This ad makes me chuckle every time I pass it in the skytrain station. Quite a few adults here are embracing the metal-mouth trend, and neon-colored track seems to be most popular. Having straight teeth is considered hi-so (high society), a phrase that's thrown around a lot here. And being more Western is to be more hi-so. Other items seen on the street right now: t-shirts with English words (and some rather obscene, which is a humorous contrast to sweet, smiling faces—but surely they translated with their digital Thai-English dictionaries, another hot item); Playboy bunnies (while some may be aware of this cheery pink bunny's background, others just simply find it cute); Harrods of London bags used as handbags (I suppose to make the carrier appear as if she just returned from a shopping spree at the upscale department store; you can't turn five degrees at Siam station without spotting one).
Speaking of trends, I'm guiltily aware that updates to this blog have been less frequent. Things have been pretty hectic, what with trying to maintain a social life and teach summer school classes in addition to regular night classes. The latter is exhausting, but the good news: more money in the bank for the two-week break that starts April 5. I've also had an interesting private gig as of late. I've been training a Brazilian model to speak with an American accent in her first movie, Streetfighter, which is being filmed here in Bangkok. In addition to teacher, they also have me down as possible stand-in for Kristin Kreuk, who's playing Chun-Li. Not as glamorous as it may sound, stand-ins just, well, stand there as the crew adjusts lighting, etc. so the real actor can take a break. I think there's a slim chance that will work out because they need someone for the entire filming and I'm only available during the two-week break. But hey, if it does, it could be a neat experience. The accent work in itself has been fascinating and the setting amusing. She shares an apartment with eight other models, male and female, and they come and go between casting calls in body-baring outfits. My student is incredibly sweet and giddy over the movie. It's fun to hear her reenact script readings with the magnificent Michael Clarke Duncan, by whom she has the "honor of being slapped."
One more thing before I head off to work. Several emails I've sent recently never made it to their destination—probably the long flight from Thailand. And I think some emails from Thailand end up in the junk folder. I've also missed some incoming emails because gmail never alerted me to a new message in the conversation stack. So if you send me an email and get no reply, please don't think me rude. Chances are one of our poor correspondences got lost along the way.
