Sonya's Patates Braavos: Edition #7 💌🥔

TLDR: USD$1000 grant, Toronto food recommendations

welcome note 👋 

Hello, brave patates! Happy Easter to those, who celebrate 🥚 I had a mini egg to partake in the festivities.

This week, I was a very brave potato and took the subway in Toronto. Our brains are tricky bastards when it comes to new things and I was very scared even though I’ve taken the subway alone in NYC, at night, to the Bronx and it was fine. What was your brave potato moment of the week? “Reply” to this email, I’d love to know and chat.

random cool things corner

• Did you know Apt613 has a weekly “Weekend Roundup” column? Great resource to check out on Thursdays to find fun things to do.

• We are in the thick of tax season—I’ve been loving this Wealthsimple tax calculator.

• Visited a Middle-Eastern restaurant called Jerusalem in Toronto to meet with a new friend for dinner. We got the “combination dinner for two” for $55 which included 3 kebabs (lamb, beef, chicken), tahini, hummus, roasted tomato, baba ghanoush, rice, and other accoutrements. Incredible deal. Also, my new friend owns a horse!!

• Is anybody else watching the “3 Body Problem” on Netflix? Apparently, they spent $20 million per EPISODE—the single most expensive show yet. It’s by the creators of Game of Thrones ($1 million per episode budget in last seasons) so there are some of the same actors (Sam, the Onion Knight, Varis, the Braavos Bank dude (ey, newsletter connection)). And some similarities—shock-value violence and twists. We are really enjoying it so far although the theoretical physics analyses are way beyond my scope. The show got dethroned from Top 1 by the new Moses documentary 💀 which makes sense for Easter but considering the investment into the show probably makes Netflix very nervous.

business updates

• Through LinkedIn connections, I secured a new gig ghostwriting an article for the Globe and Mail!!! An acquaintance said she was impressed by the consistency of my content. You never know who is watching. That’s why simply continuing is the one thing we can truly do, instead of getting bogged down by numbers of likes.

• My business partner invited me onto two new projects for which I will be SEO copywriting new content. Working as a subcontractor is great because he does the client-finding work and I execute.

• I received a USD$1000 grant to participate in a 20-hour coaching training program from Mikhail Saidov. If you speak Russian, he is an incredible founder of the biggest coaching academy in Europe, who studies psychology, rooted in scientific studies, along with esoteric and spiritual connections. If you know me personally, you know how I committed I am to my education and while I am scared to have 5 hours of training a day on top of my work, I know I can do it.

food corner

• Toronto peeps: my mom and sister played tourist for the weekend and we covered a lot of ground. Our delicious finds are… Middle-Eastern brunch & dinner: Cafe Landwer (try the halva latte!); incredible French meringue: Aux Merveilleux de Fred; beautiful cafe with lots of seating and delicious cheese Danish: Moretti Cafe; authentic & yummy French crepes from literal Parisians who just came to Canada 4 months ago: La Crepe.

~~~~~~vibe check!~~~~~~

What do you think of the Patates Braavos newsletter? What do you want more of, or less of? Is it too personal, or not enough?

Plz “reply” to this email with your thoughts so I can continue to deliver stuff you (and I) care about to your inbox every week.

🇮🇱 reporting on something surprising this week…

Israel ranks 5^th in 2024 World Happiness Report

The 2024 World Happiness Report, released on March 20, ranks global happiness in more than 140 countries based on six factors—social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.

This year, Israel ranked fifth place, 10 spots higher than Canada’s 15^th ranking. For people under 30,  Israel ranked second, and the country had a very small gap between those with the lowest and highest levels of happiness.   

Israel’s high ranking is attributed to overall life satisfaction, strong social connections, and good health (care). For young Israelis, a strong sense of community and purpose, plus more affordable rents and cost of living than in the West, are contributing factors. I was shocked to see this ranking, considering the terror attacks and dangers people live through. But, when I was there, I did notice how in-the-moment, determined, and happy people were. Plus, there is very low homelessness thanks to social programs - 0.04% compared to Canada’s 0.61% (using stats from here and population #s).