Multicultural Photoshoot: 2 is Company, 3 is a Crowd, 4 is a Soiree, 5 is a Gathering, 6 is a PARETEIH!!

- September 10, 2011, Saturday.

- Due to the upcoming mid-autumn festival (Sept. 12, 2011,) I decided to have a photoshoot of myself wearing the costumes of cultures celebrating the said event (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese.) The photos that I took would be added with greetings, and would in turn become "greeting cards" to be uploaded on Monday. Since I'd have much effort converting the house into a photo studio, I also decided to include a picture of myself in an Indian sherwani for this October 26's diwali, or the festival of lights. I had this crazy idea since I was inspired by the "impromptu" online greeting card I made for this year's Chinese new year; I grabbed an existing photo of me wearing a Chinese polo (tang zhuang)

- I asked my neighbor Bless last night if she were available today. Since she was, and was willing to help me out, I decided to have a little early mid-autumn feast at my house. I initially invited Erlyn over, but she wasn't able to come at the last minute. This afternoon, after my morning Saturday classes, I headed to Chinatown to buy some of my props/ingredients for my photoshoot and feast. I tried as much as possible to stay close and be as authentic as possible to the different cultures and their traditions in celebrating the mid-autumn festival.

- At around 7pm, Bless came down from her house and caught me preparing tteokbeokgi, or spicy Korean rice cakes (a popular street food in Korea too.) It was my first time to make tteokbeokgi, and although it might have lacked a bit here and there, it was awesome for my first try. Haha. Good thing I mustered up the courage to make my own tteokbeokgi today. Haha. Usually though, Koreans serve sweet tteok, or sweet rice cakes (sort of like their version of "kakanin") during "chuseok," the holiday Koreans observe in line with the mid-autumn festival.

- Later on, I called up my other neighbor Charmaine to ask her to come to my house and bring a small container, so she could take home some tteokbeokgi. After coming to my humble abode, instead of taking home some tteok, she hung out with us and assisted in the photoshoot.

- Soon after, I realized that my other friends Margarette and Mary Grace invited me to dinner, and out of hospitality and excitement, I also invited them to come over to have a mid-autumn feast with me (and Bless and Charmaine.) Hahahaha. Mary Grace later arrived, and so did Margarette, together with her cousin Monica (first time to meet Monica.)

- Since I am not really an experienced "home 'party' organizer," I panicked a bit over the amount of food and the number of people at my house. I also didn't want them to think that I had them over just so they could help me with my photoshoot; Bless was the only person I contacted about the photoshoot (and she knows that. HAHA.) At least I'm glad they were able to make themselves at home while I was stressing about my photoshoot.

- I initially had photos with my hanbok, with the bowl of tteokbeokgi as my prop among others, and I allowed them to taste my tteok after the Korean shoot. I also tried to bust up the energy level by playing SHINee songs through my iPod and speakers, and unfortunately, after 5 or 6 songs, my iPod decided to hang!! Oh well. At least we still got to have tteokbeokgi. I also realized that it was Charmaine's first time to meet Mary Grace, after introducing them to each other online last 2009 during the rise and peak of my K-Pop fandom. Bless was also reacquainted with Grace, and soon, Margarette.

- Margarette came just as I was finishing my dinner, before the second shoot. I was already dressed up as a Japanese, in order to pose for my "tsukimi" (tsuki = moon, mi = watch[ing]) greeting card. I was a bit surprised to see Marga's cousin Monica, since Marga didn't tell me that she'd be bringing someone over, but it was great to meet a new friend.

- While Marga, Grace, and Monica were half-assisting, and waiting for me to finish my shoot, I allowed them to use my computer to go crazy over K-Pop videos. At the same time, I was already dressed up as a Chinese, my very own culture, for the mid-autumn festival/moonkcake festival (aka "zhong qiu jie.") Ironically, instead of wearing one of my Chinese attires, I opted to wear my Tibetan garment, very similar to the Chinese garment, since it had more detail, and provided a good contrast for my red-orange-violet background. By the way, all the cloths used as my backdrop were used as former costumes in theater and various performances. I'm glad I invested in those yards of cloths. Haha.

- For the llast in the mid-autumn series, I dressed up as a Vietnamese for my "tet trung thu" shoot. Since I did not have a male ao-dai, I just improvised, and use my bought-from-Korea blue tang zhuang set. Before wearing the tang zhuang, I used my handy-dandy white thawb to create the illusion of a "long-flowing" wear. The male ao-dai looks similar to the female ao-dai, both of which were derived from the Chinese cheong-sam or chang-zhuang ("long robe/garment.")

- After that, I quickly changed into my sherwani, complete with an authentic Indian pyjama, scarf, and even the pointy shoes, for my "diwali" photoshoot. After that, my friends and I played around a little bit, ultimately dressing Marga up as my "Indian wife" and later as my "Korean wife," before wrapping up the shoot.

- Grace, Monica, and I soon left for the nearby Wai Ying, while Bless and Charmaine chose to stay and cuddle up in my sofa. HAHA. I also asked them to help me pull down the backdrop and remove the tape from them. I'm thankful that they agreed to help. (I had the bigger and more tideous chore of folding my wardrobe. HAHA.) Bless and Charmaine left while we were at Wai Ying.

- At Wai Ying, I barely talked, and didn't eat. I just drank my milk-tea jelly almost silently, obviously very tired from the shoot. I enjoyed the shoot very much, and having quality time with Marga and Grace and Monica, just as I had my quality time with Bless and Charmaine before the others arrived. I was also pleased that our helper at home was alert and very helpful this evening.

- This evening, I served my homemade tteok, dumplings - although Chinese - represented the "tsukimi odango" or rice balls/dumplings (odango) served in Japan during tsukimi. In the shoot, the odango was represented by Chinese red-bean rolls (errrr, a sort of "sweet siopao.) They were round and white. I also wasn't able to serve mooncake - for China and Vietnam - but I used the mooncake given to me by my piano teacher as a prop during the shoot. However, I served raddish cake to my visitors; the raddish cake was given to me as a super duper early birthday present by my friend Clarisse. I also served the raspberry juice I bought earlier at the Korean grocery. Haha.

- Thank you everyone for making the shoot possible. I'll edit some of the photos with greetings, and I hope everyone will like them on Monday and diwali (roughly a month and a half from today). Hahahaha. Also, I was able to successfully restart my iPod and it's working normally again. It gave me quite a scare. HAHAHAHA. :D:D:D:D