Our Crazy Summer, Part 4

Monday afternoon, August 16, 2010

Audrey didn't call me as promised, but texted her sister, Andrea, an update:

"Scary... Contestant #XX was disqualified and nobody knew why!"

After some prodding, Andrea shared with me that Audrey felt somewhat outclassed by her competition. She was embarrassed to discover she was the seventh shortest contestant in the group. "I'm convinced I won't win," her text said. "The only thing I have going for me is a pretty face. All the girls are more beautiful in person. They are polished and they can do the catwalk. The ones from Vietnam especially, have made careers out of being beauty queens.  They have impressive portfolios and they know the ropes!"

Audrey's roommate from Vietnam, Hang, brought her own makeup artist and translator with her to Las Vegas. She'd spent big bucks to be in the pageant... rumors had it that her expenses topped 20K. Despite the appearance of being a "professional contestant," she is remarkably sweet and unaffected. Thao (Audrey's roommate from Texas) and Audrey called her "chi Hang" (older sister), which happened to be the name of a mythical maiden in Vietnamese folklore who lived on the moon, and taught her how to navigate Facebook. Hang had someone create a profile for her a long time  ago, but never did much with it afterwards. At one point, she sensed that Thao was getting tired and trying to get her to go to sleep, so she asked in Vietnamese, "Chi co lam phien em nhieu khong? 'Lam phien' tieng Anh la gi?" (Am I bothering you too much? How do you say "bother" in English?) She promptly named her new Facebook album, which contained pictures of her pageant friends, the "Bother Album!"  Another album was unfortunately titled "My Triends."  Hang barely spoke any English at all and actually thought the word for "friend" is "triend!"  Neither Thao nor Audrey could convince her otherwise.

As it turned out, Contestant #XX supposedly was disqualified because she failed to show up for the first few scheduled events and nobody seemed to know where she was. Everyone was reminded that "If you're early, you're on time. If you're not on time, you're late!", but Audrey still found it difficult to adjust to the pageant's hectic pace, since she's so used to our relaxed schedule at home. She seemed to believe the two sponsored contestants from Vietnam, Trang Nhung and Nhu Thao, could come late to rehearsals with immunity, and regularly did. The pageant coordinators wouldn't stop talking about last year's sponsored contestant from Vietnam, Huong Giang. Apparently everyone was still enamored of her beauty and professionalism.

There was hardly any time left between rehearsals, workout sessions, and photo shoots, for the girls to hang out and sightsee as they had hoped.  Their days were jampacked with activities from morning until night. Some of the girls who had no prior exposure to dance predictably couldn't keep up with their steps for the opening dance number.  A model from Vietnam (where else?), Nhi Thao Hoang Pham, was held up as the dancer to imitate.  Despite her ballroom dancing experience, Audrey must not have made much of an impression on Crystal, the pageant's choreographer, as she got relegated to the next to last line in the formation, even though Crystal had this to say in her email to the group:

"I understand some contestants come from advanced dance backgrounds while others have no dance background. Not to worry if you are in the latter group, I will provide ample time for you to learn the steps. All I ask is that you do your best. However, because of the professional nature of the show, the better dancers who prove their skills during rehearsals may be placed farther downstage. I am notifying you now so that I am not questioned if I make a decision to change contestants' locations. Please understand that my job is to make you look good, and I mean "you" as in this entire group of contestants. My intention is not to highlight any one particular contestant, but to create an collective overall impression of the world's most vibrant and intelligent Vietnamese women on one stage. The choreographic process is a process of trial and error. I know already that I will be watching and switching contestants' places. Please trust my judgment during this process and understand my need to balance the show for both live audiences and camera audiences."

Nhi Thao Hoang Pham

Midnight at last! I had just finished a countdown of my chores for the day including picking up Audrey's laptop at Best Buy and hoped to drop dead when I received an emergency call from Audrey...