I Am A Sexy Telegram

I meant to say "I am a sexy penguin"...but apparently penguin is "kay-ooooh" and I said "kay-looooh" or "telegram".

We had two shows today, Peguin in the morning and Shakespeare in the afternoon--each on completely opposite sides of Hong Kong--a $350 cab ride away (paid for by the company, of course...and that's about 45USD) I'm incredibly popular with Cantonese high school students. Actually, at the museum show earlier this week, about 8 girls (not from our group) cornered me to ask where I was from, why I was wearing a toga, and tell me that I'm "ho leng".

But back to today, my first brush with celebritydom. The school where we performed Shakespeare was particularly special because it was the first time the school had hosted a show, and for many of the 1,000 students in the audience, it was their first time to ever see a live performance. We arrived at the 2nd school around lunch time and ate at the cafeteria. I would say it brought back fond memories of my youth, but I sat surrounded by Cantonese kids in brown uniforms at a plastic picnic table next to the outdoor pink basketball court and ate glutinous rice in a lotus leaf. None of that really sparked any recollections of JHS. From the moment we arrived, we were treated like celebrities. Girls giggled and talked amongst themselves, presumably about Tim; everyone said hello and waved enormously. For some reason, they had about 10 students backstage before and during the performance, so we befriended them, explained the phrase "break a leg" and gave them autographs. My Chinese name has two characters, but I can write only the 2nd one. So, I just write that one and tell the member of my adoring public which one to write in front of it.

I can't seem to accurately paint this picture--it was too surreal. Like a Wallace Stevens poem wrapped in a Dali painting. But with more cheering.

I've managed to find some photos from the Greek show. I must thank my ever-concerned sister for PGifying this first one. Apparently, I forgot to mention that I was wearing fake man-muscles...things got out of hand, lawsuits were filed...Devon saved the day with graphic fruit:

With Tim, javelins, and discuses...disci? dad?: Entrance to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum: :With Vera, our amazing production coordinator for all of our shows.
I found this giant rubber tree on Victoria Peak:
Johnson, our accountant, has moved back to Australia. I will miss him very much, but I know we'll be in contact because he still receives the utility bill for my apartment. Here we are at the penultimate supper, not to be confused with the last supper:

For anyone keeping track (probably just my mum): back row l-r is Johnson, Logan (sales team), myself (awesome), Greg (juggler), Kazumi (roommate), sitting l-r is Vera (PC extraordinaire), Maggie (former DE employee), Angel (does anything and everything at DE), Joan (empress of HR), and Cloris (sales team).

I experienced my first HK bowling at this 2-lane alley in Vera's friend's apartment building. Nothing very "Big Lebowski" happened, but a good time was had by all...despite the hour-long commute (aiyah!)

And now for another name caption. Front row l-r: Eric (new actor), Joan, Meg (teacher for DE), Angel, Vera. Back row: Chris (juggler, polyglot, and ho yao yeng), myself (still awesome), and Cara, our bowling benefactor.

I leave you with that...I have a busy end to this week with two more shows tomorrow, rehearsals Friday and Saturday, and I need to choreograph the song "Luck be Lady" for a group of 6 boys...