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November 21, 2006
Exercises in Humiliation
I'm working on a very fascinating story right now about international adoptions; specifically about Americans who adopt Chinese babies. China has been the number one country for American adoptions for about a decade now, mostly due to the fact that tens of thousands of babies (mostly all girls) have been abandoned there after the "one child per family" policy. They have so many babies that they have since relaxed their adoption laws and now it's quite easy to just hop on a plane and go get one. I jest; it's not that easy, but it's easier to get a Chinese baby than say a Malawian baby, unless you are Madonna but even then....
Speaking of work, tonight I agreed to appear on a segment for a popular prime time show on Fuji (which is like ABC in Japan) about Japanese culture in America. The segment is about young Americans who love all things Japanese. Why oh why do I agree to these things time and time again? I can't even speak in front of a small group of people without getting nervous and sweaty (for example, see evidence from last week's reading here)
It's times like these when I am reminded of the nightmare that was my experience with MTV. But this time around I will not be alone; I recruited Laura T to be in the piece with me. She's very excited. She's lucky, she's a natural performer. In fact, she's a talented performance artist. I am not. But it will be ok this time. I will play it cool. I will not be nervous. I will not be sweaty. This is what I am telling myself, because really, who cares if I'm on national tv as long as it's national tv in different country? We're going to this Japanese tea house in the East Village called Cha-An where they'll film us participating in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and then afterwards, sitting down and having said tea and then a brief interview on why we love Japanese culture. I have no idea what this is all about really, but what else is new?
Posted by debbie at November 21, 2006 1:31 PM