Lost in Translation? Three dudes in Bar 348

The Last day of the Ministerial was very very very long. I was there from the early hours of the morning--though I took a lunch break and went to Victoria´s Peak to grab a bite (great view but as most places in HK, from the airport to religious relics, there was an ugly shopping mall of course, selling stupid shit. PS: check out the blog called: "HK: A Big Shopping mall, a.k.a city of the future¨ for more on the malls)
and came back to find out that the final decleration was going to happen but noone new what time would that be.

Whole afternoon, while waiting, kept myself busy working on audio editing and posting features on rwr website have not finished for the rest of the week, chating with fellow press-center mates, finding out that BBC wanted to use some of my photos from the Real HK trip and sorting it out, snacking and interviewing the representative of an important turkish NGO for Acik Radyo, and kept entertaining myself people watching (an all-time favorite, especially with Jasoncum) and sometimes daydreaming (the cumulative dizziness from not sleeping, not working out and not eating healthy was really kicking in by that time). Anyways finally around 11 pm the WTO announced their "consensus" and to forget about this small battle loss a group of us went to protest in front of the police station in culo-de-mundo Kowloon where the protestors from the day before were detained.

Ceci, Brett, Benny and I got there just in time to see that a group of women were being released (or so we hoped) and I stayed there just a bit more to interview famous french peasant leader (for you to get an idea, think about an Asterix but from this century, great guy) then hit the road to upload the latest news to the radio around 1 am (I know what you are thinking: is this how you spend your ¨last night¨in HK, keep reading it gets better later)

Cecilia called me at 3 am saying they were downstairs waiting for me to have dinner! The same quartet, we went to a ¨boiling pot¨ restaurant. What an experience, they bring a boiling pot to the table, actually the pot boils on your table thanks to an electric heater placed in the middle of the table and you choose raw ingredients and cook them and eat them fresh out of the pot (a version of Kendin Pisir Kendin Ye that we do in Turkey!) NEEDLESS to say, after a couple of bears and boiling ingredients ranging from goat testicles, monkey brains, cow tongue (it is an inside joke), putting a lifelong curse to Pascal Lamy, and chatting with chinese undercover secret service dudes (the rest of the group did not agree with me on my assumption but I firmly believe those guys were not who they told us they were) I was feeling much better. After dinner, Ceci wanted to go home, three of us stayed with a mission: Karaoke!

Unfortunately at 5 am, we could not manage to find an open Karaoke bar, so we entered the only open nightclub we found. BOY OH BOY! Probably one of the cheeseest place I have seen, the decoration was so au nouveau rich hard to put it in words (i.e. fabric covered ceilings, huge greek god statues, ugly chandeliers, private rooms and rythmless german house music!) and almost every one was drugged, Brett confirmed my suspicion, it was mostly extacy at that time of the morning what else could it be?

As the only foreigners, only non-Hong Kong residents, noone seemed to talk to us either. We were about to leave suddenly two dudes came and started to talk to Brett, they were from HK but living in Australia, Brett´s home. They asked us how the hell we found the ¨triad¨joint among all the bars in HK??? Suddenly everything made sense: of course who else would hang out on a sunday night, drugged up, in this whole in the wall, paying $10 a beer? Gang members!! Out of all the bars in Hong Kong we were at the famous triad hangout! For some reason it did not suprise me.....

My ¨last night¨in Hong Kong ended there..went back to the hotel, pack up, took a shower and met with Alberto at breakfast, who brought me the good news: My ticket has been changed to next day!!!!

What a relief because I was not menthally ready to go that morning. I needed a closure, something that has nothing to do with WTO, a little adventure, most importantly World´s biggest Budha in Lantau island.

I headed to Ceci´s apartment, where I worked for an hour or so, by that time an argentine friend, Javier, Julia from Brasil and my new turkish friend Ziya confirmed that they will be joining me in this journey ( it takes 45 mins in boat then a bus for another 30 mins).

My mother was right when she told be upon my arrival to HK, when one stands on front of the Budha, feels very little and earthly but at the same time, this 34 meter stature sooths you in certain way.

I think it was one of the most spritual experiences I had. Until my cellphone rang! Acik Radyo was calling me for my daily report! I talked about the protests and arrests, etc and passed the phone to my turkish expert, who commented on what this deal meant for the develepping countries, and especially Turkey (mom text me later saying we were great) .

We left Budha, took a bus, an hour later: we were somewhere that we had no idea where we were! Lost in Translation, once again (subconsciously, by not payin too much attention, I think I wanted to get lost in HK, as I have done in other cities, being on top of everything all week, made me sick after a while). Luckily we were at a subway station, in the middle of an ugly housing complex (estilo ruso!) and a mall in the middle of it (again, mall!), with Haagen Dazs counter and Chillies, etc. Picture perfect capitalist China...

We managed to get back to Kowloon in no time, and by that time we were starving so I proposed we eat at Victoria´s Peak, to see the amazing night view from there. Needless to say it was a good call: really delish food and a fabolous view from the top of HK. What a great way to say goodbye!

We dropped Ziya to his hotel, and also paid a quick homage to HK COnvention Center, where I spent 70% of my time in next 7 days, took the subway back to Kowloon to meet up with the FOcus people, and Cecilia. They were waiting for us in this 100 $ all you can drink bar in Nathan Road, by that time I was so sleepy (being awake for more than 48 hours, plus running around, plus being already tired from the whole week) even the sight of the hot economist could not keep me awake, I said goodbye to all, and he walked me to my hotel.

Curtain.

Real Hong Kong

Thanks to my friends at Focus on the Global South--an NGO based in Asia that deals with trade, policy and development issues-- I was invited to participate in a tour for organized by the for journalists.

The goal of the trip was to show the journalists who are in Hong Kong for the WTO ministerial, the real face of the most liberalized city of the world, glitzy,clean, and perfect on the outside, which are as serious as we all know in our countries but tourist here are very unaware of.

I mentioned the first day that in Hong Kong there are thousands of domestic workers who come mainly from Philippines and Indonesia, through employment agencies who operate thanks to famous Mode 4 of the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), in simple terms how the WTO plans on privitazing all the public services and including people. Mode 4 focuses on giving work permits to natural persons abroad, mainly to high-skilled workers, but everyday developping countries pressure the developped countries to expand their quotas for low to mid skilled workers as well. WHy? Because of export subsidies and dumping from the so-called First World, economies traditionally dependent on agriculture empoverishes and unemployment raises, so these governments, in order to maintain a certain level of prosperity want to export workers outside, who will send remittances in foreign currency to support their families and create money flow without real production (HEY HEY, I know, since the blog/me is being reporting from Hong Kong the language has changed. I really never ment to put these kind of stuff in my page but I am here and want to write about it, but at the end everything that is happening here have to do with global trade and development.I wish I could have time to go see something wild to report back as well, but so far, no time for fun.)

Anyways: The tour was called the Real HK, and our first stop was a shelter for the indonesian domestic workers who have been abused at their workspace. These women, come to work in rich HK homes, 24/6 (they have sunday off), for about $400 a month. They do everything we hear from the girls sitting in front of us, and are not treated nicely. One of them told us the story of a friend, who was prisoned by her employer to the house for 7 months, they did not even let her make a phone call and finally she jumped out of 7th floor window of the building where she was, luckily did not die and after recieving treatment went back home recently. I dont want to give to many tear-jerking stories, basically they are being exploited harshly in HK and have few places to go when they need to defend themselves.

Second stop was Hong Kong Women's Worker's Union, whose members are mostly those who work 10-12 hours a day making our clothes,shoes, and bags, but since all the garment factories moved to Mainland China a couple of years ago, some are unemployed, and some work in diffrent fields, also trying to survive.

The last stop, and I think it was the most difficult one to bare, was what they call the "Cage people." These men, live in an apartments around the city, but there are so many in one place that they live in their bunk beads, which look like cages, all their lives. We meet with two, who were cooking lunch, again unemployed due to the fatc that their factories were moved to Mainland (ironically they came to HK in 1966 to work in these factories, once were the main source of income for many Hongkongese) and they are too old to switch jobs.

Next time when you are in Gucci, or Max Mara, or any store really, think about these people who live on 1% of what we spend on a pair of shoe (sometimes) for a month.

You all know that one of the reasons I pursue the life I pursue is partly due to this urge I have (I dont know what is wrong with me!--jk) to do something about these inequalities I see around me, as a journalist, so at least by letting my closest friends, all around the world, know about what is happening in the world, I hope to achieve it slowly but surely.

I started to believe more and more that ignorance is a very comfortable pillow for humans, the less you know, better you sleep.....or shop!


PS: The men in the picture has been living in HK since 1966, he is shown in his "house" (1 mt square approx.)where he shares with 20 or so others. His cage is considered "one of the best" in Hong Kong, in termns of conditions.

"Which one do you prefer, sir?" ---" Black, Black wine please" he says!

I have been dying to write about my night out with the Turkish delegation to the WTO here in Hong Kong the other night, I finally have some time to do it today so here I go.

I coincidentally found the Head Delegate, who happens to be a very nice and cool men in the corridors, who kindly gave me his phone numbers in order for me to reach him and interview him for Acik Radyo (our version of NPR). So at the end of the day I gave him a call and he invited me to his hotel where he said he could brief me on what will be Turkey´s position in these negotiations (for those who think I only write about silly stuff, such as my superficial thoughts about people, my lovelife and international party scenes, here is my oportunity to show you that I am also an intellectual who does serious work--jk). Basically Turkey, a textile exporting country depends on the changes that the G33 countries are pushing at the WTO talks this week, especially on the issue of export subsidies (Turkey imports cotton from Greece because they have a cheaper/EU subsidized price than our own productors) and if WTO decides to stop the EU policy our internal economy, especially agriculture can benefit from it immensely, of course from a social standpoint.

Anyways, I interviewed the Turkish Head Delegate at his hotel, and there met with the other members of the group, mostly businessmen involved in textile industry in Turkey. Suddenly we heard that the Turkish Minister on external trade was on his way there and I was invited to eat with the rest of the delegation, and the minister said he was impressed with such a ¨young and talented¨ turkish girl´s presence in Hong Kong!--I admit I was really proud of myself and airheaded a bit.

We took like 5 cabs following the minister to Grand Hyatt hotel´s famous One Harbour Road to taste their famous Cantonese delicacies.

The night was uneventful mostly people talking about very turkish things, colloquial and hard to translate. But there was one sentence that made the night unfortgetable, when the ¨reporter¨ for Ihlas TV (a channel with religous tendencies funded by the fundamentalists) asked for ¨Black wine¨--I still could not figure out why he thought it was called black, it is not even direct translation from turkish, we call it Red wine as well as the rest of the world!

Tuesday and wednesday was crazy, worked likea maniac, two live reports to the radio, many articles for Uruguay.

Last night we went, with a group of folks from Latin America, friends really, to SOHO and had a great Thai dinner there. the place looked like Asmalimescit street in Istanbul more than SOHO. The food was great and the chinese Elvis was definetely worth listening.

BIG in JAPAN

I cannot believe I actually title a chapter in HK like this, this summer I have heard that song way two many times (Alper if you are reading this, thank you for that amazing night at Baykus)...Let´s leave the nostalgia and talk about Hong Kong.

Sunday night I walked around the city, in Nathan Road area, waiting for my collegue to go back to her apartment so that I can use the internet and send my daily duties back to Montevideo. It must have to do living all my life in some of the coolest cities of this world, I coincidentily find myself inside a building, called ¨Trendy Mall¨ OK OK , I admit, I followed the coolest dressed girls on the street, knowing either I was going to find a really cool store, hairdresser or where I could spot the hot hongkonguese guys! Result: a tiny shopping mall with cutest boutiques! The prices? Almost NY high? Why? When the shopgirl saw my shocked face, said ¨they are all from Japan¨Then it hit me! Last two days I have been walking around thinking, where do I remember these people from: NY. But not as Hongkongese, but as japanese. In NYC Japanese youth dresses up impeccably, usually--mostly-- in designer clothes, hair, attitude....everything that I have been seing around here. So that you know, JAPANese anything is HOT in HK. The food, the clothes, the attitude. Interesting.

I went to sleep with the euphoria of being able to put my finger on something, even though it is super superficial, I know. Forgive me I am jetlagged.

MONDAY

While writing these lines, 3 am in the morning after waking up at 7 and literally working all day, I am amazed with the power of jetlag. How can I be so messed up that I am still awake I ask myself.

Anyways, an eventful and an uneventful day at the same time. I think I worked so hard and so much, I am brain dead.

Coolest thing? The brazilian advisor to the international affairs, a.k.a the HOTEST politician I have ever seen! ...tudo bem tudo bem, a lot of agriculture and trade conversation, could be better if there was more of a wsf atmosphere here.

I left the hottie back in his conference and took the ferry back to Kowloon, saw the famous christmas lights. Very cheesy for my taste, a building decorated with a full size Santa Claus and his sledge was not what I expected, maybe I looked at the wrong lights who nows__

Upon my arrival to kowloon, walking towards the tube, I came accross a store, seemed like they were selling fake designer bags, so I entered. The lady tried to make me believe they were real! I looked at her and said: PLEASE. They were very good fakes but fakes, thanks to years of experience in fashion (mostly buying) she could not fool me. I though she probably sells them as fakes to locals, for cheap, and to abnouxious prices to tourists that she can convince.

I think I am passing out, my fingers hurt from writing. I miss my new apartment. My old bed, waking up in the arms of someone who I really really like...

Robocop in Hong Kong: Waterwars

What a morning! I stopped writing in the early hours of morning (it is on the computer, later will post here) and start my day at 7:30 am, rushing to get to the harbor in Kowloon with some folks from Focus on the Global South as one of the very few press members to be in the Fluvial Protest Boats that Filipino and Thai fisherman rented!

We left the harbor and toured all around Hong Kong for an hour or more before we get near the Hong Kong Convention Center (Mom, it is really an amazing building, I wish you could be here and see it yourself, and I also hope that one day our dear Istanbul will have one just like this). As the sight of the coast guard, press and the HKCEC became closer, one of the organizers of the protests, Rusty i think his name was, came up to me and said:"hello my dear journalist friend, now for you guys two of our comrades will jump on the ice cold water for the cause!" I thought he was joking for a second, making fun of the yellow journalists constantly hungry for that kind of bullshit, but he was not! I went downstairs to the deck and saw two Thai fisherman, barefoot and freezing, waiting there. At the end those two did not jump, two filipinos from Mamamayan-pakisama showed courage and made quite a scene in the early hours of Tuesday.

As soon as we decked in Hong Kong, I went straight to HKCEC for the Pascal Lamy's (the bold French guy who became the Director General of the WTO recently)long-awaited inauguration speech, did a live coverage of the event for Acik Radyo, and witnessed 75 Koreans jumping off the water from the pier outside the HKCEC, from the window of the convention center. Suddenly the calm and clean streets of HK started to look like Fallujah, or the movie Robocop, when the hk government send off thousands of SWAT teams to hold back the calmest protest I have ever seen, no violence at all, people had flowers in their hands for god's sake.

Overall my observation is that the Asian worker unions, and groups are very well organized, diciplined and peaceful in their protests and willing to do anything to beat the WTO negotiations. Getting wet is definetly is not an issue and from what I hear, some koreans are willing to go further and repeat what happened in cancun in 2003.

Later I met with the official turkish delegation to the WTO and the NGOs who came with them, interview one of them, and had a great dinner at the GRAND HYATT (how do I always end up at these weird dinners, I think they find me), DIMSUM a la turca! There are some turks that are riots, I have no words to describe the things they do, it is so turkish it is hilarious! The way they ask the check...and my fav: turkish speakers, you will love this one: all the guys at the delegation, businessman and all, call the charger of the cellular phones....sarz aleti! I was dying, trying to hold my breath, not to laugh hard as I wanted to.

Anyways, it is 2 am again and I am awake, tomorrow is another day!

HONG KONG: One word: Unfuckingbelievable !

After 28 hours of air travel, I arrived in what we can call "the forbidden city for a shopaholic." I came to my hotel around 11 pm, and the streets were full of cool people doing what I like most, most of the time: shopping! Stores, food, human traffic all around me, and after calm as paradise Montevideo, I was like: yeahhhhhhh!

PS: By the way, from the airport to the hotel, to the convention center to the bus, metro, boat, the best customer service I have ever seen, people are so nice and well organized, it is the british detail orientation and chinese diciplne, what a great combination I have to say.

I had a bite and went to sleep, I literally could not keep my eyes open but woke up really early on Sunday, after breakfast with the rest of the NGO crowd at my hotel (we are staying in a YMCA kind of association's lodge, not bad, in the middle of Nathan Road) I hit the road to get my press credentials from the WTO people. On the way, I managed to get a cool haircut, took a nice ferry ride, and get lost on purpose to see the city a bit more. After 2 hours of bargain, it is still on the air whether or not I am Press or NGO (due to a tiny fuck up, I am first registered as an NGO, therefore I can only be counted as one and not press, etc etc blah blah!) but I am in, they gave me one of those ugly conference bags full of information I dont need and an ugly scarf--it is warm and beautiful outside, but well, it seems like they are concerned about the ac in the convention center???.

After a pretty hard fight the WTO press people, I did my first assignment on the protests the local and international NGOs organized in Victoria Park amongst the curious eyes of the Indonesian domestic workers (there were literally thousands of women, outnumbering the protestors, sitting in a park watching these people who are fighting for their rights, but not giving damn, gossiping and eating, it is their only day off I am told)The protest walked through ther Hennesy Road, the super busy shopping district, while shoppers stopped for a moment to take pictures with the cameras or phones, then went back to where they left off. SOme jewelry stores closed their front doors with bodyguards but life went on, plus the protestors were peaceful and had no urge to vandalise anything.

will write more later... I hope to get back to the streets and see more of HK before things get busier here!

Cupula Gets Inaugurated! Yuppyyyyy

One cupula. One woman. Two weeks. Approximately $200 dollars. And Murphy's laws "a ful" Can she do it? (last two days I was asking myself the same question) But on 7th of December, I managed to finish it so that I could held an inaguration party before leaving for Hong Kong!

The day started early, almost all day at work, then quick shopping for food, and cooking some apetizers for the party (and I was so sleepy for partying all weekend with Orhan) and a quick power nap later I schlepped gorgeous and semi-awake single self to the Cupula.

To my suprise Eldin was still working on something, but things were pretty much in order, Orhan and Akasya came early to help, Titi and Justine were already there and after an hour or so (11 pm) the house was rocking! We had a lot to drink and munch, music, and porro, so everybody was happy....

We finished around 4 am...everybody left,and we stayed and slept in the tiny bed, kind of uncomfortable, but cozy and warm, just like I imagined months ago how my first night would be there.

I can tell is waking up there in the morning, in my first OWN place, feeling like an adult, and for achieving something quiet difficult, was amazing. AMAZING!!!!!


Photo 1: Titi, Orhan and Asli.
Photo 2: Luis (my Guatemalan neighbor from 2nd floor), Javier, Juan, Ricardo (a.k.a Justin), Titi, Akasya, Sirley (my neighbor from first floor), Kiko (Sirley´s boyfriend), Orhan Abi, Lucas.....I am taking the picture from a top of a stool, plus heels but no vertigo!

Asli Pelit Proudly Presents: The New and Improved CUpula

As of December 6th around 21:00, CUpula was finished---of course there are some tiny problems and missing pieces in it but when you look at the pictures you can tell where was I a week ago and where am I right now. I rather not take credit for the work, I only dreamt and laid out the plan. If it was not for all the people who have helped me, professionally and emotionally, I could not enjoy my new casa in such short time.

Will write more after today's Parteee, A red carpet event, like a gallery opening!--of course only people who have helped me are invited!

Is this a Turkish Invasion?*

I am sure after March everybody will ask themselves the same question in South Cone: have we been invaded by three turks? And the answer is probably will be YESSSSSsss (I see Orhan saying it with sparkling eyes that say he is really enjoying what he is thinking about)

Well an era ended in montevideo on friday that I would like to call it: the era of boredom total! --ok ok I exagerate, since I have been hanging out with Titi and those great days I shared with Javier were very very good, but overall this is a boring place for Asli Pelit (a.k.a. international party girl)--Orhan finally arrived! And he came with Acacia--a talented and succesful actress from my gen--which added up to all the fun we are going to have this summer.

Let me give you the hour by hour since their arrival:

Friday (December 2nd):
16:00-Arrival Tres Cruces Bus Station
17:00-First bottle of Medio-Medio
18:00-Second bottle of Medio-Medio
19:00-Third Bottle of Medio-Medio (around that time a dork named Martin who is friends with the server and who works at Defense Ministry appears in our table, we tried everything to get rid of him, he did not get it. Javier arrived, there was a miss-kiss situation and a weird uncomfortableness in the air, which dissapeared after a while)
19:30-first bottle of Champagne (Martin was still there but we were more hostile than before in our words at that time)
20:00-Second bottle of champagne
21:00-While girls were having a cup of espresso, boys open the bottle of Raki, gossiping!

22:00-Dinner at Parillada del Sur (also known as the Parillada del Galan, the owner is sooo hot, I cannot think about food when I get there, and he flirts with me, all the time!)
23:00-We leave the restaurant. We need to go to an occupied factory where my friends la Teja Pride were having a concert. First we had to stop somewhere to get the tire fixed. Then we looked for the eurotrash who called Javier and asked to be picked up, then on the way to the factory the egzoz (I have no clue how to say that in english: the thing that the heat of the engine suppose to go out, which sticks out from the back of the car)falls! Literally we had to put it inside the car, almost on top of the eurotrash and arrived (god knows how) to the factory.
01:00-The smelly Factory: we realized that we were in a leather factory, the blood on the floor and a stench that I cannot describe (and will not for your sake). Daniel Viglietti (Orhan called him Uruguayan Ruhi Su, which made me laugh so hard tears came out of my eyes) was singing when we arrived. There were approximately 50 people watching the concert, I believe they were all family members of the workers and friends of the band, then we entered: Orhan with his white pony tail, Acacia as glamourous as an actress should be, me in a Pucci dress with spiky shoes, all semi-drunk and nauseated due to that horrible smell! Noone looked at the stage again. Acacia was filming the concert with her Motorola 6000, while Orhan was trying to convince me why the factory had to be closed down "fifty years ago," making me laugh all the time; I hope we did not appear as mean as people who are clubbing baby seals on the head!
02:00-Back to hotel. Acacia fell asleep, Orhan and I had a couple more drinks, chatting


Saturday (December 3rd):
11:00- Rental Car pick-up
11:30-Visit to the cupula (I was in tears when I opened the door and here he was, Milton almost done with the bathroom who also suggested to install some more plugs in the living room and the crooked shelves and the lamp. He also told me that when he saw that the whole place was painted, 18 feet ceilings, he said to himself that I was crazier than he thought initially, thinking that I climbed up all the way up there and painted myself)We had mate with Titi then we were off to Mercado de Puerto!
14:30-Mercado de Puerto (In briefs: 12 bottles of Medio Medio among 8 people, in 6 hours!)It was a feast exactly how I thought it had to be. Friends, music, good food, and a little bit of drunkeness. Mauro could not take it around 6 pm, Acacia went to hotel to take a nap around 7 pm, and mi amiga Titi was unconcious around 5 pm, but she did not black out until 8 o'clock. I was totally sobered up when Juana came, because I had to be, you cannot be drunk around a 4-year old girl, I dont know how but she woke me up.
20:30- The CUpula. The sun setted amazingly that day, I was at the cupula, looking out from my window, Javier flirting with me, yet still something was not as used to be, he said the reason behind his creepy attitude that "I was still punished for not speaking when I was supposed to!" PLEASEEEEEEE, wake up and get with the program Javier, I told him, I will never ever apologize for something that I have not done, I don't even apologize for things I do wrong!---All that was after a great coupling at the Cupula!
23:00-Pinar. Orhan loved the house. A couple of beers and a bit chitchat. We left Javier and Juana, had ice-cream in Pocitos (I did. Orhan is not an ice-cream person so much)and went back to the center.
01:00-Hotel PLaza Fuerte. Acacia, rested and groomed was waiting for us. We went to la Comedia, the ultimate 30-something joint in town when it is not too hot outside. While the rest of the crowd stared at us with shock, we ate two huge plates of green salad (that is not the classic bar food here, women and men drink beer and eat pizza usually)in order to detox our bodies from all the red meat we consumed earlier.
03:00-Finally in bed in Durazno 2028.


Sunday (December 4th)
11:00--Cuban coffee and hair grooming in Durazno 2028. Acacia braided Orhan's pony tail while I prepared a super mate.
12:00--Tristan Narvaja Antiques Fair. I managed to buy furniture, 1 lit amber pharmacy bottle, and a roble cuttlery holder in 45 minutes! Orhan enjoyed mate and Acacia got herself a very catholic and beautiful necklace.
13:00- Titi's. We were invited to Titi's older brother's (who lives 35 kms outside of Montevideo in a hippy commune, in Sauce)birthday party. Family, friends and roasted lamb in an area of 13 acres-surrounded by vineyards, and super cool houses that the community has built by themselves. It was really really nice. A lot of babies, which to us, turks without babies, was the weirdest element of the whole thing.
18:00-Back to Montevideo. It was time for medio medio again, we went to the terrace of Red Hostel and had a bottle there, gossiping about what we have experienced so far.
22:00-Durazno 2028: I cooked an italian feast for everybody.
24:00-Jetlag finally hit Orhan and Acacia, they went back to hotel to sleep.


*Turkce bilen arkadaslar icin daha da eglenceli olacak: Aslinda bu yazinin basligi:"Orhan, Akasya ve Asli Tabakhane'ye Nasil Bok Yetistirdi?" olacakti..

Extreme Makeover Continues: Cupula creates a Murphy Brown-Eldin Bernecky kind of a relationship

Murphy Brown: Remember that show? I think it was an NBC sitcom. I grew up watching it (I was in secondary school at that time, still living in Istanbul) and always wanted to become a good (and famous) journalist like her (minus being as lonely as she was and raising a child by myself). There are many similarities between me and Murphy: she is very selfish, stubborn, extremely hot-tempered but also, --I know this sounds horribly arrogant--talented, resourceful, clever and caring.

If you do remember the show, after returning from a "stay" at the Betty Ford rehabilitation center, she hires a painter, who slowly becomes a part of her life, because after getting used to her neurosis, he starts enjoying her company and even though she denies it at first, she likes the company as well, so much that when Eldin's work is over, she creates new projects so that he stays in the house keeping her company, an becomes her therapist, almost.

After a week of suffering at the CUpula with a plummer who totally ignored my orders, and kicked me out of my house so that he can "work" alone, Titi called a friend, Carlos, who, as far as I saw so far, does great things around the house. The first day he painted the parts of cupula that I could not reach. Yesterday he made me a kitchen counter to die for--a very rustic wood table--and asked me what else needed to get done, offered to come back to finish off those details. He then suggested that it should be painted again, and proposed to make me a custom made bed for the small bedroom! I said to myself: I have an Eldin--tough Carlos is not so savvy and chit-chatty, he is not a smart ass, he is very very nice.

How are things at the cupula then? So far the bathroom is done (looks really really cute), the living room is almost done (we probably finish it on monday) and tuesday I can probably move my stuff in there, and I can inaugurated on wednesday.

The guests will be asked to bring a plant--bigger and greener the better--no flowers, for the cupula. I will serve meat and sangria!