After coming back from Québec, Dani and I spent most of january on York University's own skating rink - because, let's face it, you can't be in Canada and leave without knowing how to skate (or be remotely good at it)!! :)
I also went paintballing with ISAY, the International Student Association at York - for those of you who don't know what paintballing is: basically you run around an area with towers and stairs and rocks and pillars with a mask covering your face and a gun in your hand and try to shoot people. With paintballs. Once you get hit (which you can tell, for one, by the paint on your overall, and two, from the PAIN!), you're out of the game until the next round. I must say, I've never been a fan of shooting at people - and still am not. But, at least, getting hit HURTS LIKE HELL, so it's a little closer to reality than, say, laser tag, where all that happens once you get hit is that your vest vibrates for about 5 seconds. So this is a lot better. Some of us went home with serious bruises, though. One girl had a HUGE bump on her forehead, and I had 3 nasty bruises on my thighs that wouldn't go away for the next 2 weeks *sigh* Who knew a weekend activity could hurt so much ;) It still was an interesting experience, no doubt. And I got a couple of guys pretty good, hehe!

Lots of paintball guns

gotta love the mask :p
Marc, Dani, Anja, Henrique and some other people went down to Nathan Philips Square one night to skate next to the City Hall at night. Dani took a couple of pictures since she wasn't skating due to a twisted ankle. And, MAN, was it FREEZING!!! -12°C plus windchill... we skated for about one hour and then spent 1,5 hours in the Tim Horton's across the street to warm back up (Tim Horton's is a Canadian coffee shop chain... kind of like Starbucks, only a lot cheaper). But it was SO worth it - skating really is turning out to be a fun group activity... even if I still haven't figured out how to skate backwards.

The skating rink at Nathan Philips Square. The kind of small old building in the back is the City Hall.

left to right: Anja, Mark, myself (in front), Henrique.
Dani and I also went to see our university's own male hockey team, the York Lions, play (and triumph over) the Guelph Gryphons at York... university hockey. Pretty good.
At the beginning of february, my roommate Kaela won tickets for a musical that came to Massey hall in Toronto for a day, so she invited me, her friend Olivia and her friend to come see it. It was called "Drum", and more or less explained the history of Canada's immigrants (and Canada itself) through their different drumming styles and traditional songs. It was amazing, very, very beautiful drumming - and it was educational as well, since I learned something about Canada's history! So there you go, two in one! I also was lucky enough to have Olivia and her friend there with us, since they are both (partly) First Nations, so natives, if you will, and could explain that part of the musical and the songs they played in more detail.
For Valentine's Day, Kaela, Olivia and I had a small girls' night in, meaning we rented two movies and bought some food for the raclette grill and some chocolate for Kaela's mini fondue - so we ended up eating a lot and chatting and all that good stuff. We saw a good movie, too: it's called "Once". We had to watch it with subtitles, though, because even Kaela couldn't understand the main character's Irish accent... anyway. I think it just won an Oscar this year for Best Original Song... so, go, check it out! It's a really nice, independent movie. Nothing spectacular, no buildings blowing up, no car races - but some very good songs and good acting.
Oh, speaking of good music: last friday (the 22nd) I went to see a matchbox Twenty concert, which I've been wanting to do for YEARS but they never played Germany! So, I went, the concert was soooo much fun, really good music, and I met some nice people who had come down all the way from Ottawa JUST to see the opening act - which was ALANIS MORRISSETTE!!! Sweet!! So I ended up getting two really good concerts for one.
On Saturday, Matthias came over from Waterloo, so we went to a small league hockey game (the Toronto Marlies vs. Ottawa), with very CHEERFUL cheerleaders and big stuffed mascots, then we went and grabbed some food, I popped back home to get changed, and then Matthias, Dani, myself and Jule, Dani's friend visiting from Germany went out dancing - and, guess what?! I found my FAVORITE club in Toronto!! ... only took me until 8 weeks before I leave Toronto to find it... way to go with the timing. Anyway. It was a fun night, and we got home late... or early, depends on your point of view. On Sunday, we went to my first ever live NBA game: the Raptors vs. the NY Nicks. Apparently, the Toronto Raptors are the only Canadian team to play in the NBA. It was a good game (those guys are TALL), the Raptors won, of course.
So, that about raps up my first two months of 2008. I have some exams coming up, Kaela's and Dani's birthdays, and two friends will visit me for a couple of days - so yay!!
I have a little more than 40 days left of my time here in Toronto... I guess it's starting to hit me. I think that is going to be more difficult then maybe I'd anticipated, leaving is.

Saturday was the lsat day of our Québec trip. Before we started home, we made two (more or less) short pit stops, though:
We went to see the Chute Montmorency (a waterfall) just outside Québec City - it's higher than Niagara Falls... not as wide, though (I think). The impressive thing about it was that more than half of it was frozen. We even so some people ice climbing up the waterfall!

Chute Montmorency. See the bridge at the top? We went up there, too.

By the way: this is our faithful little car.
Our second stop was at the Hôtel a Glace, the Ice Hotel. There are three real Ice Hotels in the world (made completely of ice, no metal posts or anything supporting them): The one in Québec, the one in Sweden (which is the first one ever built),.. and another one, but I can't remember where. Anyway, the idea is to build GIGANTIC blocks of ice (different densities, different kinds of snow used etc.), and build a whole hotel out of it! Inside, the beds, the tables, the bar, everything is made of snow and ice. Except for the washrooms and the hottubs outside. When they finish building the hotel, they build an ice sculpture garden next to it, as well. However, it wasn't finished yet when we went there. They had just had their first guests the night before - which was a good thing, though, because, although we didn't see the sculpture garden, we got to see the people at work and experience firsthand how they build the hotel and decorate the insides! Very impressive. Also very cold. I think our guide said that the inside temperature, no matter how cold it may be outside, is always -5°C. On the upside, they give you very warm sleeping bags if you stay there for a night. They can accomodate up to a little over 70 people in about 45 rooms. Apart from the rooms they have their hottubs, a bar, and a disco... and, since this year is the 400th anniversary of Québec, a whole wing of the hotel was decorated accordingly.

A sculpture in the entrance hall. I stuck my tongue to it... wouldn't stick. Our guide said that you can only freeze your tongue to metal (like a lamppost) if it's cold enough, not to ice itself... and of course I had to test that theory. Turns out he was right!

They actually have artists come in and decorate the different rooms - so no room looks like the other!

One of the beds. Made of ice, some sort of plastic or thermo springbox on top to keep the cold from coming through, and then a bunch of pieces of fur.

The bar/club. Even the alcohol is served in glasses made of ice.

The four of us, with an ice glas (in Anja's hands, on the right), inside the club... could be difficult for anyone to dress slutty (or avoid a red nose) with those temperatures!
And then we made our way back to Toronto. We got into some bad weather on our way back - a little test for my driving skills and nerve - but we got home okay, I dropped everyone off and was home just before midnight.
So that was our trip! I returned the car the next day, and was back to class on monday.
But there's more to come for january!!!

So, they day after all the winter activity madness, we took the time to have a look around Québec City. SUCH a beautiful little town!!! And about as "European" as it gets over here... meaning quite a lot of old little houses and alleys etc.
There's the Cathedral Notre Dame - very nice inside, and has a very interesting history: it got burned down very shortly after every time they finished working on it... 3 or 4 times, if i remember correctly. And I used what's left of my pathetic French skills to ask someone a question - and they actually understood what I was saying! I didn't see that coming, but it felt good :)
After walking all around Old Québec (upper and lower city), and having lunch at a tiny place where one of the hosts at the door was from the Elsass (and, of course, started speaking German immediately), we went down to the old harbour and took some nice group pictures in the snow (with Chateau Frontenac in the background, of course). Down at the harbourfront we met an old man who told us all kinds of interesting things about Québec: such as that at Québec City is where the St. Lawrence River is the narrowest, which is why it was the perfect place to defend your settlement - against the British, for example. And you could make everyone who wanted to pass with goods pay taxes :) Or, that, even some 200km away from the ocean, you can see the tides when you look at the St. Lawrence river, because whenever there's high tide the ice floes actually flow UP the river, not down with the current!
Up on the promenade there's an ice slide, so Anja and I got one of those old wooden sleds and went down - sooo much fun!! we were the fastest at first, but then kind of slow in the end, and we didn't make it as far as the 2 men next to us... we blame it on our lack of weight, hihi.
To finish of a really nice day, we took the ferry to the other side of the St. Lawrence, to get a nice view of Québec at night - BEAUTIFUL! Everything is lit up, and the chateau and the citadel and the big walls make it look like a fortress. And the ferry ride itself was memorable, since the river was frozen over, so the ferry had to make its way through the ice and push aside the ice floes. If anyon of you has seen the movie "Titanic" and remembers the creaking and moaning sound the boat made when it brushed up against the iceberg - that's the noise the ferry made from time to time. Creepy.
Okay, pictures:

The Chateau Frontenac - it is a hotel now, and also the town's landmark.

Anja, myself and our map of the city - where to go next?

One of the streets in lower Québec. So adorable!! ... and so full of snow!

The city's defense - way back when. Up on the city walls (Upper Québec).

The ice slide!! Freshly made for us... only minutes before we went on they poured more water down the tracks.

Two girls and a wooden sled - here we go!!

Québec City at night (from the other side of St. Lawrence river). The big building to the right is Chateau Frontenac, the Citadel is on the very left. The very bright stretch in the middle are the city walls.

Our ferry is making its way through the ice...

Aaah, yes. My New Year's resolutions: go out more, do more (new and scary) stuff, exercise regularly, do everything you are afraid of. So far, I'm doing ALL of that, and it's already been, what, 4 weeks? *proud* :)
So I started off the new year with a road trip to Québec (City), the capitol of Québec (Province). So I rented my first car ever all on my own, and I was the only registered driver. So, 10 hours (including breaks) to get up there, 12 hours (not quite including breaks) to get back down. And on the way back we hit a tiny snow storm around Kingston and the car swerved a couple of times... so, we learned that I'm actually a lot better a driver than I thought I was, I can drive a lot longer without a break than I thought, and.. I do well in snowy weather (or on snowy streets....) - even if the car isn't TOO familiar (being a rental). So, yay for me! :)
But back to the trip.
We started on the 2nd of january in the morning, and arrived in Québec City around 8 p.m.. Daniela had booked the hostel, which was small but with a kitchen which we could use, a common area, and not too expensive parking nearby. And it was right next to the City Hall, and about a 5 minute walk from Chateau Frontenac, which is one of the main sites of Québec City, so we were right in the middle of everything we wanted to see! Great location.
We ended up walking around a bit in the dark... after I took my glove off to take a picture and my skin started burning and prickling immediately, we decided to put on some additional layers of clothing. It was around -25 degrees at that point. Cold. Really.
On thursday morning we got up and were excited, because thursday was our outdoor activity day: dogsledding and snowshoeing!!! AWESOME!!! Except that we came downstairs in the morning, and in turns out the temperature that day is -34 degrees celsius!!!!!!!!!!! Believe me, that's not funny. Not funny at all. (Des isch nemmer luschdig!) So, we put on even more clothes and drove out to the place, which was 15 minutes outside of Québec. We decided to rent snowmobile boots, which they offered, because it was REALLY cold!! Our eyelashes were freezing together, and within minutes every strand of hair that was not covered by a toque or a scarf was covered in frost and completely stiff... and white. So, we looked like grandmothers for the day... oh, and like stuffed animals as well, because of the many layers of clothing. I wore 5 layers of different tops underneath my winter jacket! So, again (in case someone missed it): IT WAS F***ING FREEZING!!!
The dogsledding was AMAZING, we got to drive our own sleds! (One of us sat in the sled, the other made the dogs run and was in control of the brake and had to push to help the dogs etc.) We basically followed our guide, who had his sled in front of us... and tried not to run into him ;) We went for two and a half hours - I was EXHAUSTED after about half, because I had to push so much... our two front dogs weren't getting along very well, so they stopped every now and then. So Dani took over when we stopped for a break, but her glasses kept fogging up from her breath, so once my dizziness was gone I did the rest of the ride. It was exhausting, but soooooo much fun! And a beautiful winter wonderland we drove through, and down steep hills and over bumps that lifted my feet off the sled and the brake - GREAT!!!! Really, really, really enjoyed it!! All of us did, I think. Anja and her sister, had their own sled behind us.
So, after we got back (all frozen on the outside and sweating on the inside), we needed a little rest and some food before we got our snowshoes and went out for a 2 hour hike on our own :) That was good, too - we went up a hill so we had a really nice view. AND we got to experiment with the snowshoes, that was fun! Like walking on the moon... especially with those huge snowmobile boots! On our way back we stopped at a grocery store and Anja and Elissa made pasta and a DELICIOUS sauce... so the day ended with good and, almost more importantly, WARM food.

Dani and I in the car... taking a break, NOT driving :) Just got back in from the cold.

The (long) road ahead of us... goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on....

Elissa and Anja, on one of the beds in the hostel.

Left to right: Daniela, myself, and Anja. wearing several layers of clothing and two pairs of gloves (or mittens, in some cases) EACH. Current temperature: -25°C

The next day. Temperature: -34°C. Elissa's eyelashes are frozen.

... and so is Dani's hair. It's usually brown.

Dani and I, sledding. Notice the concentration and the firm grip on the sled. And, yes, that's a ski mask. I still ended up with minor frost burn by the end of the day. Kind of looks like a sunburn would.

Elissa's and Anja's sled - taking a break (probably because the guides had to seperate some dogs who were trying to kill each other).

All of us!! ... with snowshoes. on a bridge.

Winter Wonderland - Exhibit A.

Winter Wonderland - Exhibit B. What more can I say.

Elissa, Daniela, and myself in the hostel's kitchen - enjoying the marvelous, marvelous meal Elissa and Anja cooked for us!!!

Okay, speaking of food - I'm hungry. I'll finish this later.

MY COMPUTER IS WORKING AGAIN!!! YAAAAAYY!!! :)
... where was I?
Ah. New Year's Eve. I was in Toronto. My roommate had a Raclette Grill and didn't even know what it was, so we had some people over and did that, and then my boss gave me little figurines from Austria that you can use for Bleigießen, so we introduced the Canadians (and some of the Germans, for that matter) to the tradition! So, good food, Kaela mixed a couple of bright blue drinks, and James managed to set a potato chip on fire (and I mean "on fire": there was smoke and an actual flame) We had a great time... even though we found out that, in Canada, you don't really have fireworks for New Year's... so no colorful lights and no noise. Oh, well. We had a really good time (at least I did) :) And three of my friends stayed over because they don't live in Toronto, so I ended up sleeping on the couch (Sara had the other couch) and the boys took my room.
Pictures:

From left to right: Sara (the top of her head, anyway), Kaela, James, and Matthias - enjoying their Raclette... or rather, trying to make food :) Notice the special guest, the bright blue drink in the lower half of the picture!

James and the burning potato chip.

James and Olivia, two Canadians, experience their first Bleigießen!

Bleigießen - close up!! They are little lucky figurines (a horseshoe, a bell, a pig etc.), and THEN you melt them and pour them into water - and they predict what the next year will have in store for you!! ... for those of you who are not familiar with the tradition.

:)