Pictures from Turkey 2

My really good friend and I by the Apollo Temple

Class teacher and I...Frau Eggenschwiller =)....really sweet lady

Pictures from Turkey

Me at Apollo ruins....

Me & friends during the boat ride to Side

At Aopollo ruins

At Zurich Airport

South Turkey -- Day 6 and Day 7

22nd Sept 05 , Thursday -- Visited old ruins. Aspendos.Also visited some bridge. Went to Manavgat to see the waterfalls. According to my classmates who have been to the Rhinefalls, this Manavgat waterfalls is not that big. Nothing spetecular.Wanted to visit the Amphitheatre, but was too expensive. We tried different ways to enter illegally without paying. I followed this classmate of mine and we managed to get a few pictures.hee hee....

23rd Sept 05 , Friday -- Normal day, swimming in the sea....time flies when we r having fun. Soon, it was time to pack and go home. Gathered at 3.45 am n left for the airport.Every1 was half dead as no1 slept.This time with the imigration officer, it was a total opposite. He saw that I was from Malaysia(Islamic country), he started talking to me in Turkish! Coming from an Islamic country doesnt make me a Muslim, nor does it make me fluent in Turkish. It doesn't work that way! I told him that I didnt understand a word he said, and he was smiling all the way, continuing to speak to me in Turkish!

Arrived home safe and sound. Tired, tired, tired.....I really enjoyed myself. The destination was not that important. The important thing was I got to spend more time with my classmates and I really did have a good time with them. =)

South Turkey -- Day 5

21st Sept 05, Wednesday -- We had a boat tour from Alanya till Side. Firstly, we toured the town, Alanya. Again, encountered ppl who tried to get us to rent their boats. Typical.

At 12.30, we had our lunch in the boat. THe boat was double decker, packed with mostly Swiss and German tourists. We sailed from 12.30 till 6.40.Along the way, we had some stops for passengers to jump off the ship/boat into the water.For some of my classmates, me included, we had sea sickness. THe boat rocked really vigourously. Luckily, no 1 threw up. At least not me.I ended sleeping during the boat ride for the 1st few hours. Unfortunately, we didnt manage to see any dolphines...=(

Oh ya, also manage to collect planktons during our boat ride. Bio session. Cute little blue dots swimming in the glass can.Out of curiosity,I shook the glass can really vigourously as I wondered whether planktons would die if I did that. Hipothesis proved wrong. They didn't die.They are small, insignificant yet hard willed living things.

At night, met the guys by the beach smoking Turkish smoke.Shisha. Smoked shisha with them.All I can say that Shisha tastes and smells better than ciggs.=PIt wasnt a surprise that the guys each bought shisha back home.Costs bout 40 euros exclu 'tabak' --tobacco. Apple flavour tastes and smells great. If I would rank the different kinds of smoke, shisha's the best.Cigars and pipes really turn me off. Cant stand them at all.Makes me wanna vomit blood.

South Turkey - Day 3 and 4

T19th and 20th Sept 05, Monday & Tuesday - As usual, sports in the morning till afternoon. Then it's biology session which included snorchling(to find stuff under the sea), water experiments, autopsy session(with a small fish)etc.....

Went to the town with friends. Man , I was really really surprised that there were soooooo many tourists in Side. German and Swiss tourists in specific. In the hotel itself, 90% were German and Swiss tourists.What surprised me more was that the Turks can speak and understand German! I assume better their German is better than their English. All shops are filled with fake goods from Puma, Adidas, Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, etc....a really huge variety of clothes, bags and shoes...a shopping paradise for shoppers...Oh ya, let me describe a few scenes we encountered in the town.

We as 1st timers in the town:
Scene A:
Tourists (we) walking along the streets. The Turks hear us speaking German or rather Swiss German. T-Turks. U- Us

T : CHOCKILAND! CHOCILAND! Bist du von die Schwiez? (Are u from Switzerland)
U : Ja (Yes)
T : Kommt, kommt! Heute alles gratis!!(Come! COme! Today everything's free! )

Scene B :
T : Guten Tag! Wie gehts (Good day! How r u?)
U : Gut, sehr gut! (good!)
T : Haben Sie eine Minuten?(Do u have a minute?)
U : Ja
T : Heute ist meine Geburtstag. Eine für 12 Euro! (Today is my birthday!
1 for 12 Euros!

Not as 1st timers any more:
Scene A:
T : Hallo, hallo! Bist du Schweizer? (Are u Swiss?)
U : Keine geld mehr! (No more money!)

Scene B:
T : Hallo! Hallo! Haben Sie eine Minuten? (DO u have a minute?)
U : Alles zu teuer! (Everything's too expensive!)

Those are the scenes we encountered in the town for god-knows- how many times was that.Every shop we pass, there's bound to be some1 to ask all these questions......but sometimes it can piss ppl off...like my friend was pissed off by this. Other tourists too. I guess every country has their own way of doing business.Oh ya, my nationality was also questioned for the whole week when we were in the town. Below are the results:

Japanese : more than 15 times
Chinese : 3
Dutch : 2 ( Dunno how the hell they can see me as a Dutch?!
Sunglasses covering my eyes is no excuse! Of all nationalities,
Dutch!?!?! How hilarious is that?!?!?! )
Korean : 1
Philipines : 1

As I said, a trip into town is sometimes really interesting and hîllarious.

South Turkey - Day 2

18th Sept 05, Sunday -- It was sports in the morning. Officially, the whole week is a school week in school. But for the 3rd class students, we are allowed to organize class trips and have our 'school week'during this whole week.

Swiss being typically Swiss, e.g sporty and 'sun worshipers', all of us walked under the scorching sun for 20 minutes to the sports park, despite someone from the hotel could've fetched us with the van.Played tennis, basketball, tennis, badminton. I really like playing tennis. Really really like it. Wanna continue playing tennis when I get back to Malaysia.REally have a good time playing tennis.My classmates were surprised the way how I held my pingpong bat. They call it ' The CHinese way'...they tried playing pingpong the way I held ma bat...hehe....

In the afternoon, went swimming in the pool, and in the sea...ahh......the sea is so beautiful!!! Clear dark blue in colour blending together with the cloudless clear blue sky....the scenery was beautiful to make up for the scorching sun....I'm bound to be brown --again. Gotta de-tan soon.

Had our biology session by the sea and rocks. Looked for living stuff under the sea and by the rocks...crabs, reefs, corals....interesting biology session. This is what I call interesting learning session. Not which thick biology books where we used to highlight almost every single line in Malaysia.

Continuing our journey, we proceeded to the Apollo Temple.Don't ask me bout the history coz I have no idea, check it up in the internet. I can show u the pics, but not tell the history.All I can say that it's a huge ruin. With other smaller ruins around.Gigantic.

At night, candle light dinner in the hotel by the sea. Wonderful. This is what holiday is. Relaxing, chitchatting with friends, sea, waves, wind.... hmmmmm....Life is great......... =)

South Turkey - Day 1

17th Sept05, Saturday -- Day to leave for South Turkey. After so many discussions over terrorism and our flight Onur Air, it was finally the day. Our flight was delayed, surprise surprise.... Juz some history over Onur Air y it caused anxiousness to most parents. Onur Air was vorbidden to land in Germany, France and Holland in May.Apperantly it was considered a dangerous airline, without meeting the safety measures.But well, the ban was lifted and most importantly, it was never vorbidden in Switzerland.

In the plane, heard the 'perfect' song : If Tomorrow Never Comes by Ronan Keating.Great. Perfect for soothing our souls in a plane which was once vorbidden in 3 European countires. If Tomorrow Never Comes....

It took us about 2 and a half hours to reach Antalya airport.We clapped hard when we arrived safely in the airport.It was worth a celebration coz 'we survived Onur Air' !The minute we stepped out the plane, it was so damn hot! Just like Malaysian weather, not to mention it was also really humid too.At the imigration counter, the officer looked at me as if I was some criminal or some refugee trying to smuggle into Turkey together with a bunch of Swiss, coz my passport was the only Malaysian passport within 24 Swiss passports.He asked my for my name, family name. I gave him the privilledge of saving time by even spelling out my whole name.Luckily, everything went on fine....hehe...

No surprise that the guys rushed to the duty free shop to buy vodkas, spirits, etc.It was so cheap compared to Switzerland.Took the bus to Side, which is about 60km from Antalya.Along the highway, the scenery was just different from Switzerland and Malaysia. It seemed more empty and dry.

Finally reached our hotel, Altinkum Hotel.3 of us to a bungalow.Patrizia, Debbie and I had the best bungalow.1 queen size bed, 1 normal bed, sofa, cushion, it was really spacious compared to the other rooms.hee hee....

Our hotel was really just by the sea.Really beautiful.....had our dinner by the sea...the sound of the waves were good enough to make up for the terrible music aired through the speakers.Food was not bad, was expecting some typical Turkish food though...but apperently with German tourists, they dont like change. Therfore had the typical European stuff...salad, chicken...nothing to foreign to me....

Some guy from the community invited us to a Russian Ballet at night in the Side Amphitheatre. We were like,'wow, how cool is that coz normally we have to pay quite a sum to watch a really good Russian Ballet'.The Side Amphitheatre was quite beautiful, old, looked like some Greesisch ruins...but in all, quite beautiful, something we wont be able to find in Switzerland or Malaysia.

We were really in for a surprise. The ballet sucked.I was really surprised coz usually Russian ballet is the best in the world! & this 1 really sucked. The dancers werent in time with the music, they were just dancing to their own tempo, the music would just suddenly cut off at the end...in short, terrible.

Then it was an intermission, although it wasn't mentioned, we assumed it was an intermission. All of us finally left during the intermission coz we were really bored and it was really a waste of our time. Seeing that the guy who invited us to this ballet performance had left, we left too.Can't blame us for being rude....

Went back to our bungalows...sat around...chit chatted...tomorrow would be a good day.... =)

Cantonese Lives!

9th September 05, Friday -- School ended early for ,my class coz we didnt have english after lunch. As for me, as I have choir and piano, well, I had to stay back. After that, went to Zurich to buy stuff for my Turkey trip this Saturday. On this day was also the day for the AFS party for the new exchange students and the old exchange student in the region Baden, Aarau and Wohlen. Frankly, I didnt exactly want to go at all. but then I thought, what the heck, what have I gotta lose? I went

I planned all the timing so perfectly. The train arrived in Aarau at 7.00pm.Perfect! Looking around, eh, where are all the ppl? I checked again.Man, I was at the wrong station! I was supposed to go to Baden! Damn! I was already 1 hour late when I reached Baden station. No 1 was there--obviously. So I called Selina. She told me to get a taxi to her place. I was like' no way, I dont have any money left', which was true coz I was only left with Fr5. Even if I had the money, I wouldnt wanna spend it on the taxi where god knows how much will that cost me. I then decided since everything's so wrong, I'm going home. She was like 'Nein, nein, das ist nicht gut! Du musst hier kommen' (no, that's not good.U must come). In the end, I took the bus to her place and some1 was there 2 pick me up.

The party was at Selina's house. Got to meet the new exchange students who arrived 1 week ago. Met these 2 gals from Hong Kong. THey were like' WOW! Finally can talk cantonese here to someone who understands!' I got to meet new ppl, liason persons from Baden,etc. It was cool. THe party turned out to be better than I thought.The 2 gals were like asking me tons of stuff and I ws more than happy to share my experiences and advices.Anw, I told them that it doesnt mean what happened to me will happen to them.Everyone has different outlook at stuff and different experiences. I totally understood how they felt when they said they were really happy that I could speak cantonese with them. When u r in a foreign place where ppl do not speak your language, or rather speak a language which seems so alien to u, u will really feel the thrill when u meet some1 who can speak the same language as u.Trust me on that. It was just the same with Sharmin and I when we met up for the 1st time in Zurich and we met a Indonesian CHinese who spoke Bahasa with us.We were estatic!

It really reminds me of my beginning here in Switzerland. I had old exchange student I could talk to and I had to find out everything but asking and hits and error.Know what I mean? All the questions the gals asked me were once questions I asked others b4. It really is a cycle.By the time we realise that the time has passed, we have to go home, which frankly, i donno if I'm looking 4ward or not. =) maybe half half lah...it's 50/50

Anw, turned out really well, got to meet the Americans, south Americans and 1 italian gal. Sometimes life is so ironic. When u expect to have a great time, u dont.WHen u dont expect to have a great time, u end up having a memorable time. Man, I gotta learn not to put high hopes on stuff now.Saves me the heart breaks and heart aches.

Hmmm....

Well, it's been a while since I've updated my blog.....juz some updates, sch's been pretty busy, as usual, planning stuff for my trip in Autumn hols(Vienna and Paris -- really,really wanna go lah) and other stuff...nothing much.....

Still playing tennis, which is a good thing coz we will be playing much tennis in Turkey, took up badminton in school, and I'm in the choir too. A pity that I'll be going home in January coz I wont be able to participate in the choir concert. =(

Went to V's birthday party, interesting, had a movie marathon. 3 movies in a row-- Shrek2, A walk to remember(the 1 show which can make me cry, despite me watching more than twice) and Bridget JOnes 2.It's funny how tipsy ppl act and talk.Makes ppl laugh.

Yesterday went to this summer fest in the Neun Kanti with friends from sch. Sona Fe....but I said it like 'sauna fest' & it really sounded really funny! anw, as usual, ppl hanging out, beers, dances, bands......what makes an outing good is the company.I had fun! But the high light of my evening was I guess receiving a candle from some anonymus person.They had this stall where ppl can send presents anonymously to other ppl.Flowers, candles, drinks....It was really a surprise! I asked the person who was it from but there was no answer.The answer was 'Nein, ich weiss nicht'

Finally found out who gave me that.It was from Anja and Sofie! What made me so happy is not becoz of the candle, but of the thought.My hostsis was so sweet to give me that! Oh ya, she also bought me a Swissgerman - german dictionary last week! How sweet of her! =) Ma hostsisters are really sweet & nice lah....last time, Laura also bought me a bag since both of them had 1, she gave me another.=)

REally, I have a great hostfamily.Cant ask for a better one. I like the fact that they think of each other and how they look out for me.Love them.=)