The Youth Forum consists of a Karl Popper Debate Championships (which we ranked 23rd), educational tracks (I'm in the British Parlimentary) and also social activities every night! Life has been very hectic at the moment and I've been getting on the average of 5 to 6 hours of sleep each night.
Eleasha and Amanda are here too and there's also another Malaysian delegate from KL.
I'll try to give a brief insight into my life here everyday. Sorry if the updates are irregular as the Internet connection here is shaky and I can only use it in the mornings when everyone else is still asleep ;)
Day 0 - 18th July
We left the Penang airport at around 9pm for our connecting flight to Changi airport. The airline we used was Singapore airlines so you can imagine how comfortable we were and how good the food was :) The flight was tiring, more so since we transited in Singapore for 2 hours at the early hours of the day. I'm sorry that I can't really upload pictures at the moment as I'm rushing for time but I'll do it the next time I am free.
The stupid things we do in Changi while waiting for our flight.
Day 1 - 19th July
We left Changi on the 1am flight to Istanbul. The flight was all right, though we had to sleep all the way there and couldn't really make full use of the in-flight entertainment. Food was good and regular (kudos to SIA!) and service was prompt. The plane landed at around 7.30am on the 19th in Istanbul's main airport, Ataturk. After passing through immigration, collectiong our bags, we waited for our hosts to pick us up from the airport. We left the airport in a Doga College bus (Doga College is the official partner of IDEA in hosting this forum in Turkey)
The journey from the airport took around an hour. Istanbul's scenery is very different -- it probably has to do with the fact that Turkey is part Europe and Asia. We shared the bus with participants from Zimbabwe and Romania. In the bus, I sat with Noma from Zimbabwe and it was a fun trip talking to her.
Finally, we reached the hotel -- Greenpark Bostanci Hotel, one of the better hotels in Istanbul. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we were not assigned to the same rooms because we were supposed to be 'intergrated'. My roomate, Nicola was also from Zimbabwe (talk about coincidence) so we didn't have any problems introducing and fitting in because we had already met in the bus.
After a nice, long awaited shower, we went for lunch in a cafe down the road from the hotel. Unfortunately, the weather during the day in Istanbul is as hot and humid as Malaysia's. Fortunately, Turkish food is delicious, especially the way they cook their meat. We tried the kebab (or something like that) in the cafe and it was delicious as well as reasonably priced. I had beef kebab, and personally, that was one of the best beef I had ever tasted (probably due to the fact that I was starving!) because of the way they cooked (grilled?) the meat and it was thinly sliced.
We headed back to the hotel and tried to discuss about the motions which we were supposed to have done since months ago. However, we were so tired that we weren't very productive and we had another nap. By the time we woke up, it was time for the opening ceremony in the hotel where we had a welcoming dinner with Turkish food and music. The weather at night in Istanbul is very windy which makes it a refreshing change from the hot weather of the day. After a party, we went back to our rooms for more discussion on the debate for the next day.
I know I'm really slow, only blogging about the first day while a week has already passed but I'll try to be more regular and upload more pictures whenever I am free or have a stable Internet connection.
See you!
0 Destinys Fulfilled:
Post a Comment