Travelling time has come around once again!

I arrived in Toronto last night from Grande Prairie, staying here until tomorrow. Just to basically unpack some things and re-pack again (yay...). I also discovered I would be in/at an airport 6 times from yesterday until Saturday, soooo much fun (nat). On my way from GP to TO my carry on bags weighed equivalent to my body weight I'm sure, so I decided I needed to change this situation.. meaning I went and bought a rolly bag, wooohooooo. No more sore shoulders and back, win! Anyway, so I'm in the midst of re-packing my things, trying to downsize as much as possible..
Tomorrow I leave TO at 12 in the afternoon and will arrive in Bangkok at 10 something pm on Saturday (joy). I go here to Tokyo which is a whopping 13 hour flight and then 2 hour wait in Tokyo, then off to BKK I go with a good ol' 7 hour flight. Basically the time of my life (KIDDING). I can honestly say I am not looking forward to this flight, but who would really?
I must get back to packing though, those suitcases won't finish themselves!

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..