I moved; Cape Town

H E L L O

Finally sat down to write a proper update from this amazing city.

If you couldn’t tell by my spamming on Instagram, I’ve been in Cape Town for the past two weeks. It’s a long and complicated story how I ended up here, so I’ll pick up where I left off ; Malaysia.

I came back to Europe in August this year for a very special occasion; my sister’s 30^th birthday party.

I was planning on staying in Malaysia until the end of September, so coming back much earlier was a bit hectic and stressful. I was doing well with modeling in Asia, but Europe is extremely competitive. Especially when you’re 23 and not the tallest girl around.

I stayed in the Netherlands for a short time, since I didn’t have my studio anymore and was basically crashing with different people every other week. I got on another plane to a city I’ve been to many times before; Milan.
I’m guessing it’s a little uncommon in the modeling world, but I seriously HATE Milan. I love Italy, but Milan is not for me at all.

I could stay for a month tops and basically not make a substantial income, but gain pictures and “exposure”. I wasn’t feeling that, so I left after only a few days. The city also makes me feel very lonely for some reason.

I use modeling to travel, I have from the start. I like modeling itself, I like seeing the shoots and how everything works, but my main motivation to do modeling is to travel. I choose where I work based on how badly I want to explore that specific city or country.

Usually, that will be a city close to a coastline.
I went to Barcelona to see if I could stay for one to two months, but quickly realized my horrendous Spanish would make booking regular jobs challenging. Especially when you’re looking to do commercial work like me, you’d better speak damn good Spanish there. I ended up doing two shoots while I was in the city, but decided I’d rather go back to the Netherlands and work for a while with a steady income to save up some cash instead of taking the risk of staying. On top of that, the agency I dealt with there was horribly rude and disrespectful, a major pet peeve of mine.

 I didn’t like the idea, but I knew it was best to head to the Netherlands again.

So how did I end up in Cape Town then?

Well, I was supposed to work here last year. Back then, I listened a lot more to agencies and their advice than I do now. I was in LA while the season was getting started, so I’d be very late to fly in. Not to mention, I still had a job at the time plus I was in school.
In the end, I chose to start in Greece instead. At the time I was really bummed, when I look back now I’m so happy I started in such a rough and harsh place.

It toughened me up and prepared me in the best way possible.

This year, the same agency asked me to come to Cape Town for three months of the season (October until January).
I remembered them being flaky the year before, so I was extremely hesitant to accept. They wanted me the earliest as possible, because the later in the season you arrive the more competition there is.
However, I’ve learned to not make rushed decisions.

Instead of listening to this agency – and mind you, this is one of the biggest so you’d think they know what they’re talking about-, I decided I wasn’t taking any chances.

I reached out to agencies independently, just to see the response.
To my own surprise, I got the luxury to choose from three different agencies in the city.

My rule for picking an agency is simple;

Go with the one that is happiest to have you, regardless of their size.

-also works in other situations, but I digress-

With that in mind, I chose Twenty Model Management.

 They helped me get the right paperwork and I wasn’t rushed into any decisions, which is great.

Photo by: Adrian Shields

So that’s that!

I worked all kinds of random jobs in the Netherlands to save up until it was time to leave, and now I’m finally here.

Soaking up the sun.

From November until Febuary- the best time to be here.

Looking back, I really did have a bit of a rocky start with modeling. I’m glad I did though, because I appreciate being here now even more.
Meanwhile, I’m still working on my seemingly never ending U.S. visa application, but there really is a light at the end of the tunnel coming up soon.

Not much longer now 😊

I’ll be back with updates whenever possible.
Lots of fun things coming up, I can tell.

Much love and Kisses from Cape Town

xo