The girls have already divided into cliques – or one clique and one group of girls who are excluded.

Rachel's the most vocal. She's enthusiastic and is obviously happy to be here. In her clique are Mizpah, Nidhi, Rebecca and Arlette.

The outsiders are Sneha and Sarika (who are missing home and spending a lot of time upset and on their cell phones), Kirtana (who's got her nose buried in a book), Arika (the youngest and friendliest), and Nina (who was napping when I first met the group.)

I'm sitting with the semifinalists in the dining hall on my first night in Goa. There's a camera filming as they eat. I guess this really is reality TV.

They had arrived a day ahead and had some time to start getting to know each other, so it was time for me to introduce myself.

"Hi! I'm Valsa, and I'm going to be blogging about what goes on behind the scenes at Get Gorgeous4", I say.

A mix of polite smiles and blank expressions stares back at me. I'm not too sure they've understood, until Rachel asks me what "exactly" I'll be blogging about.

I explain that I'm here to write about the making of this show. I am the viewer, and I'm here to let other viewers know what happens when the cameras stop rolling.

Rachel and her girls turn from conversation to assigning each of the girls a pet name. They've decided Rachel's will be Phoebe after the character from Friends. Nidhi's is "Charlie" because she looked like one of the "Charlie's Angels" in her bikini in the pool earlier in the day. No one can remember any of the angels' names.

Since Arika is the youngest, they call her "kiddo", like the character from the movie Kill Bill. She hasn't seen the movie and doesn't like the name much. They try to come up with another name for her based on her looks and someone comments that Arika looks a bit Oriental. Arlette jumps in about how she dislikes oriental looks and finds them "creepy." I interpret the comment as an odd personal attack on Arika, not too mention extremely politically incorrect.

The subject moves to how the models think the crew wants them to fight so that there'll be more drama on the show, but they say it won't happen because they like each other so much. They tell me there's not going to be any unhealthy competition or bitchiness.

But with ten beautiful girls, one pair of butterfly wings and some serious competition, things are bound to get ugly.

The next morning with the girls at breakfast, it's Sneha's turn to get her nickname, since she was busy on the phone with her mum the day before. She has really great long hair so someone suggests "Rapunzel". Sneha hasn't heard the of the fairy tale. Arika starts to tell the story, but Nina cuts her off, saying, "If anyone can still remember fairytales, it has to be her," referring to the fact that Arika is so young.

Suddenly a loud, theatrical girl with a South Indian accent and huge sunglasses appears. I don't have a clue who was is until one of the girls introduced introduces her to me as Sarika, the quiet girl from the night before. There was no way that the two were the same. I sit here amused and thoroughly entertained by her prancing, pouting and spewing "sweeties" for the camera.

Sarika gets the nick name "Paris", as in Paris Hilton. But Mizpah suddenly says that she would call Sarika a "retard". I can't believe she just said that! When someone asks Mizpah why she said it, she says she didn't mean to be malicious, but explains how yesterday in the pool Sarika (who doesn't know to swim was trying to float) ended up splashing about "like a retard".

Sarika seems hurt, but changes the topic.

Personally, I think Mizpah was being nasty. Had I been in Sarika's place, I would have handled that very differently.

It's the afternoon of Day 2 for me in Goa and I move in with my new roommates, Mizpah and Rachel. (I'd gotten my own room for the first night).

Rachel tries to lay down some ground rules she and Mizpah would like me to follow while staying with them. According to them, I'm not supposed to reveal anything in my blog about what is said and done in our room.

As If, I tell them. This is what I'm here to do.

I'm no pushover, so I lay down a rule of my own: they will not touch any of my stuff and I will not touch any of theirs.

Overall, today is pretty a relaxed day for the girls. They have nothing on their schedule besides profile shoots for a few of them with Zubair, the show photographer.

After dinner, as he's working on the pictures he's taken today, I sit down to chat with Zubair to hear about his day and find out what he thinks of the girls.

So far, he thinks that a lot of the girls are too scared to give the competition their all. By holding back, if they get eliminated they can turn around and say they didn't really want to do it in the first place.

He also has interesting insights into which contestants have potential and who could win this. He says that the perfect winner would have a combination of Rachel's attitude, Arika's innocence and Nidhi's grace – all shaken up together.

(Check out my contestant bios to read more about his take on each of the girls.)

It's 2:45 in the morning, and my phone is ringing. (I'd just fallen asleep)

Sarika is on the other end crying. Her roommate Nina hasn't come back to their room and Sarika woke up alone. She's freaked out that she had no clue where Nina is. And she's scared.

Sarika is 23. That's how old I am! I sure as hell wouldn't have started crying if I woke up and saw that my roommate was not in her bed. Maybe she's a bit immature. She lives with her mum and grand mom and from what she's told me I gather that she has led a pretty sheltered life. Or maybe she's just stressed out since the girls will be meeting with the judges the next day.

All I'm thinking right now is, "how can I sort this out and get back to sleep?" I'm also feeling a little badly for her, so I invite her to come to my room, since Rachel and Mizpah are bunking with some of the other girls.

But Sarika is nervous about walking to my room alone, so I drag my groggy self out of bed and walk down to her room three villas away. After bringing her back to my room I calm her down, make sure she's comfortable and then try to get some sleep.

At 3:10am, Sarika wakes me up (again) with an announcement. She wants to go back to her own room. And of course, she wants me to walk her back and make sure she reaches safely.

Now I'm wide awake. This is just great.

The next day, I learn from some of the girls, as well as the crew, that Nina wasn't sleeping in the room because apparently Sarika likes to sleep in the buff.

Hey, it's great to have your quirks and sleep nude if you want to. But if you're staying with someone, particularly in a reality TV contest scenario like this, maybe you'd want to wear at least something?

Next week: The pressure from the judges heats up and the girls prepare themselves for the first elimination.