GO TüRKIYE!

I have been rooting for Turkey ever since Euro 2008 started. Turkey has a team of passionate, tactical and disciplined players. They came in as underdogs but they were not just any underdogs. I've seen how Turks themselves are when it comes to football. How passionate and supportive they are towards their national football team. Football is one of the things that bind them together as one nation.

Although Turkey has ended their quest in bringing back home the Euro cup, the team and the people back home should be really proud of the team's achievement of reaching the semi-finals of a European Championships for the first time. Even if the team was depleted with suspensions and injuries, they managed to put up a tough fight against the well-fitted Germany and their never-say-die spirit should be a lesson for all of us. Never ever give up in whatever you're doing because once you lose hope it's just as good as being......dead.

Now, if only our Malaysian football team has the same spirit as the Turks......

the osmonds

The perfume Anis bought for me
In the tea-cup with ibu
THE OSMONDS!
Marie Osmonds looking great at 45
Teens heartthrob in the 80s, Donny Osmond

It had been about 8 years or more since I last went to Genting Highlands. So my parents and I went up to Genting on the weekends, not for the theme parks but to watch the much-awaited 'the Osmonds' world tour concert. I'm not really familiar with the group. The only time I heard them singing was when they were on Oprah Winfrey show. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the show and sang along to some of the phrases of the songs. Their songs were very entertaining and the dances were cheeky so I fell in love with the Osmonds instantly. And the cutest of all the Osmonds, Donny Osmond and he still looked fit and cute at the age of 50.





Music is truly universal. It doesn't matter whether it's old songs or songs in a different language, if you just take the time to listen you will enjoy the authenticity and the 'soul' of the music. And I also went to theme park although we only had like 50 minutes to be there since we arrived late in Genting. The only rides that I went on was all the kid-dish ones and can you believe I went on merry-go-round and the tea-cup ride with my.....mum! Haha that was kinda hilarious but I think we had fun.





Anis just gave me my very belated birthday present, a perfume she bought while she was touring Paris. It has a very sweet, tender smell to it. Thanks Anis! Love ya!

in the newspapers....again!

The Nostalgia editorial board members are not getting busy with finalising all the articles that will be published in the magazine soon. Puan Joyce who is like chief of editor for Vogue magazine is already pushing all of us to the max to get ready all our articles and also sponsorships. Apparently the magazine doesn't have enough money to be published yet. So anyone who is kind enough who wants to sponsor the advertisements for the mag, let me know!


Oh and I was in the newspapers yesterday....again. Lol. But this time it was Star newspapers. It was about my Turkish trip of course. Gosh I'm getting really famous these days. Hah just kidding! Go here to read about the article http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/15/education/21467438&sec=education

A day for fathers

Yesterday was my parents 21st anniversary. Wow! 21 years. That's a big number. Their marriage ain't perfect but then again no marriage is perfect. They fight and argue but at the same time they continue to love each other no matter what. We went out for dinner tonight at the Cinnamon, a restaurant at OneWorld Hotel and while the food wasn't that great, we had a fun time laughing, catching up on our lives and just happy being a...family.

One day I hope I would marry someone as great as my dad. I hope I would be with someone who would love me as much as my dad loves my mum. And I hope to have a husband who loves and cares for our children as much as my dad loved and cared for me.

I bought my dad boxers as a Father's Day gift. It might seem funny but that was one of the few things that had a reasonable price tag to it. Ahh well it's the thought that matters, isn't it? HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to papa and to all the fathers out there. We thank you for all that you have done for us and we will always love you. :)

my turkish adventures (final part)

In Sakarya with some Turks

In front of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul

A fave past time while in Kizilcahamam: air hockey!

With an Afghan boy

With two very cute Turkish kids

Vroom! Vroom! My choir teacher who somehow looked like Mr Willy Wonka
With Rui Hao from Singapore
The boy's name was BULAT! As in 'round'.

When everyone was in Istanbul, they toured the touristic places and went on the Bosphorus cruise which I so wanted to go on ever since I came to Turkey. But I didn't get on that cruise when everyone else went! :( Because I was busy at choir practice for the finals. Since the finals would be shown live, everything had to be perfect so they had a lot of practices. From 9 am till 10 pm everyday when we were in Istanbul and because of that I missed the cruise.

But came to think of it again, I could always come back to Turkey anytime but being in Turkish Language Olympics was once in a lifetime experience which should never be missed so I guess I would have to go on that cruise some other time in the future. More of a reason for me to go back to Turkey :)

I didn't wanna go back at first. I loved every bit of Turkey. The people, the places and of course the food. Esra's mum even said I could stay with their family if I didn't wanna go back home. LOL

But Malaysia was where home really was no matter how beautiful Turkey was. It was time to go back to my family who had been waiting for 3 weeks for my return and back to my Malaysia, the land where I was born and bred in. I'll go back to Turkey soon, hopefully. Heck, I might even marry a Turk! Haha...right.

For now, it's time to move on with life and catch up with whatever that I left behind 3 weeks ago.

6th Turkish Language Olympics: chapter closed.

my turkish adventures: turkish language olympics (part 3)

Malaysian Reps with the infamous French boy, Gzim

Sweetie Niyan from Iraq and I

A'ala the Woody Woodpecker from Poland with Sakinah and I

Me with the 'Singapore Airlines stewardesses' lol

Sakinah, Achala from Sri Lanka, me and Achala's cousin

A simple 'Merhaba. Nerelisiniz?' (Hello. Where are you from?) could sometimes build friendships that will could probably last for a very long time at the Turkish Language Olympics. I made tons of new friends from different countries. But I grew closest to Achala from Sri Lanka, Niyan and Saya from Iraq, the Singaporeans and A'la from Poland. We came from different family backgrounds, countries and religions but even with our differences we managed to click and remained close knitted until the end of the competition.

The competition was a success in bringing the world closer together. On a daily basis I wouldn't make friends with someone far away like Malawi or Kazakhstan or Sweden but because of my participation in this competition as well as 550 other people from 110 different countries it was possible for us to make new, exciting friends. For example I met this really weird French boy who knew very little English and Turkish and he only knew French. So when people asked him 'How OLD are you?' in either turkish or english, he would reply 'I'm fine' and when asked 'how are you?', he would say 'on dort' which means 14 in turkish.

Weird, indeed and he was kinda the laughing stock of the competition but we remained friends with him. At the end of our 3 weeks, we exchanged e-mail addresses (not with the French boy though 'cause his computer crashed. He didn't tell me that. He told me by making slashing sounds of the computer LOL) and promised that we would meet again if we would visit each others countries.

As our ways diverged at the end and as we wonder if our paths will ever cross again, we continue with our lives with the beautiful memories made in Turkey still etched in our hearts.

What did I get from this competition? I can now speak 3 languages, I got to learn more about other cultures and traditions, I gained new friends, I travelledTurkey for free, I had the chance to have a taste of fame and popularity ;) and most importantly, by mixing with a variety of people I learned to accept the differences of others and embrace their similarities because at the end of the day we're all still humans with more similarities than we think we have.

my turkish adventures: turkish language olympics (part 2)

Casts of the Turkish Tv show 'Hakkini Helal Et'

Half of the 7000 crowd that I sang to

That's me singing :)

Being cornered by 'fans' asking for MSN adds

'world choir' during the finals

Posing with Malaysian flag with the host of the finals

Us with the main actor of 'hakkini helal et'

The empty seats in the Gaziantep stadium before the show

Once you join the Turkish Language Olympics you will be treated like a mini superstar and you will be even more famous in Turkey than you are in your own country. Almost all Turks who knew you were a participant of the competition would want a photograph with you and yeah, by the end of the competition most of our muscles were strained because of all the smilings

The Olympics received huge publicity that we were in newspapers and on the tv every single day of the competition. Even I had a fair chance of being on Turkish tv and newspapers. During the finals I was singing in the 'world choir' and close to 8000 people attended the finals in Istanbul and at the same time the event was shown live on Turkish national tv as well as 24 other European countries. Cool, huh? We sang about 6 songs, all in Turkish of course and I never had so much fun in my life.

Singing in front of 8000 people was something surreal but being backstage and getting to know different people from different cultures was equally exciting. I became closer to the participants when we were waiting backstage while watching the finals onstage through the television.


Oh and Sakinah, Isil, Sumeyra and I even made an appearance in one of Turkish's tv show called 'Hakkini Helal Et'. We were acting as Mongolians participants of the competition. We met up with the cast of the show which was really cool.

The fame and popularity we got in Turkey was....unbeliavable, to say the least. There was this one time where some of us were invited to a cafe in the hotel and we were seating in a row and all these Turks were looking at us like we were some kind of unknown species. It got a lil scary but then they started making conversations with us, trying to get to know us and our countries. While we were on our way to Istanbul from Ankara we stopped by Sakarya for lunch. I thought we were just grabbing a quick lunch and then would continue our trip to Istanbul.

There was lunch, alright...with another 600 local people! School kids and local people came to one of the high schools and met up with the rest of the participants while we were trying to eat lunch. But they were all very friendly and nice people so I didn't really mind eating my lunch while being asked to take photographs and chit-chatting in Turkish.


After Istanbul, the Malaysian team as well as 7 other countries were sent to Gaziantep, like I mentioned before 'home of baklava' and the best place to get the dessert. When we arrived at the airport, reporters and cameramen were already waiting for us and they even played Turkish music to celebrate our arrival. After that we were taken on tour around the city of Gaziantep on buses and the buses were honking along the way and we were supposed to wave to the passers-by like we were some kind of superstars. Lol.

The next day we met up with the Governor of Gaziantep and I 'bodek' him a little when he asked me what do u like most about Turkey. I told him 'Istanbul and GAZIANTEP'. And he started to give me a wide smile, "Oh thank you. Istanbul is very nice but traffic jam is really bad there. Gaziantep is more peaceful and quite." Ok, governor. Well, he was right actually but between Istanbul and Gaziantep, I like Istanbul more 'cause I'm a city girl, you know. ;)

On our last night in Gaziantep I was asked to perform my 'Sahit Olsun' song but I didn't expect to perform in front of 7000 people in a stadium!!! But I had to do what I had to do. We went shopping during the day and I was actually more worried about my voice rather than the 7000 audience 'cause I sounded really tired. And it was at night so I couldn't really see the crowd thus my nerve was at an optimum level.

After singing my song, I heard loud applauses from the crowd and people backstage was like 'cok harika!' and 'cok guzel!' which meant 'very good and excellent'. Performing in front of 7000 people in a stadium while being viewed live on local tv? I'd never done anything like this before in my life. But thanks to Turkish Language Olympics I was given the chance to be like 'Celine Dion' for awhile. Haha right.

Another post on the way!

my turkish adventures: turkish language olympics (part 1)

Me and Sakinah posing with our bronze medals

Home of the competition (Kizilcahamam, Ankara)

The Malaysian team in Kizilcahamam

Presenting Malaysia to the world
The Malaysian booth in Ankara

Go MALEZYA!!!

The very main reason why I went to Turkey for 3 weeks was because of my participation in the 7th Turkish Language Olympics. What was the competition all about? The main aims were to promote Turkish language as a lingua franca and to introduce Turkish culture to the world and contribute to dialogue between different countries across the globe. There were 110 countries with 550 participants in the competition. And yes, the 550 people conversed in Turkish although not all the time. People like me who only studied Turkish for 5 months can only make simple conversations but most important thing was that all of us tried and put our Turkish knowledge into good use during the competition.

The competition started in Kizilcahamam in Ankara, a resort situated 1 hour away from the city centre and the best place to unwind and relax. I was in the singing competition and even though singing wasn't really my forte I gave my best shot and I was mentally prepared if I didn't win. I didn't win the first prize. Competing with people from 110 countries was no easy pie but I didn't come back home empty handed. I got more than what I bargained for. For starter I received a bronze medal when the rest only got the normal ones. Lol don't ask me why and how that happened but it was a good thing so never mind.


And after my quest in the singing competition ended, it gave me ample time to make new friends from other countries and I also joined the 'world choir' where participants from all over came together to perform in a choir for the finals in Istanbul. On our 2nd week in Turkey, we had this programme where we set up booths and promote our country to the local people. Malaysian booth sold some souveniers from Malaysia and everything was sold out and we made close to 1000 lira by the end of the day. Not only did we get to make some money, we also had a chance to promote our beloved country to the world. Tee-hee.

Next post is coming up!

my turkish adventures: the people

With the Esra's family, the Turkish family we stayed with in Gaziantep

Ayse, Sumeyra and I after our dinner at Ayse's house

One of the Turkish family we visited on our way to Ankara

A cute Turkish boy we met while we were touring Istanbul

A Turk cameraman who looked like Adam Levine from Maroon 5. Don't you think so?

I'M HOME!!! I don't know where to begin writing down my long, amazing 3 weeks experience on a foreign soil. So perhaps I'll divide my posts into a few sections. So let's start talking about the people.

I've fallen in love with Turkey and Turks 3 years ago when I first went to Istanbul with my family. This 2nd trip to Turkey only made my love for the country and the people to grow even deeper. The country itself is a blessed land where everything seems perfect on the surface. The people are beautiful, inside and out. Turkish guys are officially the hottest guys on the planet. Seriously. Go to Taksim Square in Istanbul and every 5 steps that you take you will bump into handsome looking Turkish guys. And Turkish babies are just the cutest kids I have ever seen. Turkish women are not too bad too. All of them have one thing in common: a good heart.


I came across a lot of Turkish people who are now good friends of mine. On my first 2nd night in Istanbul, Sakinah, my Turkish teachers (Isil and Sumeyra)and I went for dinner at a lawyer's house who's a father to one of Isil's and Sumeyra's friends. The wife prepared wonderful dinner and treated me and Sakinah, 2 total strangers in her home like her own family. Her daughter, Ayse is a sweet pie too. We became fast friends despite my inability to speak Turkish as fluent as she is.


3 days before we left Turkey, all the 550 participants were sent to various cities in Turkey and the Malaysian team was sent to Gaziantep, the home of Baklava in Turkey. Baklava; the most famous and delicious dessert in Turkey and you can only get the best of the best Baklava in Gaziantep. We stayed with a Turkish family and of course they were very nice to us.


They had a 16 year old daughter too and we became good friends in a matter of days. Esra was a beautiful, sweet girl and even though I couldn't quite understand half of the things that she was saying, there were just this mutual friendship bond between us and tears rolled down our cheeks when we said goodbye to each other before I headed back to Istanbul to catch my flight to Malaysia.

Go to Turkey if you have the chance and believe me, you will enjoy it as much as I did. You'll gain new friends, make new memories and if you're lucky you'll find love too ;)

Next post coming soon!