Life

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Well, i'm back! it was a one week trip to Turkey:Istanbul/ Edirne. The people who sent me off would be my mum, sis, sumi, sadesh, my aunt and uncle and my friend Joshua. So went on a 14 hr flight.. and got the best seat.. transitted bangkok and there came my seat partner for the rest of the journey to istanbul. His name is kenan, a tour guide. 41, divorced with kids. an ultra nice guy who offered me his place should i come to travel in istanbul. The place the pageant was held at was at Edirne, a town 2 hrs away from istanbul city. so the two organisers got me and we had to wait 5 hrs at the area to pick someone else up. gosh i was so tired. But we went to the sea side, have breakfast and sleep in the car. well, one thing that pissed me off is that everyone smokes and the two of them smoke in the car, not bothering about me. they think i'm abnormal for not smoking. GOSH. so we reached and i arrived in the midst of a practise and i looked like crap after that long trip and bad air. Anyway, i was in time for the swimming cmpetition. we were sponsored from head to toe by speedo and we had to swim a lap and there were three winners.. we had kids holding up a board stating our countries and walking in front of us. so cool. then we had practise till about 12 midnight and all the girls were complainin. I had such a bad impression of the girls when i got there. only about 5 of us DO NOT smoke and they complain 24/7 about the food, how tired they are, etc..gosh. i learnt that a lot of them were models sent by the ctry's so they do not have pageant experience and i guess that answers to their misconduct. so the next say was relaxing.. we went to this merill bridge walkway to have breakfast and soon after it was like everyday! and thy serve the same things! ouch, its gross. every breakfast its, a plate with tomatoes, 2 types of cheese, olives and nuts ad well as two packets of butter and honey. another thing, we had a special bus, open air with the name o the title, "miss peace and friendship" on it and we would travel on that everywhere we went. so the next thing we did was to go up to the border of turkey and greece and we let pigeans go.. so scary cos i fear anything that moves.. but it was a nice feeling. i guess its symbolic of peace..then we had practise again.. and moved off to dinner.. and then we had a plublic night where eylem, a popular pop star in uk came to perform and we had to do our walks to introduce ourselves on stage.. it was freezing! so then we went ot the dressing room and everyone lit their cigs and i felt like i was dying in a chymney... the following day was the pageant already so we go to go back early. oh have i mentioned my lovely roommate, Joey from china.. she's so nice and we had a real good time together. thank God she doesnt smoke. blessed already. unfortunately, we're both heavy sleepers and we didnt get a morning call for the next morning ad we were the last 4 to come down and i felt so bad! anyway. we got time to rest after the mornin program which had a lot of press and publicity..and we got all our thigsg to get to the villa restaurant to get ready..and while everyone was doing their hair and make up, i had a massage parlour with a lot of business and my hands got tired but i guess i made some of them happy.. so i was almost the last to be done.. was happy with what thye did to my hair and i did my own make up.. and the whole thing started. there were 4 rounds, the national costume, swimwear, sport/ casual as well and gown round. have i mentioned how lucky i am. well, basically, for swimwear, there would be two types, the black one was really sexy and theres the white one which came with a lycra beach skirt.i was initially allocated the black one based o position and i protested to wear it and the choreographer changed my position after hearing much of my grumbles so i got to wear the white one! so nice! it looks good on my skin too! and real decent. so anyway,of cos i expected not to get into top 10 and so i didnt .. some girls took it real bad but i expected it. Well, i'm from singapore, since when any asian ctry gets into top 10? but yeah it was good experience. miss serbia and montenegro, a blond, 179 m girl named Jelena Pevic came in first and then Edina from bosnia came in second and Miss finland came in third. I like all of them. although the yop 10 line up was political in nature, like neighbouring ctry's like bulgaira, greece, cypress, turkey getting into the line up, the top 3 didnt seem like it. So the night ended and the next day was dreary.. like breakfast byt h lake again and rest till dinner time.. everyone was so tired but its now that i got to go online in the internet cafe downstairs..funny thing that i took so long to get onto msn but not to my emails but it was good. however, the place i was at was like a chimney! again! was suffocated.. anyway, soon after, miss Holland and indonesia and myself, we sneaked out to go shopping, while i was talkng on the phone ,finally, something to make me feel less homesick. so got a few things.. its damn expensive la! i already bought a charger for 10 Lira cos my plug couldnt work there. waste money.. anyway, we went to margi's for dinner and it wa fast food.. so kababs and all were considered fast food.. at night, i spent time talking to jelena and went to jelena. edina and olta's room to chat , only to be questioned as to why 'm still a virgin. the girls were explaining sex to me man, can u believe it. culture shock. they said i was a rarity. anyway, packed my things and plotted my escape the next day.. i called kenan up and he said joey and i could stay wth hm for a night till he leaves fr another tour. so well, he spoke to the organisers and they booked a ticket ona coach back to istanbul for me and joey and we happily left the next day.. before we left, miss sweden, norway, china and i went out and got ourselves Doners and ice cream, things we weren't given! we loved it. so joey and i left and the trip there was good and kenan picked us up fro te station and drove us aorud and we went to see the bosphurus. the beautiful night sights, lvely atmosphere, shopping.. and e settled back at home.. he has a nice place! but i was a bit afraid. was a big risk i took to stay wth hm esp knowing for about 10 hrs only. and yeah so i found out his ex wife and kids stay opposite him and he didnt want them to think he was bringing girls back so we were like refugees, sneaking in and out of his place. i was real scared throughout the whole night that he would do something or the doorbell would ring and did i mention that i fell sick, bad flua nd fever. didnt sleep much at night and got up at 830am cos the clock outside showed 1030am! urgh. well, then we planned the day by putting our bags a ufuq's place and then going to topaki sariya, sophia's, the grand bazaar and the blue mosque and we wer dead beat. I think i got picked up more in these few hours then i've been in my whole life. i will write the common pick up lines later.
we took a public bus and bumped into the arlines office to see if there as an earlier ticket for joey to take and she got one that leaves 15 minsutes after me so we got her luggage down, had a chicken kabab wrap and took a taxi instead to the airport. Thanks to Ufuq who's been so nice to help us with our luggage.we went to the airport n i realised that i lost te key to my luggage bag and my sandals gave way then. so i had to wear slippers that were breaking off often too.. its from joey though.. saved by that since i couldnt open the bag..so on my flight, there was this guy who changed seat to sit with me and was flirting with me all the time..! urgh irritating. turkish men are too horney. i had to be subtly pushing him away and at the same time, being nice. so his wit and humour didnt work on me. but anyway, i slept a lot cos i took medication since i was sick..and ate when the food came.. and slept.. till it was time tor each singapore and surprise.. my parents and joshua was there to recieve me. how nice.Dad and josh took leave. Sweet surprise that ir eally do appreciate.
End of my journey.. back to school. i need to isolate myself for a while to finish the paper due on 28th.