Of Clinton

So it's 3:00pm yesterday and I'm having a meeting with Miranda and Kelly and discussing the future and excitement with the organization we work for, the Global Youth Network. I recall that Bill Clinton was set to speak at The Ex in about an hour and thought, "Ah, what the heck? I'm going!" So I head there alone, get a ticket, bump into a friend and sit down to hear him speak.

Considering this was a last minute decision, I didn't really have any expectations. He appeared pretty tired and his voice was hoarse, but that's to be expected as he was just in Boston for Ted Kenndy's funeral mass hours before. I wasn't necessarily blown away. The title of this speech was "Embracing Our Common Humanity" and focused on issues such as health care, working together to help the poor as well as Canadian issues such as our presence in Afghanistan, Alberta's oilsands and its relation to climate change as well as Canada's first nations.

The best part was at the end where he more or less spoke of the importance of doing something you love for a living. Doing something that never feels like work.

Paying just $5 to see an icon like him speak was a steal considering people across the world pay much more, I'm sure. He's a cool dude... seeing what he just did in North Korea was amazing. No regret for sure.

- Gilad

Of Smiling

David Stern, commissioner of the NBA, is totally smiling because he's Jewish.

Awesome.



- Gilad

Of Small Worlds

The man is blogging like a machine.

So we adopted two puppies from a shelter in Daejeon when we were in Korea.
You know this.


Now we are living in Toronto with our puppies.
You know this.


But wait! Prepare to have your mind blown away.

I was walking the pups home from the park which is right around the corner. I'm at the intersection waiting for the walk signal. A woman (with her pup) ask me what kind of dogs they are. I recite the shpeel for the millionth time, "I'm not sure. We adopted them from a shelter in Korea."
This is where I'm normally greeted with "Oh, wow, that's so interesting! That's so great of you!" or "Oh wow! You're an amazing person!" or "Oh wow wow wow... you are a saint!" or "Oh my God! You should run for Prime Minister!" .. but not this time. This time, this particular woman responds with "Oh wow..... from Daejeon?".. to which I say, "Heck yea! How did you know?" .. to which she replies, "I adopted mine from there too!"

Crazy.

Here I am in Toronto, on the other side of the world from Korea, standing at an intersection with a woman who adopted her dog from the same tiny random shelter that we adopted our pups from.

Ladies and gentlemen, Milly:



- Gilad

Of Clearly

So Dawna left for Mexico very early this morning. She's working with Gapec. She'll be blogging about that later.

In any case, I'm here alone for three weeks. It'll definitely be a learning experience. I haven't ever really lived by myself for an extended period of time. In the back of my mind, I always thought, "Geesh, watch something crazy happen when she's gone. I bet someone is going to get murdered in this cheery city of mine."

Well lo and behold, I get up this morning to take the dogs out and am met with cop cruisers blocking off our road. Right in front of my apartment. Police tape and all.


By the time I finished walking the dogs, got back up to my apartment, grabbed my camera and took the picture, most of the cop cruisers had left.

After inquiring, turns out they were just repairing a hydro power line that fell onto the road.

Day 1: No murders.

--

In other news, turns out the tornado the other night was more serious than I thought. This is all very new for us... this rarely happens here.







I'm reading that 200 homes are so ruined, they'll likely get demolished while others won't be able to return to their homes for over six months. Wild.

- Gilad

Of Epic Dilemmas of Unprecedented Proportions

Last night, Toronto and surrounding areas were met with tornadoes. Houses destroyed. Power lost. Please look.


This was shot just 30 minutes north of us.


This was shot just 2 minutes walking distance from us.


... however, this was nothing compared to the dilemma Dawna and I were facing inside our apartment:



How are we ever going to pre-heat this oven to 4000°F? We'll never enjoy these samosas.

Life is hard.

- Gilad

Of Korean Food

You know... you live in Korea for a year and you grow a certain appreciation for the cuisine. It's delicious. It's spicy. It's plentiful. It's cheap. It's very, very cheap.

And so you're excited to come back to Toronto knowing there's a couple Korea towns that can remind you of the good ole days in Korea. There's plenty of restaurants that will serve Korean food just like it was in Korea. Right? Well, not really. Upon coming back to Toronto, Dawna and I haven't really found any Ddukboki, Gimbap or Bibim Mandu that was quite as delicious as it was in Korea.

So what to do but take it upon yourself to create the delicious masterpiece?

Ladies and gentlemen... my attempt at Korean food. Part Uno.


Ddukboki (or so I think it's spelt)
This particular spicy dish was made of rice sticks (dduk), carrots, cabbage, onion and a few hard boiled eggs. Oh, we also tossed in some thin noodles (ramien)... so some may call this a ramboki The red sauce is hot pepper paste (or gochujang).
To make, you mix 1.5TBSP of gochujang with 1TBSP ketchup. Add about another 1TBSP of mulyeot (basically sugar/water/syrupy thing) and add as much water as necessary to show the consistency of this picture. Boil it, add the dduk. When the dduk is floating to the top, you add the vegetables and presto! Ddukboki.



Chumchi Gimbap (Chumchi means tuna.. gim means seaweed... bap means rice)
This would be the closest thing to Japanese sushi. It's basically seaweed, sticky rice and tuna (made with mayonnaise). You can also add strips of cucumber, carrot, pickled cabbage or anything else you'd like.
To make, you boil the sticky rice. Prepare the tuna. I would let the sticky rice cool off. Place the gim (or seaweed) on a flat surface. Take about 1.5TBSP of sticky rice and spread it evenly on the gim.. make sure you leave about an inch at the top free of sticky rice. Add a strip of tuna in the middle and any other toppings you'd like on top of the tuna. Now, it's time to roll it... so basically fold it from the bottom over the toppings, and start rolling... making sure it stays tight throughout the process. Carefully slice afterwards and you're done!



Bibim Mandu (I'm pretty sure bibim means mixed... and mandu means dumpling)
So this dish is layered with raw vegetables. You throw in some cabbage, cucumber and carrot, making sure they are all sliced thinly. Sprinkle some crushed/chopped up seaweed on top. Top with chogochujang (which is simlilar to the gochujang sauce used in ddukboki, but it's mixed with vinegar. If you've ever eaten bibimbap, that's the sauce that goes on top). That's the bibim part. The mandu part of the dish comes from the dumpling shell that you eat with it. You have to go out and buy something called "Mandu-P" which is basically just the shell or casing of Asian dumplings. They're flat.. and almost look like pancakes. You can either boil them or (very) lightly fry them. You basically take some of the veggie mix, put it on top of the pancake-looking mandu-p, roll it up and munch down. Very delicious.


That's the mandu-p in the bottom right corner. Make sure to serve this, as well as other Korean dishes with kimchi... the most popular snack/food for all Koreans. Kimchi is basically fermented/pickled/spiced cabbage. Korean food isn't Korean food without it.

How did it turn out? Not bad for a first timer!

- Gilad (is starving)

Of Lightning Storms

So Bryson had us over for dinner last night, which was amazing by the way. In the middle of a great discussion, we decide to look out the window and see the fiercest clouds rolling in. The discussion had to come to an end as Dawna and I decided to run to the subway and get home before we got annihilated by the rain. We barely made it.

The storm lasted about 2 or so hours... with constant thunder and lightning. The CN Tower got struck numerous times, as did other buildings.

Here's a short clip I caught




- Gilad

Where have we been?

So for the millionth time, this blog will get revived.

A quick update of our lives:
- I work for the Global Youth Network. I love my job. I was an ESL teacher for nine months, hated it SO much and quit recently.

- I went to Kenya for a month. Worked with two amazing organizations. Living Positive and the Ugunja Community Resource Centre. These will be blogged about.

- Dawna is going to Mexico in two weeks... for three weeks. She'll be working with endangered sea turtles.

- Our trips will be blogged about.

- Still not married. Working on it though! Discussion has come up. Got to be a good sign!

- Gilad