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.