Shenzhen to Guangzhou

We finished up in Shenzhen and have moved on to our next city, Guangzhou.

We learned while in Shenzhen that our tour will be coming to an end after Macau. Which basically means we have 4 weeks left. This is kind of sad and yet I am pretty glad too. And yet it’s a slightly frustrating time as well, since the projects for fall are casting right now and I’m having trouble trying to get video auditions granted. But I suppose everything happens for a reason.

Our new hotel… oy… We aren’t being provided water here (there’s even a ‘don’t drink the water’ warning sign, which we’ve never had before, so you know the water can’t be good) so I had to go and buy a huge jug. And we are on another smoking floor. There are ashtrays all over my room. Here in China, they don’t punish smokers in non-smoking rooms like they do in the US, but we’ve been pretty lucky, being in rooms that don’t reek. But this time, definitely a smoking room and smoking floor. But it doesn’t smell too bad, so I think we are going to stick it out.

And honestly, I think the beds are getting harder and harder. The Chinese must sleep on their backs because these beds are just absolutely hard. In hard bed hotels (basically every hotel but the Marriott and Nanning), I wake up with huge bruises on my hips because apparently, even on hard beds, I’m a side sleeper. I don’t know how they do it.

I went to go the hotel gym. First off, not a gym, just a section of hallway with 3 treadmills, 2 oddball machines (no idea what they are or what they do), and 2 ellipticals. Not exactly a “gym”. And then they charge 20Y ($3) per usage. Eh, the pool is free, so I guess I’ll be swimming a lot this week.

But I am excited because there is a lot of Chinese culture and history in this city, and it’s all within walking distance and quite cheap to get in to; I can see 2-3 sites for the cost of a “gym” usage! So I hope to get around to see some of that tomorrow and throughout the week.

I actually haven’t seen anything yet, but our theatre is one of the historic sites that is a must visit (the crew was saying that there were guided tours operating during load in!). I hear some interesting things about this theatre, so I guess we’ll see tonight!

Last night, a small group of us ladies went to dinner at a German place, very expat-like (more non-Asians than Asians) and the food was excellent! I got a roasted chicken and mango salad that was DELISH, and since it was happy hour, and because I haven’t had a real drink in China (besides mojito night), I ordered a drink, a fuzzy navel. I used to get those in college when we went to ladies nights for $1 a drink. I guess I remember those being REALLY watered down or something because I’ll tell you, this drink was deceptively strong, and I’m pretty sure I was either REALLY tipsy or slightly drunk. From ONE drink, god I’m a lightweight J

Then a larger group of us took a ferry around the harbor area. It was fun to see the lights and the buildings, but it was crowded and they had these loud announcements made in Chinese the entire time, so it was difficult to just relax.

I am excited because I have some visitors coming soon!

Ryan (see his blog in my blog list) is flying in to visit in Macau for two days (don’t worry, Sherry, I won’t let him gamble… too much!) and I’m hoping to get him a ticket. Then Terry is flying out for our final show (pray that his 4 flights get him here on time!) on Thursday. The next day, we will head out to Hong Kong and catch up with a few of his friends. And then we head to Thailand for the rest of the week. I think we decided on Krabi. Hopefully to do lots of scuba diving and elephant riding and relaxing and such…

I have to send a TON of stuff home so that I don’t have to pay out the wazoo. The flights home from Bangkok are international, so I won’t have to worry about baggage fees, but we are taking 3 local flights, and they have a ridiculous weight limit, 30kg for per checked bag (about 30lbs) and 7kg carry-on (about 14lbs), so I am off the bat sending about 35lbs of stuff home by China Air. Takes two months and is $1 a pound. So I’ll get everything about 3 weeks after I get home.

I think my bag is still going to be close to 40 or 50 pounds, but there are things I either can’t trust going by boat, or can’t live without for 2 months. I hear there are small storage units around, so maybe once I get to Bangkok, I can rent a small unit (I hear they are like, $10US for a week) and leave the heavy things there that I won’t need in Thailand.

It’s hard to pack now, but I want to send stuff I know I won’t need in the next month home now so I am waiting for as little time as possible for it to arrive. And yet, I can’t send it all because I do still have about 4.5 weeks before I get home. So frustrating… I will probably do a second shipment from Macau or Hong Kong by air

For anyone wondering, I will be back in the US on September 1!

And now I must decide about what to do for a job. Part of me would love to go back to American Girl, as I found them an excellent company to work for, not to mention that I miss my friends there. Part of me wants to attempt to pursue acting as my full-time gig, to really get out there and make it happen, however I must make it happen. Hit up all of the extras companies, meet all of the u-5 soap casting directors, use my new headshots and get an agent… really make it happen. However that might be. Part of me wants to get involved in the event planning industry, maybe as a gal Friday, which was my other major in college (not being a gal Friday, but event planning) but I had wanted to do weddings and sweet 16s and bar and bat mitzvahs, but no one is spending money these days except corporations and businesses, so... And part of me is just clueless.

I would feel better knowing I had something though, just maybe 10-15 hrs a week. So I guess I better get looking around sooner rather than later.