Just some interesting points about the lifestyle here in HK:

1. Its crazy super hot here, all day, everyday. People are used to it though, their bodies are adapted. Im walking around in a tank top and shorts and sweating like I just ran a flippin marathon, but the locals are wearing jeans and a t-shirt, maybe a scarf for an accessory, but guess what? They haven't even broken a sweat! Not even a drip! I guess thats what you get for living in Canada for 18 years huh?

2. Most people can speak english. Younger people obviously speak it better and more fluently, from school. Older people can speak basic english, but you have to talk in one word form. Example: "Bathroom?" or "Cost?" or something like that.

3. Technology crazy. Thats it. Everyone has a cellphone, psp or nintendo ds or some other kind of handheld gaming thing. You go on the mtr, which is like a metro or a train kind of thing and probably 70-80 percent of the people are playing games on their phone or handheld device or texting. Something to do with technology.

4. Regarding number 3. There are computer shops everywhere! They sell anything and everything having to do with computers or phones, they are crazy busy all the time. Its like a building, with a million different stalls in it, each stall a different "store", selling their product. Most stores are selling the same thing though. Its sort of difficult to explain, but hopefully you half get the picture.

5. The lifestyle is late. Stores open late, people are open/up late. Nothing opens until atleast 10 am. Obviously supermarkets are open at like 8, but basically everything else is open sometime after 10. Everyday, weekdays and maybe later on weekends. That also means that stores are open later, like 11 or midnight. This leads to everyone eating late. People here are having supper, full meals at like 9, 10, 11 or maybe even 12 pm! It's crazy! But its normal here, they do it every single night.

6. Even though people eat late and stuff, soo many of them are so so so skinny! How? Eating late everynight and your still the size of a toothpick? What the heck!

7. You walk everywhere. Which may explain number 6. I walk so much more than I did at home, if I don't have to take public transportation I don't. There is everything I need within walking distance, its great!

8. Eating, shopping, eating shopping. I swear thats all people do here. Everywhere you go there are a million restaurants and inbetween those restaurants and places to eat are places to shop! Stores line the streets, restaurants, bakeries etc line the streets. It's quite convenient though. You know wherever you go you have many options of what to eat and can also buy whatever you need in the area.

9. Everyone walks the pace of a turtle. Thats all I really need to say about that one.

10. Every mode of transportation feels the need to honk 80% of the time. I swear the break is attached to the horn or something. There could be a taxi 20 vehicles back and he's honking. Uhh sir could you just wait a second, give the other 20 vehicles time to actually hit their gas to go! And do you really think its going to help them go any faster by you honking? The rest of the people infront of them have to move in order for them to move. Common sense people!

11. Pedestrians don't have the right of way. Always always always have to look both ways before crossing the road or you could be best friends with the pavement. Even when there is a walk light for pedestrians I still look, vehicles tend to run red lights here.. there aren't any cameras.

12. 7/11 is everywhere. You see one, well walk a few feet and there is probably another one waiting ahead.

13. People wear long sleeves, sweaters or sometimes light jackets when the temperature drops below 30.

14. Wild fashion. Some people here put together the weirdest outfits. Things you would never think to put together. You find every kind of crazy printed tight or legging or sock or whatever here. The fashion is much much different then back home. There isn't really a "normal" look. At home its like oh t-shirt and jeans, you don't really find to much of that here. Here "normal" is whatever you want basically. It's actually pretty cool.

15. They like white skin. Lots of face care products with whitening in them.

16. Not many people drive their own vehicles. Most people will walk, take the bus, the mtr or taxi's. The people that do drive, drive very nice vehicles. Mercedes, Ferrari, Mazda, BMW, you name it. Lots of Toyota here too actually, but none of the same models as Canada, all newer and more advanced. Everyone also keeps their vehicles super super clean. I don't think I've seen one dirty (the outside obviously) vehicle since I've been here. Not including construction trucks or those types.

Thats basically all I can think of right now, but if I think of any other things to add in, I'll letcha know.

I have a busy week starting tomorrow, finally! Tomorrow I have 2 jobs, one is a Sony Ericsson presentation thing and then after that I have a print job for City of Dreams, which is a hotel in Macau, which is a few hour boat ride from here. On Wednesday I have a presentation for Coach, where I will basically just stand there and hold perfume, I think thats all anyway. Then today I found out that I booked a print job for HSBC bank! Wooohooooo! That job will be shot on Thursday! I'm so excited! So basically it should be a good week! 

Interesting thing I saw today...

An albino asian! If you can believe it. I was also shocked as you are probably right now. I was just walking along and BAM there he was. Definitely asian, I could tell by his features..mostly the eyes, you could just tell he was asian. But he had super pale skin, like an albino would obviously and his hair was white as flippin Santa Claus's beard! It was so weird!!

I only have one thing to blog about today:

I witnessed an old man wearing a onesie aka a one piece.. It was yellow in colour with a black stripe down the side. Since I saw this, that means he was walking around in this "outfit" in public. My eyes burn and so does the picture of it in my head. AHHHHHH. One question for this man: "Sir, did you perhaps look into the mirror before exiting your house? Also, why would you purchase such a thing and then continue to wear it out in public after purchasing?" I wish I had a picture, dangit.

Alright, so yesterday was the Mid Autumn Festival here in Hong Kong, I guess its a day where there is a full moon and I'm not really sure what else. But there was this big celebration at Victoria Park and there was this like fire dragon thing. I went with Joe and Judy, the fire dragon was basically this dragon, not real obviously, it had a head and a very long body, people carried it but sticks above their heads. The fire part was these smaller sticks that were lit so they were glowing red, hence the fire part. So there was this big like parade type thing the dragon did, then it went back to Victoria Park and danced some more. There were sooo many people here, but the area was also huge! It was decorated with lanterns and lights and everything. I will put pictures at the bottom. It was actually really cool for a bit, but after awhile of standing in a large crowd of sweaty smelly people, not so much fun.. Plus this one guy infront of us was coughing and sneezing and grossly blowing his nose, not so pleasant if you ask me! I am leaving here in 2 weeks, around October 6th, but the date isn't confirmed yet. I will be going to Shanghai! I'm pretty excited to leave as I hear it is busier in Shanghai, and here I am not really doing anything. But I do have 3 more jobs before I leave, one is a presentation for Coach perfume, I basically have to stand there and hold the perfume, the next is a presentation for Sony Ericsson, basically the same thing as the Coach one and the last is a Makeup show or event or something. I think they are just using me as a model to do makeup on and show how their makeup can be used etc. Those should be just a lovely time. Until then I will just be working on my fitness, wandering the streets of Hong Kong, the usual. I'll keep an update on anything interesting that happens in my last two weeks here! Also, some things I witnessed while at the Mid Autumn festival..

1. An asian man, wearing a purple shirt, with the collar popped. Oh and I forgot to mention he had a white very furry cat on his shoulder...

2. A dog with pigtails, glow necklaces around his neck and wearing some blue runners

The things you see at events like this!

So I'm behind on my blogging again I realize, but once again, nothing to interesting has happened! I got my contract from Shanghai, so I signed that and its sent back, now I am just waiting for the info to apply for my visa and my plane ticket!  Yesterday we were going to go to Sai Kung, but that didn't happen, we went to Stanley Market instead because it was the Sunday before the Mid Autumn festival, so we had to go to Andy's parents for supper, I guess they always do that. Anyway, so Stanley market was just this outdoor market thing, lots of tourists there and little trinket things. Me, Judy and Andy went, Joe had to hold down the fort at the store. After the market we went back to the store, picked up Joe and went to Andy's parents. On the way there, I noticed the sky was sort of hazy and red colored, everywhere. Judy told me that the sky turns red when a typhoon is coming, so you know one is coming when the sky turns red! I thought that was kind of cool. There is a typhoon warning right now, signal 1 was earlier today, and I checked my phone, signal 3 was in affect as well. The signal 1 was just a warning that one was approaching, may possibly hit Hong Kong. The Signal 3 was a strong wind signal and heavy thunderstorms. It rained quite a bit today, it started right as I had to leave for my casting, joy! It wasn't to bad when I first left, but right before I got to the place it was pouring and really windy. It is supposed to be like that everyday for the rest of this week apparently. The casting today was another one for property and I'm still waiting to hear back from castings from last week, so hopefully good news to come! That's about all I have for now, I'll write again soon!

Oh goody another day living in HK passes.. let me fill you in on what occurred today! So I had my job for Cathay Pacific airline today, call time was 11 am. So I go to the job, its supposed to be a 6 hour shoot, but I didn't even think we would fill the 6 hours, from what I saw from the casting, it didn't seem like it could take THAT long. Man was I wrong, not only did it take 6 hours, but add 3 to that. Yes 9 hours, 9 hour day, woopeeeee. So I start by arriving at 11. We started makeup at about 11:15 probably. In these pictures you won't be able to tell its actually me, it is only close ups of different body parts, one of my eye, one of my lips, one of my feet and one of my back. I think the ads are promoting vacations or something. So what they did was they had to white out the body part they were shooting, aka make it white, and then the background and everything else was white. With this picture they will apply another one on top thats like a little colorful thing with snowboarders or mountains or suns or whatever the ad is for. So, we started with my eye. My makeup was done, first coat was a very very heavy coverup/concealer deal, probably about a jillion shades lighter than my actual skin color. On top of that we got some white powder situation, and then some baby powder on top of that. I pretty much resembled a ghost of some sort. After this was done, the client apparently said it wasn't the right "texture", so it was all taken off. The heavy coverup was the applied again, then a different white powder, after this was finished, we found out there was a "miscommunication" and the first look was the right one. So once again, the whole thing was taken off and the first one put back on. Mmmmmm my pores are just in heaven! So the eye shot took about 3-4 hours, yay. The eyelashes weren't right, or my face wasn't white enough or something, so it took quite awhile. After that, they applied the color around my eye that the picture would be that they would put around it. The eye was done after that, and she couldn't get the color around my eyes completely off, so guess what! She took all the face makeup off, and then had to reapply it all again because the lip shot was next. Oh should I mention I hadn't eaten since about 9am, and it was now 3:30 or 4pm. So before we did the lips I got to eat, woohoo. We then did the lips, fun times, nothing exciting there. Then next was the back. So, coverup, white powder, baby powder, more baby powder, white powder, and continuous application of these throughout. All of this was applied down my arms, my neck, shoulders, and about 1/3 to 1/2 way down my back. Fuuuuuun right? I had to twist my head to the side and touch my chin to my shoulder, so you could say my neck got just a tad bit sore by the end! After that one was the foot one, so again all of the previous applications onto my feet and legs. I had to put my feet in this one position, where I was turned to the side, my right foot was flat on the ground and the left like pointed downward. I wasn't allowed to put any pressure on my left foot either, because I think it was turning red or like veiny or something. So basically I stood on my right foot for a solid 45 minutes to an hour. After the 6 hour day plus the 3 hours of overtime, we finished! Talk about long day. After all of this I had to do a casting, which was at the same place I did the shoot. My hair looked flippin grey though because there was coverup and baby powder in it and I couldn't get it out! Can't win 'em all though I guess. That was basically my day, what a joy huh! I didn't have time to do the McDonalds casting today, so I have to do that one tomorrow!

Okay so as I said on Saturday, we were supposed to go to "Sai Wan" yesterday for the day and then for seafood for supper. Wrong was I, its called Sai Kung, not Sai Wan. Second, it rained all day, and by all day I mean all day, no breaks, so we didn't go. I have actually never seen so much rain, ever. It poured and poured and poured for a few hours, then it would let up and just lightly rain for a bit, but then it would start to pour again. You would walk around and the water is basically covering your feet in some places, probably fully flooded in others! The funny this is, even though it was pouring like you would never believe, there was still a million people outside! They all had umbrella's of course, but still! Hi people, its raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring and so should you all be! Maybe not snoring, but at home, in the comfort of your dry clothes and under a roof, protected by walls from the rain. Crazy weather and crazy people I tell you! Anyway so yesterday was filled with basically nothing, as it was raining all day, pretty not fun I'd say. I went with Joe and Judy to Andy's parents house for supper again, quite tasty! We watched some of 2012, wow that movie was lame! So fake too, the whole road just splitting apart and like falling in when they are driving away in the limo. After that I came home and slept. Today, not to interesting either, the weather was much better though. I went to the gym, the agency, and then on a wild hunt to find graham crackers..no luck. No where in this place has them I swear! I went to the international grocery stores around where I live and they didn't have them, I went to local places, they didn't have them. Joe told me about this one grocery store that is probably about 20 minutes by train away from my apartment that might have them, so I'll check that out sometime! Tomorrow is going to be busy though, I have a job at 11 until 5, it is for Cathay Pacific airline, should be a lovely time. It is at the same place as my Nikon ad was and my test shoot as well. While I am at the shoot, there is a casting at the same place for I don't remember what, so I have to do that and then at 6, after my job, I have to go to a casting for McDonalds! Not going to lie, but I kind of hope I get the McDonalds one, that would be kind of funny/cool. McDonalds is a big deal pretty much everywhere! So that should be a good day that will tire me out. Before I end this, one thing I forgot to mention about the gym I go to: they like to play disney channel music. By that I mean the High School Musical soundtrack, Justin Beiber, Hannah Montana (yes, Hannah, not the "older/more mature" Miley Cyrus). It's really not that good of music to be played at the gym in my opinion..sorry but I don't get motivated to workout with Justin, Hannah or the HSM cast...