Church?

The bad thing about making movies in China is that you never know whether or not you will be able to find a church to go to. Actually, the bad thing about making movies at all is that you never know whether or not you will be able to get Sunday off to go to church, and even if you do get Sunday off, you might not be able to find a church. I suppose it is true that I haven't actually looked for one... but...

I had a pretty good first week of shooting actually, with the exception of today which was worse than absolute crap. It reminded me of good times and gave me a good idea of the hard work that goes behind the magic of movies. Hard work isn't that bad, unpredictable weather is.

God really blessed us the day before yesterday, when Guilin got hit by a heavy hail thunderstorm. The clouds came rushing across the resort that we are staying/shooting at. Honestly, it became dark in three minutes. But the hail missed us. It must have just passed us by, perhaps we were on the outskirts of the storm clouds - because Guilin got hit so bad the light boxes are all down, trees are down, lights are out... However, because we didn't get hit, the gwailos all think we Chinese are absolutely stinking mad and went over the top. Really *shakes head* I don't know what to say.

On Tuesday, a thunderstorm came in. It became Typhoon number 10 in the space of five minutes. Tents were blown away, tent frames blown to bits, shoes flying around. We had a crane up, and the shower thingy hanging off it (aka rain machine) was flying around like Pterodactylus on a wire. Honestly. We had three cameras under that flying monster and if it had been let loose, God knows what would have happened. And in about ten minutes, the storm had completely blown out and the sun was back out. Let me remind everyone, that that was the morning I got sunburnt. Mad much?!!!

But it's good fun. We have people here who are willing to help others, who don't turn up their noses at what is deemed "other department's work" and will pitch in to help. That's what makes movies good fun - the people.

Right now I am stressed. I am stressed beyond belief because I have been asked to achieve the impossible - to get a translated script to my boss. I know that time deadlines are things that I give myself, but honestly, I'm not a translator. I'm an assistant who tries her best to interpret, and also to translate. Honestly, my Chinese is no where near good enough. We only get one day off a week, my boss can only get these new script pages into his head tomorrow. And there doesn't seem to be much chance of finishing it tonight. Not with my needing the help of other people... And who will get maimed for this? But me, of course. No question about it.

My eyelids are dropping and I can no longer see the screen clearly. I wish I could sleep away the whole Sunday... but it doesn't seem likely to happen since I still have the script stuff to do.

Life sucks sometimes, but I love it.

Good night. God bless.