Singapore lah! Part 2: Cocktails

Getting back to my hotel room, I found a note on my bed from my roomie, Wendy. In it, she called me "Marie" (she later explained that that's what the person at the front desk told her, and obviously it came from my real name), but I thought the gesture was so sweet. Took a quick shower and put my face on--and I was actually ready in ten minutes flat! Rushed down to the registration venue and as soon as the elevator doors opened...pandemonium! People of all these different nationalities just excitedly meeting and greeting. I registered and was given a five-page questionnaire (which, in reality, was nine pages!) filled with such questions as "What was the trickiest situation you've been in while traveling? How did you handle it?" Was supposed to answer it by the next morning, when we would have our closed-door audition.

With "Mr. Bombay" Marc from Singapore (he does Ali G impressions) and David from Australia (a sweetheart!)

Singapore's Carol, Jacqueline. Elisabeth, and Z

Ish with Aussie model Timothy and Singapore's Simone (who was apparently a Sunsilk commercial model here)

Yung-Shin and Bevis from Taiwan

Z (our tour guide--more on that in a succeeding post), Indonesia's Vivi (she and I were probably the quietest ones there), Taiwan's Bevis (he totally cracks me up), funny guy Simon from Australia, and...someone's arm

We moved to one of the hotel bars for cocktails where I got to meet even more people. I must say, the name tag is one of the greatest inventions of all time! Haha. I am terrible with names so the tags were extremely helpful! I think I pretty much remember everyone's names--all 35 of them! A lot of us were from media/entertainment (there were newscasters, actresses, TV hosts, DJs...). So, yeah, we found out that the 36 present (there were actually 41 semi-finalists but only 36 were able to make it) were selected from 4,500 people! Coolness! I was and am pretty happy to have made it that far; I consider it one of my achievements, especially since I didn't exactly have an amazing video. It was just me talking the whole time, while most everyone else had all these gimmicks (roomie Wendy, a window-washer--how cool is that?--showed us her "office," high up in the air; Octavia sang an operatic bit to her cat; Zach went on a tour of Quiapo--and apparently his prayer to the Black Nazarene worked!; Melanie tried to squeeze into a suitcase...). Mildly embarrassing how people were talking to one another going, "Oh I loved your video!" and I was just quietly listening. Haha. Aside from the fact that mine was pretty ordinary (but honest and, well, me. I think that was what must've gotten their attention), I wasn't really able to watch a lot of videos. Hirap ng dial-up. Haha. Grabe, laos.

Happy people

From Singapore: Hosea, Z, and Janice

Carol, Octavia, and Z


Channel V's first VJ Melanie Casul, Vivi, Roanna, and Amy

Separated at birth? Malaysia's Juliana and our very own Melanie

Lovely ladies: me (hehe) with Z, Indonesia's Lena, Vivi, and Simone

I think I probably met everyone after an hour--everyone except my roommate! Wendy came in a little late, saying she spent the early part of the evening answering the questionnaire. (I later found out that this was a brilliant idea, because I was just so out of it after cocktails--even after chugging on nothing but cranberry juice, my drink of choice--that I had a hard time focusing.)

With my roommate Wendy, finally!

The judges made an appearance, and cocktails became phase 1 of the audition. A lot of people were really eager to meet the judges, but I was pretty much avoiding them! I swear, I was probably the shyest person there (which people here find hard to believe. Really, everyone else was just so outgoing and crazy, in a good way of course). I did meet a few, but I'm pretty bad with small talk so I didn't talk to them for long. I heard judge Lisa telling some of the semi-finalists that they were looking for someone "larger than life." Uh-oh. So not me. I looked like a shrinking violet next to these folks! But apparently, shy doesn't quite cut it on TV.

Jaime with judge Lisa (Elisabeth and Mel in the background)

At the end of cocktails, I trudged back to my room. Was so tired. Had to wake up at 3:30 that morning after all, and spent a good part of the day just walking around under the Singapore sun. But there was that blasted questionnaire. Strangely, I didn't feel anxious about the next morning's audition. I wasn't putting any pressure on myself. I think it was mostly because getting a free trip and meeting such awesome people was reward enough.