I’ve got Seoul

I’ve been continuing to study Korean (which is good), but seeing as i’ll be heading to South America in a few weeks, I figure I’ll start brushing up my Spanish soon too.

So, in honour of the trip, here’s the traditional Argentinian “Dance of the Cucumber”. I won’t be in Argentina, but whatever. Close enough.

I’ve applied for a job with the Vancouver olympics. Wonder if I’ll get it. It’s an event organizing type job, and I’m actually qualified for it. It would be a pretty cool experience.

I think if I don’t get this one, I’ll be heading back to Seoul in the fall.

Close to the deadline, or what? It’s already post-day evening, but the cheesecake pops are just finished and the pictures just finished uploading. I’m sure you’re already ogling all the other cheesecake pops on the (apparently now almost 1000) other daring bakers’ blogs. Check them out (if you didn’t yet) at the blogroll.

This month’s challenge was hosted by Elle from Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell. The recipe comes from Jill O’Connor’s book, Sticky Chewy, Messy, Gooey, which has to be one of the most awesome cookbook titles ever. The recipe is posted on Elle and Deborah’s blogs, linked above.

Because of the last minute-ness, mine are not the prettiest, but they are still tasty.

I had already heard that some people ended up with too-mushy cheesecake to roll into balls, and I think mine could have been firmer too, despite the fact that it was in the oven for about an hour rather than the 35-45 mins that the recipe called for. But that was nothing that a quick trip to the freezer couldn’t fix.

The only alteration I made was the addition of some lime juice and lime zest instead of the regular vanilla flavouring. I didn’t add much, it’s just enough to get a hint of the taste.

Oh, and I didn’t have any lollipop sticks, so I took someone else’s trick (would love to give credit, but I forgot who you are!) and used colourful bendy straws.

My grandmother tried one, and said it was yummy, so there you go.

If you want some, come on over, because I have half a cheesecake plus a bunch of pops, and as good as they are, I can’t eat them all myself.

Also, exciting news! Daring bakers have finally scorned Blogger, which was not able to cope with the growing number of daring bakers on the for-members-only blog. We’ve now moved to a forum, which you can visit here. You can visit it because while some of it is only visible to daring bakers, there is a section which is visible to everyone. Feel free to check it out, especially if you have any baking related questions. Daring bakers are a helpful bunch!

I know it’s already past the 27th in some places, but thankfully I’m not in any of those places.

My daring baker challenge is still in the oven, but watch out for a final-hour last-minute post later today.

Yup, this one’s flourless.

Chocolate cake with a layer of raspberry coulis, then a layer of whipped cream, then topped with raspberries.

So I was all excited to do the daring bakers challenge this month now that I’m finally back to places where kitchens have ovens. But now I’ve been thrown a bit of a curveball because I just realized that the recipe isn’t Kosher for Passover, and so I have to modify the recipe in probably less delicious ways.

Now, I normally wouldn’t care beans about Passover, since I don’t consider myself Jewish, but both my parents and my grandparents keep their kitchens relatively Kosher for Passover. Because it’s so close to Passover and their kitchens are busy, I probably won’t be able to make it before, and then Passover ends just in time for the actual post date.

So I guess this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge will be modified to be Kosher for Passover. Unless by any chance anyone has a non-Kosher kitchen they want to lend me. It’d be fun to bake with others anyway, and then I wouldn’t have to Kosherize the recipe. Plus, you know you want an excuse to eat my baked stuff.

I was hanging out in the departure lounge in Vancouver airport on my way to Montreal. My flight from Seoul was packed and took forever. It was worse than my flight from Toronto to Seoul, because that flight had been half empty.

I was sitting next to a really old Chinese couple who didn’t speak English or French in the waiting area near the gate. The woman was in a wheelchair. A couple of times, the old man went up to the counter and tried to speak to them, but only knew Mandarin, and none of the staff did. They replied in English, saying that they’d get him for pre-boarding, but he didn’t understand them either. They tried French, but that was obviously no better.

When it came time to pre-board, the woman came to get him, and he was counting out some pills or something. He didn’t understand, so I asked him in Mandarin if he was Chinese (he looked Chinese, and his bag had Chinese characters on it), and he said yes, so I said I could translate for him if he liked. He was taking too long about his pills, so they decided to board him at the end, but just then he managed to pack everything up and was getting up, so they figured they’d just board them right away as they originally planned, and held the line of people. But then there was trouble, because they didn’t know ahead of time that the woman couldn’t walk at all, and had to be carried on. So everyone else was waiting while they waited for two staff members trained for that sort of thing could come and help. It finally took about 20 minutes or so. I waited with the couple to continue to help and translate (they had asked me to pre-board with them to help out).

I really felt badly for them; the man was disoriented and worried, and the woman was actually quite scared. When the guys were lifting her into the smaller wheeled chair, she kept trying to hold on to the wheelchair she was in, and couldn’t sit up in the other wheeled chair.. they finally had to strap her into it. But she was noticeably scared the whole time, and it was obvious that something was hurting her.

Finally they got her into her seat, and to thank me, they upgraded me to business class. They also thanked me verbally quite a lot. It was really nice. A few times, they even mentioned it to others “.. and she’s not even travelling with them, she’s just helping out cause she’s really nice!”.  Good karma and an upgrade to business class. Sweet!

Anyway, now I’m back in Montreal. People keep asking if I’m happy to be back, and the answer is “not really”. I’m not *sad* to be back or anything, just.. I’d rather still be in Seoul now. I’m looking forward to going back in September or October.

I’m fine, but generally pretty jetlagged. My internal clock is very messed up. I was hoping to avoid jet lag somehow, cause I didn’t get any when I arrived in Korea from Canada, but so much for that. Now I just hope it goes away soon.

(Sorry for the awful pun)

Dammit. I don’t want to leave. What with all the frustrations of living somewhere where you are always a foreigner, I really really like Seoul. I was on vacation and I actually missed Seoul. I’ve never missed Montreal when I’ve been travelling. What gives?

Last night I went out to dinner with Jay and then out dancing, and then went out for coffee/tea/hot choco with the KLR staff (maybe I should write about KLR later), and it was such a great night! The dancing was amazing, the people are awesome, and I just don’t want to leave. I’ve been dancing 9 nights in a row so far, and by the time I leave it will be 11, and I still don’t get tired of it. Actually, right now, they’re playing swing music in the hostel and I wish there were a few dancers here…

I had my going away jam last night too, and that was fun. Friday nights at Swing Bar in Sinsa-dong are one of my favourite nights here in Seoul, and it was my first time back dancing there in over a month. My last night here will be Sunday at Swing Time Bar near Kyodae, which is my other favourite place to dance in Seoul.

I’ve decided that I’m coming back in September or October.

Quick hello!

Plans to go to Prasat Preah Vihear didn’t work out, finally, so I stayed in Siem Reap. I’ve gotten used to the city and fallen into a bit of a routine, so things are super familiar and good.

Despite that, I’m still finding new things all the time. I just recently discovered this awesome place called the Singing Tree Cafe, and found out that there’s a lot of happiness in curling up in a big papasan in the middle of a really nice, big garden, eating some great food, with a fan behind you and a cat curled up in your lap. Guess where I’ll be spending the afternoon today?

If you ever head to Siem Reap, my suggestion is to check it out; it’s my favourite place so far. Also recommended (in order of awesomeness) are Khmer Kitchen (best tofu laap ever), and Blue Pumpkin (for some authentic bread and good, though pricey, desserts).

In more travelley goodness, it’s now confirmed that I’ll be heading to South America in June, until mid/late July with Debbie. We’ll be heading to Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The travel map on the sidebar is updated.

Why it’s a good skill to have to be able to give decent massages…

I’ve been in Siem Reap for over a week now. Normally, I’d have moved on, because there’s honestly not that much to do here. But I began to miss home, and couldn’t even tell you if I meant Korea or Canada. It was weird, but I’m pretty sure it was because I had been travelling around so much in Laos and needed more of a home base. Now I wouldn’t mind seeing some other places, but now there’s not really enough time. Ah well. I’m still having a good time hanging out around here, though. I’ve been walking around, reading books, volunteering teaching, etc. Anyway, I’m excited to go back to Korea, because there’s only so much of this weather that I can take, and I really really really REALLY miss dancing.

So because I’ve been here for a while, I’ve managed to befriend the staff at my guesthouse. They really are sweet people. And it’s given me more access to the sort of “local” Siem Reap, versus the “tourist” side of it. The manager of the guesthouse took me out to a local dance club, one of the others took me to a hangout spot just out of town where locals go around sunrise and sunset just to hang out, and I’ve gone with them to the market sometimes to buy groceries.

One of the guys has a habit of coming up behind me and giving me a sort of fake massage.. he can’t really give massages, but he likes suddenly coming up and startling me from behind. Anyway, I offered to give him a massage, and then a couple of the others were watching, so I offered them massages too. From the awesomeness of reciprocity, I found out that the manager actually studied Khmer massage and gives really good ones.

So last night, around 10pm, he asked me if I would give him a massage, and I said sure. I joked that I get the better end of the deal if I give him massages, since his are better than mine are. After the massage he asked if I wanted to go for a Khmer massage, and then went off to get his motorbike! So I went with him to a massage place and he got me a massage, as well as another for himself. Good stuff. 

Back to Korea in only a few days! I can’t wait…