WHEN A 20 SOMETHING YEAR OLD TRAVELING MODEL PENS HER CLUMSY MIND, IT LOOKS SOMETHING LIKE THIS.

What happens to the male specimen that harass me, how the hosting parasite bit me and...oh yeah, doing what makes you happy!

2012-02-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

Oh boy! Oh boy! Fake guts and body parts! Must. Du. Something. With. Them.

And "du", I did.

Normally, I prefer to eat my intestines but no, instead, I played with my food.
No, I didn't even do that, I made a boa out of it.

The creators of horror webisode series "Damaged Goods", Jacob Voelzke and Chris Buch, were so kind to have let me play with their buckets of...well, damaged goods. I met these guys while doing my first live-streaming gig for a show called "Kick In" where we'll be bringing in artists to talk about their projects and getting audiences to help kick-start some funding for them.

There's only been one show.

It's ironic because I want to do a kick-in for "Kick In" since we, ourselves, could use some funding for our production, lol. Some lavalier microphones would be great because you can't hear my commentary in between the interviews while the microphone is on the interviewee and my hand gets tired from holding up the mic to the other person's mouth. And right now, our studio lighting is a lamp and the lampshade that's on it.

BUT. I have to say, it was a really cool experience because it was LIVE and there are no re-takes and take backs. When I messed up (which I did a few times), I had to play it off. Story of my life, much?

If you're curious to see how I did, come HERE afterwards.

Now, I've done SOME hosting back in Asia. I assembled a reel but I'll be honest, it's not a public link because I'm not satisfied with it. I am my own biggest critic. I'll rewatch this footage until I'm literally sick of my own face because I will have nitpicked right down to the eyelash glue and ponder deliriously why I didn't move just 3 degrees more over so people wouldn't have to wonder why they're staring my ear and the earwax inside it the whole time rather than my face.

It's amazing what you learn about yourself when you watch yourself on camera. It's never what you think when you're doing the actual shooting - and I mean that in both still and video shoots. I try to stay conscious of my bad habits. As they say, practice makes perfect.

It's funny how I got my start with hosting. It's wasn't because people thought:
"Oh hey, you're a chatterbox, let's put that to some good use!"

No, children. It was simply because:
"Hey, you're a decent looking gal and you speak perfect American accented English - you should host!"

Oh, cool.

Same, same, but different. As long as I'm getting paid to talk, I won't delve further into the real reasons as to why I was hired.

Furthermore, they just threw me into the gigs without auditions and I dove right in without any training and with little to no direction. I would have to call myself out.For example, when I hosted FashionTV Vietnam, because the crew didn't understand English, they wouldn't know when I messed up or what I said didn't make sense. They judged solely on my body language, the intonations and inflections of my voice. I could have said "McDonald's rocks my world and these are the reasons why!" with pageant poise and they would've never known.

Damn. I should've.

For me hosting > acting. But I'm working on both. I prefer hosting because I get to be a sponge and soak up information. Whether it's via research on the guests and topics of discussion the night before or from the guests themselves during interviews. I get to meet all kinds of characters and interact with them one-to-one.

I'm starting alllllll over - from ground zero as up as I'm trying to slowly back away from modeling. I moved to LA impulsively about two weeks ago because I wasn't happy in Vietnam and I want to push myself further - with my personal goals, my career aspirations and simply, life. Something I've noticed? The responses I get in regards to my decision to move back. I used to feed pretty concrete answers.

SCRIPT A
THEM: Why did you decide to move to LA so suddenly?
ME: Because I want to push myself further with hosting and acting.
THEM: But it's easier to "make it" in Asia and it's so competitive and hard in LA.

While they're at it, they might as well remind me that the sky is blue, 1 + 1 = 2, the bird and the bees aren't really about the birds and the bees, beef is made from cows, practically everything they're wearing right now is probably made in China and that hamsters are the cutest animals in the world.

Chances are, I know.

I get told that everyday. And at a pretty high frequency per day too. From family, friends, acquaintances, strangers, and oh yeah, MYSELF.

Along with other comments such as you're too short, you're too skinny, you're not skinny enough, you're prettier in person, you're prettier in pictures, you have bad skin, you're too dark, your Vietnamese is god awful, your English is too Californian, you're Asian, you're old, you're too young looking, you're too commercial, you're not commercial enough, blah blah blah blah blah.

I nod, smile and pretend it's the first time I've heard it all, that I've been delusional this whole entire time and that no one has had the heart to break the bad news to me and more importantly, I need a major reality check.

Listen. I might not be the next Maggie Q. Heck. Things might not work out and I'll have to resort to some office job I have been purposely avoiding since college graduation. And that's TOTALLY fine by with me. At least I had a go for it while I was still (relatively) healthy, young and free; have a few modeling photos and footage to show my grandkids that yes, their grandmama isn't just a bag of wrinkles and crazy talk; and at least I'm doing what I want to do. I would need a bigger reality check if I tried to do all of this when I'm 45 with 2 kids, a mortgage to pay off and a teetering divorce.

I have a set of experiences I have to give credit to for my inspirations and growth as a person. No matter how far fetched my choices might seem or out of reach, I pursue the things that I do because they make me happy. And I'm not even referring to just showbiz. If you're not happy, do something about it. Rather than feeding concrete, I throw up abstract as the real root of it all. Opting for script B instead as my explanation, people never challenge me.

SCRIPT B
THEM: Why did you decide to move to LA so suddenly?
ME: I just wasn't happy anymore.
THEM: Welcome home.

That's 'cause no one could ever deny happiness.

Bisous,
Isabodyparts Du

And 29 days later, here's another vlog. But you can pretend it's a bedtime story about a likely hero named Ryan Gosling.

2012-01-30T01:59:00.000-08:00

My impromptu "Happy New Year" e-card to you. BUT. More importantly, ROUND TABLE PIZZA IS COMING TO VIETNAM!

2012-01-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

Salutations from the future!

If you're in the Western Hemisphere, you are probably still reveling in the New Year's festivities while I only have half an hour more till New Year's Day becomes "Day TWO" of 2012.

I only have one resolution this year, and unfortunately, I can't publicly announce it. But it's a good one. Ohhhh, it's a good one. I have friends taking bets already. So I plan on reaping a big payout at the end of 2012. That is, if it doesn't end. (Which, it won't. Don't make me type Y2K. Gah. Too late.)

I'd like to think of my resolution as a possible memoir or a romantic comedy in the making. The latter definitely not starring Rachel Green - oh whoops, I mean, Jennifer Aniston. Same thing. I'd most definitely call in Zooey Deschanel for a casting. I'll stop here, because you guys have no idea what the resolution is and I sound like I'm rambling. Per usual.

Moving on.

This year has been AMAZING. I have never done so much in such a short amount of time.

And! I stayed single. Yes. Me. The girl who has been known to her friends to always be in a relationship. I'm sure you have one or two of those in your group of friends. Refer them to me, please.

The pattern has finally been broken and this is the longest I have ever been without a serious commitment. I have gone out of my way to make this happen as I have a tendency to meet amazing people along the way, fall in love quite easily, and emotionally invest myself completely to my partner. Thus, neglecting myself and the goals that I want to pursue.

This time around, I was able to concentrate on the relationship with myself by emotionally investing in...well, me. The ROI? I feel like I have grown so much more in the past year than I ever have and I'm proud of what I have been able to accomplish this past year.

Also, naturally you always have your ups and downs in life, but unlike the other years, I got over my "downs" at a faster rate and my "ups" constantly crescendoed in 2011.

As you may or may not know already, I'm usually based in Saigon, Vietnam. But I have a weakness for traveling and living abroad, so I'm going to backtrack my travels for the year:

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (for the millionth time, yay)

An old college friend of mine, Sharlene, became a beautiful bride and had her wedding in beautiful Manila. It was like a mini-reunion with old friends from Chapman University.

And then, I did a photo shoot while I was there - might as well! Especially if it's with renowned photographer Enzo Mondejar! (Styled by Eric Poliquit, MUA/Hair by Nina Dumpa) Check out his work here.

BALI, INDONESIA (for my first time)

Yes. There should be photos where I'm frolicking on Bali's beaches and enjoying cool drinks at Ku de ta by the soothing ocean with some good friends. Unfortunately, a make-up artist "accidently" deleted all of my photos from Bali before I could upload them. And the only visually tangible thing I have from the trip is this helmet I ended up bringing back to Vietnam. Guess that means I'll have to come back! Darn!

MONTREAL, CANADA

(I hadn't seen my mom for 2 years and I hadn't been back here for 5 years)

I flew just in time for Mother's Day to spend it with my mom! And this trip was the best thing I spent my money on. I want to make my first million for my mom and sister.

I can't remember the last time I wore so many layers!

Oh wait. On the motorbike in Vietnam. So I don't get completely fried in the sun.

Allow me to rephrase this, I don't remember the last time I felt so cold!

Big one and little one reunited for what? CHOCOLATE. DUH!

Bonjour et au revoir Montreal!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (for The Weeknd)

Here I am with accomplished director/photographer/colleague Bao Nguyen and with my good college friend Lani Nguyen (no relation) who is an amazing advertising strategist by day, an uber talented DJ with the moniker Lani Love by night, and a fancy style blogger at all times on Sugar Rock Catwalk .

I have only been to New York once and unfortunately, it was right after 9/11. This time, I got to experience New York with a self-proclaimed "hipster" local who knew the ins and outs and all the hole-in-the-wall joints.

It is during this weekend, I confirm my thoughts on "hipster" types, New York veterans and newbies, and how New York can charm me any day - but I'm forever a Californian girl at heart.

SAN FRANCISCO/SAN JOSE, California (for 3 weeks)

I hadn't been back in the Bay Area, where I was born and raised, for 2 years. I thoroughly enjoyed it actually. I initially planned on being in Southern California for 3 weeks but the reverse happened. I ended up staying in Northern California longer than expected. I reunited with my close girlfriends I have known since high school and then met a few new characters to add to my life.

I went to a the Treasure Island Flea Market in Frisco with some friends and one of the Gemini halves in my life, Jenny! We found a photo booth where there was a costume box full of gizmos and props and we had only 4 seconds to change for each photo snapped! So that photo above is the outcome.

Turner got me a hamster PJ set. 'Nuff said!

Napa Valley wine tasting with the girls. But in my case, I was wine sipping.

Becky and I got to visit Cathy at her workplace, the Facebook headquarters!

In addition to spending time with good friends, I saw it as an opportunity to bring my laptop in person to fix the Facebook bugs I had been having, lol.

I spent my birthday playing Cranium and ate Fondue with all the girls. Yummmm!

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (for a week)

Reunited with my beauty Tamie. We were roommates in Cebu, Philippines about two years back. She is actually one of the many reasons I'd move back to LA.

Reunited with my good friends and old roommates Van and Irene who I funnily enough found on craigslist when urgently trying to find a new place to move to during college.

Yes, I reunited a lot in this year, I realize. Bare with me here. I haven't seen these girls since graduation! I spent the most time with them in college, especially when I took on leadership roles in the Asian Pacific Student Association club. Yes. That would be "APSA", for short. But "the Asian club", to get to the point. And yes, we were awesome.

Tim Burton exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) with Turner, who is a character all of his own.

GUANGZHOU, CHINA (for one month)

Casting, casting, casting.

With my sweet booker Justin and my very sweet roommate Estera.

With Piotr, another roommate of mine, who never failed to introduce to me ear candy that my iTunes so happily consumed as part of the top 25 Most Played playlist.

Tourist time!

NINH VAN BAY, VIETNAM (for The Weeknd)

Sometimes, you have to take a vacation from a vacation.

Singapore (for a month and a half)

My first Zoukout!

Unfortunately, at this time, I'm not allowed to post certain photos from Singapore. But I'm going to post this photo dedicated to some of the most awe-inspiring girls I got a chance to meet at the end of 2011. You know eggxactly who you are!

Summing it all up, I got to be in 7 different countries and this turned out to be the most "personal" blog I have up to date.

With some of these friends, there are a few where I literally just met them this last year but we bonded instantly. With the others that I have known for awhile, we have gone for a few months to even a few years without speaking to one another. And that's okay. You pick up from where you left off. This is something I have come to accept and continue to learn to accept. Especially since it's not easy saying bye, time and time again, not knowing when the next time you'll see each other again.

However, I'm going to go ahead and say that I have relatively good judgement when it comes to my friends. They're good people and I am thankful that I even crossed paths with them. I will now dub my 2011 as the year of reunions.

Again, hope you all had an amazing year, but an even better one that's about to happen. Especially in March when Round Table Pizza is opening 20 locations in Vietnam. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bisous,
Isablog Du

Filling out the clipboard during the audition should be enough to land me the receptionist role!

2011-10-28T03:56:00.000-07:00

That outbreak of directors and producers, chaperoning their laptops and 10 cafe sữa đá amongst local coffee shops can only mean one thing: CASTING season is upon us.

Sure. Castings happen all the time. But the real meat of it happens between September to end of November here in Vietnam. (In case any of you beautiful-faces-and-unsound-minds decide, HEY, I should drop everything, move out of the country and model/act/host/lookcute in Vietnam - I wonder when I should I do it!)

An old friend I had worked with on the set of "Nữ Vệ Sĩ" had me come up to a casting for another soap opera. They made sure not to mention what kind of soap opera this was as well as what characters they were looking for. So I was left wondering, whatever shall I wear?

You'd think it wouldn't matter as much as say, the talent themselves but let me explain to you guys a simple formula when it comes to showbiz in Asia:

PRESENTATION > TALENT

In the States, unless you've been requested to wear certain things, they'd rather see you in minimal make-up and simple clothing for castings and head shots. Avoid loud colors, distracting logos, heavy eye make-up, blah, blah blah. They constantly remind talent that they want to see "YOU".

But say, if you were in Thailand, a casting is a job in itself! You get to the location, they have a make-up artist and a hair stylist work on you, put you in full-on wardrobe and then you have to shoot exactly as the concept layout they have for the actual shoot. You're there for about an hour or so, that is, if you were early. If you weren't early, be prepared to miss the rest of your castings as you wait behind all the other folks in line waiting to be "casted".

It's mind-warping how production would put in so much time and effort into casting just as much as they would for an actual shoot. But their purpose is to get the talent to look as exactly as they possibly can to their ideals.

Recently, I made the mistake of wearing a long resort-y type of dress to an action film casting last time. So this time, I was left wondering, what outfit could I compromise for roles that range from:

Femme fatale to girl-next-door, and
Naive university student to single, young, mother of two

For a show that's possibly:

Action packed, drama filled, or comedy based.

And this, dear friends, is the best I could do:

Low-cut cleavage bearing red tank underneath,
Church-approved beige button-down cardigan on top,
Skinny blue jeans, and
Khaki wedges.

I arrive to a rather intimate audition room where a bunch of other local talents are seated. I smile at everyone. It's easy to spot who's there to audition and who's there making the decision. The latter has a relaxed dominance within their postures. Despite being the last to arrive, they took snaps of me first. And then the man with the most relaxed dominance within his posture asks me what I used to (and maybe still) consider a dreaded question: "Can you speak Vietnamese?"

Here's where I've realized that neither presentation and talent apply.

My mind raced unnecessarily defensively. Of course I can speak it. Let alone karaoking it, reading it, writing it and typing with accents on a computer! But how can I can convince anyone of these things with my blasted American accent! And yet, they did voiceovers anyways for even the local actors, whether you had a Southern, Central or even the proper Northern accent.

"Tất nhiên em phải biết chứ! Of course I have to know how to!" I added with a sweet, sweet smile to cancel out what could've been taken as a smart-donkey comment.

"Tên em là gì vậy? What's your name?"

"Isabelle Du." I made sure to pronounce it slowly and enunciate clearly.

The man wrinkled his brow. Clearly, my name didn't make it through the velvet rope.

"Tên Việt?" He asked for my Vietnamese name.

"Anh cứ gọi em bằng 'Du" hoặc là 'Beo' cũng được." I told him that he could just call me by my last name or "Beo". "Beo" means wildcat in Vietnamese but the nickname was originally derived from the local's pronunciation of "Belle".

He didn't seem so amused and just had me fill out a form while I could feel onlookers' eyes were upon my writing.

Name. Alias, if any. Height. Address. Cell phone number. Acting Experience. And, done.

I hand him over the clipboard to which he tells me that he'll call if anything comes up.

Er...that's it? No video casting? No sides to read? No crying-on-cue-requests for the melodramatic hospital scenes? The whole room stares at me as I smiled, thanked and said my goodbyes to everyone.

Apparently, no one was interested in my acting abilities and I just wasn't what they were looking for. I don't mind these things. Especially if I got to try out on camera and didn't get the role. But I can't help but wonder "why" when I didn't get to try out at all.

Is my look not convincing enough as a Vietnamese person?
(I hear it just as much as people misspelling my name.)

Or was my Vietnamese not convincing enough for them to hear a full-on script reading?
What could I have done to better my chances or did I not stand a chance to begin with?

Was the interaction the "try out" itself? Or is that too meta? And what shall I have for lunch?

Well kids, all I can come up with is that a yes is a yes, a no is a no and that you can never go wrong with phở for lunch. Yum!

Till next time,
IsaBEO Du Meow!

Me and the McDonald's Diet.

2011-08-10T03:18:00.000-07:00

I ate McDonald's almost every day during my last week of China.

And maybe some of you realize this and maybe not, but McDonald's delivers in every country EXCEPT for its native motherland. The good 'ol US of A. But hey, we got to give Americans at least one good reason to unglue their eyes from their monitors, their bums from their couches to step outside of their houses, right? I know I'd be done for.

One of the good/bad things about living in Vietnam is that there are NO McDonald's.

KFC. Yes. Subway. Check. Popeye's. Yup. Pizza Hut. I'm VIP there.

But nope - no McDonald's.

So even if I really wanted to munch on my two apple pies for a dollar or stuff my face with Big Mac and fries, I can't. And I really shouldn't, because we all know there are healthier options. As much as I love, love, LOVE McDonald's.

So when Model Measurement Monday came to weigh me in, I was surprised to find that I was 46.5 kg (103 lbs).

This means, I lost 2.5 kg from my usual 49 kg (108 lbs).

Here's where I have to write about the badly dramatized Supersize Me documentary. Yes, you bet I've seen it. And guess what. I got hungry and ate a Big Mac right after I saw it.

Homeboy was trying too hard to prove that McDonald's is "bad" for you. Of course you're going to gain weight if you supersize all of your meals for 30 days straight.

However, in a PR class I had taken in college, my professor mentioned an interesting rebuttal story. A McDonald's lovin' woman ate McDonald's for 90 days straight and LOST 37 pounds (17 kg). She made certain meal selections and exercised during those 90 days. Hence as to why McDonald's adds the tagline on their products' boxes and wrappers, "It's what you eat and what you do".

You guys can read the article here.

After I got off the scale, my booker gave me a big grin and an enthusiastic thumbs up as I contemplated how to gain my weight back.

I left the agency, bought myself an Oreo McFlurry and walked a 5 level shopping mall in my black heels.

Catalog: BoAime

2011-08-10T02:34:00.000-07:00

BoAime is designer Mimi Ledo's love child.

Here are some shots from this year's BoAime Fall/Resort 2011 catalog:

Creative Director: Nathan Lee
Make-Up/Hair: Vinh Thuy

And here are some shots from the last time I modeled for her Boaime's Resort/Spring 2010 catalog:

Creative Director: Henri Hubert
Make-up/Hair: Andy Phan

Mimi's a good friend of mine and she's got this amazing attractive independent spirit about her.

You can just see it from her pieces. They're romantic but whimsical, coquettish yet uninhibited. And actually, she's one of the very few people I really admire. She's Vietnamese by heritage and came to Canada by herself when she was just a kid by boat. She knows what she wants; has a good heart, a sharp tongue that tells it like how it is, self-starter motivation like no other; and travels whenever she pleases but spends half of her time in Montreal, Canada and Saigon, Vietnam.

Someone should write an article on this woman. Really.

Check out BoAime's facebook

Bisous,
Isaboaime Du

Casting Reality: You are but a pretty girl amongst other pretty girls.

2011-08-10T01:17:00.000-07:00

Every morning, we'd stuff ourselves in the van and then, it's:

Casting. Casting. Casting.

Take off your clothes.

Put on our clothes.

Smile. Smile. Smile.

Pose. Pose. Pose.

Snap. Click. Flash.

Next girl, next casting,

and,

repeat.

-

So mindless, these things.

And yet. It gave me a lot to mind and mull over.

One can only show so much of their persona to stand out.

I hadn't been booking - but at the same time, I wasn't the only one either from my agency. Including a few that have been here longer than me. It happens. And maybe for a multitude of reasons. And I can accept that. Maybe it wasn't the right agency, or season, or maybe China wasn't my market, er, specifically, Guangzhou. I should have looked more into it actually prior to coming here. But foolish me, I may have been much too distracted by the idea of staying somewhere new. Oh well!

I may have mentioned in a previous entry how I was aware it was mostly catalogue but I didn't realize it would be ALL catalogue. There weren't any TVC (TV commercial) castings or editorials here since they're all in Beijing and Shanghai. One of the bookers disclosed to me that it was their first time bringing over a model with a Pan-Asian look and it was a bit of a trial basis to see what the clients' feedback would be. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen a lot of Pan-Asian looking girls at castings. They were either Eastern Europeans or Brazilians.

For me, rejections are hackneyed. But I have to say, not booking made me antsy and model castings have made me realized that...I'm tired. Just so damn tired of it.

It's time for something new, baby.

Bisous

Nip Slip. Pun involuntarily intended.

2011-08-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

Nude underwear is practical and a model's necessity.
But let's face it. A strapless bra is just as cozy as a thong.

So there are days where I'll wear silicone nipple covers instead.
I forget that that they're there and they do what they have to do for my girls.

During a recent casting, the client had requested for just me out of all the other girls in my agency to try on their clothes for their catalogue. Yes, I thought.

"Please change."

And changed I did - into their baggy-styled sporty clothing.

"Pose, please."

And pose I did. Cool poses, that is. As cool as cool can be. Heck. I felt super cool.

They smiled. I smiled.

And just as I thought I would make a graceful exit and an unfaltering impression, I slip backwards a little as I tried to walk towards the changing room. I looked down at my feet for the culprit. There it was, my left silicone nipple cover, surprisingly still in tact despite my heel's attempt to puncture it.

The clients' smiles had now turned into stifled chuckles. I may have let out a sheepish laugh. I can't remember really. But I quickly grabbed the cover and said "Thank you" to everyone in the room.

The "Thank you" was for having me try out for them. I realize now that it may have sounded as the kind of "Thank you" one gives to an audience after having performed in front of them.

I'm going to blame Guangzhou's humidity on this one.

What's "pose training" exactly?

2011-07-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

According to the girls in my agency, it's watching reruns of America's Next Top Model episodes.
And not just any rereuns. But cycles 1 and 2. The show is currently working on cycle 17.

Afterwards, they're filmed doing 20 poses, without repeating one, in 30 seconds.

Upon reading completion of this blog entry, you are now certified to instruct a posing class.

Should you desire to further your credentials, you can join me in my photo booth rampage.

Tearsheets: Belladonna The Wedding Magazine (Indonesia)

2011-07-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Photography: Robin Alfian
Location: New World Hotel
Thiet Ke: Andreas Odang & Widhi Budimulia
Trang Diem: Yulia Ratna Sari
Stylist: Deodius Kunta Adjie

How to fix your leaking air conditioner! Don't try this at home kids! Oh wait. Maybe you already have. I know I did.

2011-07-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

The air conditioner in our apartment has been leaking water.
My solution was to put a bucket directly below where the water has been leaking.
And then I called our agency about it, and in turn, they called the repairman to stop by.

Homeboy couldn't fix it (out of laziness or lack of competence, I'm not quite sure)...
Therefore, his solution was a much more complicated variant of ours.
Allow me to show you.

Yes. Your eyes do not deceive you.

Though I wish they did with mine.

That would indeed be a tube rerouting the leaking water into the bucket

now placed only a few inches away from the original spot I had placed the bucket.

And not just any kind of tube, dear friends -

a tube wrapped with faux autumn foliage.

Therein lies the true magic of camouflage.

And yes,

the water will overflow, overnight. Time to put that water gun laying around in our kitchen to use!

Bisous,
Isabucket Du

Tearsheet Archive: South China Morning Post's Style Magazine (Hong Kong)

2011-07-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Shot this last year when I was in Hong Kong.
I got booked because I had previously shot with a snake.

I never got a chance to see the tearsheets in person though, but I did grab these images when randomly coming across the photographer's website. Doesn't the male model look like James Franco?!

Photo: Blow Up Studios / Gareth Brown

The Roommates. (Not a title for the sequel to the movie.)

2011-07-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

Our booker called us a few days ago to tell us that we'll be having another model move into our apartment.

Before I continue, here's a cliff's notes of the living situation and an introduction to who else I currently live with.

When I came here, this was a male models' apartment with myself and three other male models. But two of them left within a few days I had moved in.

Enter Estera, a 16 year old Romanian model who has been here for 3 weeks and has only started to model for a year. She lived in the other models' apartment (which is supposedly isn't as nice as ours) and her beauty pales in comparison to her intelligence beyond her years.

And I truly mean this because she's young, she's been through a lot of past adversities already, she's an avid fan of Korean dramas (she gave herself a goal to watch 100+ dramas, and she's done just that) and she's modest about her English - but it's at such a level where she grasps a good number of common idioms and colloquialisms. Heck. A majority of Americans probably don't even know what "idioms" and "colloquialisms" are.

Oh. And did I fail to mention? She LOVES South Park.

Guess who loves South Park. Yes. ME.

My South Park DVD collection started when I interned for Comedy Central during college. If I was ever a professor, I'd teach a course on South Park and its relevance on pop culture, past/current events and social issues. And if I ever have a son, I'll name him after co-creator Trey Parker.

(Sorry Matt Stone, "Matt" is too common and I don't want to give my son any ideas when he grows up with the name "Stone".)

This leaves Piotr, a Polish model, as now the male minority in our apartment.

Piotr is the nicest male model I have ever met. Such good aura. Really. To simply put it, he's a good person. Out of all the male models in our agency, he's been booking the best. He's polite, considerate and his English carries only a tinge of an Eastern European accent and is much more apt of an American one. Just as Estera, he's modest about it as well.

I value a person's modesty over their talents, any day.

So each of us had our own room. And I absolutely adored my room.

Upon hearing the news, I have to admit, I was a little bummed out that it meant I would have to move out of it. It didn't take us too long to rearrange ourselves though. Piotr took my room and Estera and I moved into his room (he originally had the master bedroom) - that way, our new roommate could move into her own room (Estera's room). We figured she'd prefer the privacy since we already all know each other.

So who's the new girl?

Meet Aissa Zhou.

She's an up-and-coming Chinese model, local to Guangzhou and was discovered in a restaurant. She was recently featured on MODELS.com and now, everyone wants a piece of her. Her upcoming travels include New York, Japan, Milan.

We were a bit taken back when the agency decided to have her stay with us, mostly because the apartments are for the foreign models. But our booker reveals to us that she'll be staying with us so she could experience what it's like to live with other models and hopefully pick up more English from us.

She's only been here once this whole week so my encounter with her was short and sweet. Estera and Piotr still haven't met her though. Ha.

It'd be cool if she did end up pick up some more English though, that way, maybe I can pick up some more Mandarin.

And there you have it, the roommates.

Models: Dear Chris North Colton, if u seek Amy...

2011-07-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

He's. Beautiful.
He's mixed English, Japanese, Irish and Czech.
And homeboy's only 18 and hails from New York.

Last week, this handsome face was "Model of the Week" on the esteemeed MODELS.COM.

What a coincidence. I believe they just declared that a week is now 365 days just last week as well.

Chris. If you ever read this, let's do a shoot on a Weeknd in New York.
You'd be perfect poetry in my book.

BIG POSE! SMALL POSE! COOL FACE! HAPPY FACE!

2011-07-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

This is pretty much all you really need to have in your vocabulary bank to get through your castings in China.

And maybe "food" and "toilet".
Although I do know some girls who'd rather not have "food". Poor things.
I'm scarfing down crackers with cheese as I'm blogging this. Ha.

The majority of the models here aren't native English speakers, as are the clients. So although English is the primary language to communicate amongst all parties here, it's limited English. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, certain native English speakers should take heed as they'd probably lead a happier life if they were limited to these simple adjectives. My little ears can only take so much.

But just imagine. This is what I hear all day.
Ah, mais mes beaux amis, what does it all really mean?

Allow me to decipher as well as show you what really goes on inside my head when I hear them request the following:

BIG POSE!

This is what they're looking for:

Dramatic. Couture. Editorial. Avant Garde.

But this is what I'm really thinking:

HUGE. MACHO. ROAR!!!

(Yes. The image above is actually an image of a sound effect.)

SMALL POSE!

This is what they mean:

Natural. Subtle. Candid.

And this how I define it:

Crouching. Cramped. So small, you can't even see the pose.

COOL FACE!

Oh man. This is, like, my favorite. A lot of the girls come in with these very nonchalant I-don't-give-an-eff-about-you-and-your-mama-and-hamsters-even-though-let's-face-it-hamsters-are-like-so-awesome kind of attitude. And it's so coolly plastered all over their face. Today, one of the clients told one of the girls, "You such cool face. Cool face. Happy please."

So what they mean by "cool" is this kind of cold, lack of expression type of face.

And maybe even one of these:

But when I hear "cool face", I visualize these:

Yeah, son!

Can't be cool if you don't gots a fan, yo!

And then of course, the opposite of a "cool face" would naturally be a...

HAPPY FACE!

They want this:

Sweet. Smiley. Commercial.

But I really want to do this!

Our new President is a teddy bear hamster?! I'M SO HAPPPPPY!

And there you have it. As raw of a foundation as modeling gets.

Out of all the girls, I got to be excused from the posing training course they're required to take today. It's quite flattering actually that the agency doesn't think I need any additional practice. But I mean, look at what I ended up doing in my free time anyways.

I went on such a photo booth rampage, I might as well have gone to the training for kicks.

Trời ơi, quá rảnh luôn ha!

Bisous,

Isaposer Du

An elevator in China.

2011-07-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

Which numbers are missing?
Hint: There's more than one of them.

See in comments section for answers!

Dear Brain. Hold. Dear Heart. Be Still.

2011-07-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

After carefully reviewing your past experiences on your relationship resume along with your current position and situation, we have decided to not select you at this time.

Currently we are looking for those who are rich in their self-growth experiences as we are in dire need of these candidates to be part of our team.

However, we do encourage you to apply for the position again, for which we are confident you will qualify for, in the future.

We appreciate the time you invested in this application and while we anticipate an individual with your experiences and qualifications will soon find what it is that you're looking for, we want to emphasize that we would strongly encourage your application again in the near future.

Sincerely,
Love

MODELING WITH PINK EYE 101: How to make conjunctivitis look sexy.

2011-07-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

On the morning of my Mỹ thuật magazine shoot about 2 months ago, I noticed my eyes felt puffier and crustier than usual. But nothing too out of the ordinary.

When the team met up at the magazine's headquarters, my eyes began to feel itchy and swell-ish and that's when I had a slight suspicion that these are possible beginnings of pink eye.

I voiced my suspicions to the team and like myself, no one seemed too concerned. I didn't want to sound like I wanted to back out, because I'm not the type to cancel shoots, but I figured...I'd be safe bringing it up now as a warning if anything were to happen.

I napped during our 1.5 hour ride to Vũng Tàu, a beach city a little outside of Saigon. When I woke up, I could barely pull my eyelids up because of the seal of eye crust I had. After that, green gunk would continuously to ooze out of my eyes and yes, they were pretty darn pink. See?

Yum!

At that point, the whole team and crew were already all the way out there and everything was set up. There wouldn't have been enough time to call up another model either. So we just had to make do and roll with it.

By the way, I'd highly recommend that no one goes through a shoot with pink eye. You'll agitate it more, other people are at risk (not so much the people around you, well them too, but whoever might come in contact with the make-up brushes next) and you're just flat out blind while you're working.

Lucky for me, I've already been blind at one point with my prescription at 10.0 with astigmatism. So it don't matter. I can drive half blind with hamsters thrown into my face, if I have to.

However, if one must absolutely go through a shoot with pretty pink eyes, then this is where the following will come in handy.

1. HEAVY BLACK EYESHADOW:

Make-up artist Ghy (Dat Le), who is definitely one of the more talented make-up artists I've worked with out in Vietnam, suggested we go heavy with the black eye shadow to cancel out the redness.

2. USE YOUR BEDROOM EYES:

Oh. You know what I'm talking about. The-I-don't-love-you-but-we're-going-to-make-love-for-one-night-and-one-night-only-eyes.

But really, they're just different forms of squinting. The "come-hither" look will distract viewers from the fact that your eyes are really creepy-looking up close.

3. LOOK AWAY!

By the end of the shoot, we were losing sunlight and I was losing...sight. My eyes were glued shut at this point and so I resorted to the "looking down and away" poses. It comes off pretty candid. Kind of like when sand was getting whipped into my eyes at the sand dunes shoot for Belladonna The Wedding magazine shoot.

And there you have it.
How to work those pretty pink inflamed eyes of yours.

Now...stay away from me!

Bisous,
IsabeLAvieENrose Du

如果您能读此您很可能知道汉语或google转换了它

2011-07-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

I'm now on my second week of China.

Here are some smells, sights and sounds for you.

My other roomie - Estera from Romania. The brightest 16 year old I've ever met.
And the noodles? Um. Pretty much the most awesome and amazing tasting noodles in my life.
Estera found them in a random alley behind our agency and it's only 4 RMB ($0.62 USD!)

Fish heads!

Kitty!

Wake up!

I don't smoke. But everyone else seems to.

Meow!

Fruit ninja!

Model Measurement Mondays

2011-07-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

Model Measurement Mondays is exactly how it sounds.

Every Monday marks a new week and we're required to go into the agency to have our waist and hip measurements taken as well as our weight recorded. They then take these measurements and compare them to your first weeks' measurements. So what happens if your current measurements are different from your first?

I'm going to just type out verbatim what it says in one of our briefing papers they hand to us upon arrival:

"As a professional model you must be keep [sic] your body in a good shape and we will take measurement for you every Monday. If your weight is over 1.5 kg compare with your first measurement in the agency, we will deduct $___ from your weekly allowance. In return for your hard work, once you lose weight and keep your shape back to standard, we will give you $___ on top of your weekly allowance as bonus on the Monday which your weight is back to standard"

This is pretty standard all across various markets though.

The weekly allowance they give you is basically for cab fare and food. I always thought it was pretty funny that if a model gained weight, her pocket money would be cut and she would have to ration her money between the two necessities. Less money for less food, giiiiiiirl.

It's also pretty standard for girls to lose a lot of weight the first week in a new country because they're not familiar with the local eats yet. And then once they've got their momentum going, it's like, I'll meet girls who've gained so much weight that I found it kind of unbelievable that this was supposed to be the same skinny girl in the portfolio she was holding. Sad, but true.

I'm such a snacker and I'm constantly snacking throughout the day. Right now I'm obsessed with these sweet Chinese crackers.

I offered them to all the girls, who all, but one, gladly gobbled them up. The one who declined said that she had to lose weight otherwise her pocket money would be cut. This led to the conversation about how many calories these crackers had exactly.

One of the girls then confidently states that they wouldn't make you fat. To which the first girl then meekly takes a small nibble. She's only 16.

I'm super lucky in the sense that no matter what I eat and in whatever gluttonous amounts I eat them in, I can't gain weight. So my measurements stayed relatively the same - except for my bust. That got smaller. I attributed it to perhaps the bra I wore the first time I got measured.

Still. I know I should try to eat better. I've replaced my breakfast from this:

To this:

Breakfast I actually made myself. And I NEVER cook.

And seedless oranges for snacks.

I'm going to now google for some easy, healthy recipes I can take on now.

Bisous,
Isabadcook Du

SHOP NOW and this whole outfit can be all yours! Except for the one shoe. (Outfit does not include model with one foot)

2011-07-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Parkson is a popular department store company in Malaysia, China and Vietnam. I shot the campaign about 2 years ago and blogged some behind-the-scene material HERE.

I only recently came across the print ad this past year and this is what it looks like:

Yes. I know. You are all probably curious as to how I lost my foot that day and regenerated a fabulous new one afterwards or maybe you're like me, wondering about the absolute brilliant genius who fell asleep in Graphic Design 101: Windows Paint Program.

I feel like I may have posted photos from the campaign before, but just in case I haven't, here are the others.

The world could always use another Isabelle. At least I could. I'd make her cook.

Vouchers come in one size only.

Bisous

Tearsheets: Người Nổi Tiếng/Celebrity Magazine (Vietnam)

2011-07-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

So these are my favorite photos out of the published 8-page editorial in Người Nổi Tiếng/Celebrity Magazine. They've circulated amongst various online press sites but with amusing headlines such as this:

"Người đẹp Isabelle Du khoe ngực đầy với nội y hồng"
(Beauty Isabelle Du shows off her full chest with pink lingerie)

Isabelle Du kiêu kỳ"
(Haughty Isabelle Du)

LOL. I wouldn't have done any better.

Photographer: Bobby Nguyen
Make-Up: Andy Phan
Stylist: Anh Phuong

Cover & Tearsheets: Belladonna The Wedding (Indonesia)

2011-07-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

I had previously shot with famed Indonesian photographer Robin Alfian for Clara Magazine and he had so kindly referred me to shoot for Belladonna The Wedding Magazine. The Jakarta-based team decided to do an on-location shoot in Vietnam for this beautiful editorial on the vast sand dunes of Mui Ne.

Make-up and hair started at 2AM and we started shooting at 5AM.
We finished at 11AM because by then, the sand starts to get unbearably hot and the winds would sweep sand into my face and unmentionable crevices.

(This is why in the last few photos, I improvise with my eyes closed while posing, ha!)

Even the kids soliciting sand sleds to tourists to slide down the dunes, hide out until the evening when it cools down again.

I have to say though, this is by far one of my favorite editorials I've ever shot. Kudos to everyone!

Photography/Nhiếp Ảnh: Robin Alfian
Designer/Nhà Thiết Kế: Andreas Odang & Widhi Budimulia
Make-up & Hair/Trang Điểm & Tóc: Yulia Ratna Sari
Stylist: Deodius Kunta Adjie
Model: Isabelle Du & Ngo Tien Doan (Andrew Ngo)

THE HAMSTER CAMPAIGN: The hamster is the new Kate Moss.

2011-07-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

If you didn't know by now, I've had 7 pet hamsters named Fluffy, Cremepie, Cloudpuff, Todd, Poop, Pimple and Lemmingwinks. Not all at once though. And I'd dress them up for Halloween.

Heck. Sometimes. It wasn't even Halloween.
Sometimes, I figured they'd rather be superheroes.

See?

I'm pretty sure I was a hamster in my past life and yes, hamsters are the cutest animals in the world. Not puppies or kittens or yellow chicks and ducklings or even South American condors...but hamsters.

And I'm leading the campaign in bringing these critters over to the mainstream.

Rhino's highly acclaimed supporting role in Disney Pixar's Bolt is just the beginning, folks.

Anyhow, a special someone surprised me with a rare-now-out-of-commission-Cushzilla-hamster-pajama-set and it's one of the most thoughtful presents I have ever received. During a collaborative test shoot I did in San Francisco with the talented photographer Jayson Dew, I actually brought it with me in case the other Dew here would want to du something about it.

He thought it was ridiculously random and hey, how often do you get to shoot a hamster? So here's what we came up with:

And by the way, this won't be the last time you'll see this outfit.

Bisous,
Isahamsterelle Du

The rest of my crib and the daily in China.

2011-07-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome! Posted the grander scale of the apartment because some people think I live in a small closet, lol.

I don't. There's more to where I live.

Mind you, most models' apartments aren't usually this nice. Sounds glamourous I suppose but a lot of times they have 2-4 people per (small) room with thin mattresses on bunk beds and no real closet space. There are times you have to live out of your suitcase. I know one girl who modeled in Malaysia and she was staying in cramped room with 7 other models with no air ventilation and half of them slept on the floor. Yikes.

So here's how our living room looks when you first walk in and we have a balcony that overlooks all the buildings, the pool and the tennis court. Pretty much what you could see outside of my window.

Here's the kitchen that I'll never use because I don't like to cook.

Ah, and I've tidied up my room! I think my mom would be so, so, so proud of me!

My mom would be so proud of me!

I love looking up at the city nightscape right before I fall asleep and then waking up to sunshine seeping through the sunlight. It makes me feel so alive.

Stopping by my agency and here's the board.

My portfolio in the midst of reorganization. It's interesting to see how agencies rearrange my photos in different markets. They took out all of my test shoots and everything is just tearsheets. They have all of my covers in the front of the book and the rest is mostly bikini and lingerie.

Heaven in my mouth.

Here are a few of the other girls from my agency as we're waiting to get picked up for the next casting. The girl on the far left is only 16 and the girl on the far right is only 14! Oh man. I never really say this but how could you not feel old when you're next to them lol.

At one of my castings.

This is Justin, one of the bookers, he's pretty cool and I'm thoroughly impressed with his English. It's funny because all of the bookers are like, "It's so fun to talk to you, your American accent is so great!" Oh! Well. I've never thought of it like that before hahaha.

The financial district.

So here, they have a van that picks us up and takes us from casting to casting.

It's pretty convenient since

one, pocket money would never be enough for taxis and subway rides since some of these castings are super faraway from one another, and

two, the language barrier would slow you down (not to mention frustrating) when you're trying to get the non-English speaking cab drivers to understand your incessant waggling finger pointing to maps and addresses.

Here's our driver taking a little nap while waiting for our casting to finish up

And yesterday, I ventured off a little with my guy roommates.

This is Marek, from Poland and has already left China today. He wanted to do some last minute shopping and went nuts in H&M for 1.5 hours.

In Guangzhou, it's all clothing manufacturers and factories and just mall after mall after mall after mall. And I can't quite comprehend how it works but every single one of them is constantly packed with people.

And this is Piotr, also from Poland and will be here for another month till he heads to Hong Kong.

His mission was to find Sephora for some moisturizers.

This fountain goes off every now and then, and you'll see chubby naked kids running around and easily amused people, such as myself, snapping photos of it.

You would think that amidst the humidity, this fountain would be like a glorious moment with mists of water spraying upon hot body after hot body - but no...it only made the weather feel more humid.

I quickly scampered off.

Getting an eye massage from...well...an eye massager. It was an interesting sensation I have to say. While I was getting massaged, the lady stuffed earplugs in with birds chirping to...soothe me?

And while we were walking around, a random Chinese newspaper asked to take our snap along with other random mall shoppers. For what? We're not really sure. But here we are, looking fresh to life, son.

Till next time. Bisous.

Isabelle Du

Like a fat baby turtle running in peanut butter...

2011-07-09T02:44:00.000-07:00

MY INTERNET CONNECTION IS SOOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW.

"LIKE" my public Facebook page, only if you really do "LIKE" it.

2011-07-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

Because dude. I totally find it annoying when people are like, "LIKE MY PAGE!" and um, sometimes...I kind of don't. Sorry.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Isabelle-Du/155022694557347

Although this "like" option is so much better than when Facebook did "GROUPS".
If you were born after 1990, you probably don't remember those. Ha!

Now those made me feel guilty. You either accepted or DENIED the invite.

And sometimes it would be a cause of some sort. You know, like SAVE THE ORPHAN ENDANGERED BABY MONKEYS FROM 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES WITH ONE LEG AND SOME SORT OF RARE, UNBEATABLE CANCER OR SOMETHING BECAUSE YOU'RE THEIR ONLY HOPE AND YOU CAN SOMEHOW SAVE THEM BY JOINING THIS GROUP

(By the way, I feel like I've made this analogy in a previous entry. But last time, I used orphan kids with pet llamas)

Denying the invite would be like denying those orphan endangered baby monkeys from 3rd world countries with one leg and some sort of rare, unbeatable cancer or something.

And I think, maaaan, adding this group will totally clutter my facebook page ruining it's simple aesthetics!

That reminds me. I should get rid of my MySpace already.
Oh wait, Justin Timberlake's the Creative Director now.
And Future/Lovesounds is like, one of best albums ever...

Point is. I've finally set up a public Facebook page so I could have a place to share my work and stay in touch with people I've worked with or support my work. Before doing so, I wanted to see what other models listed themselves as. I noticed the majority of the time they list themselves as "Public Figure". Sounds a little powerful for my taste, lol. But I mean, if you have 10,000 people liking it - sure, why not.

Till then, I'll click on Artiste. Oh. Fancy!

Bisous,
IsabelikemypageORelse Du

Ni hao! Now in Guangzhou, China & settling into the models' apartment

2011-07-04T19:44:00.000-07:00

Ni hao my beauties!

Let me start off that I almost didn't make my flight.

I knew that my flight was July 4th and I've told EVERYONE and their mother and pet hamsters that it would be July 4th but it didn't CLICK in my (awesome) head that hey, TODAY IS JULY 4TH.

What can I say. As a true American, technically I was correct in the sense that it wasn't July 4th in the States' timezone yet.

(Happy birthday America!)

I was just moseying around my apartment in Saigon, grubbing on sushi ordered and delivered to our place, and hanging out with my roommate's gal pal. I truly believed I had the rest of the day to pack. Fool!

Come 12:30 pm, I'm on the phone with my best friend Britt who asks when my flight was that day. I tell her, I don't fly out till the next day.

"But today's July 4th."

"No, it's not."

"Yes. It is."

And it CLICKED. So THAT'S why my new sublet came in on Sunday and made plans to move on Monday already and I'm like dude, you can't move in until I'm out of here, where the heck am I going to sleep for one day?

Now I feel bad I made homeboy stay in his hotel for one more day. Whoops. Sorry David!

As much traveling as I do, you would think I be so awesome at packing but no, I think I've gotten worse. I procrastinate way more in doing so but now I've figured it out how to get myself to pack. Freak yourself out that you need to be at the airport in half and hour and voila!

I threw everything into my suitcase in 30 minutes, kind of cleaned the room for the sublet and rushed off to the airport and made it with a good 15 minutes to spare.

The flight was the biggest sausage fest I have ever attended.
That's the Chinese male-to-female ratio for you.

I was lucky enough to sit by someone who had BO. And I used my jacket sleeve over my mouth as my pseudo gas mask to further my luck. All this while listening to my Mandarin mp3s and learning "Where do you want to go to eat?" "I would like to go to my place to eat" "I would not like to go to your place to eat"

Justin from the agency greeted me right when I came out into arrivals and his English was impeccable. They say that no one speaks English in China and last year, they set a law to purify the Chinese language by pretty much outlawing English words used at all. So even words like NBA have to be translated to Chinese. The translation is longer than National Basketball Association but hey, a rule's a rule.

We head to the apartments first and I caught a nice long glimpse of Pearl River at night. Nothing like the brown slushy Saigon River.

Justin tells me that at the moment, the agency has a lot of foreign models so there's a bit of an overcrowding in the models' apartments. He asked if it was okay that I stay in the guys' apartment. I'd get my own room, he says.

That's like saying, hey, you're going to have to settle with hanging out at the most awesome amusement park in the world AND on top of that, you won't have to wait in lines for any of the rides. I know, it's sucks. What am I going to do with all this cotton candy, funnel cake and churros!

I'm impressed with how nice and spacious the models' apartments are actually. When I was in Hong Kong, it was like living in a shoebox with other (cute) mice.

So check it out. Don't mind the mess. I'll take after-photos once I tidy up too.

And yes, that would be fake vine covering the pipe leading to the AC. Vietnamese people love to do this too. I don't know if it's proper fen shui (it really shouldn't be), but I know that fake shrubbery should never be considered as "practical" decor.

Ugly Pipe > Ugly Pipe covered by Ugly Fake Vine

My favorite part of the room is the breakfast nook area. I get a cool view outside my windows!

Young girl. Old Man.

New Comp Cards.

Oh, and I'm so excited that I can blog right now. China blocks Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, Youtube, Blogspot and different Google search results. But I posted a status in Vietnam asking for suggestions to get around that and one of them worked out!

I go into the agency later today and I'm a little nervous because I have a big scar on my leg right now...I hope it's not enough for them to send me home or anything. I'm hoping it'll be okay. Till next time!

Bisous,

Isabooboo Du

Vietnam Condiment Recommendation: Muối ớt tôm (Salt Chili Shrimp). Stinky. But like, YUM!

2011-07-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

This stuff is just soooo good in my mouth!
In fact, I'm snacking on it right now as I'm typing up this blog.

Vietnamese people will dip their fruits in this salt, chili, shrimp condiment and my favorite fruits to pair up are pineapple and watermelon.

Now, the shrimp usually throws people off but I swear, it just WORKS.
Heck, salt with fruit already throw a lot of people off (mostly anyone who's not Asian) so I guess I shouldn't blame the virgins too much.

If you guys can somehow find it in your local Ranch 99 or whatever popular Asian supermarket you have around, GET IT.

The small jar, too - in case you end up not liking it.

I give major props to people for having tried it and not liking it rather than judging it from the start and not trying it at all.

That's how I approach watching movies, taking on new activities, visiting new places and oh yeah, life.

Tearsheets: Candy Rox Clothing in Asia Life Magazine (May 2011)

2011-06-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

The you-don't-want-me-pull-this-all-the-up-'cause-I've-got-a-secret-weapon-that-I'm-not-afraid-to-use-look.

And the I-wear-sunglasses-at-night-because-you-look-better-in-the-dark-look

Photographer: Fred Wissink
Model: Isabelle Du
Make Up & Hair: Hung Max
Clothes: Candy Rox (23 Ly Tu Trong, D1-HCMC)

SHOOT PREVIEW: Geisha Boutique Lookbook/Catalogue

2011-06-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Just shot for this clothing boutique last Sunday.
Here are some screenshots from that day with the rest of the photos to come!

Photographer: Bobby Nguyen
Make-Up/Hair: Tung Chau
Designer: Helen Holani

Next up! Modeling in Guangzhou, China! And half an hour a day Pimsleur Mandarin MP3s are less creepy than audio CAPTCHAS

2011-06-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

I'll be placed in Guangzhou, China with SMG Models and I'm flying out on good ol' America's Independence Day - July 4th. (Giggle.)

It's been awhile since I've taken up an on-stay contract somewhere. I've missed it. Living in a model's apartment, going on regular castings everyday, meeting the locals, eating local foods, being in a new place and figuring out what makes that place ticks...

I'm excited but at the same time, I've heard certain things that make me feel...well, uncertain. But I've never been one to turn down new things. I. Freakin'. LOVE it.

Dealing with the visa has been somewhat of a nuisance though.
Apparently it costs Americans $140 for a month visa while it costs everyone else $30, lol.

Cute.

And what's interesting is that the China embassy in Saigon has been getting heat as I had barely missed the turmoil between China and Vietnam with the disputes over the South China Sea. (Google it.) While I was in the States, I did notice a few facebook statuses from my local Vietnamese friends about how they were worried about another war but I never looked into it. Yes. I suppose I was much too self-absorbed with my t-shirt and jeans and In-n-Out burgers like the American I am to do so.

Now I'm back in Saigon, that's when I learned about the maritime situation and luckily, both countries have agreed to a peace joint call. Whew! Hey. A baby step closer to making beauty pageant queens' dreams come true.

In preparation for China, I've been taking time in learning some Mandarin via Pimsleur's mp3s. They speak more Cantonese in Guangzhou, but I figured learning their main language would be best. It'd to cool to get in touch with the part-Chinese heritage in me and I've always wanted to learn a new language. And I'm doing it during my downtime so I don't feel unproductive.

Though I've noticed that I can't do it while working out. I'm much too busy huffing and puffing and it sounds creepy panting out poorly pronounced Chinese words on the treadmill. If I had to compare it to anything, it sounds like pressing the audio option to hear Captchas. You know, these things:

Try it. It sounds SUPER creepy. I discovered it out of pure curiosity and never did it again. Except once to prove to someone how super creepy it was.

And by the way, I totally did a screen shot of that just now from craigslist- what is that first letter supposed to be?! Triangle?!

Also, in a few days, I have to get THIS thing sorted:

Ugh. There's a second suitcase that's not in the photo and it's even bigger than this suitcase. After all the traveling I've done, here's my order from unfavorite to unfavoritest:

-Packing

-Unpacking

-Unpacking from the last trip and repacking for the next trip, where you'll eventually have to unpack at some point or another.

I guess I could make it easier on myself and just pack fresh underwear. That's all you really need to survive. But I don't think a lot of people around me would really like me at that point.

Okay, okay. So maybe fresh underwear, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Then I'd be set.

Bisous

Tearsheet: Clara Magazine (Indonesia)

2011-06-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

Let's look up (into my nostrils).

I randomly came across this image from this Sapto Djojokartiko's blog - this amazing, amazing, amazing Indonesia designer. His beautiful pieces dressed me for the day and we can backtrack to my behind-the-scenes-blog from that shoot.

I'm pretty excited that I found this and it's too bad this is the only image I've seen from that shoot. I never got a copy of the magazine or image files, but that happens every now and then. It's especially tougher when you model in different markets. Understandably, people are too focused on their next 3 editorial layouts to mail out copies of the last issue to all the models who were in it. Sucks. But it's true.

Heck. Sometimes I'm too focused on my next 3 shoots to remember what magazines I need to grab.

So if you guys ever wondered if models get copies of their magazines, I'd say it's an equal percentage between:

-Yes, if requested - but even then, the magazine will only send one or two copies

-Yes, because the models will buy it themselves
(it's just easier to go out and spend 7 bucks rather than wait and possibly never get your copies) and,

-No, they don't and sometimes, they'll never even know how the images turned out for the rest of their lives.

Oh well!

Bisous,
Isablog Du

Yeah. I didn't exactly get the memo on the dress code.

2011-06-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

Last night, my good friend and co-star Nathan calls me up to go together to the Fortune Duck grand opening event in Saigon.

Jet lag had gotten me disoriented and demotivated to go out for the night.
Plus. I didn't have anything nice to wear.

"I'm just wearing a shirt and jeans. Now put on make-up and get here in 30 minutes," he says.

Alright. As a California native, born and bred, I love my t-shirt and jeans. So. Convinced!

I slap on make-up in 10 minutes, whip my hair back and forth, proudly throw on the California Bear t-shirt, jeans and athletic heels and hop into a cab.

Here's where I find the hilarity where others might not. The juxtaposition.

Glammed up Vietnamese showbiz guests.

Us.

Cool and comfy, baby.

Hey. As long as everyone's still cute and having a good time!

Jet lag! Now on vacation from a vacation from a vacation.

2011-06-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

These past two months, I traveled to Montreal, New York, LA, San Francisco and of course, back to my hometown San Jose.

But now I'm back in Vietnam! And what's next? China, baby. More details to come on that one!

And earlier this year, I visited the Philippines again and went to Bali for my first time.

Life. Is good.

When I exclaim "Oh Ratatouille!" and why rodents don't bother me.

2011-06-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

I know.

"Ratatouille" refers to either the traditional French vegetable dish for "peasants" or the Disney Pixar flick based ON the "peasant dish".

But you'll hear me exclaim it every time I come across a fat rat scampering, rat roadkill and mice stuck in mousetraps.

Like this guy. RATATOUILLE!

What can I say, it's habit.

I found this little one stuck in the sticky mousetraps my dad has placed by the garbage and underneath the kitchen sink. I wouldn't have noticed him except my peripheral vision caught a slight "movement".

You know. Struggling.

I gasped.

He was so cute and helpless looking. I know, I know, rodents are supposed to be "pests" but they've never bothered me actually. In fact, I get really excited when I come across critters from the Rodentia order and even more excited if they're from the Cricetidae family. Like hamsters! My favorite!

By the time I googled how to save mice stuck in sticky traps (which is pretty much dousing them with vegetable oil), my dad pulled out the gloves and disposed the little guy.

To where?

Mouseville, I hope.

Now. I was involved an interesting conversation topic yesterday during my first day back in Vietnam. As I was getting my make-up done and hair did, they had found a mouse in a sticky trap at the studio I was at. This lead to people exchanging angry words about how disgusting rats/mice were. Which then led to how the make-up artist warned us ominously:

"Don't insult the rodents. They know. Oh how they know."

Someone then pipes up, "What do you mean 'They know'?"

Then the make-up artist talks about how his friend saw a mouse scampering, failed to kill it, and yelled aloud how they hated rodents and went on and on with some sort of anti-rodent rant.

That night, they go to sleep. And the morning after, they noticed they had bites all over their feet. The mouse had come back for its vengeance.

I shared this tidbit with David who then agreed with the story's credibility because of arecent story he had heard as well.

His friend's employee had found a rat in the restaurant and poured boiling water on the little one as a cruel joke.

Instead of scurrying away...supposedly this rat stayed in his place and stared the (human) employee down while the hot water was sizzling on his fur.

During lunch or breaks in Vietnam, people take naps within their work environments. Meaning, it's very common that you'll find people in their corporate wear nesting underneath and sometimes on top of their desks with mats and pillows.

So this employee is napping during his break and when he wakes up, he finds the same rat that had been staring him down had returned for revenge and bit all over the employee's legs.

Eventually they caught that rat with better traps set. But apparently the employee felt bad because he later came across what he thinks was the rat's wife and their little baby rats looking for the papa rat.

I don't know how much truth there really is to these stories but I have come to realize this:

I've never insulted a mouse or a rat in my life because I think they're super cute. (Hamsters are cuter, obviously)

But just as how they'll come after you if you insult them,

maybe they'll stay away from you if you compliment them.

With that said, I leave you guys a photo of a greased up mouse, now free from the sticky glue trap.

I'm working harder for my mama.

2011-05-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

I ended up writing a rather vulnerable entry about my mom.

For personal reasons, I decided to save it in my digital shoebox of:
unsent-letters-to-ex-boyfriends,
time-capsule-notes-to-myself, and
what-started-out-as-a-public-entry-but-are-now-for-my-eyes-only-entries.

All you guys need to know is this:
I’m an imperfect daughter and my mom deserves better.

I’m working on it.

The last time I saw my mom was 3 years ago at my college graduation.

I still can’t grasp as to how that even happened. There were times where I wanted to be where she was but I hadn’t saved enough money to go. Or I felt like I hadn’t accomplished anything that would be worth for her to be proud of. Or finally, when I did, the projects would keep me preoccupied…

but 3 years?

We had a rather simple Mother’s Day this year and we spent it at a dim sum place in Montreal’s Chinatown. But Mother’s Day seemed to take its course over the past 10 days since I’ve been here in Montreal, Canada. Watching Scandal Makers, old home videos of us when we were kids, touring old Montreal, eating our mom’s famously delicious quail…I can’t remember when all of three of us - my mom, my sister and I spent a Mother’s Day together and I’m truly sorry for that.

Money could always be made, my mom was impressed by handmade popsicle stick Christmas ornaments at one point and projects will come to an end.

My mom’s my mom and it shouldn’t take just a holiday for me to realize that I should spend more time with her.

Hope you guys were able to share Mother’s Day with your moms.

I'M GOING TO BE A LA VIE MERMAID! I need Sebastian and a Flounder. Except. I'd probably eat Sebastian. With lots of butter. Or muối tiêu chanh.

2010-12-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

Filming "Nu Ve Si" has been overwhelming and I've had to turn down a lot of things because of the tight schedule.

However, I was able to take some time off for the "La Vie" water commercial I just booked!

And yes! I get to be a mermaid!

I had shot in the morning already from 6 am for "Nu Ve Si" and then later on in the afternoon, I had a mermaid tail fitting and we started our way towards Long Hai.

This is my first time to have ever been to Long Hai actually. It's a little past Vung Tau (?) and according to locals, the drive should only usually be 1.5 hours. But due to the congested Tuesday traffic and ridiculously uneven pavement the whole way through - we drove from 3 pm to 8:30 pm. (You can subtract maybe one hour for a dinner/bathroom break.)

Oh and the guy was driving FAST.

And when I say 'ridiculously-uneven-pavement', I'm talking about quite possibly misreading the map, taking the wrong route from tropical Vietnam to the sandy dunes of Dubai. Vietnam's air is polluted as it is, so imagine all the dust and dirt particles constantly getting kicked up by all the trucks coming through these roads. I felt like I was driving through San Francisco fog - but like...dirt.

Of course, I always sleep like a baby.
Especially on moving vehicles.

PS I once heard that people tend to like sleeping on moving vehicles because it's reminiscent of being in your mother's womb. Whether that's true or not, I'd like to think that's the exact reason why I like it.

When we got here, we checked into our hotel.

Now I'm just chilling till they call me in. It's about 9 am-ish right now and I don't have to start make-up and hair till 11 am. As fun as this is going to be, my biggest concern is with getting sunburned and strange tan lines around the rhinestones they'll be tacking onto my body. I'm currently armed with bottles of Dermalogica's Waterblock Solar Spray spf 30, Sunplay spf 81 and Neutrogena's Ultra Sheer spf 70.

I don't mind getting dark but I've developed a big fear for sun damage as I have some on my arms and face from driving on my motorbike without any protection.

Anyhow, I'm going to end this entry with this fun mermaid image. Neaato had posted it and I saved it for giggles.

Bisous!

Versus, Just Cavalli editorial in My Thuat Magazine

2010-11-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

The-I-think-I'm-being-followed-but-I'm-still-going-to-runaway-as-glamorously-as-possible-look

The-'Yeah-I-see-you-creeping-from-afar-but-I'm-going-to-wallop-you-with-this-bag-if-you-come-near-me'-look

And the-I'm-skinny-enough-so-I'll-hide-behind-this-pole-right-here-look

Make-Up/Hair: Dat Le Ghy
Photographer: Nguyen Long

Move over, Costner. There's a Nữ vệ sĩ, female bodyguard, in town.

2010-11-16T01:01:00.000-08:00

Initially, I was booked for Macau during the Asian Poker tour from the 5th to the 17th - despite having clients who wanted to book me for photo shoots, a show and styling a 3 day Vedan commercial shoot in Vietnam.

But solely for the fact that I had never been to Macau, the idea of traveling for work always supersedes...well...just plain work.

I had brushed up on my live poker playing skills (mind you, I'm not really good to begin with but it doesn't hurt to play), looked up what there was to do in Macau, signed the contract, had my tickets booked via agency, and was pretty much ready to go for my 6 am flight on Friday.

On Thursday though, Catiensa - one of the bigger named production houses here in Vietnam, called me to do a casting.

One of my good friends Nathan, had introduced me to the company. I had gone for a couple of castings prior but nothing had really come of them.

During the casting, I did the typical profile-and-introduction routine.
Then acted out a scene from the script.
Then learned a simple martial arts choreography.
And then show emotions. I was relatively surprised (but impressed) that I could cry on cue.

Within the hour, I was told that I got the lead principal role for a 40 episode action television series titled "Nữ vệ sĩ" (Female Bodyguard) where I'm the...well, female bodyguard - with episodes where my character Phuong will be protecting different clients.

Filming would take 3.5 months and I had to start RIGHT AWAY - like...Friday, the next day.

Meaning, I had to cancel the Macau booking. I felt so awful because it's not my style to cancel last minute like that. I didn't want to come across unprofessional - but at the same time, I didn't really want to turn down the acting stint either. In the end, the production company was willing to compensate for the damages done to canceling the other booking, like the tickets that were already booked. Whew.

The next day, I began training for martial arts. That's where I learned that there had already been multiple actresses that were suppose to do this role. And they trained longer. For some reason, they had to replace the last one and because the production timeline was so tight, I was only able to squeeze in three days of martial arts training. In addition to that, I attempted to take some yoga classes to better my (nonexistent) flexibility.

I received my script only two days before the actual filming:

Yes. That's like. 3 yellow pages phone books stuck on together!

And it's allllllll in Vietnamese. Unfortunately, but fortunately, they'll end up doing a voiceover because of my American accent. Doesn't mean that I'm not memorizing it. I still have to, of course. But lucky for me, I'm fluent so it hasn't been difficult for the past week we've already been shooting. I'll have to write more on this particular topic later.

If you can read Vietnamese, check out this article:
http://vnexpress.net/GL/Van-hoa/San-khau-Dien-anh/2010/11/3BA22D31/

If not, I'm gonna tack on photos from there to here hehehe

My co-star and love interest, Nathan Lee

Does the uniform remind anyone else of Reno 911?

I mean, I had this initial idea of like wearing all black or something. Like Dark Angel-ish. Or even this!

Hehehe...

And here we are with director Hong Ngan and director of photography Quoc Truong

Anyhow, I have to be up at 4 am tomorrow to shoot again.

Till next time!

EXCITING NEWS! THONG TIN RAT LA HUNG THU!

2010-11-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

I have some exciting news to share, but I'm going to wait till the time is right.

Cac ban oi! Toi co nhung thong tin rat la hung thu de chia se voi cac ban - ma toi se doi toi khi diem thoi gian thay hop y de bao voi cac ban!

Bisous!

Campaign/Catalog: Krabstyle

2010-11-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

On the hot sands of Mui Ne

I wish they could have taken out neck wrinkles. It's almost like the hoop earring was some kind of note citation to edit this area later. But they photoshopped out my mole! Aw. I like my mole...

The-intern-watching-over-the-receptionist's-desk-during-the-lunch-hour-look

The-receptionist-who's-trying-to-figure-out-how-move-on-up-as-the-CEO's-executive-assistant-while-chowing-down-on-a-Caesar-salad-for-lunch-look

The-recently-promoted-and-fierce-executive-assistant-who's-dropping-off-the-CEO's-dry-cleaning-during-lunch-hour-look

The-executive-assistant-who's-flirting-with-the-office-manager-so-he'll-drop-off-the-dry-cleaning-instead-look

The-CEO-who's-calling-all-the-shots-including-getting-these-fabulous-pants-dry-cleaned-NOW-look

Catalog: Ruco Shop Fall/Winter 2010

2010-11-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

www.rucoshop.com

Đẹp Fashion Show 9: Dreaming

2010-11-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Elite had booked me for the Dep Fashion Show 9 (DFS 9).

Organized by the folks at Dep Magazine (hence, the name of the show), this is the biggest fashion show held annually in Vietnam.

I can honestly say that there is no other show that comes close to this show. Except maybe Elle magazine's recent fashion show for their launching.

(Yes, Vietnam now has Elle magazine. Along with Cosmopolitan and Stuff Magazine.)

It's a high value production supported with a major sponsors that really took care of us.

Both David and myself, along with the rest of the Saigon based models, flew into Ha Noi with the newly launched passenger airline Air Mekong. Flight operations had only started 3 weeks ago.

Checking in from Saigon to Ha Noi was quite easy. We still hadn't received David's ticket confirmation code (not the airline's fault or anything by the way, but the client had booked the ticket and they hadn't given the agency the code yet) - but we were still able to check in with just our passports.

However.

On our way back from Ha Noi to Saigon, they wouldn't let us check in without the code despite that fact that we were able to do it the first time. I asked them whether it was possible to just enter our names into the system to find our confirmation (which is what most flights do these days anyhow) - but apparently she was "unable" to do so without the code. Uh-huh...suuuure.

In the end, we just showed our last flight ticket that we had kept and they were able to now find us in the system.

The planes are small, but relatively comfy. I'm pretty easygoing anyways when it comes to traveling. You could stick me in a lavatory-that-hasn't-been-cleaned-after-a-12-hour-flight for all I care for the next 2.5 hours and I'll be fine.

2.5 hours of travel is a nanosecond to some of the flights I've been on in my life.

As for the stewardesses, I love their ao dais - it's the prettiest out of all the other Vietnamese airlines. The flight attendants could use a little more training. They gave good service but they need to smooth out the common sense a bit.

For example, a lot of people were sleeping on the plane and they would try to wake each sleeping passenger up to ask them what they wanted to drink or eat. All of them said no, of course, otherwise they would have stayed awake for those things or eventually requested it after they somehow woke up. Usually flight attendants skip over these passengers to respect their space. Oh well. They're new. Can't blame them too much.

When we arrived, we were picked up by several Audis, completely decked out in DFS decals.

We ran into a few frustrations at this point. IE being told that we were late for rehearsal just when we touched down in Ha Noi and hadn't even checked into our hotels; and the hotels completely booked with no rooms left for some of the models. But things were eventually straightened out and we rehearsed till maybe about 11 pm last Saturday night.

The audience during the rehearsal is a perfect example of how people in Vietnam can be so "ranh" haha. As in having really open schedules within their day. I don't mind having people watch for hours, but I couldn't help but wonder - did they really have nothing else planned out for the rest of the day? At the same time, the lax scheduling can be one of the perks of living here - it's less stressful, you have more free time to do the things you like to do and you take things as they come.

This year, they had 4 designers showcase their lines: Hoang Ngan, Juliane Kunze (Half Vietnamese, half German), Kelly Bui and Anh Tuan (Hungarian Viet Kieu). But at the very last minute, they decided to add one more designer with Do Manh Cuong, even though he had already recently showcased his designs at the Elle launching.

I modeled for Juliane's line and I couldn't be more proud. Her line's theme was "nomadic" so there was a gypsy, bohemian feel to her clothing. Out of all the lines, I felt like it was the best ready-to-wear line, and yet, the pieces were still quite distinctive from what one would wear everyday.

The designer herself is a sweetheart. Very down-to-earth with a dorky, but cute personality to boot. And oh yeah, she is gorgeous! Like, more gorgeous than 90% of the models there. Gotta love those Eurasian beauties!

For the make up and hair, she picked a simple and natural look for the eyes with red lips. I have to say, it's the most satisfied I've ever been with my make-up done here in Vietnam.

Shiseido sponsored the make-up and TIGI with the hair.

If you know about "Horton Hears A Who"...don't you think these look like they have Whos that live on specks on these?! Heheh

Weeee! Done with the hair and make up!

Here's another fellow Saigon-based model from the Juliane line - Natesa and her mom. But I was introduced to her via our booker as "Nasa" because apparently locals have a hard time pronouncing her much prettier actual name. (And I thought I had it bad with "Isabelle"!) She was one of the first girls I had noticed at the show because I thought she was quite pretty and as it turns out mixed French and Vietnamese.

And guess how old she is...15!
Stands around maybe 5'6" and still growing!

She was really sweet and even mentioned that she had read my blog. My jaw dropped a little. As fate would have it, she was recently booked for two of Parkson's upcoming campaigns and looked up past campaigns online and found my post about doing the shoot. Small world, no?!

David and I just posing with our free swag from Vaseline

With Ung Hoang Phuc

With Truc Diem

With Phuong Thao, Natesa & Ha Anh

Show time!

Yay!

To see more photos from the show, go to www.depfashion.com

Bisous!

Đẹp Fashion Show 9

2010-11-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

Was in Ha Noi this past weekend for the Dep Fashion Show 9.

More to come!

Yes, there's a TITANIC 2. Oh! You thought it ended when all the characters died?

2010-10-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't really call this a film review per-se.

But there may be a slight suggestion for you to somehow download it when you're finished reading this. In fact, I think the production company would want you to.

I had heard David mention this film sometime ago while he was perusing the bootleg dvds.

Of course, anyone's initial thought is - what? Titanic had a sequel? How is it even possible? And for a mild moment, I even gave the movie some credibility by thinking that perhaps the synopsis took place with some other characters during the same event or that they decided to tell Rose's life story between after surviving Titanic and her trying to find the necklace.

But no. Titanic 2 isn't a sequel. Nor is it a "mockbuster" as the production company Asylum has trademarked itself for in the past (ie Transmorphers, Snakes on a Train)

Instead, it's a second Titanic ship that's been constructed and it sets sail on the same anniversary as the original Titanic. Cue in global warming and a glacier tsunami and pretty much Titanic 2 is doomed for the same fate.

Now. I went to Chapman University's film school.

As a PR & Advertising major.

But we still had to take production classes and whatnot as part of our curriculum. And I really liked it. So yeah, at one point, I used Avid and ProTools for homework assignments and projects. But some of the film majors considered the PR & Advertising majors like kindergartners.

You know who I'm talking about. The film snobs. The ones who claim that Citizen Kane is by far the best film noir ever made and take it upon themselves to RobertandEbert all movies to the point of heated arguments.

It's like, dude. You're a freshman and it's still the fall semester.

So take those film snobs, and just imagine the complete opposite of them.

Then you have me.

I like movies for the simple purpose it was made for - entertainment.

Good entertainment and bad entertainment alike, is - nonetheless, entertainment.

(Think, Jersey Shore.)

Titanic 2 was awful. But I expected it to be. I tried to make David watch it with me, but he fell asleep pretty quickly. The film's highlight for him was when he got to see an extra's nipples protrude through her dress.

Bruce Davison's acting is actually believable and he must have lent out his talent as a gracious favor...but other than that the CGI was pretty reckless looking, the cruise ship looked like Eastridge Mall (before renovations, mind you - yes, I'm a San Jose native), there's an epic love story (?), you'll prefer to focus more on the odd selection of extras and their bad acting rather than the main cast's, and I suspect the director-slash-screenwriter-who-casted-himself-as-the-main-actor is a complete narcissist.

But it was all totally worth my 12,000 dong.

Which is about 62 cent in US currency.

(Side Note: 12,000 is actually considered a little bit more expensive that the average price of 10,000 dong for a bootleg dvd in Vietnam. But this place is super close to where I live so I don't mind fishing out the extra 2,000)

(Super Side Note: No such thing as an authentic dvd out here. Serious. I have yet to find a place.)

I watch these movies and always wonder how they were able to find financing for the projects. I think for this one, it might have been related to Shane Van Dyke's familial connections...

Who knows.

If you liked Titanic 2, you might like:

Spanish Movie.

Brittany and I picked up this one by accident somehow. Like it was underneath all the dvds that we had actually chosen. I ran out of things to watch, came across this, and found it pretty amusing.

Ole!

"Flinstone Vitamins" est "les Vitamines de Flinstone" en français

2010-09-18T04:09:00.000-07:00

According to the blood test, urine and stool samples, I'm...HEALTHY.

Yessssss.

If my mum was to read this, she'd be quite pleased, I think, for getting checked up.

FV Hospital in Vietnam was very accommodating and offered to e-mail my lab results.

5 pages worth. Here's one of them:

Notice something?

Yeah. It's all in French. But like, readable, French.

I can safely assume that "laboratoire de biologie medicale" means something along the lines of "Laboratory of Medical Biology" or "Biomedical Lab".

And I will also safely assume that "negatif" means "negative".

(But even if I was listed as "postif" for any of the following symptoms, having it linguistically French will make it seem as if having them is actually a good thing. And quite possibly even romantically enough of a word to woo a non-Francophone over.)

However, even if "urobilinogene" and "recherche de sang" were translated in English, I would understand these dense medical terminology just the same.

Although the results should have been satisfactory, I didn't feel completely confident with them. Because I actually went ahead and took iron supplements prior to even receiving the results and it made a huuuuge difference. For example, anemia will affect one's menstrual cycle. Aunt Flo - who had been late for a visit sometime now - stopped into town by the morning after taking the supplements. Also, my hair hasn't fallen out as much and the frequent fatigue has been replaced with more energy to spare!

My parents constantly remind me to take vitamins. Even to this day as a 25 year old adult. (Oh my god. I'm 25?!) And I'll be honest. I have and I haven't. Mostly "haven't".

It's one of those things where you know it's a smart thing to do, but it doesn't seem necessary at the time, so you end up brushing it off.

Until something happens, of course.

Like say. Balding and passing out all the time.

We're all human though so until we finally experience it firsthand ourselves, the advice won't really sink in. Heck. When it does, we might even try to pass off the wisdom as our own to some fellow who won't take it seriously at first either.

C'est la vie.

While we're on the topic of vitamins, do any of you kiddies remember this?

I really think these vitamins were more popular than the show itself.

Well, anyhow, I decided to look up to see if adults can take these. Apparently more adults take it than we know it! They are vitamins after all. I remember looking forward to eating these at the end of every breakfast. It's like tart candy! The pink ones were the best and I'd always try to pawn off the purple ones to my sister.

During my search, I found this blog here:

http://buy-her.com/things-for-healthy-living/adult-gummie-vitamin/

The blogger talks about taking them during her pregnancy and she's sounds so cute in her writing. She made a comment about ODing on vitamin gummy bears that made me crack up.

I didn't need to read her entry to be convinced though.

From now on, I'm taking vitamins everyday!

Balding > 20 something year old intestinal parasite

2010-09-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

I should have went and "partied" last night. I meant to. Really.

We had left Su's dad's birthday dinner so we could meet up with another friend, Mimi, at the La Fenetre's re-opening.

But the moment we got home, I saw the bed and knew that any and all ideas relevant to transporting my tired body back out there would be quashed.

And yet, I gullibly thought I could take a mini-nap and somehow find the energy to get ready to go out.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I set the alarm for 10 minutes, which was then countered with a snooze for another 10 minutes. And sadly, there have been many a day where I'll snooze it for every 10 minutes for an hour but yesterday just wasn't one of those days. I gave in and decided that there was no point in going out if I couldn't even get up.

Sure, it might just sound like I was tired from whatever it is that I had being doing during the day but...this has been happening much to often throughout my day though. The fatigue.

Two weeks ago, I passed out unexpectedly. Almost midst conversation with a friend too, during a another friend's clothing store opening - Candy Rox. Luckily I caught myself starting to black out, excused myself and made way outside of the store where I could pass out in front of strangers rather than, say, acquaintances that I was mingling with back inside.

Brittany followed and David caught me apparently.

Not only do I have been feeling more faint, weak and tired, I get moments of nausea (minus the actual vomiting), shortness of breath and oh yeah, I'm starting lose a lot of hair. More than the usual.

Take a look at exhibit A. I'm balding at the top.

Um. If I were to zoom up to that, it's pretty bad. Like. I-want-to-spray-paint-that-area-black-bad.

I'm suspecting that I might be anemic again. About 3 years ago I had a pretty bad encounter with anemia. I started to collect chunks of my hair in little plastic ziplock baggies and dated them to prove to the doctor the amounts of hair I was losing. I could've have made a Slash wig out of my locks for a kitten.

People, NOT DOCTORS, but would like to THINK they're doctors, always like to give in their two cents and bring up that perhaps it's "stress" that's causing the hair loss.

That's like saying "Maybe you need to drink more water" to someone who has been suffering acne for years. As if that wasn't one of the first theories they would have already thought about...

It's plausible. Sure. TOO plausible though.

How could one explain that a third of my hair was gone in one month?

Of course, I'm sure stress that came with worrying about my hair loss plucked off a few more hundreds here and there in addition to the current number.

I went to the doctor. Got my blood drawn. Passed out. And found out a week later that the reason why I had passed out and why I was so tired and losing so much hair was because I was anemic (low red blood cell count, iron deficiency, etc)

She told me to eat lots of steak (yum!) and start taking iron supplements and prenatal vitamins. Prenatal vitamins are concentrated in folic acid and iron because pregnant women will lose a lot of nutrients during their pregnancy. So. I nourished myself with the supplements and hair stylists started to comment about the baby hairs all in between my scalp about a month later.

Within a year, my hair was somewhat back to normal.

So back to present day.

Prior to my suspicions for anemia, I grew quite paranoid about possibly having an intestinal parasite inhabiting inside of me. I had some...uh...other not so pretty symptoms that led me to this conclusion. But I've always been very keen on raw foods - raw eggs, raw meat, raw fish - so...the not so pretty symptoms could have been just that. It is Vietnam after all. Despite having lived here for a year and a half now.

Plus, my memory hasn't been up to par (David keeps mentioning how scary it is), 40% of people have parasites and the symptoms are so common that a lot of people and healthcare professionals will mistaken them as other things like having a cold or a stomach flu. At least I'll have my suspicions documented so in case I've been diagnosed incorrectly now, I can prove to people later.

Last week, David took me to FV Hospital, a respectable international healthcare facility in district 7, to get checked. I told the doctor what my guesses were and gave out a blood test, a stool and urine sample and have been waiting for her call.

Hopefully it's nothing major. I'd rather be anemic than have a resident parasite. At least he has good taste. I mean, who wouldn't like living in a body that constantly feeds on McDonald's, pizza, and raw-everything! I need to stop scaring myself though in reading all these stories online about how people will have had worms living inside of them for 20 years and being completely unaware of it.

It might explain why I'm so ridiculously skinny, no matter how much I eat.

Hmmm...

Till then.

Bisous.

Magazine Cover: Gadget Magazine (Indonesia)

2010-04-22T03:51:00.000-07:00

So, I have decided. As a challenge to myself and to better cater to Vietnamese readers (most who are my family, I'm sure - Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Hi Chu A! Thiem Sau! Chi Ngan! Di Binh! And everyone else!), I have decided to write my blogs as "bilingually" possible.

Minh da quyet dinh roi. Minh da tu nhan thach thuc de viet nhung blog cua minh bang ca hai ngon ngu tieng Viet va tieng Anh. Tieng Viet cho nhung khan gia nguoi Viet (da so chac la gia dinh cua Isabelle hehehe, con xin chao Ma! Ba! Chu A! Thiem Sau! Chi Ngan! Di Binh! Va tat ca moi nguoi!

This has been quite a blogging hiatus. And I have a lot of updates to share.

But for now, here's my Gadget Magazine cover (January 2010) that I shot in Jakarta, Indonesia that I mentioned in my last post.

May thang nay da la mot su nghi hoi lau va minh co nhieu thong tin moi de chia se voi moi nguoi va cac ban! Tuy nhien, minh se chia se nhung thong tin do trong nhung blog tiep theo va hien thoi, minh se post bia cua Gadget Magazine. Isa chup bia nay o tai Jakarta, Indonesia.

My friend Randy forwarded me the link to the magazine but I guess you have to pay for a subscription to flip through all the pages? I can't read Bahasa, lol.

Oh well. Check it out until I can get the rest of the editorial up.

Co le minh co the xem tap chi tren mang ma minh nghi chac la minh phai nop tien de xem tat ca tap chi? Do nhu vay thoi - minh khong biet doc tieng Bahasa, lol.

Khong sao. Cac ban hay xem bia nay va hy vong minh se post nhung hinh khac tu bai thoi trang nay.

http://www.e-magz.net/Main.php?MagID=36&MagNo=127

Traveling Updates

2009-12-26T09:25:00.000-08:00

November proved to be a peak season for modeling work here in Vietnam.

December, not so much, but more so with events and whatnot.

I have a handful of work to update with my website, my agencies and even on this blog.

Truth be told, this past month, I have taken on a lackadaisical approach with blogging.

Instead, I have been preoccupying myself with the highs and lows of dating (?), providing me yet more dating no-no's and lessons to file in the catalog. I'll keep this part of my life vague.

To quickly update what I've been up to, (with more pictorials to come) I got a chance to travel to Indonesia for the first time...

spent Christmas Eve's wining and dining during sunset on a friend's yacht after diving in the beautiful waters of Cebu, Philippines this past week...

and now I'm getting ready to fly out to Thailand in a few hours with the family.

I took this when I was in Bangkok last year from Sirocco on the 63rd floor of the Dome. Beautiful, no? I'm excited to be in Bangkok for this New Year's. I'll be back in Vietnam before I know it (with my newly obtained 5 year Vietnam visa, yeah-yuh) shortly followed by my 3 month contract in Hong Kong at the start of January.

Whew!

Till next year!

Isabyebye2009

Oh! You're that girl in Ưng Hoàng Phúc's music video “Căn Gác Trống”, buy some gum for me?

2009-12-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

Ung Hoang Phuc was a popular Vietnamese singer who recently released his comeback debut cd.

My talented roommate Brittany Tran came up with the concept after countless hours of putting the track on repeat in her itunes for visual inspirations and directed this as her first music video in Vietnam. I'm proud of the girl as she is heading her own company and putting S Film Pro (www.sfilmpro.com) on the map.

I got casted as the eye candy.

And so far, I've been recognized here and there but I think I'll be more known as that half looking model that you always see but you could never put a name to the face.

One of these oh-so-defining moments has to be when I was walking out of Q Bar on a Saturday night. Your typical street guy selling gum exclaims, "Oh! You're the girl in Ung Hoang Phuc's music video. So pretty. Buy some gum for me?"

I didn't. And was quickly pulled away to go home.

I think I may have already chewing on some.

So. They recently released the music video to which you lovely folks can watch here.

And here are some behind the scenes photos from the shoot:

Anh Phuc was fun to work with because we were dancing like mad hamsters and had a good time. I have to give it to him, he stayed energetic throughout the entire shoot. We went from like 6 am to maybe about midnight?

P.S. This is the same day that I got mugged to knifepoint so for the first part of the day I had to wear glasses because my contacts were stolen along with the rest of my bag.

The eyelashes kept hitting my glass lenses so instead of wearing my glasses like a normal person, the press captured my true essence as I was forced to hold my glasses like so:

Behind-the-Scenes on the shoot clip:

At the music video press release event:

Brittany and her beloved storyboard!

I was looking for food.

Tearsheets: đàn ông Magazine with Thanh Thức

2009-11-16T02:18:00.000-08:00

This is my second time to work with a Vietnamese male model and it was for đàn ông (men) Magazine .

And out of all the male models, it's with who I think is actually the best looking male model in Vietnam - Thanh Thuc. He was really fun and professional to work with along with the rest of the crew. Laura provided her Laura V Collection and was so stylish that I thought she had literally gotten off of a plane from Hong Kong. And of course, this is my 48538th time working with my good friend and make-up artist/hair stylist Tommy who booked me for the gig.

Bonnie & Clyde, much?

Bisous,

IsaBonnie

Tearsheets: PARKSON Department Store Sale Campaign

2009-11-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Here's that Parkson Campaign that I posted behind the scenes photos from a few entries ago.
And then I booked again for Parkson for a beauty shot in Dep Magazine. Yay!

Evil twin sister!

BEHIND-THE-SCENES: CLARA magazine (Indonesia)

2009-11-10T05:47:00.000-08:00

So around midnight on Friday night before Halloween, I receive a phone call from an Indonesian publication called CLARA magazine that had been in contact with me a month prior to. We had been in talks of shooting but I never heard back from them. When they called, they told me that they had just landed in Vietnam and that we would shoot at 6 am the next day. Eek! Good thing I decided not to go out that night.

We shot for 2 different editorial spreads (8 outfits per spread) for the December issue and finished by 3 pm. I must say, schedule well kept! I got a chance to flip through their magazine and fell in love with their editorials. Stylish and up to date.

And right now, Indonesia is a hidden market for modeling. Mainly commercials. But they have big time localized versions of different international publications such as Elle, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, FHM, Maxim, Bazaar and Esquire. A real hot spot for new models to build their portfolios. I was once offered a 2 month contract for Indonesia but decided not to take it. Glad Indonesia was able to come to me!

The crew said they would mail me copies when the issue's published so until then, enjoy some of the behind-the-scenes photos!

I've gone batty. For Halloween, that is.

2009-11-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

Tis a second year to spend Halloween in Asia.

Last year, I was dressed up as a Pussycat Doll (?) and danced the night away at Embassy in Makati, Philippines. I had put the costume together with whatever I scrounged up my suitcase and it worked out. Usually I'd like to put a lot of thought into my costumes and I really get into the swing of things. The dorkier, the better.

But Halloween is a rather obscure holiday for this particular continent and there's limited availability to GOOD costumes.

There are no costume shops.

No. Costumes and relevant accessories are scattered amongst toy stores, children's clothing boutiques, and the random stores that sell miscellaneous things you're not quite sure how to categorize (i.e. phone jewelry, plush bunny backpacks, knock-off Hello Kitty trash bins).

Partygoers with worthy outfits either

a) traveled to a neighboring country where Halloween is more mainstream (ie Hong Kong)

b) made a visiting friend from the States bring one, or

c) got it made.

Sure. You can get all crafty and creative by buying supplies and create a costume out of scratch - but even good supply stores are hard to come by here. At least that's a true story in Vietnam.

But I do have to give credit with how the younger crowd is slowly making Halloween trendier. Then again, maybe I should give the brownie points to the nightlife venues marketing it as yet, another reason to party.

I mean, ahem, "celebrate".

We went out to Bounce and even though the prize winner of the best Halloween costume would be grandly rewarded with a Versace bag worth $800 - maybe half of the attendees were decked out. And half of those were halfheartedly. You know. Like the people who wear normal clothing but then they don a wig, a mask, or bunny ears.

Even I can admit that I was on the verge of doing it halfheartedly.

I was entertaining a few ideas actually but got lazy and came across this little beauty last minute:

Yeah. I'm a bat-gremlin-mouse-thing. The big ears is what sold it to me. Anything with ears are just too cute for me. When I have children of my own, all of their clothes will come with matching animal ears. This is actually a part of a whole kid's costume but the shirt was much too tight and hot for me to even bother with.

So I ended up borrowing Brittany's tunic-top-turned-to-a-much-too-short-of-a-dress-but-hey-at-least-it-matches-my-ears-and-wings-and-plus-in-Mean-Girls-Lindsay-Lohan-makes-concrete-history-with-how-Halloween-is-the-only-holiday-that-girls-can-dress-a-little-bit-more-revealing-than-usual-without-the-criticism.

Anyhow, hope you guys had a safe and happy Halloween!

Bisous,

Isabat Du

Mỹ Thuật Cover & Tearsheets

2009-10-29T00:32:00.000-07:00

Yay! Another cover! And these are some of my favorite tearsheets from Vietnam!

Mỹ Thuật
MUA: Hung Max
Hair: Dat Safari
Photo: Nguyen Long

Model See! Model Du! Fashion Show Rehearsal at the Diệu Giác Orphanage

2009-10-11T01:02:00.000-07:00

With the way most expats/foreigners live here in Vietnam, sometimes you can't help but forget that you live in Vietnam. Especially in bustling metropolitans such as Saigon and Ha Noi where you're surrounded by other foreigners, skyscrapers, fancy restaurants and luxury shopping areas.

But it doesn't last very long because you come across constant reality checks throughout your day.

Whether it's a family of a mom, dad, a little boy and his little sister all covered in dirt, riding around the alleys picking up trash both as work and a family activity.

Or street kids pressuring you to buy their 5,000 dong packs of gums in front of the lounge/bar/club you just spent 400,000 dong on drinks.

An elderly convincing you to buy a lottery ticket while you're eating dinner and wondering why your own parents are closer to retirement than they'll ever be.

Or a handicapped person begging on the streets while being ignored by most of the public.

Vietnam is one of the most beautiful countries I have had the pleasure of visiting (and now living in) but it's also one of the more heartbreaking ones as well.

I was chatting with my friend Matt who works at a PR firm here called TQPR. He had mentioned that he was recently at the orphanage for their company's monthly visit and I asked him if I could join him next time. So I've been organizing a mini fashion show with some of the kids and TQPR gave a budget to work with buying clothes for them.

I have been stopping by the Dieu Giac Orphanage (http://www.orphaned.org/) to teach them some runway moves, get them fitted and they'll be strutting their stuff tomorrow night! Every time I come there, they get really excited and have been really pumped up about it. They've been asking me to bring lots of friends as an audience and I hope people will be able to make it out there to support.

For safety reasons, I can't post a lot of pictures. But just as a sneak preview, you guys can watch one of their practices. I filmed it so they can see how they look like so far. What's even cuter is that they're the ones who made up all of their poses!

Bisous,

Isabelle

Channeling Carmen Miranda! CHICA CHICA BOOM CHIC!

2009-10-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

Not that it was done purposefully, but the look for this particular shoot is seemingly reminiscent of Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, no?

All I was missing were fruits on my head.

Ooh. Maybe I should do a shoot with fruit on my head.

But like...exotic fruits from Vietnam.

Except for maybe Durian. Ha!

These shots were recently published on www.danong.com (Dan Ong means "men" in Vietnamese). You guys can check out the rest on the site:

http://danong.com/News-Nguoi-mau_34.aspx?article=2967

Photo: Hạo Nhiên
Makeup: Tommy L
Stylist: Aaron Kwok
Thực hiện: Nguyễn Vũ

Bisous,

Isaboom chic! Ay ay ay!

Tearsheets: Hàng Hiệu Cover, Style Cover, Her World Editorial

2009-10-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

Last month, I had 2 covers for luxury magazines Hàng Hiệu and Style.

I'm just a tad bummed that my agency's scanner wasn't working so the scan quality isn't up to par.

Oh well!

Creative Director: Henri Hubert

Photographer: Phan Thanh Can

Art Director: Long Thanh

Make-Up: Andy Phan

Hair: Hoang A Pon

Stylist: Ivy

Wardrobe: Nem

Creative Director: Henri Hubert

Photographer: Tuan Nguyen

Make-up: Andy Phan

Stylist: Ivy

Models: Veronica, Tanya, Isabelle (T-Squared)

Wardrobe: Milano Boutique - Dolce & Gabbana, Roberto Cavalli, DSquared2

Photographer: Mads Monsen

MUA: Tung Chau

Stylist: Minh Bui Singer

Jewelry: Agatha

Parkson Print Ad Shoot

2009-10-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

Recently booked the Parkson department store sale print ad campaign

So here's some behind the scenes shots from the Shooting Gallery:

Boobies!

Breakfast!

Layout of looks

Preview on the computer screen

Making love to the voucher

"Please don't make love to the voucher" lectures the photographer.

Ok, so he didn't really say that.

Stylist Silvia de Britto

Make-up artist/hair stylist Minh Hoang

Fighting shoot producer Jeigh Santarina

We were seriously yelling "Mine! Mine! Mine! B-tch!" lol

I'm definitely curious to see how it all turns out!

Bisous,

Isabelle

Interview: Thời Trang Trẻ Thế Giới - July 2009

2009-10-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

This is an interview I did a few months back that I never got a chance to scan.

It was done when I had just gotten here actually.

If you're Vietnamese, you'll have no problem reading this over!
If you can't read Vietnamese, well...I'm too lazy to translate.

Chao cac ban! Day la phong van tu tap chi Thoi Trang Tre The Gioi. Neu cac ban la nguoi Viet Nam, chac chang cac ban co the doc duoc. Va neu cac ban khong co doc tieng Viet duoc, cau nay khong co quan trong gi het!

Haha. I think maybe only the bilinguals could really appreciate that last crack I attempted.

Enjoy!

Shoot Location: S Film Pro

MySpace is like that popular hot mean girl who partied hard in high school but is like, fat, ugly, and probably knocked up now.

2009-10-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

MySpace. You're lame. At one point, you were cool. At least cooler than Friendster.

(Huh, what's Friendster?)

And now, it's like Facebook is the new "hot" girl in town (though it has been like 5 years) and MySpace is so desperately seeking attention from it's former admirers and attempting to emulate itself after what everyone else is all about. But it tries much too hard to be like Facebook which only makes it even less attractive and more pathetic.

I mean, look at this!

My last login was September 5, 2009. It's been a month since I've logged in and actually, that timeframe is rather small compared to the few months I've been MIA on there. And both my last status update and blog entry was from April.

One of the biggest MySpace mistakes lays within the blog section for me. I can't stand how they limit the number of entries on there and would automatically delete your oldest post when you write a new one.

I SHOULD delete it but...it's been somewhat of a good public interactive venue for me to share my work. Facebook is more personal for me, I actually know every one on there on a more personal level and it's been a good way for me to keep in touch with my international friends.

I like the whole Facebook "Fan" page concept but if I made one for myself, I feel kind of hoity toity.

If they only came up with a less "conceited" name, har, har.

Tiếng Việt còn, người Việt còn, phải không? Hmm...

2009-09-29T00:23:00.001-07:00

Although born and raised in the States, Vietnamese was actually my first language.

When my parents had immigrated to California, they knew little English and spoke only Vietnamese at home. My only exposure with the English language was in daycare, Sesame Street, Mister Roger's Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow and candy wrappers.

When I started kindergarten, I was a relatively quiet kid. I can't figure if it was because of my shy personality or the language barrier but either way, no one really takes kindergarten seriously. Only when they whip out the gold star stickers of course.

But it wasn't until first grade when you're somewhat expected to participate in class and I became a little more social amongst my classmates. I was called retarded because of my "fobbish" accent in my English. And hence, the ESL (English as a Second Language) classes for the next two years.

In the meantime, every Sunday, my parents would take me to Van Lang, a Vietnamese school founded and maintained by volunteers tied by their dedication towards preserving all things Vietnamese. Here, I learned to how to read and write, geography, history and culture. I only had two more levels to complete before "graduation" but decided to stop when I was 13 when high school came along.

By then, I had perfect American English and my Vietnamese had an American accent.

And to be honest, I could have cared less about learning Vietnamese at the time.

I found it to be a bore and irrelevant to whatever it is that 13 years old thought were so crucial.

Shopping? (With your meager weekly allowance)

Boys? (Who operate purely on hormones until a decade and a half later)

Pagers? (That are now completely non-existent, come year 2009)

Both my parents reassured me that one day I would thank them for sacrificing their time and efforts in putting me through Vietnamese classes. I scoffed at the idea seeing as how I felt that I was putting in all the time in studying new vocabulary, memorizing poems and writing essay after essay after essay on whatever topic the teacher saw fit.

When I was 12, all of my classmates were either around my age, give or take one to two years. One day, we had a new student in class. Someone who seemed much older than us. I can't recall her name or face but I remember she was pretty, mature and she had thick blunt bangs. Our cluster of friends interrogated her.

How old are you? 23

What school do you go to? I've already finished college.

Why are you here?

Strange how certain moments stand out throughout your life with no rhyme or reason and mean absolutely nothing to you until much later on it just...clicks.

She answered with a smile and told us how she used to take Vietnamese classes like how we did at our age. She thought it was stupid, quit and now that she's older, she wishes that she had stuck with it and that one day, we'd understand.

It has been years since I've quit. Yet, I still have retained my reading and writing skills thanks to Vietnamese dubbed dramas, karaoke and written snail mail to my mom and dad every now and then. I always thought my speaking was decent but it really depends on who you talk to.

Coming to Vietnam, I have had a mixed bag of reactions. Some people think that my Vietnamese is really good in comparison to the younger generation of Viet Kieus (term for overseas Vietnamese people). And some think my Vietnamese sucks and their 5 year old kid speaks better than I do. True story. Others think the foreign accent in Vietnamese is really "cute" while others feel as if I've "mất gốc" (lost my roots). I get criticized quite often and it hurts actually. I usually remain quiet afterwards and wonder if I have?

I've become quite insecure with my Vietnamese but I figured, since I'm in the motherland, I have plenty of opportunities to improve it. So I hired a tutor recently to help me one-on-one with my accent along with adding more to my vocabulary bank. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for an hour each. I've only taken 4 classes so far and my tutor - Co Tho - says that overall my Vietnamese is at an 85%. I've been giving myself a 60% level so I find that number to be rather flattering.

Granted, I won't ever sound like a perfect local, but that doesn't mean I can't try to come pretty damn close it!

Check out my notes, yo!

Bisous,

Isabelle Du

"On the Stool" Interview. The name alone made me giggle. Plop!

2009-09-28T02:37:00.000-07:00

So.

I was asked to do a quick interview recently and it was for Time Out.

A weekly English publication in Vietnam about travel, leisure, lifestyle and culture.

Funnily enough, my friend Hilton of Yogen Fruz did the same interview in the prior issue.

Anyhow, many thanks to Nhung who pieced it together and scanned a copy for me to share with all y'all.

Did I walk under a ladder? I might have before opening an umbrella indoors.

2009-09-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

Something very upsetting happened last week and but I'm going to just leave it at this for confidential reasons. At least here. However, it's just about the same level as the mugging incident.

I followed up with a visit to the temple after friends suggested that I pray to try to ward off the bad luck I have been encountering. (Mind you, I'm not superstitious but you can't help it after a series of unfortunate events you had no control over) Brittany had accompanied me since she goes to temples more than I do but this was our first time stopping by this particular temple.

There, I met the rudest monk with what I can only describe as a "thuggish" demeanor. To summarize all-in-all, he showed no sympathy and insinuated that I was at fault for not being more careful. Sure. I can admit to when I'm careless but things will happen regardless of how careful of you are. And this last incident was no exception to that. He then added, "You can go upstairs and pray if you want, but I don't know if it'll do anything for you."

My jaw dropped.

Brittany frowned and tried to comfort me with how after so many times of going to the temple, this was the first time she had come across such an insensitive monk. I then convinced myself at that moment that surely I had been stricken with bad luck if I had the displeasure of meeting such a person out of all the monks to have consulted.

A week has passed and I've calmed down a bit of whether it's bad luck or not. But I haven't been sleeping well at all for the past month. I keep having nightmares of getting mugged, almost shot, or worse of all - stabbed. I hold back from sharing details because lately they have been involving people I care about and I'd rather be the only person to worry about it.

I think it's time I get a plastic butterknife to put underneath the mattress. My mom used to have me do that whenever I had reoccurring nightmares.

But in other news, my dad is back in Vietnam and he got me pepper spray for self-defense.

The package even discloses that it "contains an invisible ultra-violet dye which aids police in suspect identification". Ooh.

I hope that I'll never have to use it.

But ah, the weekend is here and it should be an amazing one at that too. I'm heading out to Phan Thiet! I will probably end un-recognizably pruny since my habitat for the new few days will either be at the beach or in the pool. Het xay qua!

This is what I can do with my tongue.

2009-09-10T03:39:00.000-07:00

3 leaf clover.

Chọn em làm VJ cho YAN TV - make me a YAN TV VJ, yo.

2009-09-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Chao cac ban!

Cac ban oi! Tuan nay, em da duoc loc vao ban ket. Trong 10 nguoi, em hy vong cac ban se chon em cho em co the di tiep theo chung ket! Em muon lam VJ tai vi YAN TV se giup phat trien va thay doi cong nghiep entertainment cua Vietnam de buoc len toi trinh do quoc te. Va neu em duoc chon lam VJ cho YAN TV, em se co gang lam mot nguoi dai dien cho nhung nguoi the he tre Viet Nam (Gen Y).

Hay nhan tin:

YANVJ 202

Va gui ve so 6339

Nho cho ban cua cac ban biet va cam on ban da ung ho em!

So in Vietnam, there's YAN TV which is like a Vietnamese equivalent to MTV and they're having a VJ Hunt. Every week for 3 weeks, they show 10 different candidates and viewers are to vote their favorite. And after that, they have a final with the top 3 favorites, I'm assuming? I got into week 2's selection and to vote, you send a text with YANVJ 202 to the number 6339.

You have to be in Vietnam to vote actually so that's why I'm writing part of my entry in Vietnamese. The English is for the regular readers and any wandering expats in Vietnam that had somehow stumbled onto this here blog, har, har.

You can see my profile/video along with the rest of the profiles at:

WWW.YANTV.VN

Below on everyone's profile is a link to the YANTV Forum and it was interesting to read good feedback.

Here, they say that one of the other guys and myself are very "photogenic" on screen.

This has to be my favorite comment only because they said that this week, Arthur (a friend of mine actually who happens to be a white guy who can speak really good Vietnamese) and I are the foreigners of the bunch "nguoi nuoc ngoai" and that it makes the VJ Hunt more diverse - "co them mau sac moi me" (more colorful and fresh). Granted, we have an American accent in our Vietnamese but it means a lot when others can appreciate our effort and ability to be able to speak the language.

BIG credit goes to my mom and dad for taking me to Vietnamese school every Sunday for 7 years!

Cam on ba ma da hy sinh moi chu nhat cho con co the di hoc them tieng Viet cho 7 nam. Vi vay, con se luc nao rang nho nguon, nho goc.

One of these days I'm going to download that Vietnamese font so I can put my accents and start writing my entries bilingually in Vietnamese and English. Boo-ya!

KrabStyle Campaign (Vietnam)

2009-09-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

My ad for KrabStyle is now out. I can't wait to see the other images when they're released.

WWW.KRABSTYLE.COM

Here's a previous blog entry with behind the scenes photos from the shoot.

http://isabelledu.blogspot.com/2009/06/mickey-speaks-canto-in-hong-kong.html

Youtube Video: Office Life

2009-09-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Brittany showed me this and it's worth re-posting.

Sexy.

Chán cơm thèm phở. Bored of rice, craving for phở.

2009-08-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

One of my students shared this Vietnamese saying with me and I found myself so amused by it!

Chán = Bored

Cơm = Rice

Thèm = Want/Crave

Phở = Vietnamese beef noodle soup

Originally, it's in the context of fidelity where someone will be in a relationship already but they'll start messing around with someone else. But I wonder if I could use the same saying to apply to other motifs in life - such as changing careers, stepping outside of a daily routine, etc.

And then there are those who are more like:

Chán cơm, thèm phở.

Chán phở, thèm bún riêu

Chán bún riêu, thèm Bánh xèo

Chán Bánh xèo, thèm McDonald's Big Mac.

Trebek, I'll take "my life" for 300,000 Vietnamese dong, a crappy Nokia 1280 phone, and a strapless bra, please.

2009-08-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

I could barely remember the details, both vague and minute, about his physicality.

The only thing I could recall is rather trivial:

His long sleeve forest green outer coat made of canvas-like fabric.

And I only took notice of it because I own something quite similar and it's one of my favorite articles of clothing. It looks cuter on me though.

Within an hour I had already forgotten his face other than how his angular visage had owned deep acne pockmarks and scars. (To which, by the way, I would have usually sympathized with because I have been an acne sufferer myself for years).

Brittany and I had an early start to our day. It was her first directing gig here in Vietnam for Ung Hoang Phuc's music video and I got casted as the "love interest". We had to make a run to our friend's place to borrow some blankets as props on set and I drove my motorbike with her as my passenger. 5:30 am. Still quite dark outside.

We made our way through the alleyways and as I parked, Brittany got off and made her way to our friend's door. We couldn't reach them by phone and started to ring the doorbell. It was only us two and the rest of the neighborhood was still asleep. A few people on their motorbikes had driven past us. I remember an older lady (selling fruit?) and a guy with glass windows strapped behind his bike. After that, I dazed off a bit and paid no attention to other passerby.

It wasn't until Brittany made a comment out loud, "Who is this guy that keeps staring and driving by us?" He drove past on my left and made eye contact with me and then Brittany as he exited the alleyway. I thought nothing of it and we were alone again. Up until he drove into the alleyway again and this time, in closer proximity and right next to my right side while I was still straddling my motorbike.

I figured he had parked up right by me to ask for directions. I probably didn't look like a true local but at the same time, I wasn't loudly dressed as a foreigner either. I wore my thick black glasses that de-magnified my eyes, with black pants mismatched with a navy blue long sleeve hoodie and white tennies. I suspect it was the English exchanged between me and Brittany that tipped him off.

He stared me down for awhile actually and then my bottom peripheral vision caught a shaking movement. That's when I looked down and saw that he had a short but very thick knife pointed at the right side of my stomach.

Seeing it really didn't register in my mind that this was a weapon and that this could hurt me. I knew it was a knife and we all know what knives could do but somehow, I was so taken back by the situation that I didn't have enough time to deem it as something to be scared of.

He angrily threatened me to give him my phone and my money otherwise he would stab me. The moment he uttered, "đâm" ("to stab" in Vietnamese), that's when it clicked that I was in a dangerous situation. I quietly stepped off my bike and opened the trunk where my purse was stored. He grabbed it and I remember him plopping it into his lap and thinking how fruity it looked on him. Again, much cuter on me.

I was really calm throughout this whole ordeal and asked him if I could at least have my phone back. He barked back "NO" and drove off.

I really just wanted my phone contacts and what I should have asked was if I could have my SIM card back. Joke's on him though, it's an old school crappy Nokia 1280 that everyone's been making fun of me for having. The buttons are poofed up because it's been dropped in the toilet several times and I never got a new one because it's survived water damage and all kinds of reckless handling. It's been left in places and of course, no one ever steals it when I come back for it.

New phone models nowadays have weaker bodies and plus, a cheapie phone deters theft. I'm sure had this guy seen my phone beforehand, he would have been like, oh - never mind and donated me a new phone while he was at it.

The only thing worth stealing in there though was my Canon point and shoot camera that I had gotten as a birthday present last year (after losing a Lumix in a cab on the way to a casting and replacing it with a newly purchased Olympus dropped in the sand a week later).

Thankfully, I had already uploaded all the pictures that needed to be uploaded.

The only sucky is part is that my friend who is staying with me here had borrowed it over the weekend while dj-ing in Singapore and he didn't get a chance to upload those pictures and videos. I remember asking him the night before if he had uploaded his pictures and that he should because I wanted extra memory space should I take pictures on set the next day.

Other than that, everything as was just as replaceable: my wallet with 300,000 Vietnamese dong (which is only 18 USD), both of my driver's licenses, social security card, credit card, debit card, pictures, sim cards from different countries, my make-up bag, my contacts, strapless bra, contact solution, Brittany's face wash, hydrocortisone, my favorite Guarana lip butter from the Body shop...

If anything, Britt carried more valuables than I did. All of her money, her passport, and just everything because she'd rather have it with her anywhere else. Of course now, she's going to be leaving almost everything at home. Britt suspects that as he made his rounds in the alley, he was figuring out who he had a better chance of mugging and she had a lot of space to run off to. I was on my bike right by a wall.

After he had left, I stayed still. It took me a few moments to go over to Brittany. We couldn't believe what had happened just then. We were really quiet, mostly because we were so shocked, and when the silence became threatening, she repeatedly pressed the doorbell and I started shaking the gates trying to get our friend's attention to let us in. In case the guy decided to come back again.

When our friend came out, Britt repeated the story and I sat myself down in disbelief. 10 minutes later, my body starts shaking and I broke down and cried. It had finally clicked.

I could care less about what he took. I've been robbed before. Last time was when the maid took my money from my apartment in the Philippines.

But I thought about my mom, my dad, my sister and everyone I had ever cared and loved in my life.

I thought about my friends, those who have meant a lot to me, those I had wish I had gotten to know better, those I always see on my buddy list and never bother to IM just to say hi, e-mails I never got back to, and those that I have sadly lost touch with.

I thought about how I didn't make enough phone calls to my family to ask them how they were doing, what were their weekends like, to update them on how I was doing, if global warming was affecting them somehow, if they preferred PCs or Macs, what was their favorite toy as a kid, or their favorite holiday to spend with the family, has my uncles and aunts finally let my cousins use Facebook, or if they've missed me...thought about me?

I'm really thankful that Brittany and I are both safe and that nothing worse came out of the situation. I love her very much and she's already been through so much. I have been replaying the whole episode in my head to see if there was anything I could have done differently. But there really isn't. I even thought about how maybe I should have kicked over my bike to disarm him but even then, I'm passive by nature and resistant ninja echniques aren't the first thing that come to mind for me.

It's funny. You always hear about these things happening around you but you're much too vain to think that they'd ever happen to you. But things like this only add to you as a person.

After that, we zipped off to the set and shooting helped take my mind off of things for awhile. But I'll admit, I'm more scared today than I was yesterday. I'm a bit paranoid now. But nothing I can't get over of course :)

Now it's time to do some major damage control in replacing my belongings, acquiring contacts, and hunting for some mace or a taser gun.

Wow, writing everything out made me feel a whole lot better.

Remember to tell your loved ones that you love them and be safe :)

Bisous,

Isabelle

It's official. I signed it and just sent it in.

2009-08-14T04:08:00.000-07:00

3 months. 2010.

Hàng Hiệu Magazine Tearsheets: Kenzo, La Perla & Audi

2009-08-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

The internet at our new place is so frustrating.

(And no, it's not Vietnam. People assume that internet in third world countries are as slow as turtles marching in peanut butter but I've used fast internet speed here before - if not faster than what I've used back in the States. Like anything else, it just depends on things, that's all)

So, I haven't been able to open up my blog (or any other blogspots for that matter) nor have I been able to open my own website. The internet provider's excuse is that their filter must have banned my sites for good-golly-knows-what-reasons. We've changed providers and at least now I can blog, but as far as having access to my online portfolio - still to no avail.

I have decided to accept it for what it is and just go to coffee shops if I ever need to update it. After all, I do adore my cà phê sữa đá!

Oh. I never got a chance to scan the tearsheets from Hàng Hiệu Magazine I had mentioned in the last post but they sent me the high res files and I'm posting those instead :)

Creative Director: Henri Hubert

Photographer: Thanh Can

Art Director: Thanh Dat

Make-Up/Hair: Andy Phan

Stylist: Ivy Tran

Bisous,

Isabelle

Sexy is knowing how to enjoy yourself. You can take that as a double entendre, if you'd prefer.

2009-08-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

Let's make this a quickie.

I have some exciting tearsheets to post up here but alas, I have to run by my agency to get them scanned.

In the meantime, I'll just post up some shots from a test shoot I did recently with my friend Marcus who's been modeling here for awhile in Vietnam. He's half Vietnamese and half French and hands down, has the best physique I've seen on a male model here so far. He works hard for it.

If you were to finger through the magazines here, you'd probably be chuckling too at how the majority of male models suck in their bellies just as their female model counterparts. It leads me to wonder if they even attempted to create somewhat flattering abs on them via photoshop because you definitely see more defined abs on the locals who are working hard out on the street. I kid you not. I'd comment more, but I'll leave it at that.

Creative and art director: Marcus Guihem
Photographer: Otto
Model: Isabelle Du & Marcus Guilhem
Hair & make up: Phuong Dao

Please note: These next two are raw and unedited outtakes. Meaning, if you look closely enough, you'll be able to see my huge bruises on my legs from falling off my motorbike while parking. Ha!

We weren't smiling in the actual poses but I'm only posting these though because we were just having fun and being ourselves when these were taken. And that's sexy to me. I love candid shots and these turned out nicely even if we didn't mean for them. I like them so much that I think I'm going to ask the photographer if it's possible to edit them for me to use them in my book - yeah!

That's it for now. Oh. And I'm feeling really ansy about something.

Cross your fingers, toes, legs and eyes for me.

Bisous,

Isabelle

Give me some paper and a pen, and hence, a novella.

2009-07-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

Current facebook status. It cracks me up. Brilliant.

'Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.

If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.

If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.

If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.

If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.

She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.'

Should I model in Malaysia soon? Then again, the real question here is, how bad do I crave for nasi lemak and how much will I miss pho?

2009-07-27T04:54:00.000-07:00

About 2 months ago, I had mentioned how I had received offers from 3 different countries for 3 month contracts. I then made the decision to base myself out of Vietnam instead and take up on the offers later on.

But recently, one of my agents sent me this e-mail:

Dear Isabelle,

One Malaysian agency wants you so much. They ask if you worked in Malaysia before, with any agency or for direct bookings. which year?

Please inform us if you are interested to travel to Malaysia for 3 months.

Their clients like you so much and wants to invite for jobs.

I will wait for your answer.

Out of the 3 countries offered, Malaysia was actually one of them. And I've worked there once for a direct booking (the Evelle skincare campaign that I had oddly enough, posted the other day). And so, for me to hear from Malaysia once again, I have been pondering whether that's some sort of sign that I should take up on the contract...

Vietnam's market has been a strange market to tackle actually but things are starting to roll in for me here and I'd like to maintain that momentum. If I leave and come back, I feel like I'd have to start all over again. It's somewhat reminiscent of when I left the Philippines a bit abruptly.

Hmmm...

Oh wait. I just remembered. Malaysia has McDonald's. Ooh. This is going to be tough.

Magazine Tearsheets: On the cover of Sức Khỏe Gia Đình & inside Phong Cách Magazine

2009-07-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick bloggette with new tearsheets from Vietnam and then I have to run to another shoot. I'm excited to have these a part of my body of work mostly because one, I needed to add more diverse commercial work to my book and two, these help me look very fitness-oriented.

Even though really, the closest thing I have played to tennis was badminton and I've only done yoga once. And that was bikram yoga, mind you. Also known as, "Hot Yoga", where you would do yoga exercises in a purposely humid room turned up over 100 degrees.

Sounds hardcore, right?

I nearly passed out because I dehydrated much too quickly and the man who had his leg over his neck and shoulder was starting to sweat out body odor. Yum!

When I announced quietly, "I think I'm seeing spots...", the instructor replied, "If you're feeling faint, that's great!"

And that's when I made a quick exit for the locker room and laid on the bench until I felt like my soul had found its way past all the humidity from the yoga room and back to my body.

Anyhow. I have been reorganizing my portfolio and it's starting to look a bit strange. I stick in my commercial work and Vietnamese tearsheets in the front and my editorial work from everywhere else afterwards. It doesn't flow as well but I think it's just silly and inconvenient to carry two separate portfolios for different work. Oh well. Maybe no one really cares.

On to the tearsheets!

Sức Khỏe Gia Đình

Photographer: DL Duy

Make-Up/Hair: Minh Nhut

My first cover from Vietnam! Yay! For what can be translated as "Family's Health" magazine.

I forget that someone who's not familiar with Vietnamese written literacy, that at quick glance, "Sức Khỏe" wouldn't read as "health" but as...

Phong Cách Magazine

Photography: Eduard

Stylist: Anh Pham

Make-Up: Tung Chau

Models: Thai Ha & Isabelle Du

Bisous!

Isabelle

Aging Models. And. Say Cheeese! (Burger. With an extra patty, light on the lettuce and of course, a side of fries)

2009-07-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

What people fail to realize is as glamorous as it is for a model to don on high end names as breathing mannequins and whatnot - when it comes to the editorial and fashion world, there's no money to be made there.

It's pretty, sure - but higher budgets revolve within TVCs (tv commercials) and campaigns thanks to the advertising dollars behind it. And in Asia, it's an even truer story.

Just as how you'd update your yearly nerdy school ID photo in hopes of a more attractive you for the new semesters to come...

(oh wait, or was that just me back in the day?)

...so do responsible models constantly updating their portfolios.

(Below, I've posted up some new smiley, commercially, head shots.)

Your portfolio is never finished and you have to add things to it and take things away from it from time to time. One, to better cater to the markets that you're in and two, you can't exactly use the same headshots that you shot 3 years ago if you look different now.

And mostly likely, you do because let's face it - age is the one sure thing that will always goes up and will never come down.

Of course, there's always rare exceptions. For example, I once met an Eurasian male model from Italy while modeling in Bangkok who had just got back into modeling after taking a hiatus for several years. He was 29 (probably 30 at this point) but used portfolio images and head shot from when he modeled back when he was 19.

That's a decade a part.

Friendster didn't even exist 10 years ago.

(Friendster is "MySpace-Facebook-speak" for today's generation)

I think maybe AsianAvenue.com was around.

Maybe.

And yet, thumbing through his book, I was thoroughly convinced that he had only recently took those images at the age of 29. At 19, he looked older for his age but at 29, he looked younger than his age. So, voila.

Personally, I feel like the majority of male models can do this. Men age well and male models of all ages are used for all kinds of campaigns. I've encountered a very minute number of female models who still model even though their age should say otherwise and hey, if they can pull it off, more power to them. I've had female model friends who are 30 and look younger than me. I don't even understand it.

But in Vietnam, I can think of a few models on top of my head where they're old and they LOOK old. Then again, this is a very strange and awkward modeling market as it is. Trust me on that one.

Age is such a touchy subject when it comes to the industry though.

They love 'em young and they'll start young. I've lived in a model apartment with 16-17 year old models.

I lie about my age. My agents will lie about my age. Anything to better secure that booking. Not that my actual age is anything to be concerned about (if you're curious, I am now two complete Chinese zodiac animal cycles) - but let's face it, society ideals has always been about youth and the industry is all about selling you methods, gadgets, magic creams and fictional fountains to procrastinate the inevitable - time.

There's an expiration date on modeling and so it does make me chuckle when people ask me, is this what you want to do for life?

(And they'll ask it with big curious eyes in a very serious tone as if I had set myself up with my own ultimatum.)

Sometimes I'll respond with some offshoot of a "no". Sometimes with or without an actual explanation depending on how judgmental I feel the inquirer is.

And other times, I'll tell them - well, they say that people on average change their careers about 6-7 times in their lifetime; more or less. And I'm only on my first, baby ;)

Bisous

Isabelle Du

Evelle Skincare Campaign from Malaysia

And in case you ever wondered what happened to that girl that always sat in front of the classroom and wasn't allowed to shave her legs until she was 18. (But uh, did it anyways with her dad's disposable razors at 14 thankyouverymuch)

"LOVEstoned" seemed the most tamely appropriate title for this series of photos.

2009-07-15T00:56:00.000-07:00

Recently, I came in to do a beauty shoot for Hang Hieu magazine.

Afterwards, the creative director Henri decided to just do a few more impromptu shots for fun. We left the make-up from the previous shoot, my hair as how I had it from the moment I woke up, the strapless black top that I had come in with and paired me up with a local Vietnamese male model that was there for another shoot and voila, here's the outcome:

A little bit sexier than my usual but it simply conveys how I'm in touch with my femininity :)

Bisous,

Isabowchickawowow Du

My ears are waxier than usual. I wonder why. Oh wait! It's because I just got my own motorbike in Vietnam! Gangsta.

2009-07-08T23:51:00.000-07:00

The extra earwax is the byproduct of the Ho Chi Minh City's pollution I have had the pleasure of driving my brand new motorbike through and through.

Isn't she a beauty? I call her my "Power Ranger". Very reminiscent of my 8 year old days where my sister and I would go around the house morphing into sabertoothtyrannosaurusdodgevipers.

So far, I've been using mostly taxis and xe om to get around the city. Xe om are motorbike guys that'll give you rides with cheaper fares than a taxi. I prefer xe oms over taxis to be honest. Just as how I preferred riding jeepneys in the Philippines.

Sure. They might seem a bit shady and yeah, maybe you're more likely to lose your freshly 30,000 dong pedicured foot and leg while swerving through Saigon traffic - but experiencing Vietnam is a taxi is completely different from experiencing it on a motorbike.

In a taxi, your body may forget what it's like to perspire in the air conditioning all while being engulfed within the taxi cab driver's body odor.

On a xe om, you might be sweating while riding out in the sun, but breathing in the wind in your face is as natural of an AC as it gets. You get to sample whiffs of street food, store shop fronts are a little more colorful and of course, you get to be up close and personal with the hawkers. The "hustlers" of Vietnam.

You know, the xe om guys sleeping on their manually geared motorbikes on the corners of streets, the kids running around in their pajamas or school uniforms selling gum and the older folks selling lottery tickets to whoever is in their vicinity.

Peak times for traffic provide you a great audience of motorbike riders. I have had a few who would cuss at me as I would smile brightly in response to them. The friends who have experienced as passengers on the backseat know that I drive slower than normally and I've tipped over a few times, explaining some scrapes and bruises and a new hole in one of my favorite pair of jeans.

I have to admit that the first few times driving around, it was a bit stressful.

At night time, it's the complete opposite. It's relaxing as it cools down and there's not as many people on the road. It's scenic and there's even more personality what with all the overwhelming neon signage lighting up the streets.

And when it rains, you feel a little wild but at the same time, a huge dork - all at the same time. The rain slaps your face, the soggy clothes make you feel like a wet hamster (if I'm wearing flip flops, I come out with grimy mud in between my toes because I'm not very good at avoiding muddy pot holes at the moment), and oh yeah...

the rain poncho and the helmet.

Those things just aren't very cool looking. Never were and never will be. No matter how stylish you try to buy them.

The ponchos make you feel like you're wearing a giant diaper on your body and the helmets, well, my comment about them isn't very pc actually so I won't describe what I actually think of them. When I looked over to the people next to me at the traffic light, I saw that they would flap the front part over the mirrors for better coverage. I copied just the same and found that my jeans were drier that way. I beamed with some amusement at the idea that I was very "local" wearing a poncho.

I do plan on getting a helmet with ears on them though. If you're going to silly, then you might as well try to be cute about it. I've seen ones with kitty ears, bear ears and even ladybug antennas.

So far, the comments I've received the most when I tell people that I now have a motorbike are all related to safety. Half of those in regards to purse/jewelry snatchers. I stuff my bag inside the trunk of the motorbike by the way so really, there's not much to worry about. And the most expensive jewelry I own is probably something that was maybe at most, 10 bucks, from Claire's accessories. On clearance, mind you.

It reminds me of when I was living in the Philippines and everyone told me to not carry anything valuable on jeepneys (these big jeeps they use as public transportation over there). And yet, I see business people riding them all the time with their laptops.

That's not to say that shady things like stealing doesn't happen but it's just as common as being mugged on a college campus or anywhere else really. It happens. And yeah, it sucks when it happens, but people need to stop making such a big deal out of it as if it's expected to happen to you every day.

You really appreciate your surroundings a little more here in Vietnam on a bike because you get to experience the rawness and the nitty grittiness of it all firsthand. You put me on a taxi cab and most likely I'll nap for at least half of that time.

When I first learned how to ride a motorbike, it was with my stepmom in Long An - about an hour out from Saigon. And when Brittany had her bike, she'd let me ride it a few times. Since I'm planning on staying here for at least a year, I was naturally more inclined on having my own bike. So far, I have been making up all kinds of excuses to take out my bike simply for the joyride. Maybe I should start my own xe om business. Brilliant.

Till next time - BISOUS,

Isabiker Du

Họp báo " Sự Trở lại của Ưng Hoàng Phúc" (Press Release Event - The Return of Ung Hoang Phuc)

2009-07-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

From last week. Brittany and I had all the sashimi our stomaches could consume at Ung Hoang Phuc's press release event.

He's back in action, his new music massages my ears and his new company www.wmarecords.com is about to revolutionize the Vietnamese music industry. I'm excited for him!

Model by day! English teacher by evening! And petty crime fighting superhero at night! Hm. Okay. Maybe not so much the last one.

2009-06-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

Ha. Looks like I didn't keep up with the whole write-an-entry-every-other-day-thing.

Oh well.

Lately, I have just been shooting for editorials. Eh. But what I'm really craving for are campaigns and TVCs!

So here are some quick photo booth snaps for you voyeuristic kids.

With Tiem, the hairstylist for Cam Nang Mua Magazine shoot.

Had an itch in my nostril while getting styled.

I have naturally sleepy eyes. I have a feeling that it has something to do with my high prescription. My eyes are a 9 with stigmatism. Meaning, I'm legally blind and I can get a handicap placard for rock star parking back in the States.

I WOULD get lasik except for the sad fact that my eyes are still increasing. One of my eyes has increased 0.5 in the past 6 months. And they need to stay stable for 2 years before getting the procedure done.

Yesterday, I seriously thought my prescription went up again and just when I was about to raise my fists in fury in the air - I realized that I had accidently wore Brittany's contacts. We really need to get ourselves some colored markers to color our contact cases.

And there are times where I'll wear colored contacts (just brown ones) so it'll look like I'm more "awake", "fresh" and my favorite: "doe-eyed".

In between modeling, I have taken up teaching English part-time here for a company's employees. It's something I've always wanted to do actually but never knew where to fit it in my life. Planning out curriculum makes me feel like a student all over again. I love it because I get to interact with a lot of locals and we exchange a good amount of Vietnamese and English. Meaning, while they improve their English vocabulary, I'm picking up more Vietnamese vocab on my end.

Other than that, Brittany and I about to move to a new place in District 3, I might be getting a motorbike soon, oh, and I have decided to stay in Vietnam for at least a year :)

Should be interesting.

Bisous

Isabelle

WE'RE WEIRD. And we have no shame. And that's why I can model.

2009-06-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

From now on, I will post a blog entry at least every other day.

I won't necessarily be "blogging" per se, but there will be something there.

And today will be a prime example of just that.

Perhaps out of sheer boredom, but more so out of spontaneity and Gemini personas, Britt and I started random dance videos. Mostly just to throw people off when commenting on peoples' facebooks. And then we realized that it turned out to be even better fun than partying. And it all began in Korea in our bathrobes. Which reminds me, I never even posted my Korea trip pictures. I ought to twitter that one. (I use twitter to remind me of things sometimes).

But back to what I was saying, if you're down, here's a video to cheer you up.

Bisous

Isabelle Du