Miss Supranational – Doctor Contour

Miss Supranational 2017/ 31 January 201831 January 2018

Miss Supranational: FINAL SHOW 1/12 (DAY 17)

So this is my last blogpost in the Miss Supranational serials… And we end with the climax… The big show of Miss Supranational that has annually several billion viewers when it gets aired in December was about to start soon…

So we didn’t get a lot of sleep before the final night, we had to get up early to do the general rehearsal and no, we also didn’t eat a lot during the last day. I was almost fainting due to the effects of hypoglycemia because we didn’t get lunch and the tough rehearsing has its toll. Anyway, luckily I didn’t faint and we got atleast something to eat before the real show was about to start.
It was a little stressy to get the make up and hair done of 70 girls but luckily we were in time. Wooow, that was REAL show make up and hair. It was really va-va-voom, big hair and heavy make up: that is what is needed for the heavy lighting under the spots of the stage. My make up was apparently based on one of J lo’s red carpet looks, so then you kind of feel like a star, right? 😉 I mean it is quite cool since in normal life you never get to look as wow like that.

Me in my Belgian national costume made by designer Roman Vandycke. Have you ever seen such a special costume like this?

I have to say I felt extremely relaxed on stage… Like normally I am so sooo nervous, but now I just more enjoyed the dances than to have stress for it. I was actually quite relaxed to be honest. Maybe the fact that we rehearsed for days and hours looong really made the difference and that way you are so used to all the dances and all the steps that it becomes like automatic pilot. Or maybe it is the fact that after having so much pageant experience in a short time, I really got used to being on a stage. I also didn’t realize the show would be watched by so many people since you are just in front of a camera but the realization is not there. The only thing I was VERY scared for, was that I would fall on stage during the national costume competition. I wore these very very high heels (15 cm) to get the maximum height on stage since you quickly disappear on such a big stage like that and I am already quite small with my 1m65. 😉 But I was not so used in walking in them so I was a little scared for that. :p Also my national costume I really liked and I thought it was special but it was very very hard to walk on it, I could only walk very small steps but we had to walk in groups of 3 so I was just walking so far behind them because I couldn’t follow. :p Luckily the cameramen were good at avoiding that as much as possible on screen.

Swimsuit dance on stage, can you spot me? (For sure for me the best part of the show!)

Backstage with the lovely Miss El Salvador and Miss France. Here you really can see that my make up is VERY heavy but under the big spots, it looks a lot less. :p (not so flattering picture anyway)

Quite soon already the top 25 got announced. I didn’t expect to be in there since you could notice a little during the trip who were the favourites of the organisation and it was not me. :p I honestly didn’t really like that, since there were clearly some girls more picked for extra photoshoots than others but that is just how it is. Also the country that you represent has a big influence on your ranking and I think it says something if Belgium barely reaches a top on international level. Anyway, I didn’t really see the top 25 and top 10 completely coming, but that is just the choice of the organisation. This is just my honest opinion on it and I like to be that in my blogposts without hiding too much, although I am bound to a contract so I am not allowed to say everything.

Before the top 25 got announced. I like this dress of Chic dress by luxury but I think I could have made a better choice for on stage…

Anyway, I was never there with a certain goal in mind, reaching the top 25 would have been wonderful but for me I was just there to have fun and to get that big experience in my life. For me it looked like a total dream to be in one of the biggest international pageants in the world and it was also partly like that, but everything has its pros and cons ofcourse. Would I do it again given the opportunity? Well it is a long time away from my study so that is a little bit of a problem but in general such a big international pageant is hard work and you are not just there for a holiday. You have very little sleep, you are not really free to do what you want and you are constantly being judged, and a lot of times for superficial reasons. But ofcourse next to that, I really still think it was a once in a lifetime experience where I met tons of nice people from a different background and culture, I could wear all these nice dresses and I could be on a big stage in such a big show! It was really special and I have also grown a lot as a person. Pageants might be a little superficial, but after all that pageant experience, I have gotten more confident than ever! (I think I also would never have dared to start a blog without all these experiences, so that says enough right :p)

Me and Miss Singapore backstage at the end of the show where we had to be dressed in silver gowns. This dress I really really like, also of Chic dress by Luxury.

Here you can see the final show for those who are interested:

Final show Miss Supranational 2017

Miss Supranational 2017/ 17 January 201831 January 2018

Miss Supranational: final rehearsals on the real BIG stage (DAY 14, 15 + 16)

DAY 14:

Rehearsal from 9.30 to 22 o’clock

DAY 15:

We had been in Slovakia for the entire Miss Supranational adventure, now it was time to leave the country and go to Poland where the final show would take place. It was the moment we all had been waiting for and the ride was quite though.
Personally, I didn’t think it would be so hectic. I never have experienced such an international pageant and I thought 2,5-3 weeks would be enough to do all the things that has to be done in a pageant but for some reason it was really busy. I had an average amount of sleep of 6 hours and I was not used to that. Even not in exam period. 😉 But you know, apparently that is just how it is with pageants. Most girls also got up atleast 2 hours before breakfast. Yes, 2 hours… Some even 3 hours! It might seem a little crazy for some people but that is just how it is.. It stays a beauty contest and then also one of the biggest in the world so looking your best takes some time. That might also be the reason why we were lacking sleep. 😉 (but for your information: it is not a routine that is done in normal life, haha, wouldn’t be able to keep up with that!)

In the morning I did a quick photoshoot with the photographer of Miss Supranational Milton Mieloch. I really love the results… I think I want to get more photoshoots done, so keep following my blog to see more pictures of me, it won’t be the last one. 😉

Wooow, I really like the work of this talented photographer! Thanks to Milton. It looks so classy… Which picture do you like the most?

After that we had to check out of the hotel. The hotel we stayed in was really lovely and luxury right in the middle of a ski resort in the middle of the mountains filled with snow. It was a good hotel, the only thing that was a little special was that we had to pay for our towels. You know, if we made a spot on a towel or even our sheets, then we immediately had to pay the full amount of that towel or these sheets. So ofcourse almost everyone had spots because of make up or self tanner and in the end we all got a very big bill. Some even had a bill of 180 euros! 😮
I really find it a little crazy a hotel fines you for making spots on towels. Isn’t that what towels are used for, to get dirty? Or like, okay, also me I had some spots of make up on a towel so I had to pay for a few but then when I got home and washed that towel myself, it was all clean again.
So I don’t know if that is anywhere near normal for a hotel to do, but I thought that was really not the best service… I mean the first week all the girls together already had a bill of 2000 euros on sheets and towels. :p Weird…

So after checking out of the hotel and saying goodbye to the beautiful Slovakia, we got into the bus to drive to Poland for rehearsing on the big stage and the show itself. I think it was around 17 o’clock when we arrived after a 3-4 hour busdrive.
We didn’t eat, we didn’t change, we didn’t put our luggage in the hotel, no, we went straight to the place with the big stage and rehearsed there immediately. There was no time to lose. So we rehearsed until 22 o’clock and then after that we finally had dinner. Although, it was very tiring, I still really loved to do rehearsals. When we rehearsed the walking part in evening gown for top 25 and top 10, I really enjoyed it.
It was a very big stage we rehearsed on and later did the show on, it was the biggest stage I have ever seen. No wonders Miss Supranational is so loved because of their production. It is so well made and big!
I really love to be on a stage, but unfortunately it is not something I can do for daily life as a medicine student. :p
Oh and unfortunately I didn’t make it to top 25 and top 10 so I couldn’t do it eventually, so uhm that was a little bit of a bummer… But yeah, it is just how it is. I had a great time! (okay, I already tell to much about the show, for a detailled report please visiting my blog for a new blogpost about the last day).

DAY 16:

LAST rehearsal day on the big stage. There is actually not a lot to say here, haha. :p Just rehearsing all the time…

Here are a few pictures of the rehearsals on the stage (I didn’t find a picture I was in but it gives you a sort of image):

lifestyle/ 1 January 201831 January 2018

CHEERS to the new year in Denmark! Celebrating the start of 2018 in style…

New Year’s Eve… We start the new year by celebrating to the maximum. Also in exam period so I said for this holiday again: bye bye books…

For New Year’s Eve I was still in Denmark with my boyfriend’s family and so I also got to experience this holiday in the Scandinavian country. Also at this holiday there are some differences in celebrating the new year. Let’s just all sum them up.

Ofcourse I would say it depends from person to person but I think I can somehow generalize that it is the tradition to celebrate NYE with friends instead of family for the whole evening and night. In my environment in Belgium it is more the tradition to first start the evening out with a big dinner with family and then when the clock gets closer to 12 o’clock young people leave their houses with family to see their friends and party with them. In Denmark you start the evening around 17-18 o’clock with a group of friends until the early morning hours.

So NYE starts quite early in Denmark, but why is that? Danish people really LOVE their royal family and they are very popular, unlike in Belgium, and so it is the tradition for every household or NYE party that is going on to watch the Queen’s speech at 18 o’clock where she talks about the year that has passed.
In Belgium our King only has a speech at Christmas but I don’t think that reaches a number of views that takes up 1/3th of the population… So the royal family has quite a big influence and popularity in this country.

Danish people love their Queen and their royal family so 1/3th of the population is behind their screen at New Year’s Eve to see what the Queen has to say this year.

Another thing that is quite common in Scandinavia so also Denmark is the culture of alcohol. We also tend to drink quite some on NYE ofcourse but I think the alcohol culture is a little more outspoken in the northern part of Europe. There is always loads of alcohol served with every dish.

So after the Queen’s speech we have a traditional 4 courses menu which is quite the same as in Belgium. But what I noticed was that the dinnertable was full of party decoration and party hats and everything. Also when I shopped into the Danish supermarket there was traditionally a whole department with NYE decoration and party accessoires to make the dinner table party proof. I haven’t seen that as much in Belgium. Danish people really loooove NYE a lot, I think it is one of their favourite holidays in the year, especially since they love to party in this country.

The traditional marzipan ring cake that is being eaten when they toast to the new year after midnight.

When the clock tends to announce the new year, everyone will sit together with a glass of champagne and Danish marzipan cake to toast on the new year. After that they all go watch the fireworks and go party until the early hours, which is quite the same as in Belgium.
Just a small note about the fireworks, I saw the news the day after NYE that there have been 113 people severly injured because of the fireworks (people that lose certain body parts or lose their eyesight). Even when I was watching the fireworks, it got put 2 meters in front of me, I didn’t think it was safe at all! And a lot of people make fireworks on themselves with all the horrible consequences after.

(I am really generalizing in this post, ofcourse some things will be different in certain families but overall these are the main differences)

Me celebrating with a glass of champagne to the new year. My motto for dressing on NYE is to go all the way with glitters and make up. I think this is the only day in the year where you can’t be too much with your make-up and dressing style. The dress is something I don’t wear at a normal party during the year since it is quite revealing and over the top with the glitters but I think for this one day, this type of dress shouldn’t be considered trashy but right into the dresscode. I love it! (Dress from Lipsy)

lifestyle/ 26 December 201731 January 2018

‘Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way’ – MY CHRISTMAS (+ in Denmark)

Oh, how I love this time of the year… Except for the fact that Christmas falls right into my exam period or the preparation on the exam period. Anyway, I love what kind of atmosphere Christmas brings: eating good food, being together with your family and loved ones, Christmas trees and decoration and Christmas markets. It is really the most cozy time of the year!
First I celebrated Christmas Eve with my own family in Belgium. It was a very cosy evening. I really love how movies like Home alone always come back on that day. Also the typical and traditional filled turkey is really my thing.

Celebrating Christmas Eve in Belgium first. I was wearing a dress that I absolutely love! I bought it online at elle-voudrait.nl! (sorry for bad quality of the pictures)
After that cosy evening, Christmas day 1 started but that mainly contained about eating a small Christmas cake and travelling to Denmark. Yes, I took the plane to Denmark to celebrate second Chrismas day there with the family of my boyfriend.

But how does celebrating Christmas in Denmark differ from celebrating Christmas in Belgium? I don’t know if I can really generalize since every family in Belgium will celebrate differently and probably the same way in Denmark, but what we are not used to eat for Christmas is the typical Danish smørrebrød. For people that don’t know what smørrebrød is, it is generally a type of Danish bread called Rugbrød with all kinds of toppings. You can’t compare our typical breadmeals in Belgium with that. A few kinds of examples of the toppings is different kinds of harings (red harings, harings in curry, white harings,…), frikadeller (some sort of meatballs) with pickles red cabbage, scrambled eggs in combination with smoked salmon, fiskefillet (deep fried fishfilet with ramoulade, typical Danish sauce, tasted a little the same as the Dutch Bicky sauce), medister (a sort of sausauge that is eaten with stewed kale with a mix of cinnamon and sugar on top and caramalized patatoes) … All the food is served with a lot of alcoholic drinks and they toast to a Merry Christmas. It is very cozy!

The typical Danish dish that is also been eaten at Christmas day.

Let me tell you one thing, there are a lot of different toppings served after each other and you tend to get quite full. As a sort of eating break, it is also a tradition in Denmark to play the game called Pakkeleg. What is that? Well, every person that is invited into the Christmas party buys a lot of small gifts but they don’t know who will receive it. So we start out with a lot of small presents that are put on the table. Then every person gets the chance to roll the dice and when the dice says number 6, that person is allowed to take a present for themselves. The game goes on like that until all presents are taken. After that round, there is also a round where every person when the dice says 6, can steal a present from someone else but in a limited time frame. At the end, every person is left with a certain amount of gifts and then it is time to unwrap. Such a nice and traditional game!

Pakkeleg game: rollling the dice in hope to get a ‘6’. If you get the 6, you are allowed to take a present that is laying on the table.

Another tradition that is different than how we celebrate Christmas in Belgium is the dancing around the Christmas tree. The family members walk/dance around the Christmas tree while they sing special Christmas songs. Some songs are songs that are played in the Church in Denmark.

So I think I had a good Christmas this year, what about you guys?

Miss Supranational 2017/ 21 December 201720 September 2022

Miss Supranational: Swimsuit preliminary and interview (DAY 13)

Another very important day! We had the 2 other preliminaries today which is quite important when you want to get included in the top 25.

We had to get up very early morning to make ourselves ready for THE swimsuit preliminary which would be again aired LIVE. The swimsuit preliminary took place at Aquacity (a swimming pool resort) in Poprad, a Slovakian city. Even though it got aired live and it would have thousands of viewers again, I wasn’t nervous at all since I really got used to getting photographed and recorded.

I feel quite comfortable in wearing a bikini since I don’t really have big complexes about my body or anything but daaayummn some girls really are perfect and some girls really have had some work done. I saw a lot of boob jobs there and even a girl that had surgically thightened her abdomen muscles to make her belly appear more muscled. It is sometimes a special world…

After the swimsuit preliminary we had another rehearsal and after that we had another important preliminary: interview with the judges! This is the part I like since they give you points on what you have to say rather than what you look like. I also brought my charity gift for the auction which was a painting of Veerle Defer. Anyway, I have to admit I was disappointed with the content of the interview. I just got to introduce myself for one minute together with 4 other girls and then we only got one question which was: Which girl should become Miss Supranational in your opinion without explanation just a name. Like whaaaaat?? Is this the only thing you get graded on, seems quite weird no? I don’t know for sure but I think the real grading was on the live chat since we had to talk a lot there but that is just my idea. 😉

But yes, now all the preliminaries were done and the top 25 would be made…. Exciting…

In this link below you can REWATCH the swimsuit preliminary:

Video preliminary swimsuit

Pictures of the preliminary swimsuit. I was wearing a bikini I bought at Victoria’s Secret at one of my visits to the United States. I love the coral colour!

Wearing a formal outfit for the preliminary interview. I am wearing a classy white peplum dress from the UK based clothing store Lipsy. In my hands I am wearing my charity gift which is a painting from Veerle Defer.

Miss Supranational 2017/ 20 December 201720 September 2022

Miss Supranational: pyjama’s party, trip to the mountains and another live chat! (DAY 11 + 12)

DAY 11:

We got another rehearsal day… Another rehearsal day from 9.30 until 22 o’clock, but the evening part got a little different this time. Normally we either rehearsed in gym clothes or even in fine cocktail clothes since it is an international pageant for something, but this time we all wore our most cute pyjama’s to rehearse in the evening. After that we had a sort of pyjama party, we had lots of fun (And made me sort of realize I should invest in a prettier pyjama :p)!

DAY 12:

It is always fun to do something else than rehearsing and that is why it was fun to have a trip to the mountains with all contestants together! I have to admit it was not so special for me to go to a mountain since I am used to going on skiing holiday since I was very very young but it was still fun. We took a cable lift and then got up to the top of the mountain where it was freeeeeezing cold (like minus 12 degrees Celcius). There we made a few pictures with our national flags included. 😉 It might not seem very spectacular to go to a mountain but for some people of certain countries it was quite special to see since some people never had seen snow before. 😉

In the evening I had a live chat again, you know the one that we got extra because our first recording wasn’t good enough. 😉 This time no make up and hairdressers which I don’t like since I tend to fail in it, haha. :p But this time I was already used to being live in front of a camera so I think I really succeeded big time! We also had some time to prepare our questions in advance which made a big difference in the quality of my answer and I think I really brought a good message to people.

You can rewatch the live chat here:

Live chat DAY 12

You can also watch a compilation of our cozy pyjama party:

Pyjama party video

A few pictures of our trip to the mountains with all the flags. It was so much fun!