Wings.

Happy Victoria's Secret day everyone!

Allow me to journey back to the day where I was living in Beijing, and had just booked my first gig. My very first official gig, after months of unsuccessful castings and agents who gave me the silent treatment. I was over the moon. It didn't matter that the show would be in Shenyang, and 'oh btw, it is a lingerie show'. I got booked for a thing, and I was excited!

Shenyang in the morning

One faithful evening we took to the railway station, where me, my buddy and 6 grumpy Russians boarded a night train that would took us to a place that was far, cold, and very windy. Me and buddy were excited, shared cheeseburgers and watched  the official VSFS from the two years before. We were all amazed by the spectacle, debating who looked the prettiest and how to walk 'The Walk', exactly.

We'd spend the whole next day (Christmas eve) in a hotel, rehearsing, getting our hair done, trying to take a nap. During our fitting it became clear that all of us would be walking in a Victoria's Secret rip-off event, as part of an event for Christmas. There were all kind of performances, kids doing acrobatics, kids in the audience, and we in panties and bras with wings, and other skimpy outfits.

Wings!  

But I was still very excited, as it was my very first time I'd ever set foot on a runway, or in this case, a stage (with steps), and the wings they gave me were huge and heavy.

I had no idea these kind of shows are a re-occuring thing in China, and they put me in all kinds of wings, on all kinds of wobbly stages, all the time. It's kind of fun. You learn how to be suspicious of confetti canons because they contain a matter that makes solid ground turn in to a surface on which to fall down and to never get up.

So, that first show kicked off a stream of wings and embarrassing moments. filled with sequins hastily glued on a pair of knickers that grandma would appreciate. Wings that were usually very pretty, but often also very heavy and impossible to wear gracefully. Always on a wobbly stage, always in front of an audience existing of somewhat important local people (old men).

Two happy models in an elevator

Shenyang by night

Skimpy outfit #3

The Stage

China's neglected backyard

Hebei province seen from the train looks like China's neglected backyard. I noticed that on one of my last trips for work. 'Work', where getting dressed up as princess Bubblegum means a positive turn of events.

Usually any of the train trips I had to take so far it was foggy (= heavily polluted) and therefore I was unable to look around much. Or, we left ridiculously early (or late) so it was already dark. One time, however, it was squeaky bright. I could see Tianjin and the Tianjin tower from the window of my train, and before that moment I only knew of Tianjin because one of the stations we'd pass was called 'Tianjin West'. Also there were villages, and abandoned factories, and piles of stuff, and peasants toiling in the heat. All by all, it looked like a neglected backyard (a backyard nonetheless).

I must have pictures somewhere that will paint a picture. Once I took as video as we crossed the Yellow River (in fog and haze), other times I'd try to commemorate the view in combination with a can of beer, which is never the same on a Chinese train (I've only boarded high speed trains in China. Don't judge! Train travel is still my favorite way of travel. Czech trains in particular. Go try them!).

I've sipped through quite a few epic cans (because there were a lot of trips *ahem*, not so much because I felt a need to drink my sorrows away, although that was usually the case after the gig). There was a specific type that 'American Troopers'  preferred apparently, and there was a beer from Tibet.

And I always felt obligated to, in the first place, plop myself down into the restaurant car the minute the train would start moving. There are plugs there for my laptop, and without chord the screen goes black after 15 minutes. Also, more often than not, the travel companions weren't always the coziest.

Anyway. Let me see what material I can snort up from the hidden nooks and crannies of both phone, camera and hard drive.

This is either very annoying, or incredibly sad, but please tilt your head a 90 degrees to the right in order to view properly. Weekly quiz: what's the guy in the background saying? Send in your lucky guess before next week, and maybe you're the lucky winner of a fresh batch of uncontaminated Yellow River silt!