Halloween!

As I have frequently blogged, we are lucky to live on such a community-minded street.

We carved some pumpkins with friends earlier this week, allowing us a record number of 4 pumpkins carved in one year.  We are also lucky because Canadians get pretty excited about Halloween. 

Our previous tradition, and one that we were most sad to leave, was to go to our friends' street and eat dinner and trick or treat together.  

E's first Halloween on Cobb Hill Lane, as the butterfly.

Every year we would get excited, plan costumes and food with friends, and gather our kids and adult beverages and walk around the neighborhood. There were certain houses that were still too scary, but the kids had fun watching the adults go in and come running out.  

E had a few years as a bird, first as a chicken and then as a purple bird that I made. It shed everywhere but the costume was *awesome*

Ariel? She is the baby in pink crying on the far left hand side in the top picture. :)

S, the baby lobster. 

With the blue paci that probably has not been washed since that Halloween 3 years later.

We were really happy to get to see all of our neighbors and friends on our street tonight. It was a good night in Canada - it felt like home.  We saw friends from home, friends from school, and made sure we stopped at all of our favorite houses.  I was worried that this night would be a sad one, because even before we moved E and S were already asking if we could go back to Virginia for Halloween. And S only asked if we could stop by Garrett's house once. 

One of our Virginia friends sent us a picture of their gathering tonight, and we looked at our friends' costumes.  And I think we were a little sad not to be there.  But we were also glad that we have a community that is so vibrant and happy that the entire night felt like a party.  (We did go through about 400 pieces of candy. I'm not sending much in with J to work. It was a busy night.)

This is one of the weirdest things about moving. A night like this, that I was anticipating all year to be one of the more difficult nights, ended up being pretty ok. Maybe even pretty great. My kids are slow trick-or-treaters, but we ran into pretty much everybody and it was a fun night.  The days and nights that I think will be OK end up being the more challenging ones sometimes.  

I think this will begin the Christmas season up here. Remember, Canadians have already had their Thanksgiving (Oct. 9 weekend) so there is no Thanksgiving date to wait for, so I think lights may go up soon and things will begin to be festive.  There is no shortage of cold weather, that's for sure!

Our ladybug and green dragon with wings* wish you a Happy Halloween!

*Last year S was a green dragon, no wings. He wore this costume everywhere. Including when we arrived in Canada. Hello, border control officers. Yes, we have 2 adults, one child, and one small green dragon.  In fact, the title of this blog was going to be A Green Dragon in Customs, but I wasn't sure the dragon would last. I was wrong. 

Do you think they would allow a passport photo in a green dragon costume?

Strength: Tomato Pappu and Terry Fox

I have been pondering the idea of female strength lately. My own and my loved ones.  I have some fierce females around me, my friends.

My thoughts have been coming from a variety of places. It seems that a number of us have been having really tough years. People are sick. Jobs are lost or in trouble. Life is unfair or difficult. Evil is afoot. But even in the face of all this, we have earned promotions, gotten jobs, supported our families financially and emotionally, made choices that are the right ones for us, parented our children, others people's children, and supported each other - most of these at the same time.  We are wonderful friends to each other, particularly in times of need. 

Where does our strength for this come from? I am not exactly sure, but I know for me, community has helped me so very much. I am lucky to have friends that are willing to listen to me cry on skype when I was newly moved to Canada, J was in Switzerland, and I fell apart, which is still the lowest part of my time here.  I am also lucky to have new friends here, who have continued my Hyderabadi culinary education and who have introduced me to Terry Fox.

There is no greater inspiration in Canada than Terry Fox. And inspiration is strengthening to me.

Please take a few minutes and watch the clip if you are not familiar with him.

In September my sister Hil and I volunteered at the local Terry Fox run in Etobicoke, our area of Toronto. There are runs all over Canada, and all over the world*. Everything is donated and run in a very "mom-and-pop" fashion, so there are no corporate donors to give you t-shirts or a medal when you finish.  Most of the money raised during Terry's events is given directly to cancer research - an astonishingly high percentage.  The run is non-competitive and open for a few hours, so you begin when you want and finish during the open window.  Survivors, like Hil, get red t-shirts.  I realized then that Hil is still grappling with being a survivor. It is really hard to be 23 and be a cancer survivor.  It doesn't seem to go together.  As Terry knew.   

Some of you know I'm in South Carolina right now, with my Aunt who is ill with cancer. She is the Aunt who fed me popcorn for breakfast, and always made me laugh as a moody teenager, and offered me her home when I got married to J - we were married on the beach outside her home.  And now she is very, very sick.  Through this all, she continues to make me smile and laugh, and show that same kind of strong, Morrisey-woman streak the men who marry us bemoan.  It is such a honor to be a part of her female community, and my mom's, and my sister's, and my cousins', as we tend to her.  The care that her husband, her 83 year old husband is showing her, is one of the most beautiful loves I have ever seen. He sleeps on an air mattress next to her bed every night. He gets her food and drinks and her medicines. He tucks her in so gently and keeps her smiling through her questions.  

So, my strength comes from community, and family, and from myself.  I'm not sure I'm finished with this question, but it continues to interest me.  

Below, find N's recipe for Tomato Pappu, an easy peasy lentil dish. Because my community in Canada has been helping me continue my cooking lessons from FA.  YUM!

*Check out how to start your own run.

Tomato Pappu (Dhal)
Vijaya Niranjan
 

1 cup  red lentils (masoor dhal)
4 cups  water
5   plum tomatoes (canned tomatoes taste better)
3  green chillies, sliced
1  medium onion, chopped
2  garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp thalimpu ginjalu
½ tsp paspu (turmeric powder)
1 tsp  salt
fresh coriander

Wash red lentils.  Add two cups of water, and cook on high in the microwave for 8 minutes.
Heat oil over medium heat in thick saucepan.  Add garlic and cook until lightly browned.  
Add thalimpu ginjalu, chillies and chopped onions.
When onions are lightly browned, add tomatoes and turmeric powder.  
Add lentils and mix well.
Add two cups of water, salt and coriander leaves. 
Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Enjoy!

What we did our our summer vacation part 3: Ottawa

The capitol of another country is always a fun place to go.  In this case, it is adorable.  Washington D.C. is sprawling, spread out, and full of not-so-safe areas to travel.  Ottawa, on the other hand, is compact, walkable, and does not feel like a police state. Alas, I was not able to take my photo with a mountie. (Don't you think there should be a mountie in Red Serge at the capital?)

And you can still celebrate President Obama here. Because even Canadians love him. So of course we at where Obama ate and bought Obama cookies.

 The Parliament building.

These are locks. They connect the capital to Lake Ontario. I think. They are an engineering wonder. It takes 5 days to travel through all of the locks to the lake. Or 3 hours to drive it.

Doesn't this look like parts of the U.S. capitol complex?

One of the nights we were in Ottawa, we went to a light show. They actually use the Parliament building  as the backdrop for a light and sound show on the history of the country.  The entire field is filled with people watching the show, and they have interviewed famous Canadians about the history of the country.  One of the final questions was "Canada is the world's _____" Some said brain, some said other things, but the answer they used was Canada is the world's heart. And I wanted to stand up and say, yes! Yes, it is!  

When we went to the U2 concert, Bono remarked that Canadians certainly were an idealistic people, and  I think that is true.  Canadians embrace people other countries will not, like Cuba, or immigrants.  They aren't a perfect country, certainly, but I am enjoying learning about their culture. 

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In contrast, I was in Chicago and Michigan this weekend.  I was hit up constantly for money by homeless people, something that doesn't normally happen in Toronto.  And it was loud with sirens.  And I liked Chicago! I thought it was an alive, vibrant city. 

And really? Instead of building a fence between Canada and America? Just make people take the Ambassador Bridge. No one will want to enter America if that is how they have to enter. You can rest assured, security is tight. They were checking trunks on every other car. And then you enter Detroit. They should pipe in Eminem as you cross.  And the people in Michigan did not like my Ontario license plates. Or my Honda. 

It is hard not to draw comparisons between the U.S. and Canada, particularly when you travel back and forth between them often.  In Canada, I see a lot of common sense people who make sensible decisions and care for their citizens. What if we took all of the private money we spent on the homeless in different agencies in the U.S. and turned that into housing and aid? Would that work? Is it just that our sizes are so different that they are able to provide much better public service for their citizenry?  I don't think it is that people care less in the states, but we debate so much, we lose sight of the goal, which is caring for people.