2018 is going to an end and its time to reflect.
It felt like the year was going fast, even though with the so many new experiences and places I saw, it also feels very long in a way. I also only started doing Instagram stories one year ago, and to my surprise realizing people actually watch this sometimes so all so random stuff.
The first few months I was living in Singapore, being in between countries as new australian immigration laws forced me to leave Sydney end of 2017 after calling it home for 7 beautiful years; while waiting for my canadian permanent residency getting approved. After all I am more than grateful for the experiences living and working in Asia, sometimes the things not planned are turning out to be the best ones of all. On my journey from Singapore to Canada I realized that the flights with stopovers are even cheaper than a direct flight and so decided to travel to Kyoto and Osaka in Japan, followed by Hawaii for a few days. Travelling and seeing the world is definitely one of the greatest things to do. In Japan I literally felt like a 5 year old child, all signs and even the labels of ingredients in the grocery stores are all in japanese and so I could not read a thing and got lost all the time. Even in an elevator I had no clue what button to press, there were not even numbers, all just Japanese signs, which looked like drawings to me. For sure I understand how kids must feel who cannot read yet…In Osaka I was staying in a capsule hotel and the toilets are so futuristic with heated seats and everything works automatic. One cool surprise were also heated milk tea drink bottles or cans out of the vending machines, you can pick to have them either cold or hot. At first I had no clue and expected to get a cold can and took it out of the vending machine and was almost in shock like experiencing it to be a hot can! I did not even know before that that was possible! As its colder in Japan it comes in handy though to have a warm drink and I enjoyed it a lot. After Japan the next stop over was Hawaii and I was in the ocean as much as possible! I only spent 3 days swimming and snorkeling in the ocean this whole year and that was during my stay in Hawaii. The years before in Australia I was at least once a week swimming in the ocean and that I miss more than anything this year!
Arriving in Toronto, Canada as a Canadian permanent resident felt more strange than nice especially in the beginning. The nicest thing was to see my boyfriend again after such a long time being in long distance and finally meeting his family. I have lived in Vancouver for 1 year back in 2009 for acting school but other than that feel not canadian at all, more so australian after 7 years living there and german after growing up in Germany for sure. Still I became a canadian permanent resident this year, even though it does not feel like home at all so far. Apart from exploring Toronto I also saw Montreal for a few days and travelled home to Germany for a few weeks. Moving countries and starting all over from scratch, at first in Singapore, and then in Canada brought lots of opportunities, but also lots of challenges.
I experienced the first winter with snow in 10 years, even 9 years ago I was living in Vancouver and it was just raining as it does not get that cold there. The last snow was in 2008 in Germany! Here in Toronto the snow came already in mid November, luckily just a little bit so far. The best part though was having the present of celebrating a white Christmas, its like in the song “ Dreaming of a white Christmas…” it really felt like a dream came true having Christmas with snow, Christmas tree and together with my boyfriend and his family.
My most memorable experience as a model this year was the shoot I did for Singapore Airlines. The whole experience of sitting in the prototype of the new airplane business class seat was super exciting and also the highest paying modeling gig so far. The most exciting acting role this year was acting in a TV series and being on TV in Singapore. Further I acted in several video commercials for big name brands like Siemens Road Solutions, Razer Goliathus Extended Chroma, Singapore Gardens by the Bay and Raffles Hotel.
In Toronto I worked on several modeling gigs for e-commerce, including Temple Athletic Company, Crave & Covet, Blushing Bridal Boutique, Headstone Brand T-Shirts, BesideU Handbags, Lug Bags and many more. Also I appeared in numerous ad shoots, and promotional videos i.g. for Allen’s Vinegar or Sabra Canada and modeled for 2 punjabi music videos, one for Kaur B, which will be released next year. Further I had the opportunity to model for artistic projects, a photoshoot for Art exhibition with projectors for The Artist Project - Contemporary Art Fair 2019 or “The edge of the clouds” videoart by Simin Keramati planning to be showcased in galleries next year. From particular significance in Toronto is that I got the chance to record the most self tape auditions ever, even though I did not book many roles, its such a great practice to work on new scripts every few days and to be ready for 2019!
We will wait and see what next year brings and which country comes next in 2019! Happy New Year Everyone!