Where is the Justice?

You are at a job. You will probably be there for six hours (or more). Your only source of food is the kind they choose to order. You realize that clients love ordering cheap, convenient grub. This only leaves three possible options;

1) McDonald's
2)Pizza Hut
3) KFC
4) MSG packed, oil slicked, fried Chinese concoction one finds hard to call food.

You have already been scrutinized for your weight countless times. Your agency gets mad at you for eating food like such. So you don't eat the food the client has offered. You order a coffee, black please, no sugar. Then the client undoubtedly thinks you are just another anorexic model. You are now hungry and frustrated until you get home, have a sensible supper, and wait for that phone call from your agency saying you had a coffee break when you we're supposed to be in front of the camera (you had your coffee while everyone was stuffing their face).

Cheque, please.

Dear Hong Kong,

You are crowded. You are smelly. You are polluted. You hang horrific slabs of red meat and hang yellow baby chickens from the neck. Your people do not know how to walk in the streets (haven't they lived here their whole lives? haven't they had enough practice?). Your sidewalks are too narrow for your over-populated city. Your people do not know how to wait in lines. Your people do not know how to use the MTR efficiently. You have too many McDonald's, and not enough Starbucks. The tap water is not drinkable, and when it is, it tastes like shit. Your sense of style seems like it has been frozen since the late 90's. The only reasonably nice clothes are the one's that I (and 90% of the population) could never afford. You insist on constructing skyscrapers at 9 AM right outside of my window- every morning (even on Saturdays). Your elevators are insanely slow. You pay pennies for editorials (even less than everywhere else). You are extremely loud and frustrating. You have too many tempting bakeries, at ridiculously low prices (you tease). You have the scariest thunderstorms (along with cyclones and typhoons) I have ever encountered. You have made me miss fall, and replaced it with humid, sticky afternoons.

But don't worry, Hong Kong, you also have many redeeming qualities. You have the best nightlife district I have ever laid eyes on (and I have seen one too many). You have more culture than any other country in the world. You have the most amazing skyline, drawing locals and tourists alike. You have beautiful, fresh, juicy exotic fruits for 3 dollars a dozen. You are the master of imported goods (especially those international grocery stores that could put any Whole Foods to shame). You have enchanting cobble stone streets lined with red paper lanterns, where the smell of incense wafts between tea shops and tiny flower shops. You are 100% prepared for any kind of tropical weather monstrosities coming our way. You have beautiful temples scattered around a city filled with luxury department stores. Your alcohol is cheap, along with your Lucky Strikes and Marlboros. Your currency makes me think I am spending too much money, when really, I'm hardly spending anything. Your traditional coffee wakes me up for eight hours straight. Elgin street makes me want to stay with you forever. Your wonderful escalators in Central (how nice of you to not make us trek up and up in our six inch heels). Your fantasticly organized and dirt cheap subway system - and your epic ''Octopus Card''. Your 24/7 convenience stores on every corner. Your sleep-friendly work (and casting) hours.

I guess you're alright in my books, after all, Hong Kong.

Airport Chronicles (Incheon Airport).

so here i am, once again, wasting time at another international airport. it's crazy to think how much time i've spent sleeping on wooden chairs, drinking coffee, watching families and lovers, greetings and farewells. to be honest, i can't complain. i love being here. i love being in the middle of all of this hustle and bustle, watching people of every ethnicity going on their own adventures. people buying gifts for their families wherever they might be (gotta love those hundred dollar fruit baskets in asia!). people in groups going on tropical islands, anticipating the tan and the pina coladas. in a way it makes me feel sad that i cannot share my time in airports with the people i love most of the time. even though they're usually gigantic, i feel very intimate here.

it's crazy how two and a half years ago, my international career had started right where i am now; Incheon airport. how scared i was, being in the big scary world by myself at the tender age of nineteen! i've seen more than i could've ever imagined i would. from kimchi in seoul, to monkeys at the pet stores in tokyo, to sweaty sweaty castings in athens...i am extremely excited (and just a teensy bit nervous) to explore Hong Kong. apparently i will be living with many other models (try 20, male and female) in the heart of the island, pretty much as central as you can get. sometimes i wish they wouldn't always put me in the richest, most western area of the entire country. it makes me feel a little bit strange when you're surrounded by things you already know so well. that's why, after Hong Kong and Tokyo, I want to go on a real dirty, sweaty, real adventure with elliott; INDIA! i know it will be tough - i will be whiny, dirty, and probably quite uncomfortable most of the time - but i know it's something i need to do to keep my head straight.

i really did have an amazing time in korea this time, though. i met two lifelong friends that i miss more than i could say (lauren and letecia). they will both be in new york for a long time, so we will definitely be able to have many reunions in the big apple! i explored, i traveled outside of completely westernized apgujeong...speaking of adventures, let me tell you what happened on jeju island (i also posted many pictures on facebook for you all to enjoy!);
on the second day, our plan was to tackle the tallest mountain in south korea - mount hallasan. usually i am not up for vertical hiking for six straight hours, but i knew i would never get to experience something like this again (and i also didn't want to seem whiny and weak to elliott, of course!). we took the bus on the winding hills, heading up through the forest. we realized when we got there that we were too late to climb to the top; apparently if you arrive at the resting area before 1 (around 4 1/2 hours hike from the bottom), you are not permitted to go any further. what a bummer! we started our trek thinking we could just sneak by whoever it took just to see that amazing lake/crater on the top. poor elliott had his huge backpack on the whole time since we didn't find a hotel close enough to where we wanted to stay..what a trooper! let me just say it was a great hike up - and when we got to the resting area, we were the last one's there. the attendents kept an extremely close eye on us because they thought elliott's bag was full of camping gear (which it wasn't), so they kept rushing us to start our trek down. it was shitty because you couldn't even see ANYTHING from the rest hut. it was just a place where you could buy ramed and chocolate bars. damn...so at around 6 we started our journey down the mountain. it was getting a little bit dark, especially since most of the trail is through the forest. but we didn't care - we had the mountain all to ourselves! and this is where things got intense. about 45 minutes down, we decided to relax and have a smoke and enjoy the scenery. we sat down, listening to the crows and the birds chirping...how relaxing! until.........we heard a rustling in the leaves.
''elliott, what the fuck was that?'' said nervous nathalie
''don't worry, you always freak out about everything! relax, it's probably just a small animal. there is no real danger until the crow crows'' explained irritated elliott
...THE CROW CROWS.
A FUCKING HUGE CAT OF SOME SORT ROARS LIKE I'VE HEARD ONLY IN THE ZOO
''IT'S A JAGUAR, RUN UP THE MOUNTAIN!!!'' screams elliott
i have never ran so fast in my life/been so scared in my life/never felt so much like fainting in my life. we were fucking ALONE on the mountain! so we found a pole with the emergency number, and we called it. the guy spoke english, but when we told him what had happened, he just told us it was either a wild deer or a wild dog. WHAT THE FUCK? THAT DID NOT SOUND LIKE ANYTHING SMALL OR NICE! so they didn't want to come pick us up, so we ran for four hours down the mountain, full of endorphins and sharpened wooden stakes at hand (we must have looked like crazy westerners). we finally got to the bottom and i felt like passing out....so tired and scared!
the rest of the trip was amazing....swimming in the ocean, taking huge ships sailing past beautiful islands, sleeping in hilariously tacky motels for 25$ a night. enjoyed some well deserved soju and watched sunsets from the mountain tops. worth much more than a pair of prada shoes, if i can say so myself!

Dear Tokyo;

How on earth do you expect me to live off 60 bucks a week, when the brussel sprouts are nearly seven, the strawberries are twelve, and the mangoes are fifteen? I have been hustling out of my ass. Going into fancy grocery stores and stealing samples. Stealing Splenda by the handful from Starbucks. Re-using tea bags. I thought being called a hustler was kind of fucking cool. But now, after actually having to hustle, it's not as much fun as I thought it would be.

It doesn't help that every other store is a painfully amazing bakery. I experience on your streets, over and over; bakery, starbucks, convenience store, another bakery, health food store, restaurant. How do all of these places stay in business with so much competition around? How is everyone not painstakingly obese in your country? Sharing the cheapest thing at the grocery store today with Rianne (a 3 dollar pack of dried peas), the people in front of us had spent nearly a hundred dollars on a couple day's worth of groceries. Incredible. No wonder everyone works until eleven at night here. I thought Paris was expensive - but this is really horrific.

I'm on hold for three jobs, and they told me if I don't get one of them, they're sending me home. I hope everyone who reads this prays for me, because I've got some unfinished business with you, Tokyo. As soon as I get my shit together when I come back home, I'm going to New York. Fuck this shit. Fuck catalogue castings, fuck everyone who look exactly the same, fuck all of you cookie cutters. If people here can't understand a different kind of beauty (or brains, for that matter), then I'm not wasting any more of my time trying to convince them.
Fuck you, Tokyo. Thanks for taking all of my money in order to survive, thanks for tempting me to every extreme I can possibly think of.
No one likes you anyway.