Friday20thApril07

After some careful consideration I decided to go ahead with the idea of interviewing betel nut girls. However, the hardest part perhaps was finding someone who would be willing to translate for me. I want to have the questions written so as to make them feel more comfortable, but obviously I can't just walk up to them and hand them a sheet of paper. It also had to be a guy due to safety issues. They work at night mostly to attract truckers etc, and they aren't based in the safest parts of town to be wondering around in. I really didn't want to ask any of the local guys I know cos due to time restraints I was gona have to be fairly forward and direct, neither of which I think would be taken the right way. Either they would think I was hitting on them or attacking they'd feel threatened. I'm still dealing with a couple of cultural misunderstandings (due to some overly friendly guys) so wasn't about to purposefully put myself into that situation any time soon. But then I had a small stoke of inspiration. It was a long shot but worth the risk.

I went out for dinner with some friends a few weekends ago and a friend introduced me to this guy she works with. As it turned out, he went to art school in America and studied some kind of animation, had good taste in films, and a healthy appetite for art history, and speaks Chinese. He could be very useful (and, I was fairly certain, professional enough not to presume that when a girl asks for a favour after meeting you once, it's not because she wants to jump into bed with you.) I managed to get hold of his email address and sent him my proposal with little optimism of getting anything positive back (I didn't see the point in faffing about so it was very forward.)

But lo and behold, there was an email accepting my proposal waiting for me when I got up today. I think his exact phrase was 'I would love to talk to scantily-clad hot chicks for art.'

Perhaps not so professional after all. But I don't care, I found a translator.