For starters, let's just get something clear. I LOVE Hong Kong. The streets smell like fish more often then they don't but the sights are beautiful and the people I've met are stellar.
Hey. My name is Melody, I'm from upstate NY and I am working and living for three months, 8,527 miles from my home town in the amazing city of Hong Kong. Although this is not my first traveling experience - I backpacked by myself through Europe for a month and a half a few years ago, have spent the past 3 years bouncing about the states and just recently visited Doha, Quatar - traveling and living in a different country are two totally different things. Thankfully, my agency takes care of a lot of things: books my flights, gets me a phone, takes care of my working visas, sets me up in an apartment and even dolls out an allowance every week. Well... Apartment is kind of a stretch. My roommate and I like to call it our Model Closet. But whatever, it's ours for now and like many things, it is what you make of it.
Let me back it up for a second- When I found out about coming to Hong Kong I was FLOORED. I had no idea what to expect not only from the city - what it looked like, the geography of it, where it was in relationship to the rest of Asia (was it part of China??)- but what to expect from the people, the jobs, the agency. I heard horror stories from friends-of- friends about evil 14 year old twigs with jealous vendettas.
Pictures were painted of said waifs sneaking into my room with the kitchen shears to massacre my hair in defense of their own blossoming career. Also, I had an apartment to move out of, a car to figure what the hell to do with, phone plan to suspend, family to inform, hell- I needed my hair done.
At first I thought I was leaving in 2 weeks, then it got pushed back for a possible job in Canada... So much was up in the air, so much was out of my control. I was left feeling like my blackberry was my tenuous thread to the rest of my life, my umbilical cord to the future.
So I moved most of my stuff into storage, bought some things I would need overseas, packed my bags, ignored my car and my phone and got my hair done.
Fast forward a couple weeks. Apartment is empty, storage space is full, many goodbyes didn’t happen... life goes on for everyone else, too. Loose ends were not tied but a little hung over and sleepy from girl time the night before, I headed off early Tuesday morning for Toronto for the day.
When I came back that evening I slept on the couch and headed back out to the airport to fly 4 hours to NYC and FIFTEEN hours (next to a geriatric Chinese couple where I was trapped by the window for eternity) to Hong Kong. I have some instructions, but really I have no idea who I'm meeting, where I'm going or how I'm getting there. By the time I get off the plane, I literally don't know what day it is. Is it Thursday? Friday?
Over the next couple weeks, I get my roommates changed out, I go to China twice for jobs, I go to lots of castings, see some of the city, am learning to spin fire, have one ridiculous day on a yacht decked out with a DJ setup, swim in the sea for the first time and see the inside of allot of clubs I have met a lot of wonderful people and had a lot of wonderful experiences. Like anything, my stay here has had its ups and downs but like very few things, the ups have the scale crashing to one side. I have a lot of hopes and fears and expectations for myself, and though it may not all be model glamour- this model hasn't stopped smiling for days.
XOX - Melody Sample
Hey. My name is Melody, I'm from upstate NY and I am working and living for three months, 8,527 miles from my home town in the amazing city of Hong Kong. Although this is not my first traveling experience - I backpacked by myself through Europe for a month and a half a few years ago, have spent the past 3 years bouncing about the states and just recently visited Doha, Quatar - traveling and living in a different country are two totally different things. Thankfully, my agency takes care of a lot of things: books my flights, gets me a phone, takes care of my working visas, sets me up in an apartment and even dolls out an allowance every week. Well... Apartment is kind of a stretch. My roommate and I like to call it our Model Closet. But whatever, it's ours for now and like many things, it is what you make of it.
Let me back it up for a second- When I found out about coming to Hong Kong I was FLOORED. I had no idea what to expect not only from the city - what it looked like, the geography of it, where it was in relationship to the rest of Asia (was it part of China??)- but what to expect from the people, the jobs, the agency. I heard horror stories from friends-of- friends about evil 14 year old twigs with jealous vendettas.
Pictures were painted of said waifs sneaking into my room with the kitchen shears to massacre my hair in defense of their own blossoming career. Also, I had an apartment to move out of, a car to figure what the hell to do with, phone plan to suspend, family to inform, hell- I needed my hair done.
At first I thought I was leaving in 2 weeks, then it got pushed back for a possible job in Canada... So much was up in the air, so much was out of my control. I was left feeling like my blackberry was my tenuous thread to the rest of my life, my umbilical cord to the future.
So I moved most of my stuff into storage, bought some things I would need overseas, packed my bags, ignored my car and my phone and got my hair done.
Fast forward a couple weeks. Apartment is empty, storage space is full, many goodbyes didn’t happen... life goes on for everyone else, too. Loose ends were not tied but a little hung over and sleepy from girl time the night before, I headed off early Tuesday morning for Toronto for the day.
When I came back that evening I slept on the couch and headed back out to the airport to fly 4 hours to NYC and FIFTEEN hours (next to a geriatric Chinese couple where I was trapped by the window for eternity) to Hong Kong. I have some instructions, but really I have no idea who I'm meeting, where I'm going or how I'm getting there. By the time I get off the plane, I literally don't know what day it is. Is it Thursday? Friday?
Over the next couple weeks, I get my roommates changed out, I go to China twice for jobs, I go to lots of castings, see some of the city, am learning to spin fire, have one ridiculous day on a yacht decked out with a DJ setup, swim in the sea for the first time and see the inside of allot of clubs I have met a lot of wonderful people and had a lot of wonderful experiences. Like anything, my stay here has had its ups and downs but like very few things, the ups have the scale crashing to one side. I have a lot of hopes and fears and expectations for myself, and though it may not all be model glamour- this model hasn't stopped smiling for days.
XOX - Melody Sample
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