Staying classy

With next to no castings and only one job this week things needless to say are slow on the modeling front. Keeping up with cardio in the morning, followed by strength training in the evening, I keep myself quite active.

This week involved much more socializing outside of directly with agency and my roommates.  I have been a member of a large expat community called “Internations” since I lived in Singapore.  Friday involved an outdoor group activity walking around the mountain known as Namsan and to Seoul’s iconic Seoul Tower. 

Communities like “Internations” provide an opportunity to meet people living in a similar situation as you. I enjoyed some great conversation with people from all ends of the world (minus Antartica). Following the walk I ventured into a more westernized part of town called Itaewon. Unfortunately with western population comes western food and makes it that much more difficult to find a Zach friendly meal. 

Saturday was another event for J. Estina. While not being terribly exhausting, I found myself tired yet again. So after a quick power nap, I bit the bullet and went out to the club for the first time here.  A literal 2-minute walk away is the Ritz Carlton and its subterranean club Eden.  

You see stuff like this

Not this

One of the perks of being a model is the treatment at clubs, frequently its no line, no cover and free drinks. Here was no different.  The loud bass and smell of cigarettes filled the environment.  Personally I can’t stand cigarettes, and being thrust into this environment is less than ideal for me, but I made due with the venue.  Be the party, bring the party and have fun.  I did just that, I made myself have fun and I did. 

Probably the most enlightening part of this experience was seeing the attire of the women at the club. Sluttiness outside of the Caucasian girls was few and far between. The women dressed classy and sophisticated and mostly conservative. I found this much more attractive than the skankiness I see floating around clubs in Canada, Thailand and even Singapore.  So ladies take note, class over cleavage. 

As I am not a big drinker, there was no hangover to deal with today so I was able to find yet another adventure today. Seoul’s world cup stadium was playing host to the K-League match between FC Seoul and Jeonbuk Hyundai. This was actually the first professional football match (I am outside of North America so I can’t call it soccer) and it was amazing to be in such a large stadium. The fans were boisterous but not obnoxious. I also picked myself up a souvenir from today’s game and will try and make it back for next Sunday. 

Hey, I am Zach from Canada

Friday was an interesting day. As I mentioned Corey and I grabbed some Thai food that was awesome.  Accompanied by another trip to Ikea, I have been become an Ikea fiend, although I still dislike it. It’s kind of interesting now that there are tons of bamboo plants and red/gold pillows in heart of the holiday season. 

Thankfully Friday was a scheduled rest day from Rushfit. Although I did go for a half hour run. The humidity is something I will never get used to. After getting all cleaned up I headed to Sque. Sque is a restaurant/bar in Clarke Quay where this months Internations gathering was to happen. Meeting up with Zora, David and eventually Clemens we all set out to meet new people.

The first event I was a little nervous as to what to expect, this time was different. Immediately I met 3 or 4 people from France, shortly followed by an American woman. It still feels weird to tell people that I am here to model, but oh well. I always feel like preconceived notions about models will judge me before anyone begins to have a conversation with me. Thankfully I am good enough at communicating that anyone sharing a few words with me realizes I am not like most models. 

While chatting with a few women from Germany, I discovered one works in Crop Protection for BASF. Now this doesn’t mean much to many of you but I found this interesting as my father works in crop protection as well, direct competition. Well not quite as he specializes in Canadian crops, wheat, canola, barley, etc. while this woman deals mostly with rice. 

The environment felt so much more inviting than the first event I attended. On many occasions I felt a tap on the shoulder to turn around and see an outstretched hand. I met many people from the UK, saw Barbara (my squash partner) from a distance, a few people I met the previous event (including Qian who I will be going bowling with and some of her friends), and you got it CANADIANS. Since I arrived I have only briefly bumped into 1 Canadian. This wasn’t the case tonight.

While talking with the Germans, they mentioned they saw a few Canadians, and then tap tap, turn around nothing. Look down, ah there she is. A very outgoing Asian woman from Toronto. She was hilarious, fun and loved chatting about hockey. While discussing snow and snowboarding, another woman from Toronto appeared, then Montreal. While chatting another one walked by and I grabbed her, she was from Winnipeg. Before you knew it we were in Canada central and more were gravitating our direction. No other Calgarians, but every province was represented except Saskatchewan, NL and NB. It was a pleasure to get a taste of home, even if it was just in conversation.

I love to people watch, and as things calmed down I began to do such a thing. A Singaporean joined me for this, we laughed because of the entire pick up lines guys tried to use on her that night.  The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, but what were your intentions of coming tonight.  For me it was obvious to meet new friends, and tonight had been quite successful. But as I looked around it became evident that some people were there for networking, others to get drunk, and some to find a companion. Interesting concept. We continued joking about the book “the Game” by Neil Strauss, which is basically about how to pick up women. A few guys blatantly said things directly from that book. Which is fine most the time as most people haven’t read it or even heard about it. But it’s A) Lazy B) makes you look like an absolute fool if its not congruent with your personality.  Anyone looking for tips to meet women, be confident, and be you. The same holds true for friends, be you, be confident and most importantly have fun.

Mel showed up a little bit later, introduced me to more people and I did the same for her. Then Mel, Zora and I went for a bite to eat. This is a common thing to eat later at night in Singapore. We had some dry fried beans, and some fried rick noodles with seafood.  I intentionally spelled it as rick noodles as that’s what the menu said; I assure you they were not made of rick, but of rice. 

If you try hard enough, you can fly high - NEW PICS

Well Thursday was a fun time and great food, but Friday was time to get down to business. Well kind of, I had a test shoot scheduled with Benny who I met at the OMM Christmas party. But before I get started, Nino shared with me some of the shots from our Monday shoot.


After a run and quick workout to start the day, I packed up some shirts, pants, ties and shoes and made the trek to the studio. Benny brought a few friends, another photographer and a filmographer too.
All my Singapore pictures so far I had scruff, so today I went for a clean shave. This is probably only the third clean shave since arriving a month and a half ago.

We did some casual shots, tossed in a chair and some shots in dress pants and vest. As we started to work together, we warmed up. This is something I have noticed with different photographers and shoots I have done. Most the time it takes a few shots to get both model and photographer into flow state. Flow state is what I call it when both of you are comfortable and good poses and shots happen consistently and effortlessly.

After getting some great head shots, the flash that Benny was using was very heavy so he gave his arms a break. While Benny was recovering, Andrew and I tested out the different filters on this new camera he had. Olympus had sent him a new toy and we decided to have some fun with it. Taking shots of kicking, elbows,  and punching. These looked really cool and I am excited to see them.

Back to the shots, we did some more executive looking ones. Then decided to have some fun with the green screen. We shot a video and will make it look like I was levitating.

I had a good time doing the shoot with the guys, it was very relaxed and comfortable. But this was only the start of my day. Next up Squash.

Internations has been a fantastic community for me thus far and Friday was no different. I had arranged with Barbara to meet up and play squash. I of course do not have my racquets here, but she managed to commandeer one for out battle. It was interesting to play squash here for a couple of reasons. 1 - I didn't know what to expect of my opponent. 2 - its over 30 degrees out and there is only 2 small fans

I forgot my water, but fortunately there was a 7-11 1/2 block away and I bought a 2L of water. Thank god, I drank the entire thing during our games. All said in 2 hours we played 8 games. It was back and forth very much so, just when I started to eek away Barbara took advantage of me getting tired and poured it on. Our last 3 games ended up going into extra points.

It was close to 11 by the time I added some food into my belly, I only had a clif bar after the shoot. In my hungry state I shared some Satay and a Yam Ring. It was great, but the dish was a little too greasy for my liking. Once again its one of those, worth trying things.

That’s It, Next time I seduce the rich guy

 I really need to keep up with these posts. I say this every time lately. Sunday was another one of those days that I thought to be rather uneventful, but we picked it up and had a grand time.

After posting on my Facebook my desires to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol Deb contacted me and let me know that she had complimentary tickets. Score. To this point I had never seen a movie in another country so was actually quite curious about what the experience would be like. This venue was set to be the Grand Cathay Theatres (I may have added grand for dramatic effect). I arrived early to ensure I wouldn’t be lost, naturally.

While walking around the mall I spotted this big white ball. I remembered what my conversation with Mags, was about these white balls. They were to be set adrift in the middle of the Marina Bay and lit up right at midnight on NYE. Your mission should you choose to accept, is to write down your NYE wish, and that I did. I took a picture and was going to post this, but then I remembered that you aren’t supposed to share your wishes as this prevents the glory of magic from actually occurring.  Cool concept anyway though.

In what seemed to be the elevator ride from hell, where it goes down, then up then down then stops on every floor leading to the fifth we made it to our screen. The biggest of them all, big plush seats, carpeted everywhere and the big red curtain hiding the screen. The only huge difference is that theatres here have assigned seating. O and the mandarin subtitles throughout the movie. To be honest though, you don’t notice it after the first 5 minutes. Mission Impossible was good, a little predictable at times, but solid entertainment for a testosterone fill being.

After the movie Deb and I grabbed a bite to eat. I had Umami or eel, which was very meat like I must say, the way it was prepared was nothing out of this world, but satisfying to say the least.

Deb was invited to a house warming and brought me along. This was a great opportunity to meet new people, and that I did. Most of the people at the house warming worked at the Marina Bay Sands and originally came from the US.  And while I hate to be called American myself, I do enjoy running into my fellow North American brothers and sisters. 

This was one of the first times I had an opportunity to chat about hockey with anyone. On that note UFC as well. I discovered there is a MMA gym in Singapore, and decided to check it out later. I also now have a venue to watch the next set of fights, so I no longer need to panic to find it online again.

We had a few drinks, some BBQing, a few rounds of pool and a few games of Rockband. I met a fellow Canadian while I was there as well. He was from Toronto which kind of sucks, but hey he is Canadian so it’s a start. It’s amazing how when you meet someone so close to where you are from (relatively of course) you almost feel like family. It holds true for the people I met at Internations.

Later on in the evening of the their buddies showed up in an Aston Martin V12 Vantage. I became weak in the knees when she purred into the driveway. Randomly his date for the night was one of the models from the Renee L launch on Thursday. Small world I must say.

Are you doing the Abercrombie Gig?

Friday was another day where I only was able to hit the gym. It’s been raining a significant amount lately really putting a damper on my pool and poolside reading. After this and some catching up with my favourite tv shows, I headed down to Ion Orchard mall to meet up with Rafa and chill for a bit, as well as pick up a new shirt. 

It rained most the morning and early afternoon so I didn’t take my umbrella. Clear blue skies and not a cloud to be seen I thought I would be safe. I was, for my walk to the bus. Getting off the bus I earned my stripes and got soaked. Although I was only exposed for maybe 20 seconds, I was dripping wet for the next hour.  It was a good opportunity to check out a mall I never would visit, while I was waiting out the rain. The rain didn’t stop though, but I eventually found an underground path to my destination.

Next goal was to find UNIQLO, a Japanese retail chain with high quality clothes at reasonable prices.  Mel had recommended this place and was she ever right. I found a very nice polo for 14.90 and a pair of shorts for 19.90.  I thought I was going to be paying more, but the discount brought these to be much more reasonable. 

Rafa was getting his ears lowered so I killed a bit of time until he was free. I walked around the mall, got lost many times. Found myself then lost again.  Browsing through many stores, I tried to learn about all the different stores that aren’t LV expensive.  I found this store called edit. I liked a shirt but passed on it. Only to return with Rafa an hour later to try it on and pick it up. 

Rafa and I chilled for a bit, until we had to part ways, myself to an Internations Gathering and Rafa I think to his buddies place.  

I met up with Mel and a few new friends and we headed to Prive Waterfront Bar. Internations is a collective group of expats (there are branches all over the world), who gather and mingle. This seemed like it would be a great opportunity to network and meet new friends, and that is exactly what it did for me. 

The location for this gathering was stellar! Looking out into the bay you could see a beautiful bridge, the cable cars going to Sentosa and the fantastic skyline that is Singapore. Our entrance gave us one drink and the night began. Mel was funny in that she set a goal for me to get 15 numbers/business cards. After arriving she said “go find new friends I will see you later” and off she went. I went to one of the first groups of people I saw, introduced myself and chatted. It’s incredible how many countries were represented at this party, this first group Ireland, Australia and China.  A turned around a few minutes later and met another Aussie and someone from Norway. An hour or so later, I ran into Mel again and she introduced me to an American and a French. The last people I met in the evening were an awesome couple from the UK. An incredible night it was for meeting new friends. I am excited just thinking about the next one I can go to. 

It was rather strange to tell everyone that my job is strictly modelling. Everyone asked me if I was doing the Abercrombie gig. Obviously the modelling isn't something for the rest of my life, but it has been a ticket to adventure and experience. 

After leaving Prive we drove around for what seemed to be forever in Circles, ending at the Esplanade (the giant durian shaped building) and grabbed some food at a hawker centre. I had satay with compressed rice, it was very good, not spicy though.

O and we parked by a Lambo. And I also found out how much a BMW 640i costs.

If you can't see, thats $335,800

I am going to write a lot today I think, next blog very soon.