Kelly Foss

June 22, 2009

B&M's 's Kelly Foss

Blog 1: A Model Life in Hong Kong

Fourteen months later and I'm back to my home away from home! The beautiful and exciting Hong Kong!

I'm back after a long and hard period of contemplation. Following the end of my four-year university career this past month, I had quite the crucial decision to make. Should I jump right into my career (i.e. take that journalism position in Toronto)? Move to California and work there? OR take one more shot at modelling? In the end, after what seemed to be the most stressful life decision I have ever made, I chose to come back to Hong Kong. This time I will be modelling for three months with a return ticket that lasts up to a year's time! Meaning modelling across Asia or the world for the next 12 months!

Why Modelling? Three reasons:
  1) I am young (you cannot model all of your life),
  2) It's giving me a chance to see the world before I settle down with a full-time job,
  3) I enjoy modelling, meeting new people/models from around the country, learning about new cultures, tasting new foods, seeing new sites, and most significantly, taking that risk of living a lifestyle that is outside of my comfort zone.


Kelly Foss' graduation The day after graduation I was on the plane to Hong Kong and surprisingly I was pretty excited for the flight. I know a 17-hour ride may seem long and boring, but for some reason it goes by super fast! Last time around I had a mini TV on the flight, which totally put the clock on fast-forward. However, this time I had a really sweet, talkative, father and daughter pair sitting next to me, and shockingly they were American! The funny thing? We were probably the only North Americans on the plane.

So it's day one (leaving on Wednesday morning), 24 hours later (now Thursday afternoon HK time), no sleep on the plane, yet oddly wide-awake, I arrive. At the airport I then met with my agent who brought me to the 'model apartment.' Threw down my suitcases, kicked off my shoes, and unpacked. Not your typical deluxe living space, characterized by bedrooms, a kitchen, and a TV with 500+ channels, but rather a small space (size of two small bedrooms) with three white beds, one filled, and two empty, a mini fridge and a microwave – "oh the spectacle that TV shows like America's Next Top Model and media images construct." Moving on, reality hits: I think, less privacy, no more home-cooked meals, and no laundry machine!? The model lifestyle is not as glamorous as it seems, but again the work and the successes you can reach in this business makes it definitely worth it!

The first night was quite the transition. I chose my territory, made my bed, and turned on the TV to find three channels, all Chinese language except for one with English subtitles (yay/nay?). Actually "yay," that night I actually found myself glued to an English subtitle channel. A Chinese politician and English broadcaster were in debate about whether to build more English-medium schools in Hong Kong. The politician thought it was a terrible idea and the broadcaster thought he was completely out of line – quite the interesting battle.

On night one, my roommate was out at the time, and so I walked around the area. I happened to find myself at a small corner store to grab some groceries and came back to find what?! Cockroaches!!! There must of been 15 hopping in front of me on my street. Not the little kind, but rather the big suckers that squeal loudly when you squash them. In detail, two of them jumped up on my foot, I dropped my bag of groceries, a banana fell out of my bag, and instead of picking it up, I booted it! The good thing is that these suckers only come out late at night, so I only recommend wearing those rubber boots and gloves when the sun goes down! :P


Kelly Foss with
South Africans friends Nevertheless, despite these disgusting critters, my place is only a ten minute walk to central (the core of the city), a one minute walk from my agency, the neighbourhood is quiet, fellow models live in the same area, fresh fruit is always available, and get this... there is a Pizza Hut, British Café, and McDonalds around the corner (Oh the smell and taste of home).

All in all, since my arrival I have met up with a couple of great old friends from last summer "Jovie, Christy, and Matty" and I am beginning to make new and strong friendships already! The great thing about the models that come to Hong Kong is that most of them are super friendly and inviting. This means it's easy to make new friends and everyone is a friend with everyone. I have already made three solid friends, "Devon, Dominique, and Justin" from Cape town, South Africa, and another couple from other countries. Being around them, I have come to realize how cool it is to have friends from different countries because you can learn soo much from each other. I had no idea that Cape Town has a huge modelling industry and I set the record straight to them that Canada is a separate country from America! :P Haha.

So what has happened "work-wise" in the past couple of days? Well after only a couple days of castings I have already booked a lingerie catalogue and a TVC for a Hong Kong mall! I am very excited to see what more is to come in the following week! Keepin' you updated J

Ciao 4 now! Thx for following my blog!

Interesting Facts about Hong Kong

Clients hire models that are well dressed and have clean, manicured nails.

The OCTAPUS CARD is a universal card that is used for both transportation & food

There is Starbucks on practically every corner downtown

Drip drops may fall on you in the midst of a sunny day – "blame the air conditioners!"

Chinese bakeries and Mrs. Fields cookie stores are found in every subway station J

Canadian appliances hooked into HK outlets always SPARK! So be careful!

Hairdryers are only available in computer/electronic shops ß So weird!

Kelly Foss is a B&M model, currently with Dreamodels in Hong Kong.