Castings Today

Today we had two castings. One for a fashion show and another for a car magazine. At the fashion show casting, there were over 100 models present. Which meant we were all waiting at least 2 hours before it was our turn for the casting.

Our bookers give us "maps" (Which are computer drawn maps that are not drawn to scale, and very basic), for us to present to the Taxi driver. Then we just have to hope that he knows where he's going. So we arrived at the casting place and pay the driver, and we all split the fare. We sign in and I try and find a place to sit, but all the seats have been taken. I try and sit on a chair that is being occupied by a few gallon water tank. I start to read until my butt turns numb and I look for another place to sit. I find a bench upstairs which would make me really anti social if I sat there, but it was either have a numb ass or be antisocial. Antisocial won.

More and more models were coming in and I got to see my competition. There are lots of pretty girls here. And there are the odd few where you're like, you're a model? But hey, models are people too and no one is perfect.

An hour goes by and a shipment of Brazilian men come in. I just love Brazilians. They just seem so happy and always greet each other with a kiss on each cheek. They are so kind to each other and always laughing. And of course they are all gorgeous. I'm talking about boys and girls here. They just rock and I get along with them the best.

So another hour goes by and solitaire on my iPod is getting a bit boring. I even tried reading for an hour, but I was getting pretty restless and my butt fell asleep again.

My number was finally called and I went inside the studio and was greeted by 5 different people so I have no idea who the client was, so I could kindly greet him or her in Thai. My clothes were quickly whipped off and I had new ones put on and next thing I knew I was wearing something like spanky pants. Then I had to do the catwalk, change again, walk again and then "Thank you for coming". So then me and 2 other girls had to take a cab to the next casting.

It was me, a Brazilian girl and another girl from Hungary who is drop dead gorgeous. The Brazilian and I started chatting because the girl from Hungary doesn't speak English very well. Apparently the Brazilian has been away from home modeling for 4 years. I was stunned. I was thinking I have been in Thailand for a week and I'm already ready to come home. My mind was stirring.

We find a cab and give him our "map". The map sucked and he of course didn't know where to take us.
The convo went like this:
Driver: "Blah blah blah BLAH blah blah something Thai blah blah"
Me "Uhh....Here"
*Pointing at a building on map which I think is where we are going
Driver" "Blah. Blah blah blah."
Me" We go here"
Driver looks confused
Driver "Blah blah"
Me" Jesus... Who's got a phone?"
Brazil "My phone has no credit"
*I look at Hungary. Her head in the clouds as I ask if we can use her phone to call the agency for help. Meanwhile, she is playing with her phone
*Finally she understands. I call the agency
*The phone rings
Phone" Blah blah blah Something Thai, Blah blah blah. Blah blah Something Chinese, blah blah. The number you have dialed is not in service"
I'm getting pissed now.

Finally I make a break through and manage to get in touch with the agency. They are confused as to what
I want. I just want them to tell the driver where to go... Finally, 5 min and 10 baht later, we are on our way.

After 30 min, the driver drops us off on a road that is half closed due to construction. They are putting down a new road and wet cement is everywhere. I see, according to our "map" that we need to go down a short road. So we did and we got totally lost.

We tried asking these men who were fixing the telephone polls to point us in the right direction. But they would either laugh or ignore us as if we were homeless scum. Having no phone and no money left, I felt pretty helpless. We walked some more and passed a women at her stand cooking some pastry thing.

The Edison of Bangkok. I'm glad they don't work in my neighborhood.

Lady cooking her pastry thingie. The lady on the right helped us (yay)

We decide to call the agency again. They think we want to go home and don't understand "lost". I was getting so frustrated. I then asked for our booker who speaks English and even she was confused on what we needed. We then had to hand over the phone to the lady cooking her pastry. Then the phone went to another woman, then another woman on her bike with her son. Finally, she said for us to follow and that we did. But first we needed some food.

The Brazilian very kindly bought me some because I have no more pocket money left. This also had put me in a bad mood because I don't have money to even eat. I have money in my bank, but I am trying to just use the pocket money the agency gives me, which has proven to not be enough.

So we follow this lady who very kindly leads us to the casting. But the stupidest part was that the road to get there was all wet cement. So, 3 models in heels are trying to walk through this construction zone and not get wet cement on ourselves.

Then all the sudden- AHHHHHHHHH!
The Brazilian has fallen in the cement. Luckily she stopped her whole body from falling in with her hand, but her arm was elbow deep in wet cement. Luckily for her, there was a hose nearby and she rinsed off. I was just thinking how  ridiculous this all was.

Moving on, we made it to the casting. We then find out that this car magazine totally sucks and is in search of super sexy girls to model with these cars. I may be sexy to some men (;-D) but I know my look and I am not the sexy type to be in a car magazine. So after going through all this crap, and realizing I would not get this job, made me pretty frustrated. Oh and of course, for the casting we had to be in our bra and shorts. Whatever, I hope the photographer enjoyed it.

So then we headed back home and the Brazilian and I got to know each other a bit better. Looks like me and her will be hanging out a bit more. She is 18 and has been modeling abroad for 4 years...

Today's experiences had me thinking a lot. Do I really want to be away from home for such a long time like the Brazilian? Is this what I really want to be doing in my life right now? Getting lost, paying for taxis, not knowing where castings are? Not having enough money to eat? Maybe today was just a bad day. But if it's like this all this week, I'm going to do something drastic.