Meet Filipino beauty queen who made Dubai her new home

Gulf News

Meet Filipino beauty queen who made Dubai her new home. Gulf News #Pinoy catches up with Nadia Lee Cien Shami in Dubai where she talks about her work, the move to the UAE and her life away from the limelight.  Read the full Gulf News article: https://gulfnews.com/news/uae/pinoy/meet-filipino-beauty-queen-who-made-dubai-her-new-home-1.2254982  See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name is Nadia Shami. I'm a marketing executive here in Dubai and I'm a former

00:05Mini Meeting Pilipinas International. It wasn't really planned. I had an opportunity

00:11through LinkedIn. Someone sent me a message offering me a job here. It was a tough decision

00:19because I've been three years with my job and they offered me a higher position. I just got

00:24promoted then. They gave me a PR job for the entire Philippines. But then also getting an

00:34opportunity outside the country with a bigger salary is also a big deal. It was a family

00:40decision and I took a lot of prayer and everything fell into place. A mixture of everything,

00:49first of all, overwhelming. Your first two months in Dubai, maybe it felt like you're only a tourist,

00:56you know, going around, your friends treating you and showing you places. It felt like that.

01:02On your third month, that's where all the hardships step in because you're on your own,

01:09you cook your own food, you prepare your own clothes. Although I do that, but it's very

01:14different because you're far from your family. I never knew that we're over 700,000 Filipinos here.

01:23When I first came and rode the Metro Bintu-Satwa-Ringa, I was shocked. I thought,

01:32oh my gosh, it didn't, you know, movies didn't show this. Well, not exactly because after the

01:38I left the limelight, but if a person is a pageant enthusiast, let's say, you know, our friends

01:47who are, they love pageants. Like sometimes in the Metro, they know my entire name. Like,

01:53you're Nadia Alician Chami. I'm like, hi, do I know you? Yeah, sometimes they do. They still recognize.

01:59Work is fun. I work for, it's also a Filipino food brand. And sometimes I also help

02:08the manager for the Indian food brand. It's a lot of fun because I'm into food, apparently.

02:15I wish, no. No special treatment or all the same. Well, they just tease me for being a beauty queen

02:22because there are times I come to the office, they easily know your name. Oh, she's the beauty queen

02:27from the office. So that's the only thing. Well, a part of me wants to like be not in the show

02:35business, but my frustration since I was a kid is to do theater, like singing. But, you know,

02:42parents, especially my mom and my grandmother always wanted me to join beauty pageants. It's

02:47always in that direction. But other than that, I prefer being behind the camera, running.

02:54It may be boring, but I watch Netflix at home, read books, but mainly running, biking, swimming.

03:03It's free. It's fun. And there are lots of areas where you can do it here in Dubai. I'm excited

03:12to always share my life as an OFW to the Filipinos in the Philippines or anywhere to show them that,

03:21hey, actually, you know what? It's actually a good and noble job because you're not only

03:28helping your family, but also you're presenting yourself to the world as a Filipino. I am still

03:35praying for what's next for me. For now, it would be my career. I also have plans of pursuing

03:41PhD, not in the near future, but yes, it's one of my plans. Maybe have a family if the right

03:49man comes along. Other than that, yeah, just focus. And if there's an opportunity somewhere

03:54else or back in the Philippines, I'm always open.

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