And hello again

So it's been a year, 2 months, and 4 days since my last entry, I figured I would get back to posting here.  Seeing that I'm in Beijing now, all of those events I get invites to I could actually attend finally!  Rather than ignoring seeing that it has always been on the other side of the planet.

A quick entry to start.  Later on I'll post more pics and stuff probably.  I've been in Beijing for a month now, primary focus to learn Mandarin, speak, read, write.  I'm doing pretty good so far, I can get around everyday life and talk to people here, to help me with what I can't do myself but not nearly to the level where I want it.  Eventually I want to be able to read a whole Chinese script on my own.

Which segways into what brings me to Beijing.  First of all the Winter Olympics being in Vancouver is putting many productions on hold there, so it will be a very slow start to the year.  I was offered a position to be on the CAA client list here and Beijing after 2012, so I of course jumped at the chance.  CAA if you didn't know is the largest agency in the world based in LA and they represent most of the entertainment industry's biggest names, so I am so very excited to have this opportunity.  Although I have to get my Chinese to get to the point where I'm comfortable enough to read an entire script and discuss it with directors in Mandarin, or I can wait around for English productions to come.  But I'm not one to sit around and do nothing ; )

The head of the Beijing branch of CAA, Peter Loehr, has been in Beijing for several years now.  He had a great deal of experience in film here in China before CAA already.  He told me of when he first came that he knew he had to learn Mandarin quickly for work in the film industry.  He took two classes a day everyday and after a year he was completely fluent.  I am quite in awe of this man, he's extremely successful, much kinder than I would have expected or that he needed to be and very happy to be working with him and his associate Xiao Yan (very cool dude that used to be his assistant now agent).  His last words of advice that I took to heart was "I did it... so you can do it too".

And so my studies continue...