We had traded away our cherished wheels for a handful of subway tokens and a Go Train ticket to Toronto. With dwindling funds we had come to the big city hoping to bank enough cash to get us on the road again.

Kenneth, the newly enrolled law-student and loyal friend from SMU helped us carry our crap to his apartment, practically in the heart of the city and coincidentally next door to Korea-town! Mmmm….kimchi!

Besides sharing his modest living space, he also scored us a job interview at his summer work – a call centre…ah, thanks Kenneth! 3 days of training and a complete failure at a first attempt on the phones, promted us to quickly find new jobs....at All The Best fine foods market, poshly located in Rosedale, Toronto’s shi-shi poo-poo district! And so as I wrapped over-priced cheese for the rich and fabulous, Sara served them cappuccinos and helped out the chef’s in the company’s humongous kitchen! Basically, we spent 5 weeks faking we weren’t bums!

 

Luckily for us another great friend from our Korean days, Jon Bon himself, had just moved into a new place in the same area as our work and was kind enough to offer us his couches. And so we played the role of roommates, entertaining Jon with sotire of teh raod while he treated us to some of the more finer things in life! I even managed a TLC ‘While You Were Out’ episode of my own. While Jon vacationed in Prague (yeah that’s what I said), I painted his living room, spicing up his unique "Scholarly/Asian" theme. Between shifts we did our usual wandering, snooping, and casual socializing.

Toronto is a mad house! There’s just so much to do and see in that city. The pace was fast, hip, and slightly exaggerated. The morning paper’s front cover was either criminal or celebrity. It was exciting but intimidating and exhausting!

Not to say we didn’t enjoy ourselves. We went to the beautiful wedding of a couple we had met in Thailand-the reception was so much fun I was disappointed when the night came to an end! Thanks Shawn and Liza!

We attended (free) performances by the National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company on Toronto’s waterfront. We watched World Cup Hockey in a sports bar blocks from the Air Canada Centre. We went to bars that only opened at 6 am and danced till noon! We relived the more joyous moments of Korea with a spicy meal of Dalkkabi and $15 bottles of soju! We caught up with fellow SMU alumni- Sabrina arrived from Orlando, Marcel and Janitra from nearby cities and Kathi, who flew caution to the wind flying all the way from Austria just to hang out!!!

And although we were ready to ditch T dot O, it still pained us to leave Kenneth and Jon behind in all that unadulterated madness! Take care you guys, thanks for a freakin’ awesome time and we owe you tonnes!