Miss Universe 2009 Review

On the 23rd of August was the Miss Universe 2009 pageant held at the Bahamas and I believe this year was a disappointing year for me as I've been watching Miss Universe since 2004. It was a back to back victory for Venezuela as they won the crown for the second row again and their sixth crown. I'm really shocked by the fact that no Asian contestants were included in the top 15 and also especially Mexico, Netherlands who were the big favourites. The Asian contestants this year were a strong batch and they're improving every year and I believe a few deserved to be placed, unlike some of the girls in the top 15 which I didn't expect at all.



TOP 15
Albania
Belgium
Sweden
Croatia
Iceland

TOP 10
USA
South Africa
France
Czech Republic
Switzerland

4th Runner-up: Puerto Rico

3rd Runner-up: Australia

2nd Runner-up: Kosovo

1st Runner-up: Dominican Republic

Miss UNIVERSE 2009: VENEZUELA, STEFANIA FERNANDEZ



On my prediction list I got 8/15, even though I heard there might be a top 16 this year but I don't know what happened to that. Most Europeans were in the finals and in the end it was a goodbye to them, except Kosovo the lastest independent country made it to the top 5 which I was very pleased with. Which she looked very stunning on that night and I'm in love with her evening gown! I did say that on Venezuela might pull a suprise on the night and she did. I think she deserved the crown but I was expecting another country to win that night. I'd have to admit that Stefania looked gorgeous on the night and the red lipstick is totally her new signature. She's fresh, very young only 18 and unique.

She was crowned by Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe 2008 from Venezuela and to be honest I was proud of them, seeing them together that they've achieved this back to back victory. Don't forget about the new crown which symbolizes peace and it was funny how Dayana dropped the crown as she was so ecstatic! haha!


I hope next year is going be a better year and I would like to see more Asians advance to the finals and I would like to see my own country Indonesia win the crown one day.


But anyways congratulations to our new Miss Universe, Stefania and goodluck with your reign!

Miss Universe 2009: My Top 16

16. Guatemala
It's been a while since Guatemala sent a gorgeous girl to the Miss Universe Pageant and I've always kept my eye on Lourdes. She's very elegant and you can never forget her look but I would love to see her placed in the finals.


15. Slovak Republic
From the beginning Denisa was my favourite contestant from the Europeans but I feel there's something missing about her. She's very a gorgeous girl and I think she needs to work more on her body. Her presentation was a satisfactory but she could've done better with her gown selection.


14. Vietnam
Vietnam has sent their strongest delegate after a few years and Vo definitely has the potential to go higher during the finals. She has that supermodel look and a very modern girl. She's very tall and has long legs which makes her noticeable but she did a great job in both sections during the presentation!


13. Philippines
For me I believe Bianca should be placed in the top 16 after a long decade since Philippines was last placed by Miriam. Bianca sure did gave a fantastic performance but I think she could do better with a different gown selection. Her interview was very down to earth but she was very beautiful, radiant and classy during the presentation.


12. Japan
Emiri will definitely crack to the top 16 and I'm glad she didn't try to copy Kurara or Riyo. But she presented herself in a unique way. Her gown in the presentation wasn't really my favourite but she actually did a great job!



11. Venezuela
Stefania wasn't really my favourite from the beginning but she showed her uniqueness compared to the other contestants. What I really love about her is the energy she puts into everything! She did well in the runway and who knows she might be a suprise in the final.


10. France
Chloe is also a very strong contestant this year! She's very elegant and down to earth from her interview section. She looked amazing with her performance while on the catwalk!


9. Indonesia
I'd have to say Zivanna is one of the strongest Asian contestant this year and also one of the best representatives from Indonesia. She has a really good tall height and a nice body which for the first time an Indonesian representative is wearing a 2 piece bikini. She can be fierce or either lovely on the runway.


8. Netherlands
Avalon is absolutely one of the most unique exotic contestants this year! With her Indonesian roots and she was so sweet in her interview. However in her swimsuit presentation, there was a lack of energy on the runway. But I believe she can make it to the top 16 after a long time for the Netherlands.


7. Kosovo
I really do think Kosovo is beginning to become more competitive in the Miss Universe Pageant since their indepedence from last year, and Marigona seems to be a very honest girl with her expections. I loved her in the blue dazzling evening gown during the presentation and she looks gorgeous in either way when her hair is up which makes her look elegant or down.


6. South Africa
Tatum is undeniably the best African contestant this year! She surely was a diva on the catwalk which she reminds me of a Victoria Secret Angel Model and my main favourite was her interview, she's so sweet and a lovely contestant!


4th Runner Up - Mexico
Karla is a very gorgeous Latina! She did very well at the presentation and I'm sure she will get into the finals. I really love her smile which makes her shine the most! She was very beautiful during her interview section!


3nd Runner Up - USA
She is definitely everyone's favourite and not only because of her sash factor, but Kristen did a great job and she deserves to be Miss USA which she proved that. If she enters the top 5, I'm pretty sure she will nail the interview section.


2rd Runner Up - Dominican Republic
Who can not forget this girl? Ada is simply fierce! She has more experience from her past back then when she was Miss World Dominican Republic and she was a semi finalist because she won Miss World Beach Beauty and I'm pretty sure she will advance to the finals! Ada really reminds me of the current Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza in her interview and shes simply beautiful! With her amazing fierce catwalk skills and has one of the best bodies in the competition!


1st Runner Up - Puerto Rico
After 2 years Puerto Rico not spotted as a semi finalist, Mayra can surely get a spot in the finals as she is every one's favourite in the competition. She is one of the best in the runway and as always Puerto Ricans are always fierce and prepared for the competition!


Miss Universe 2009 - Australia
I believe Rachael can win the third crown for Australia and as she is also Mr Trump's favourite as well in the competition. She reminds me of Jennifer Hawkin's performance back then and she was perfect in her interview, swimsuit and evening gown section. She is a very fresh natural beauty looking girl!

What a week has it been.

These days has been pretty much 'school' for me as it's been quite stressing for me, especially going through that phase selecting year 11 subjects for next year and yes I would love to do a communications course when I leave high school, but I'm not to sure which field though. To be honest I've been constantly crying for the past few days because these are the times when we make serious decisions for our life and I never knew it would be this hard. There's no use of crying because it won't do anything, action speaks louder than words.

Sometimes people can let you down for what you want to do for your career and I went to seek advice from my careers advisor. I swear she made me feel dumb when she doesn't even know who I am since this was an actual real conversation I've had with her. Basically all she was trying to say that I can't do this communications course because I don't have the qualifications. It really shocked me when she asked me 'Are your parents willing to pay you $16 000?' for college if I don't get to university straight away and I replied to her by saying, 'Yes Ms my parents are willing to pay me that much no matter how much it is, because they're supporting me all the way' She made me sound like as if I can't afford this but maybe cause I'm Asian as well. I've never went through this experience which really shocked me, but in the end it made me stronger. By having the support from my amazing parents and I'm not going to let someone take over me for what I want to do for my career. I want to show her that I can be something, in fact I want to show her that she will never imagine from me. I love my parents so much from the bottom of my heart and they are always supporting me in everything I do. The reason why I would love to go to university is because this would be the best gift for my parents and that's all they ask for. Also for myself because I know I've achieved one of my goals and also being a role model to my sister which I want her to follow as well. Since the complications my parents went through, this would be my greatest gift for them from heart.

For these past few days, I've been having black outs either from the mornings or afternoon and it's that feeling where your body feels so loose and you suddenly fall down. It's really scary me but I've been eating properly and having enough liquid. The doctor says I have a low blood pressure and I need to take blood test soon. Which I am not looking forward to, since I've just had one yesterday.

The good news is that I've finally got work experience which I am very relieved about and I'm doing work experience at my local pharmacy which is pretty cool cause I can just walk there which takes three minutes and if I had lunch breaks walk back to home to eat. How smart ayee :P haha! I'm looking forward to that as well and I'm hoping I could get a casual job there as well by end of the year.

Ramadan starts tomorrow which our brothers and sisters are fasting and I'm looking forward which I hope Insyallah there are positive changes during Ramadan for me and more good luck I guess but I don't know what to expect. Starting from today another one more month, I'll be turning sixteen at Indo which I really can't wait to celebrate it with my family there and what is also heaps exciting is that the Eid celebration is on my birthday which is so awesome! I'm really looking forward to the fun world hehe :)

2009 State SRC Conference!

Support, Respect, Connect



Tuesday:
I woke up at 5am and got ready to leave home to head off to Hornsby which all the metro people had to be there by 8am. So my Dad trained it with me from Green square then stopped at Central then to finally Hornsby. As we were on our way to there, I didn't know what to expect. As we got there, we all had to meet at the Hornsby bus station and as I was walking there, I wasn't too sure if I was going to the right bus stop haha! Saw these lovely girls that greeted me and my dad had to leave straight to work. I hugged him and got a bit emotional first as I said 'I love you Dad' Waiting there for everyone to get there in the cold which was freezing asss! We left around 8:30 and got there late for the opening and I remembered while we were on our way to Vision Valley, Arcadia I started to tear while listening to my iPod, looking out of the window just thinking about my family as I've never been this far from them before. We arrived at Vision Valley by starting with the Acknowledgement of Country and the National Anthem. We played this game where we all had to throw our shoes to the middle and anyone can take some random shoe and you had to find that person with their shoe by introducing yourself. Which I met so many people with lovely smiles. Basically on Tuesday it was presentations and I got into my colour group which I was in blue. My colour leaders were Millie and Hayley they were so fun to be with. Blue all the way! We all got our warm fuzzie envelopes which anyone can write fuzzies to and by Friday morning we'll take it home with us. I remember on that first day was kind of emotional for me because I was missing my family so much and my friends already! To be honest on that day I was feeling a bit ergh like that feeling I just wanted to go back home with my family but this opportunity I had, only happens once a life time. So I headed off to my room to put my entire luggage there and hoping that I meet my room mates. I came in with such beautiful smiles on their face Caitlin, Casey and Raynor. I wasn't use of sleeping alone without my sister and as the lady who was our supervisor passed our room, would come in and be like 'Lights out girls'



Wednesday:
Woke up around 7am to get ready for breakfast and this day we all had to attend workshops from our own choice. For session 1 I decided to attend 'Make a difference with positive connections' which was a valuable lesson about making positive connections within our surroundings. Session 2 I attended the workshop 'Day For Change - How small change can make a big difference' which is hosted by UNICEF and throughout the workshop made me thought about how my school haven't hosted an event for UNICEF and it would be great because it's for a very good cause to help other kids from the developing countries and by there, our school can make a difference for them but not just only that, our school is making a positive difference by connecting and supporting each other :) Then later we got to do a physical activity which I chose Touch Footy and I don't know why I picked that haha! It got boring cause the guys were full playing it, so then I went to play a bit of Soccer. I remember calling my mum or dad each day just to check if their fine and when my mum picked up the phone, she would start to cry and I would end up crying a bit as well, since my mum is in a sick condition I would always worry about her. She would always be telling me not to worry about her and go have fun. But I knew my mum and dad was supporting me and wanted me to worry about my mum that time, cause she understood where I was coming from. Also that day we had a few of our regional meetings to prepare for the forum which was intense. Later at the night, we had Drum Beats and it was so much fun!! Everyone enjoying it and the beats were fantastic! We then had a Trivia competition and everyone just basically went crazy but I remember myself feeling all sleepy because I was too tired haha! Bed time :)



Thursday:
The usual morning and had our last regional meeting and more other workshops like 'Rising Generations' which was heaps fun as well! Then I walked into some random room for this other workshop 'Boys, Girls and Student Leadership: researching the issues at your school' which was pretty interesting though but it didn't really affect my school since I go to an all girl school. It was interesting to hear about the other schools how it concerned them. We had our forum and it was intense as well! Out of 9 regions only 4 motions went passed like woaah! Next for the fun bit, we had our photo session and we took all these mad photos! Then comes the best night, our dance party ‘The Roaring Twenties’ Everyone getting dressed up and enjoying themselves which was great to see! Gosh that was a tiring night, dancing for hours in heels but at the same time one of the best nights!

Friday:
The Friday morning wasn’t what I called the ‘Usual Morning’ this was the day when we all had to leave. I just couldn't believe the journey had to end, as we had our closing of the conference everyone started to cry and I still couldn't believe this was actually happening. Everyone saying their goodbyes and the tears running down.



I swear we were all like a one big family and it’s the spirit that I admired the most. I will surely miss the friendship I’ve made there, the ‘Shibang-a-bang’ and ‘Fair dinkum’ the laughter’s, joking around, the random claps and everything! Met amazing lovely people that I gotten to know more during those 4 days and I love you guys even if I didn't get to catch up with some of yous. I must say this was one of the best experiences in my life and I have learnt so many things from there not only for my school but for myself as well. Where ever I go I will always remember the good times we all had and I thank you guys for all the memories <3

Fun Weekend!

I must say this weekend was so memorable! Although different emotions going through from laughing hard then to heart breaking.

Anna and I went to Amanda's 18th party at the cities and it was so cute seeing our brother Michael and Amanda together! I swear I couldn't stop smiling at them! Firstly, we hit up to karaoke at Live and stayed there for an hour which was heaps fun and funny at the same time! We were going to watch G.I Joe but then the others were broke and some of us wasn't bothered so we decided to hang out at Darling Harbour. We sat at the grass area and watched Michael's friends krump, jerk and etc. There was this little boy and I swear he owned them haha! We all forced Michael to join them and then he told us to come jerk with him! But overall it was a fun day! After Anna and I left and we were craving our favourite, the puffs with ferrero rocher ice cream! We finally found the glasses we've been looking which we call them 'Jerky glasses' haha! The party wasn't over for us, because Anna was sleeping over at mine and for the whole night we couldn't stop laughing our heads off about something! We had an awesome dnm and eating Gobstoppers the whole night haha!

I never thought I would experience something heart breaking right front of me. Imagine you saw someone you were with once before, and he was with this other girl holding hands. That feeling, just brought all the memories back. I started to shake and freak out but why should I even care when I've moved on. I know it was the past but I wondered to myself, 'Why didn't you have time for me?' After those days where I use to wait for you an hour and a half, and him not knowing till this day. I also question to myself, 'What was actually our ending chapter between us? Were you bored with me? Were the words you said to me was actually true from your heart or were you just a bullshit talker?' You know what, thanks God I didn't fall for you too hard but I thank you for the days you made me smiled and those times when I needed someone to talk too. I miss those days when you called me at night, laughing and joking around. Why is it so hard to find a decent guy these days? It's not that I'm desperate, but I'm just saying after all the complicating things I went through and it just never goes right. Actually to tell you the truth I've had enough of this! At the moment in my life what's so important right now is my lovely family, close friends and my studies which I'm very committed too.

Two more days till I'm off to the conference and I'm almost done with the packing. I think this will be my last blog entry before I leave and I'll be back for the weekend. I'll surely do miss my family and friends. I hope I have a good sleep there haha!

Busy Week!

I've realized for this past week, I've been waking up late and catching the latest bus to school. I've also haven't been having enough sleep as well since I'm trying to finish all my school work and etc. As you know, it was 'Genes for Jeans Day' today and I just wore jeans of course, a white polo top and one of them jackets which I call 'Motorbike Jackets' haha!

I had the usual subjects, collected the donations for 'Jeans for Genes Day' which went successful. It's a funny thing because my sister Anna and I were both struggling with our assignments, because she is more creative than me. I told her to give me a hand with my theatre drawing, since she is in love with art. So I did abit of her history assignment about Gough Whitlam which she has been struggling with the information and since I like to do some researching than drawing, why not give her a hand. We totally have different interests, she loves to dance and I love to sing. I wonder to myself sometimes what am I actually going to be when I'm older? Even though I'm interested of doing a communications course after I leave high school but then again, you just never know. A quote that I have lived by since I was young 'Anything is Possible' Yes it's so true!

Isn't it such a beautiful thing when people give you warm smiles because in a way I can feel that inside my heart. No matter if they are randoms, or just girls walking past me at school or my little sister's friends. I do believe smiling is a very healthy thing and I think it can also make a difference, just one smile will make the other smile :)

But I swear today was a very tiring day for me, I couldn't stop yawning non-stop and slept through the last period of Geography. Soon I have work which I really don't know what to expect after not working for 2 weeks and I finish at 11pm then the next day Muslim School at 9am, then around after 12pm Anna and I are heading off to Amanda's 18th Party at the cities and we also can't wait to see our brother Michael! My life is pretty busy at the moment and I really do need to catch up with sleep before I leave to the conference.

First Blog Entry

I decided to make a new blog after reading my friend's sister Stephanie, and by reading a few of her blogs has inspired me through her experiences. It kept me thinking about my future plans as I am slowly growing up and it is scary. But it seems now I have to be more serious about life and can I say, May God bless her and Wennie you are lucky to have her as a sister. It also had encouraged me to make a blog so I can share my experiences to the world, I know I may sound like a looser but I want to express my feelings in a way so I feel satisfied. I also thought if I start a blog that could help me improve more of my writing as my English teacher said, so please bere with me.

So lately pretty much, I've been really busy with school trying to finish all my assignments off and school work before I attend the State SRC Conference which is in 4 days. For this past week I've been constantly worrying about the presentation report for our Sydney Region, since the conference doesn't start too long. But thankfully just today my friend Meherun and I did the best we could with the report. So for the last hours I've been feeling very relieved about it and also finishing all my assignments and school work. I'm getting more excited for the conference which is held at Vision Valley, Arcadia. So that means yes I do miss out school for 3 night and 4 days, which I will have to catch up with alot of work after the following week. It's my second camp ever since year six and I can't imagine myself sleeping without my family and especially my little sister beside me. In my year six camp it was only a 1 night sleep without the family, and the next today would be like 'Hello again' But Insyallah I hope things go fine. Tomorrow at school for the first time, the SRC is holding up 'Jeans for Genes Day' and which is also our last mufti day of the year. I'm really looking forward to that and maybe it would be the last thing the SRC would do something together for this year.

I should seriously sleep now and I've got work as well which I haven't worked for almost 2 weeks. I'm not looking forward to it because it's so borring these days and changed since we got a new store manager, who I haven't worked with. I've been considering to quit McDonald's once I get back from Indo and apply for another job. Well that's if I get accepted hopefully and plus I've worked there for more than a year already so I've had enough of working with food haha!