Today I was talent scouted. My talen and good looks (normally thinly veiled from the general population) was spotted on the street in the campus and I was invited to try out for an acting role. Actually that was not what I was told...

I was walking along with Leo, a Kiwi friend I met here on my first day (can you believe it, he actually pays me out about my Australian accent?) after coming back from visiting the Great Wall. A girl comes up to us and asks if we want to help out in an educational video - they need native English speakers. We got the impression that it wouldn't take too long, just a quick interview. OK, sure. Is it on campus? No, but they will pay for the taxi ride there and back. OK, we're not doing anything this evening.

We meet at the gate to the university where there is a small group of other foreign devils and we get in taxis. The taxi takes us quite far across town, a bit further than we expected, but that's OK. On the way we find out (well, Leo and an American who is in our taxi) find out that they actually want us during the week. When we have class. We might not be able to help. Trouble. We arrive at a residential block. Hmmm... this is an odd place to do... what ever we are going to do. They take us upsairs and into an office. There they give us some scripts to practise: the guy wants to see a movie; the girl wants to hire a movie so they can stay at home; she wants to see a comedy since she had such a hard week; she wants to see an action movie because his job as an accountant was so boring he needed some imaginary action.

We practise in pairs and then go upstairs two at a time to perform for the director(?). I was told to act more. Then we sat around for a while. Some of the group were starting to wonder about the legitimacy of this set up. But I think it was actually legitimate. Apparently it is quite normal for foreigners, especially on BLCU campus, to be approached and asked to take part in educational video or audio, or for tutoring and teaching English, or other purposes where a native English speaker would come in handy. So, it seems to be quite easy to get work. So, this sort of thing would be more tempting if I was here for longer. But one month is pretty short and I have to spend some time learning some Mandarin.

However, if you would like to see me staring in a movie, that can be arranged. Just speak to my agent (um, lets see... I'll nominate Schendz for that job) or my producer (Simon).