Travelogue: J 0 The Day!!

J 0

I woke up at 5 o-clocks in the morning to watch survivor season finale. An hour later my heart was broken as Cirie Fields had been eliminated from the show, making her the second runner up of the survivor fan vs fav.. at 7, Parvati was crowned as the winner of this season survivor, and i was no where ready to leave for the airport..

I've already had my bag packed.. I took a shower before sleeping, knowing that I won't have another one that morning... I hesitated to go at 7 or to wait the survivor reunion show finished, but it is kind of a risk to do any stupid thing as I might have some problem later with the train to the airport. It is Monday the 12th May, and it is a public holiday in France. We called it lundi pentecote.. I barely remembered the history behind that day. All i know is this day is a remembrance for those people who died during the canicule a.k.a. overheat a.k.a musim panas terlampau in 2003. 15 000 of peoples died in France during that time. And workers are allowed to choose either they wanted to go to work or not... and for those who go to work, they won't have the salary for that day, as the money will go directly to the association that will help old citizens to prepare themselves for the coming summer... (Buy drinks, buy medicine etc)

It's already started getting hot in France. For the last few days the temperature barely reached 30 degrees. The worst thing in France is , when the weather said it was 30 degree is not like in Malaysia that you could expect the angin will bertiupan sempoi-sempoi bahasa or you could find yourself an hour later drinking a mega jumbo red slurpee in a fully air conditioned mamak stall in section 15 bangi..

When it is 30 degrees, that means, you could feel the heat in your skin as if your skin would come out at any moment. You could feel the itchiness in all over your body. When you switch on the fan in your room, there's nothing else than angin panas which is directly terbang into your face.. the only thing that you would had in mind is going into shower but just as you stepped out of the shower, cahaya matahari kembali menerik di atas kulitmu.... But I will always remember what cikgu Jamaluddin told us in school:

"Kamu ni panaslah.. rimas lah ngan baju melayu tu.. kang masuk neraka kang baru tau mane lagi panas.."

So I've decided to simply wear a t-shirt and a pair of jeans to the airport considering that as Istanbul is far further near the khaltulistiwa (equateur) In a perfect world it would be much hotter than in France. Luckily that I had to meet my tuteur de stage first, if not I would consider pagoda (showing my six pack abs) three quarter and my best buddy, qrocs!!

After 45 minutes of clear traffic RER ride, I arrived in terminal two RER station.. It was 8.30 am and I started having regret do not watching the survivor reunion show.. My terminal was Terminal 2E and it was just next to the RER station.. the thing about terminal 2E is, as it handles the Air France flight ( lupa pulak.. my flite... air France tau.. jangan jeles) I couldn't find my check-in counter number in the board.. It was written number 56 and i looked around for a counter number 56 and I couldn't find anything. Sooner i realized that it was gate no 56 that was written on the board, not the counter number 56.

I randomly go to counter 9 and asked the girl to check me in and she told me that I have to check in at counter no 4.. How should I know you freaky air France people.. There I am, making another tawaf in that stupid terminal 2.. When I arrived there in the counter, they asked me if I've already checked in.. What a stupid question.. Is just like when you've already finished making sex with another girl, and later you ask her are you a virgin.. 'No, no, this is only to drop off your luggage'

dude! don't tell me that i had to check in at another counter...

she explained that since everything now is beıng computerggghhhized... in her French accent... you have to check in at the computer therre and give me your luggage!! Luckily the computer is just in front of the counter.. Well, it is typical of a French people I guess wanting to do as little work as possible..!! That explains well all the trente cinq heures stuff..

I got a 25-c seat... it's at the aisle side and I loved it.. I prefer seating on the aisle seat rather than the window seat.. You will not bother waking up the guy next to you when you need to go to the loo or in my case, when I need to go to the cabin staff cabinet to ask for some cookies and hot milk. This time, my airplane ride was kind of freaking me out.. I could feel the pressure in my head.. Twice, i almost lost my breathing (failing to telan my air liur when the pressure increased)

As for the airplane, it is far worse from my expectation... It is a little bit bigger that the low-cost cheap airline (Ryanaır, easy jet, air Asia) .. it has no tv..(Damn you Air France) The funny thing is that for the first class seat, it is exactly the same as the economy-class seating, except that they turn the middle seat into a table by putting a removable table on it.. That’s all.. No TV, no 360 degree seat like the one you could see in the advertisement on TV.... rıen.. rıen de special!! Well worth spending your money all those first class people and those people who using your charm and your kejambuan to upgrade to the first class seat!

As I seat for an hour in the flight, I could smell something special from the back of the flight.. Then a chubby but not so cute stewardess tip-toed next to our seat and she called out my name.. I nodded and she looked curiously at me.. She asked me 'Have I ordered a..' then she lowered her voice "muslim food".. it's kind of funny that she had to lower her voice as if she tried not to make anyone in the flight worried that there is a Muslim in the flight and it is possible that he has a 'bahan letupan' under his beard..!

The best thing when you made a special request food is, you would get your food earlier than everyone else in the flight.. You didn't have to worry if during your time, they might out-of stock of coke or everyone else chose the chicken menu leaving you with friend fish and vegetable... I felt sorry for the guy next to me who slept all the way in the flight but abruptly woke up when the attendant mentioned the word meal time in the speaker.. He jealously looked at me enjoying my salmon lasagna, with a hard as rock bread and a tiny little fruit cake.. While he had to wait the crew attendant serving from the seat 1 to 24..

And just when I wanted to give 2-3 star to the air France service (yelah.. dahlah rotıi keras, takde TV.. Pramugari buruk!!) , the flight attendant impressed me by offering me another can of coke without me asking for... sorry gurlz, you still can't beat royal Brunei servıces which offered a 50 cl can of Pepsi... not 10 cl!!

After 3 hours of flight, and 2 times of nearly losing my breath, the captain performed a mediocre landing (it's kind of creepy when he couldn't find the balance during landing.. to Ihsan.. just remember this next time when you fly the plane) I hurriedly marched to the luggage zone worrying that the people who's waiting for me might left if he didn't have my news.. Just when I need to be hurry, then suddenly the world is totally against me.. It’s like every flight in Istanbul arrived at the same time as my flight.. I have to spend another 30 minutes waiting for the immigration passport checking queue.. After a totally silence encounterment with a Turkish muscular policewomen, she let me free and I ran for my luggage..

My fantasy was somebody out there would be waiting for me with my name written on a piece of paper.. Mr Wan Muzaffar.. (cool kan!!) well, my dream almost came true but instead of writing my name, they put it as "Lycee Francais pierre loti intern" Well, it is far better than having to carry my 14 kilo back pack in the metro .

I met Cad, he's my first out of two supervisor in Turkey. He told me how long he had waited for me and he was ready to leave if I did not turn up in another few minutes. Karma was finally on my side..! We took a taxi ride from the airport to my accommodation.. And guess what.. Screw you France.. It is freezing cold here in Turkey.. I almost forgot how did it feel when it's cold and suddenly the turkey 20 degrees temperature + the high velocity wind coming from every side of the sea mencucuk you in the heart..

The journey in the taxi was kind of weird.. He might be expecting a smart cool French people arriving from France as a intern in their place, and soon surprised to see a bald people from ntah, dari mana ntah came approach him (that I could read from the disappointment on his face). He explained to me about my working environment, it is actually an international school with two quarters, one which is just a stone throw from where I live and another one is in 45 minutes of ride in the bus.. I would be fully in charge with the IT problems involving the school near to my apartment.

And when we arrived at the school, we met the pengetua of the school. She was a little bit busy meeting parents who wanted to register their student in the school. Sooner I realized that it was the primary school of the international school where all of the students spend their time playing hide and seek in the field in front of the director's office. Can later showed me to my apartment and he needed to leave early as he had an assignment to send to his professors, promising to take me to see the real French chick in the high school tomorrow.

Before leaving, he advised me to suck up the pak guard of my apartment. Just as I was about to give a smile to the guard, the guard did not buy it.. Instead.. He firmly told me that if I wanted to go out, I had to return before 12 p.m... Oh no.. Now I’m feeling like staying in bangi where my parents would call me if I return later than 9 !!

As Can left me, I spent the next few hours trying to settle down.. It is a spacious house.. With a living room, a kitchen with a dining area, two toilets, one of them with a shower, a store, an office and a large bedroom with a king size bed. It is too big for me to leave alone in the house. It's kind of frightening as well.. macam rumah kat cerita Main-main hantu.. with hamid gurkha and his mak ngah mati dalam grobok dialogue!

I hastily switched on my lap top and miraculously captured a unsecured Wi-fi signal with a pierrelotiasus name on it.. Not bad for a primary school.. Having it owns wi fi.. I wondered who would use it.. takkanlah budak-budak kecık ni bawak lap topo gi sekolah A message appeared saying that somebody could read what I’m going to access which I completely ignored. And that also means no porn for me as somebody could notice the entire site that I’ve accessed!

I waited all the survivor reunion video to load.. That was the time that i realized that this is not just a house, this is a house full of cross and jesus's patung.. i was kind of worry having to stay here .. As I checked on the table, there's a file with the name of a church on it.. The spacious living room was filled with I don't know how many jilid of bible.. Sooner I YMed my housemate and told him that I’m staying in a pope's house..

”father le bodoh.. bukan pope”.. kata beliau.

He suggested me to sorok all the patung and the crosses in the house.. Well I tried to but it didn't work as it's already being paku 'ed to the wall.. So i just took a napkin and covered the cross in my bedroom, as it is the place where I sleep and where I pray.. tak kan lah i have to pray in the store? And for the other room, trying to respect other's religion; I left it as it is....




After having another cry of cirie's losing the survivor, I headed out of my apartment. Then I realized that I’m staying in the most happening street in Istanbul.. the beyoglu area.. It’s like 5th avenue in new York, champs elysees in paris and bukit bintang in kl.. just as I stepped out of the house, there is burger king in front of my house. Turn left, there is a adidas boutique next to a nike boutique and the list go on and on.. as i walked from my house to the nearest metro station (where I have to meet Can the next day) I walked pass two pizza huts (offering unlimited buffet for 4 euros) uncounted number of kedai kebab, all the boutiques that you could list on, from benetton, adidas, quicksilver, nike... 3 panggung wayang... etc...

And as I walked pass the roads 3 times I was being tegur by a turkish trying to act friendly asking me where are you from.. india?? bangladesh?? ( at least have some respect on me ok..!!)
The thing that I've learnt from my trip in Egypt two years ago is.. Everyone is a liar.. So don't trust anyone.. And that's what i stand for here!! I completely ignored them.. Entah2 diorang nı nak pukau aku..

After having a quick tour of my living area, here is the hardest part , to choose where should I eat... my gut told me just to follow my heart and it took me finally to mc Donald.. Once, kimmy told me that mc donald is not something international.. it depends on a country.. that's why we have mc rendang and sambal kombo in malaysia.. well, kimmy a raison.!! Here we have something like mc doner.. mc kebab ... well my choice always stay with double cheese burger.. That cost me around 4 euro (7 lira) sooner than I realized how small the double cheese burger is and it wasn't enough to keep me until midnight.. ( i had my mc d at 4)

After watching another episode of Malcolm, I once again headed out of my room.. This time, i went to a kebab shop.. Not knowing what to have.. And just showing to the manager.. A thing on the picture.. It turned out to be a stuffed potato.. It’s quite large potato, being rebus.. And mashed with cheese.. Then, you could choose the ingredients that you could put in the potato... I don't know how could i ask "berapa banyak saya boleh letak" in turc, so i just put some saussages, vegetables, chili sauce (which i thought was a bolognaise sauce) and mushrooms . It was 1 lira cheaper that the Mc D and well worth the pay..

There goes my first day in Turkey..I headed to my appartment, wondering what could arrive the next day.. and hoping for a well sleep.. that night i sleep with all the lights switched on in the house....!!! risau sleeping alone.. but as ajib said.. walaupun kau sorang.. Jesus menemani kau!!!