Brandie is in charge of the Canadian booth and they are making nanaimo bars, poutine and beaver tails! yuuuuummmmmm. I can't wait to see what the other countries make! That is from 5-8 and I said I would help out at the booth, as well as cleaning up afterword. I will also get time to go around and taste all of the delicious food! Other than that I don't have anything else to talk about, minus one taxi story that I feel should be shared..
So I am going to a casting the other day, which means I needed to get a taxi to get there. I wave this one down, get inside and show him the map, he knows where it is so off we go. As I am sitting there I notice the music that is playing. At the time it was Can't Be Tamed by Miley Cyrus. I assumed it was just the english radio, because why would this male taxi driver be playing that? After that song finished another one came on, Rude Boy by Rihanna. Next up was Need You Now by Lady Antebellum, quite the selection of music this "radio" was playing. Last before I got out of the taxi was I Never Told You by Colbie Caillat. I looked at the little screen for the radio and saw that it said MP3 and that it was song 35 or something. Meaning, this was a CD, not the radio... I kind of wanted to laugh at this point, because this is a 30 something maybe older thai man playing a CD, that is obviously his, which has Miley, Rihanna, Lady Antebellum and Colbie Caillat on it!.... interesting choice of music for him I would say!

So since last time I wrote not a whole lot has happened. The castings seem to be coming slower now, but hopefully it will pick up soon! I ended up staying the whole weekend and Brandie and Myron's, not having any castings all weekend. Friday Brandie and I went for foot massages at a place near their house. It felt soo good! Not only did they massage our feet and legs, they did our shoulders, neck and arms too, it was great! The rest of the day was just spent relaxing, not doing a whole lot. Saturday Hunter had a baseball game, so we went to that. Sunday we went for Valentines brunch at a Mediterranean/French restaurant called Crepes & Co. It was so so so delicious! They had crepes, obviously, pancakes, every other breakfast food and lunch and dinner foods as well. If I could I would go to this place everyday, but first its to far from my apartment and second, I'd probably get real large, real quick! After that tasty meal, they dropped me off at a casting that was close to the restaurant. It was for Isuzu. This casting did not go to well.. first, when I was getting my hair done, the hair dude dropped the flippin curling iron on my shoulder! Not cool. This made me a tad grumpy. Then when I went to do my casting, the lady boy (its male, but dresses female etc.) doing the casting gave me a pair of shorts and handed them to me, saying "these look big enough for you, they should fit". Oh thanks, what are you trying to say to me, huh? So that added a tad to the grumpiness. Next, apparently I couldn't do the "angry face" correctly, so I had to do it over and over and over! One thing about castings here is that they make you do it over and over and over again until its perfect. But its just a casting, its not even the job, and the chances that you will get the job are 1 in how many! Oh well though, I guess if it helps you to get the job then its worth it. Monday was Valentines day and I treated myself to a delicious sundae at an ice cream place called Swensens. It was two scoops of ice cream with that marshmallow stuff and chocolate sauce drizzled on top, with maltesers and chocolate chips, mmmmmm. I thoroughly enjoyed that. Tuesday was spent doing nothing, I was feeling a tad under the weather and basically just stayed in my apartment either than to go to the gym and for a little walk around Town in Town. Today I had one casting, for some kind of facial product. After that I just came back to my apartment as I thought I was going to die. Still not feeling good, and getting/got worse as the day progressed. Runny nose, sore and phlegmy throat, plugged ears and possibly a slight fever? Fun stuff I tell you, fun stuff.. My body has some serious issues and needs to sort them out! The other day I was in a taxi and of course the radio was thai music. On came a rap song.. in thai. Odd. Very odd. Last but not least, whenever I come into my apartment, before opening the door I always have to make sure there are no guans aka iguanas aka mini lizzards, waiting by the door to scurry into my room. Apparently I didn't check well enough a few days ago.. I open the door and look around the corner (another habbit I do, just to make sure of the guan situation) and guess what I find?! A FLIPPIN GUAN. He ran into my room so fast! They are light pink and creepy and skinny and gross! So I freaked out for 2.5 seconds and then went to go get my umbrella to hit the wall near it so it would run out the door. I finally got it out and shut the door immediately. One problem.. I had to leave my apartment again shortly after, meaning the guan could still be near by. As I go to leave my apartment guess who comes for another visit? My little lizzard friend. He runs into my room for a second time. So again, the umbrella is used, but he takes a little longer to leave this time, running up the wall, up the side of my desk, behind the fridge and then finally out the door. I waited a few minutes and then ran quickly out of my room so he couldn't come back in! Thank god he didn't and he hasn't been back since. Thats about all I have to share with you for now. This weekend I am going out to Brandie and Myron's again, as Myron is gone to Houston for work meetings, so we are having a girls weekend plus Hunter, but may be sending him to a friends house for part of the time! Will write again next week to update on any other great experiences that occur to me. Oh wait, I forgot one thing.. When I was at their house on the weekend, they had gotten an email from a friend that lives in their area saying that a snake was spotted. It was about 12 feet long, the head being in the bushes on one side of the road and the tail being on the other side of the road in the bushes.. yuck! It was a constrictor I think and was seen coming out of either Brandie and Myron's yard or the neighbours! Scary right? Everytime we left or came back to the house we would look for it, but no such luck spotting it!

Ahh last thing I promise! The magazine which I am on the cover on came out! The pictures are posted below.

So lets see whats on the agenda for today:
1. Friday: rehearsal for Walls TVC job
2. Saturday + Sunday = Shooting Walls TVC job
3. Monday until present events

From the top, number one, Friday. Friday I had to go to one of the job sites to do a rehearsal with a couple of the harnesses, just so I could be used to them and they could figure out where they needed to cut the dresses to hide the harness. I had a casting for UOB bank in Singapore first, and then at 3pm I went and did the rehearsal. There were 2 harnesses, one for me to lay on, on my back and another to lay on, on my stomach. It was like a metal piece covered in foam and then a strap that went around my waist area. The motion was diagonal, like I was going down a slide. And I was moved by human power. The harness I was in was attached to some wires, which were being pulled by however many men there were pulling them! So they controlled my speed, the direction I went, if I turned etc. After Friday is Saturday, which was day 1 of the job. I had to be at the place for 6am, so I arrived and started my hair and makeup. We started shooting at 8am. Saturday was mostly all the stuff on the ground. So the scenes where I walk out of the office building, realize how hot it is outside, am uncomfortable from the heat, see the fruit stand and become excited by the refreshing fruit, walk over to the fruit stand, go to touch the fruit, (the fruit peels back and out comes the popsicle), I react to this happening, me jumping out out of the tornado, walking away and the one shot not on the ground, eating the popsicle and then being pulled away into the fruit tornado. The last part was so cool! They brought in this huge crane, which they attached this bar type thing to. Then the put me in a harness that was around my hips/thighs, attached the wires to each side of my hips and then man powered again, they pulled me and shot me up into the air, about 20 feet! It was so much fun! I thought I would be scared, as I am afraid of heights, but totally the opposite, it was sooo much fun, I didn't want to stop taping this scene! We finished at around 7pm, so that makes 13 hours of shooting. The next day was the 2nd day of shooting, starting again at 6am. This day was at a different location, in a large studio, having everything infront of a green screen. This day there were 2 harnesses (the ones discussed from the rehearsal) and 2 water slides! Each slide had 3 different covers, one for each fruit, watermelon, passionfruit and lychee. So they would change the cover depending on which fruit we were taping for. They even colored the water to correspond to the fruit to make it look like the juice from the fruit! It was pretty cool. Sunday I was basically in water all day, talk about one chilly day! There was a smaller slide and a larger one, the larger one they had to attache a harness to me to control my speed going down the slide, and when I got to the bottom they would just drag me back up! Sunday took much much longer.. we shot for 21 hours, making "the wrap" at 3am. One long day for sure! By the end I was exhausted!! I spent all Monday sleeping and watching House in bed, I was so so so tired! Even Tuesday I was still exhausted! Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't do much, one casting each day and then not much the rest of the days, still really tired from the weekend! Today I came out to Myron and Brandies house and went to Kalista's play that her grade put on, Alice in Wonderland. It was really good! I am still here, staying the night, then if I have nothing tomorrow probably most of the day tomorrow as well! All in all it was a busy week and weekend and I just want to sleep forever! Thats about all I have/can remember for now, anything I remember or any new events come up I'll let you know tomorrow or some day after this!

Okay to start where I left off.. After Friday came Saturday, which I was sick, all day. I left the apartment to go get juice and water twice, then the rest of the day was spent in bed, wasn't doing so hot! Fortunately the illness, whatever it was only lasted a day and I was doing a bit better Sunday. I decided the cause to this sickness was the ritual of Courtney being in a foreign country for 1 month. Every place I have gone to so far, I have gotten sick 1 month in. Not sure why, but it happens! Anyway, Saturday passed and Sunday came, I went out to Brandie and Myrons and spent the day/night with them. We went to go see a movie called Gullivers Travels or something like that, it was actually pretty funny! Oh yes, one thing about the movie theaters here, not only can you get regular popcorn with butter and salt, you can also get caramel corn, bbq and cheese popcorn! Yum!! After the movie we went and had supper, went back to their place and hung out a bit and then I came back to the apartment. Monday I can't remember what I did, so I'm going to skip this day.. Tuesday morning I had to wake up at 6:30 to be at a job for 8. The job was for a travel magazine thats new to Thailand, there have only been 4 issues so far. Cool thing about this is that... I'm going to be on the cover!!! woohooooo, my first cover! Its just a small magazine, but who cares, thats friggin sweeet!! I'll also be on the inside as well, so that will be cool. We shot with a Porsche as well :D I'll put a picture below when this is done! Wednesday was another job, for another magazine, but it was beauty shots this time, so makeup and hair. The concept for this one was that I was in the sun etc etc. They made me tanned!! What the heck right? Thai people LOOOVE white skin, so I was confused as to what this concept was about.. Anyway, they used makeup to make me looked tanned, which was fairly odd.. I'll put another picture of this, your gonna flip.. I look like a guido from Jersey Shore I swear, regarding my fake tan and such. So that was an interesting shoot! Wednesday night I booked a massage at a spa called Urban Retreat. It was a four hand oil massage, which was 2 massage therapists massaging me at the same time. It was so cool and was really relaxing! Thursday, today, I had a fitting for my commercial that I am shooting on Saturday and Sunday! It is for Walls ice cream. Walls is the brand. I had to be there at 9, and I was there until about 130, then had to go to a casting, then went back to the fitting again! The shoot is going to be flippin craaaaazy! It involves me in a harness, which is attached to a crane, which will lift me 20 feet or so in the air! There is also a water slide/slip and slide involved, an unknown amount of H20 aka water, a what I believe will be an imaginary fruit tornado on set, but a "real" one in the commercial and probably many more wild activities! I am afraid of heights, so this whole harness situation is going to force me to get over that.. Tomorrow I go for the rehearsal for the commercial, to test out the harness and get used to it so I don't flip my lid or pee my pants on shooting day! hahaha. Thats Friday so after that is Saturday and Sunday, which both days I will be shooting the commercial. There are 3 different flavours of this popsicle/ice cream situation so I will be eating ice cream all day! Sounds yummy now, but I'm sure by the end of the day I will never want to look at it again (which probably isn't a bad thing ;) ). Monday will be my first day off, so I will be sleeping in and relaxing, hopefully only one or two castings so I won't have to do much! Before I end this never ending post I have a few Thailand interesting stories:

1. I was in a taxi the other day, when a car pulled up beside us. The driver had a child sleeping on him.. This child was like 5 or 6 years old I'm pretty sure and his head was on the drivers (probably the dad) shoulder, his body being against the dads and then legs straddling the dads lap (classic child holding position). Anyway, what the heck right? There was a mother or a woman in the passenger seat, so the child couldn't sleep there? Or how about the safest route, IN HIS OWN SEAT IN THE BACK?!

2. I was at the gym today, two things I saw. First being a girl on the elliptical with her hair down. Uhhh yea hi, your at the gym, no need to keep your flowing locks down, put em up I suggest, otherwise your gonna sweat like crazy and you wont look as pretty as you probably hoped.. Second: a girl running on the treadmill, not only was her hair down, but she was talking on her cellular device. Uhhhh how about turn down the treadmill to a walking pace if your going to talk on your phone, or don't talk on your phone at all? Interesting gym behaviour I thought.

That's about all I got for now, check the pictures below from descriptions above.

Interesting huh? I can say it does look better when the whole look was complete. With the hair done, the eye makeup etc. But that this point it was just odd..

Eff my life. That basically sums up my day today. Lets start from the very beginning, meaning 12am, Friday, January 28. Courtney is still awake. And if you read my last blog, you would know I had to get up at 4:45am. 4:45 minus 12 am = 4 hours and 45 minutes of sleep. Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough for that. I probably didn't fall asleep until 1230 or maybe even 1. I don't know what the deal is, but apparently I can't fall asleep before 12am these days! Anyway, so I woke up at 4:45, barely functioning as I didn't have much sleep. I put my contacts in, eyes burning like no other, got ready and went out into the darkness of the morning to get a cab to go to my job. I get to the "job site" if you would like to call it that, at about 6am. I start my hair at around 6:15. First note: the hair dressers here always find it necessary to part my hair the opposite of the natural way. They feel the "cow lick" look is nice I guess. Which in their defence, sometimes it doesn't actually look to bad, depends how they do the rest of the hair.. Makeup starts sometime between hair and 7am. At about 730 the hair and makeup people along with other workers take a break to eat "breakfast". Second note: breakfast here means rice and chicken or noodles and chicken or beef or pork or whatever meat you want. In other words, breakfast here is like dinner in Canada or any other part of the world. I start shooting at 8 or soon after 8. Third note: property jobs = no fun at all. It was only print, so it was basically most boring time ever. A really easy job, but so so so boring!! We shoot one setting, then we move areas to a new one, shoot that setting move, etc etc. By the time we finish at this one location it is about 1230 and are ready to move to our next location. Our second location is about an hour away from the first, so I went with the hair dresser and makeup artist. We get lost a few times, but eventually find it at around 2 pm. We eat lunch and then start the last shot (we travelled for an hour for 1 shot..). Anyways, we finish it all at about 5pm, thank god!! I really condensed this day, but it was so so so painful, I cannot even describe. I guess I shouldn't be complaining because being here is a pretty sweet deal, I mean, I could be at school.. But I am currently exhausted and slightly bitter about the day if you didn't already notice.. it was just so slow and monotonous as well as A LOT of waiting around. I was at the job for 11 hours total, but was only actually in action, shooting, for about 4 maybe 5 hours.. That means 6 or 7 hours of waiting around! NOT FUN. Especially when you have a slight impatience problem such as I do.. We leave the site shortly after 5 and I am so happy the day is done and I can go back to my apartment. Unfortunately for me, the ride home took about 2.5 hours. OH MY LORD. I was basically have a freak session in the van. First off, I hadn't been feeling so well all day, probably from the lack of sleep, so a 2.5 hour ride home didn't help (it taking so long because of traffic). I also had to pee extremely bad, but when your in a van in the middle of a large traffic situation, this is slightly difficult. Oh yea, to add to the traffic situation, we sat at a red light for 25 MINUTES. Your thinking, "oh come on Courtney, stop exaggerating". But I'm not! For all I know it could have been longer! We had been sitting at this light for not sure how long and I eventually check the time, its 6:17. By the time the light turned green, it was 6:42 and the light stayed green for a whole 15 seconds, not allowing us to get through. Fortunately, the next red light only lasted 3 minutes, so we were able to get through the next one! Second last point on the agenda here today: at this job, there were copious amounts of mosquitos. Mosquitos love Courtney, wahhhhh. I am now back at my apartment with 5 bites on my left leg and 3 on my right. Joy. Last but certainly not least (this does not pertain to the job at all, but thought it was worth a mention): there are these stores here called "Fresh Mart". When you hear Fresh Mart, your probably thinking fresh produce and fruit and all that jazz. Oh no, none of that is here. Its ALL frozen, packaged food.. Now tell me, how does that qualify as "fresh"? Trying to keep my chin up after a not so lovely day, I'm sure tomorrow will be better and I know Sunday will be, as I am going to be hanging out with my cousins! Later days to whoever is reading this, I'll keep you posted on events to come!

Today is going to be short and sweet, as I don't have a whole lot to talk about. First off, I did my second entry on modelresource, but I don't think its up yet, so give it a few days and check it out! The past few days have been quiet, not many castings, so basically have just been watching House and hanging out. Today I went shopping for the first time I've been here! Crazy hey? I've been here for 3 weeks and today is the first day for shopping, I must be sick right? I bought shorts, a tank top and a belt, woohooooo. Oh and to add to that... all from a store we have in Canada... forever 21.. haha. My bad! Oh well though, this one is large and probably has stuff the Canadian store doesn't, but who knows. Tomorrow I have a job, some kind of print job for property. Not really sure what that consists of, but I was just told for property, so maybe condo, apartment? Not really sure, but I'll let you know after I find out! Unfortunately this job requires me to get up at 5 am (sad face). Last, there is this cafe here, close to my apartment, where they make waffles, mmmmmmmm. I had one. My gosh, it was sooo good. I decided if I was going to have this treat I mine as well go all the way and get the best one. This included the waffle (obviously), vanilla ice cream, bananas, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. I'm basically drooling as writing this. Below is a picture of the delicious "meal" I ate :)

So this week didn't bring anything to interesting, but I do have a few mentionable things that occured or I saw or whatever. First of all, I had my first job on Tuesday. It was for L'Oreal, an event launching a new Kerastase hair product. There was me and 5 other models. 4 of the models wore gold dresses and did a rehearsal, while me and one other model sat there waiting, wondering what we were wearing and what we had to do. Turns out they made us put on a nude boob tube (as I call it) and a pair of nude long spandex shorts type thing. They came up to just above the bottom of my ribs and ended just above my knees... attractive right? Anyway, so we had to wear this, then they used this gold dust stuff, mixed with baby oil (to turn it into paint..?) and put it all over our arms, chest, stomach, back and legs. In other words we were covered in this stuff! They also tried to put it on the spandex stuff, but that didn't work out so nicely.. This is what we had to wear. No joke. We had to stand on either side of the entrance where all the guests came in. GREAT. I felt ridiculous! Kind of like I forgot to put my clothes on and was painted gold.. fun. Oh yea, and there were photographers there for publicity and stuff, so those pictures will be circulating in the media....even better! (not). Next on the agenda.. I had gone to a casting last Sunday for a Mazda commercial. On Wednesday my booker texts me and tells me I have to go to this Mazda casting again. So I call her, tell her it's okay, I already went, but she tells me they want to re-cast me. I think okay, well maybe its a call back? But no it wasn't it was just another casting, the reason they wanted me to go re-cast was because they wanted to change my hair. Thats it. Just my hair. HAVE SOME IMAGINATION PEOPLE! Come on now, you work in the modelling industry!! They did my hair basically the same, just didn't back comb it as much, so it was a bit more flat than last time. As you can probably tell, I was just sooo impressed... But hopefully that means they really liked me and wanted everything just right? Fingers crossed. Today I go to a casting for Vaseline, there are 2 stories tied to this one.. first, as I am waiting, the guy next to me stands up and is walking around. I notice there is some kind of sticker or patch on his pants and I look, its one of those Parent Advisory signs, like from CD's with "explicit content" or whatever and its on his crotch... weird and slightly inappropriate to wear to a casting I would guess? Second, I show up at this casting at 2:45, there are a bunch of people there, so I sign in and then leave, my apartment was really close so I just walked around and ate lunch etc. At 4 I return and it's still not my turn! They do my hair and makeup and I get changed. I don't go into the casting room until 615 and didn't finish until 7! Talk about waiting! Thats all for now, tune in in a few days or maybe a week to see what happens next..!

So I'm about a week behind on my blogging. Not a whole lot has happened in the past week, so that's possibly why I didn't update you sooner! The week was filled with castings, eating, sleeping, skyping, watching House (thanks to Myron and Brandie for lending me seasons 1-4!!), more castings, going to the gym etc. Fun right? This past weekend I stayed over at Brandie and Myron's house. I went there Saturday afternoon and got back tonight, being Sunday here, around 8 ish. On Saturday they took me on a tour of the kids school. It is called ISB or International School of Bangkok. OH MY GOD. You should see this place! It's from grades 1-12 and it's unbelievable!! It's honestly like a flipping university campus! First, it's huge as ever. It's gated all around and there are guards and gates to get in to the parking lot at the front. It's all open, like obviously there is a roof over the classrooms, lockers etc, but inbetween the hallways its open and stuff. So cool! They have everything here, its unreal. There are separate cafeterias for grades 1-5, middle school and then high school. There is a soccer pitch, a full track, swimming pool, indoor gyms, a couple outdoor gyms, basketball court, baseball diamond, tennis court. You name it, they have it. There is an art building, and auditorium, everything! It is a crazy huge, wild school. I think the whole time we walked around my jaw was dragging on the floor! Kids don't need to bring lunches, it is provided to them at the school. There are different sections in the cafeteria for different kinds of food, sandwiches, noodles, whatever else there is. Also their lockers, at the end of the set there is a door with this square on it, you swipe your student card over the square, go to your locker and open it. Cool hey?! I was just in awe of this school, so thought I'd share it with you! The rest of the time we basically just hung out, watched normal tv, meaning english, no thai, criminal minds included, wooohooo! Nothing to exciting occured during this week that I can remember right now. Oooh except that I am now also blogging for ModelResource! (www.modelresource.com). Just blogging about my adventures overseas modelling, basically like this, but a tad different. I am also the featured model right now too, so check it out! Before I end this for the night, a few things about Bangkok that amuse me, so might amuse you as well:

1. Sometimes drivers like to make their own lanes. I am in a taxi on my way to my moms cousins house, we are on a major road or freeway or whatever you want to call it. Anyway, there are 3 lanes, clearly marked by the dotted white lines. But somehow there are 4 lanes of cars...? I guess the road is big enough, so drivers just get fed up of waiting, fixing the problem by making their own lane? I was slightly confused when this was happening. By the way, my taxi driver was in the fourth, technically non existent lane.

2. People up and down major roads selling these flower things that people hang on their rearview mirrors. They walked inbetween the lanes of cars at red lights. Slightly dangerous I would say? Sometimes there are people selling food too. I guess I can understand that, as sometimes your waiting at a light for literally 180 seconds (it counts down for you at the light).

Thats about all I have for now. Be sure to check out my other blog on modelresource as well! That one will only be updated every couple of weeks though. I'm off to watch House though, check back in a couple days for another update!

I SLEPT IN TODAY! Oh, by sleeping in I mean 8am, yipeee... better than 630 though!! So after my huuuuge sleep in, I ate some breakfast, talked to my parents on Skype and then hit the gym to work on my fitness. After working out I got a text from my agent to go to a casting for Watson, which is kind of like Shoppers, but not really..just the same concept of selling makeup and shampoo and all that shenanigans! I finished that at about 4pm and then came back to the apartment to hang out for about an hour, and then I went to meet my moms cousin Myron, his wife Brandie, their oldest daughter Mekayla and also their nephew Brad and his friend, who are backpacking around Thailand for a few months. I met them on this touristy road called Khao San Road. We walked around for a bit and then ate supper and then walked around and shopped some more. The cost for my 30 minute taxi ride there, 20-30 minute taxi ride back, a dress, a wallet, 4 mini flags and another unnamed item (which I might give to my mom so can't be revealed on here as she reads it), all came to a whopping 30 dollars Canadian! What the heck right?! We stayed there until about 10:15 and then head home. Tomorrow I am going to their house for supper and to hangout as well! That basically sums up my day, nothing to interesting, but something to write about! One last thing to add in before I finish for today.. I was sitting in a taxi today, we are stopped in traffic and I look over, I see a building which says "Index Furniture" on it. There is a big billboard beside it advertising some of their furniture so I look at it, and everything looked exactly like Ikea! Even the layout of the page and the writing they used, and obviously the furniture too. Just thought it was kind of funny!

Alright, so today started with me waking up at about 6:30am, how wonderful. I talked to Kallie for a while on skype and then talked to my mom for a bit, then got ready and went to the agency as my phone wasn't working. I discovered it wasn't working because there was no money on the prepaid card! So I went over to 7-11 and filled the sim card up and then surprise surprise, it actually worked! After that I just hung out at the agency for a bit, waited for my booker, Pluem, to arrive so I could find out if I had any castings today. She arrived and said I had no castings, but gave me a map to one, just in case the client decided they wanted to see me. So later on, she texted me and told me to go to the casting, then to go to the agency after to do a few castings there. The first casting was for chocolate, then the ones at the agency were for Polo clothing, one for skin care and one for hair. I'm hoping maybe this time around I will book a hair job, as my hair was to short last time! The first casting was down all of these smaller roads, not that close to a main road where I would need to get to, to catch a taxi. So after I finished, I started to walk the direction I thought was the right way to get back to the main road. As I am walking, I hit a road that only turns right, so walking straight ahead would be into a wall. But not just a wall was standing there, of course, my favorite, two stray dogs were hanging out there. As I got closer and closer I am trying not to get scared, as last years encounter wasn't so much fun.. The closer I get, the dogs both just stand there and stare at me, I stare back (probably not a good idea on my part), then suddenly they start to bark. Instantly I am thinking "OH SHIT" and slightly panic, but they are still stationary and not running toward me. So panicking, I look back and see a guy coming on a moped type motorcycle thing, so I wave him down to ask if I am going the right direction to a taxi. Eventually I get to where I need to, with no attacks from any dogs! After all of this, it was about 5:30, so I went over to one of my favorite cafes nearby and ate supper, then just went back to the apartment to chill for awhile. I went on my computer for a bit and messed around and then started to download one of the Harry Potter movies, but while it was downloading I fell asleep, which I was trying hard not to do because I want to sleep the whole night, which means not waking up at 6:30am! What can you do though? So I woke up at 8:50 and slightly got angry at myself for falling asleep, but nothing I can do about it now! I got up and waited for my mom to come on Skype, which was not to long after. Before I end this, just a few tid bits of info about Bangkok..

1. Most of the traffic lights have timers on them. Beside the light is a thing that shows you how much longer the red light will last or how much longer the green light will last. Sometimes its up to 200 seconds, which means 3 minutes and 20 seconds. I'm not a fan of this, because I feel when you watch the seconds go by, it takes way longer!

2. I bought some watermelon, papaya and pineapple today, they took the skin or whatever you wanna call the outer shell thing off and they also cut it up for me. Wanna know how much it cost? About 99 cents Canadian!

3. Last but not least, the taxi from my casting back to my apartment was about a 45 minute ride, but only cost me about $3.47. Don't think you could ever say that in Canada now could you?

Day 1. So far it's been good, I finally arrived in Bangkok Wednesday at about 12pm Bangkok time. When I arrived I dropped my stuff off and then went to the agency. There I got a sim card for my phone and my week money. After that I went to the Big C, which is kind of like the Superstore of Bangkok, but has a few more 'supers' in it. It is a 3 floor huge huge huge supercentre. The first floor has food, drinks and all the eating stuff. The second floor is women's clothing, bulk packed drinks, toiletries, toilet paper, detergent etc. Then the third floor is electronics, household items such as irons, kettles etc. and also outdoor stuff, mens clothing and exercise things. So basically this place has anything and everything and is just crazy big! Anyway, I went there, bought some food, water, a towel (which last time the apartment people gave me, but this time no dice), some detergent, and a small mattress pad (my bed is basically hard as rock, mine as well sleep on the tile floor, actually). So after going there, I came back to my apartment and unpacked, ooohhhh how I love unpacking...not. A nap was also in the cards, I had been travelling for basically two days and who knows what time zone my body is really on, so I was in desperate need of a nap. I woke up, talked to my mom on Skype for a bit and then went to bed at around 10pm. Lucky me and having the experience of getting used to what time zone I'm in, I woke up at 4:30, 5:30 and then 7:30, giving me a final waking time of about 8am... fun. I didn't have to go to the agency until 10:30, so I had a couple hours to laze around and get ready. 10:30 rolled around and I went to the agency, getting a map for my first casting which was for drinking water. Luckily I was the first one at the casting, yaay! They did my hair and makeup (normal casting for here), then I changed and went to do the casting. In this casting I had a few shots to take.. One of me telling my friends the reason why I was so beautiful was because I was drinking this water, another of me just holding the water, one of me in my office putting on my makeup, another in a change room looking at my clothes, almost done.. another of me wearing a face mask and last but not least the one where I am actually drinking the water. Oooh how I love castings in Bangkok.... So after all of that shenanigans, I went back to the agency, hung out for a bit and then took another trip to the Big C. This time I got a yoga mat, so I can exercise in my apartment (I have much much floor space, its great - and thats not sarcasm either!). I also got a kettle and some green tea, mmmmm. That's basically all I did today, after the Big C, I came back to the apartment and just chilled. I was trying to force myself to stay awake so I would maybe sleep the whole night, but that did not work at all, I fell asleep for about 45 minutes. Now I am here, waiting for my mom on Skype and then heading to bed once my eyelids won't stay open anymore. Before I forget though, I have a few random things to throw out there:

1. Entering the taipei airport, I had to go through security again, but didn't have to show my boarding pass.. odd.

2. As I went to board the plane in Taipei, no ID or passport was required.. also odd.

3. When I was boarding my plane in Vancouver which went to Taipei, after having your ticket scanned, you walked about a meter and there were two police officers/security guards checking everyones passports and asking quite a few people quite a few questions. When I went up they asked where I was going and then let me right through, others not so lucky! The lady before me was asked where she lived, who she lived with, why she was going to Taipei, if she ever had any trouble with the police etc. Quite a few people were having this happen to them, I was curious why, but obviously never found out.

4. The person that picked me up from the airport to take me to my apartment, the speedometer in the car stayed at 0 the whole time.. in other words did not work. I guess this also brings me to the fact that Bangkok has no speed limit, so goes hand in hand with the non working speedometer.

5. I got a pedicure for  6 dollars Canadian today.. when does that EVER happen?

6. I walked by a McDonalds, saw they had a few pie varieties. At home we have apple and cherry or something, but here they have apple, corn and ham and cheese? Weird.

As the days pass I know this blog is going to fill with weird things about Bangkok, by that I mean things that are way different from Canada. Everything I wrote today is all I remember for now, but I know there is a lot more that will come. Hope you enjoy!

Bangkok

Alright, so the time has come again where the blogging must continue, as I continue on my approximate year long journey. I left Grande Prairie today at 1:35 pm, and got into Edmonton sometime around 2:30 or so. My cousin Tyson picked me up from the airport and we hit up West Ed and then went to a sushi restaurant called Mikado, where we met my Aunty Donna. After that we went back to West Ed for a bit and then I went back to the airport to catch my 8:45 flight to Vancouver. As per usual, my flight was delayed, apparently I can't fly anywhere without that happening! At first it was only delayed 15 minutes, so was supposed to leave at 9pm. We boarded the plane and were ready to go at about 9:30 when the pilot comes on telling us that there is some frost on the wings so we must de-ice. No big deal, that happens in the winter all the time.. but when we get to the de-icing area, he comes on again telling us that the truck that is supposed to de-ice our plane is broken, greeeeeeeat. He tells us we must wait about 10-15 minutes before we know whats going, so we wait, I read, we wait, then he comes on again saying that it is for sure broken and won't be fixed so we need to wait another 15 minutes for another truck to come. Again, we wait, I read, we wait, the pilot comes on and does his apology thing blah blah blah and then tells us we need to wait ANOTHER 15 minutes. At this point its about 10pm, so the 15 minutes taking us to 10:15 and then after de-icing about 10:30. May I mention one more time the plane was supposed to leave at 8:45? WHAT THE HECK! Figure it out people!! Last time I checked, there were many de-icing trucks so this problem would not occur? Like coooooome on! So finally we are off and in the air, woohoo... I fell asleep and before you knew it we were landed in Vancouver at 10:51 vancouver time, which was 11:51 GP time. Of course, my next gate is basically on the other side of the flippin airport so I had to walk all the way, thinking my flight boarded at 11:30. Thankfully it didn't, it doesn't board until 11:50, hence me sitting here typing on my computer. Oh one last note before I have to put all this shinnanigans away and board my 12 hour flight.. I GOT A AISLE SEAT! WOOOOOO! Best day ever basically. So what that means is.. Courtney has to go to the bathroom... and she can go whenever she wants! Yaaaaay. I don't have to wake the person up next to me or wait for them to wake up, I can get up and go as I please! YES. Note to whoever is reading this... always get the aisle seat when travelling a long flight, otherwise you will thoroughly regret it when you have to pee really really bad and the person or two people next to you are sleeping... trust me, not fun! I will continue the blog when I get to Taipei if they allow me to use the internet there, if not, update you when I arrive in Bangkok!