Anya Nordström

October 14, 2007

Anya Nordström This past week I had two jobs in Shenzhen, the next city over from Guangzhou. It's about an hour away and very green. My first job ended up being a complete disaster; there was no translator and the client kept screaming at me in Chinese. Did I mention that it was somewhere around a million degrees and we were shooting on the roof of the studio?? In the end I think the client apoligized and the pictures were beautful!

The second job, thank Buddha, was much more pleasant. Inside, great translator, good food and very nice crew. Then it was Holidays! YIPPEE! The agency was closed for a full week of festivities and the roomies and I finally got to do some tourist stuff. First there was the zoo - besides it being ridiculously hot, it was SO much fun, complete with a dolphin & seal show, aquarium (with Chinese girls swimming in the tank dressed as mermaids) and Chinese pandas! I loved every second of it!

Then there was the Moon Cake festival. I'm still not completly sure what it is, but it involves all the parks lit with big Chinese lanterns and sweet cakes that smell like fish; definately a cultural experience.

Now that the holidays are over it's back to work! I joined a gym in my neighbourhood that is surprisingly clean and huge and the roommates and I also found all the seasons of Sex & the City on DVD for only 25 RMB!!! Paradise.......well almost...

It seems that the undewear season is starting here in Guangzhou. Almost all of our castings this week were for lingerie catalogues, and the best part is that you don't need to have large breasts because most Chinese women don't either. The bras have enough padding to make even the most twig of a model look as vulumptuous as Salma Hayek!

There are also a lot of winter wear castings, meaning strange, large pants and exteremly heavy, down winter coats. This confuses me because even though it's starting to cool down here, Southern China doesn't really get cold enough for a down winter coat. Maybe they're planning on going to Canada!

-xoxo Anya

Anya Nordström is a Chantale Nadeau model, with CalCarries in Guangzhou.