O Canada

2008-06-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone :)
So, I haven't really had much time to write... let's see what I can do today.
After we got back from our amazingly fun and incredibly adventurous (kidding) road trip, Morgane and I spent a couple of days in Vancouver before she had to fly out to Toronto and then back to France. I even tried Sushi - and, considering that I only tried it once when I was 15 and HATED it with a passion, I think I can be quite proud of myself for giving it another chance. I'm still not a big fan, but at least now I consider it okay food, and I anyone ever INSISTED on going to a Sushi place with me, I'd find something I could eat.
After Morgane left (on the 2nd of june), I took the ferry over to Victoria, B.C.'s capital, located on the beautiful Vancouver Island. Originally, I had planned to stay for 3 nights, but it ended up being 6... I hadn't stayed in one place for longer than 1-2 nights since mid-april - I just needed a tiny break from the constant moving around. Also, the place I wanted to go to next was supposed to have snow the time that I planned to be there, and since everything you CAN do there is outdoors, it really didn't make much sense to go. So I postponed it for a couple of days. Victoria is a nice little city - except for the drug addicts... much like Vancouver, really.

(the Legislative Building in Victoria by night... some 3000 lightbulbs)
They like the mild climate. I took a free tour of the Legislative Building, lay down in a park to read a book (!), walked around the city, went to the Royal B.C. Museum (very interesting), and (even more interesting and SO much fun!): to the Bug Zoo. Basically a place where they have a lot of (fairly big) bugs - you know, spiders, a praying mantis, giant millipedes, that sort of thing :) So I got to hold a millipede that (curled up) was slightly bigger than the palm of my hand and whose feet felt like a little hard brush moving across your skin. And other animals, too... By the time we left there, I actually LIKED bugs!

Millipede - pretty cool, eh?
Oh, right, I forgot. I met a couple of people at the hostel. A German girl who was there for work and travel, and then a Korean girl (Han Im), an English guy, Will, and finally a French guy named Thomas who was planning to ried through the Coastal Mountains on his bike and camp there, and had brought neither a warm sleeping bag nor any warm clothes to speak of - since it was summer, he thought! I really hope he didn't freeze to death... Anyway, so I ended up spending a day with the latter 3. In the evening, we went on a tour of the city called "Ghostly Walks". Basically, they walk you around the city and tell you ghost stories and stories about (supposedly) haunted houses! The two guys who were doing it are (when they're not doing the tour) actors for a theater company in Victoria or play historical figures in the Legislative Building where they walk up to visitors to yell at them or the like. So, long story short, they did a REALLY good job, it was very entertaining! :)
I also went hiking one day with a man in his 60's or 70's who works for Parks Canada, Colin. He told us a lot about the island, vegetation and animals, as well as the Natives' history etc. Also, he had quite the life, being navigator on the Canadian equivalent of the Air Force Once, or doing Search&Rescue for ships in the Arctic. Very interesting.
On the 8th, I finally got on the ferry and eventually the overnight bus to Lake Louise, Alberta: bye bye, B.C., hello again, Rocky Mountains.. and a different time zone, once more. Canada has six of them... although I wouldn't exactly count Newfoundland time, because (for some reason) it's only HALF an hour ahead of Nova Scotia time... I don't understand. Oh, well. And I've been to all of them (time zones, I mean) in the past 2,5 months... plus one more, since we went to Alaska and that has a time zone of its own.
Lake Louise is very pretty - not so much the town, since there's not that much there, but the scenery is stunning, even when it's grey and rainy (as it was when I was there). Most of the trails you can hike were still closed because of snow, one because of a grizzly bear and her two cubs... but I made due with what was open and safe, and had a pretty good time doing that! I also went horseback riding up to Lake Agnes (which is still three quarters frozen), which saved me from having to walk up that steep trail myself, heehe. I really enjoyed it - except for the moment when my horse got itchy and decided it would be a good idea to walk us off the side of a cliff. It took me a while to convince it that that was NOT the best idea, and by that time we were already starting to slide downwards, with only two hooves left on the trail. Quite the adrenaline rush. But we survived, and I don't hold it against the horse... too much. Had it done that anywhere else I would have laughed at it, but, in this instance, we were on a mountain trail and the prancing around got us close to falling down the cliff! Still, a very nice ride, very nice guides... and a very experienced and fun-to-ride horse.

Me on the horse (Champ was his name)... and, again, a computer that won't let me turn the picture. Sorry.
The people at the hostel were extremely nice, I (tried to) watch Germany play Croatia on the TV in the Cafe, but we all thought it was the later game, so we missed it. But I had a really nice conversation with the night security guy who had dropped in for coffee until my bus left at 4:30, and one of the waitresses I met again later (in Calgary), which was also quite nice. Nice people, the people of Lake Louise.
After Lake Louise, I wanted to go straight to Calgary, but stopped in touristy Banff instead, which is on the way. Again, much like Lake Louise, a small town in the middle of the Rockies. But this one is PACKED with tourists, for the skiing in the winter and for hiking and their own hot springs in the summer. Crazy. I went on a nice hike there, though, met a nice girl from England (who I watched some Soccer with), and saw a snake - so it was worth it to stop for two nights. The weather was also fairly nice, which made it so much better.

Case in point: Banff, Rockies, beautiful weather.

And, the snake... okay, now I'm just trying to put in more pictures to balance out the HUGE amounts of text I'm producing. Seriously.
After Banff I made it to Calgary - which was the first place I've been on this whole trip that made me nervous. LOTS of drunk people (the homeless, jobless kind), very in-your-face. I felt quite uncomfortable. Also, over the weekend, the downtown area is practically dead (except for said drunk people). It only came to life on monday, when people came in from the suburbs to go to work. What WAS nice about Calgary, though, was the Olympic Park. The had the Olympic Winter Games there in 1988, and the park is still there, not only as a training ground for athletes, but also for visitors. So I walked around there for a bit with a guy I met in the hostel (also German), Nick, we took the elevator up to the top of the ski jump tower, that sort of stuff. it was quite interesting. These were the Olympic Games where the Jamaican bobsleigh team had a fairly serious accident. Also the movie "Cool Runnings" was filmed on the premises later (since it is about exactly that Jamaican team at the Olympic Games).

Canada Olympic Park, Calgary - host of the Olympic Winter Games in 1988

See that big one? That's where we went up. Seriously, I do NOT understand how anyone in their right mind would voluntarily jump off THAT with just a pair of skis on!

But, then again... YIPPIEEEE!!!!
Regina was the next (very short) stop on my way back East... only 24 hours. I took the overnight Greyhound from Calgary and got into Regina at 8 in the morning, where I checked into the hostel that turned out to be a adorable little old heritage house. I walked around the city for a bit, which is nice enough, they have a BEAUTIFUL park and a quite nice Old Government House. I took a tour there, too, and afterwards chatted with the tour guide (who's originally from Quebec) and the guy at the front desk (who was a bus driver for Greyhound for 35 years) for a while... they had some interesting stories to tell! Then I took the Greyhound to Winnipeg the next day, not overnight, for a change. For the first 5 hours I sat next to a girl who had just come back from a church convention in Israel - interesting. And, again, a time zone change.
Winnipeg is considerably bigger than Regina, and busier, too. Here, I slowed down a little more. I had booked three nights (because I didn't want to get back into Toronto before sunday), and spent my time walking around the city and along the river. They have a whole park with big bear sculptures they painted according to themes: like the "aurora bearealis" or the "prairie bear"... what's it with Canadians and this need to put up weird statues and monuments everywhere they can?! I haven't figured that out yet. I just know I've seen examples of it everywhere I went.

hm... I don't know, really. Construction bear, maybe?
So that's it, pretty much. Tomorrow I'll hop on the bus back to Toronto (1 day and 7 hours... heaven *sigh*), and then I wom't do much - see some people again, go to my favorite places, repack my things for the flight back home... I most likely will make a day trip to Niagara Falls, since I haven't been there yet and it's quite close to Toronto, really. And I MIGHT drive up to Ottawa for 1-2 days, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to fit that into my "schedule" ;)
Yup.. and then I'll hop back on a plane to Germany on July 4th. So, I guess I will see you guys (most of you anyway) in two weeks?... Or maybe a little after that :)
Wow, that will be strange, going back... we'll see how that works out!! :)
Looking forward to seeing you guys!
Take care!

2008-06-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

I think the Yukon is one of my three favorite places in the world now - amazing!!! Our trip turned out pretty well, we only had rain on one or 2 days, and mostly when we were driving anyway. 6000km, woohoo! Vancouver Island was very moist, but then it's mostly temperate rainforest, so what else could you expect? It also has the highest density of black bears and cougars in all of Canada, however we only saw 2 black bears in our 4 days there. The 16 hour ferry ride up to Prince Rupert was nice, lots of waterfalls and fjords, since the ferry makes it's way along and through the fjords and islands along the coast of B.C.
Cassiar Highway turned out to be better than we had expected - as far as road conditions were concerned. The scenery is absolutely stunning, and we had to "wildlife days"! On one, we saw... I think close to 15 black bears, the other just a mix of everything: fox, bear, caribou, mink... the only annoying thing about the bears is that they might decide to let their cubs play exactly where the hiking trail you wanted to take goes through - so some trails we couldn't take because the people in the visitor center advised against it (because of bears and cubs in hte area). Oh well.
And even though it was only may, it already didn't get dark in the Yukon - well, the sun set, but there was always light! I read a book outside without a flashlight at 11:30p.m.! We got something that resembled dusk around midnight, and then the sun came up again around 3:30 in the morning! That makes it a little difficult to sleep in a tent!

... a black bear, on the side of the road

The Yukon, close to the border to Alaska. While we were up there already, we decided to make a quick detour one day and cross the U.S. border into Alaska! Very funny experience, too - turns out, the U.S. custom officers didn't think it quite so funny as I did when Morgane (a French girl I was traveling with) didn't know who "that guy on the picture next to Bush" was - Dick Cheney... hihi.

THis is the Carcross Desert in the Yukon - the smallest desert in the world - we almost missed it, driving past ;)

This is the SS Klondike - Morgane and I did a tour on it. It's one of the original steam boats that operated on the Yukon river and brought people, but more importantly gold and other resources down the river from Dawson in the North to Whitehorse. Interesting... and also a HUGE wheel!!!

Pretty big, huh? That small thing at the bottom, that's me. Sorry the picture is sideways, but the library computer won't let me turn it.
In Watson Lake, which is the last city on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon before getting back into B.C., they have a signpost forest. It got started by an American soldier around the time of World War II, when they were building the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, B.C. to Fairbanks, Alaska. Since then, people from all over the world have put up signs saying where they were visiting from, or just other funny stuff. Today, there are more than 70,000 signs in that signpost forest! So, of course - we had to make our own!!!

This is us, with our sign in front of the Watson Lake signpost forest. From left to right: Sara (Germany), Morgane (France), and myself.

We drove back down to Vancouver through B.C. Interior, and decided to stop at Liard Hot Springs for a quick swim! And "hot" is no joke - this pool you see on the picture has 49degrees Celsius!!! But it's very relaxing for your muscles!

And, even though it never quite got dark up there, the sun still sets at this time of year! :)
On our way back, we also saw a couple of wild buffalos!

And the whole trip we saw incredibly HUGE trees and a LOT of waterfalls!!! (again, sorry for not turning the picture).

I'm running out of time, the library computer is cutting me off.
take care!!

2008-05-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry about that. I didn't get around to posting any pictures, I was too busy moving out... and right now I'm in a public library and don't have my camera cable with me, so, again, no pictures.
I had a couple of days in Toronto, which I basically spent moving out of my room in our lovely appartment and trying to reorganize our British Columbia trip, since Dani decided that she would rather not go, and told me 2 days before I left for Edmonton. So I was a little pressed for time.
We managed to go out to a pub though the evening before I left - just my roommates, Julie, Aaron, Greg, Jan (a friend from Konstanz who just moved here) etc. - I really appreciated everyone who made it... especially since the TTC had been on strike until that day! So no buses, no streetcars, no subways. We actually took a cab back from the airport.
On april 29th I got on the Greyhound bus, and spent my next 2 days and 2 hours on there... travelling almost through all of Canada (East to West) - from Toronto, Ontario to Edmonton, Alberta. And let me tell you something: I don't sleep too well on Greyhound buses. It's very bumpy, and they keep stopping and turning on the lights. Also, the Prairies (Manitoba and Saskatchewan): flat. There's nothing else to say about that, really, and it gets boring after about 15minutes. Winnipeg seems to be a nice city, though, I think I'll stay there for a couple of days on my way back.
I met up with 17 other people from the MacMaster (that's another university in Ontario, they organized the trip) University's Outdoor Club, and we headed out to the Rocky Mountains for 2 weeks of camping, climbing, hiking, and TREMENDOUS FUN!!! We all had a really good time, the group of people was just amazing. I love them all, sincerely - although I wouldn't want to share a tent with Nick, and he DID almost kill us while driving ;)
The trip didn't go according to plan AT ALL, because there were highly unusual amounts of snow in the Rockies for that time of year, so we had to take it day by day and see how much snow we encountered and which hikes were doable. We got snowed in one night - meaning we arrived at a hostel, and there was no snow, we woke up 10 hours later and there was about 50cm of snow all around - and it didn't stop snowing all day! So we spent another day and night at the hostel, since there was no way we could get the minivans we were driving out onto the highway through that kiond of snow. So, lots of showering, snowball fights, and HOTTUB SESSIONS!!! In the snow - beautiful. Our last couple of days our base camp was in a rainshadow valley (the Kootenay Plains), which means the clouds go around the valley but not OVER, so there's barely any rain or snow. We also went climbing on day. I went up a good way until my knee wouldn't support my body weight anymore (it's been acting up a little, so I didn't do all the hikes on the trip and have been in some pain, but manageable), and that despite my considerable fear of heights! I was very proud of myself :)
I have to cut this a bit short, I'm running out of time on the library computer... let's see...
We saw a lot of wildlife: a black bear, moose, elk, deer, different kinds of birds, big horn sheep... and I saw a wolf, when I was hiking on my own! Very exciting. No cougars, though - which we were all thankful for, I think. It got pretty cold at night, too - about -4 degrees celsius a couple of nights.
And it turns out, you don't really notice how dirty you are when you're outside camping in the middle of nowhere and everyone else is just as filthy... it did feel a little weird though when we got back into Edmonton and civilization. Took me about 10 minutes to scrub off all the layers of grease and dust on my face!
On may 14th, I took the overnight bus to Vancouver, and have been in Vancouver ever since. Very beautiful here, especially with
the weather being sunny around 22 degrees and everything in bloom! I got a little sunburned yesterday, the intensity of the sun was a little unexpected.
Tomorrow morning, I will (once more) pick up a rental car, and Sara, Morgane (a French Exchange student at York University) will head North, over Vancouver Island, then up to the Yukon and (hopefully) we'll squeeze in a quick visit to Alaska. We will return the car to Vancouver on may 30th. Again, lots of camping and hiking ahead of me in those 2 weeks... and lots more wildlife, too! I think they have a lot more Grizzlies in the Yukon... no worries, we'll be careful. Maya (our trip leader in the Rockies) gave us an extensive bear talk, we know what to do to avoid being eaten! ;)
That's it, for the next 2 weeks at least! Again, sorry about the lack of pictures... maybe I can put some up beginning of june, when I'm in a hostel with internet access... we'll see.
Cheers,

stef

2008-04-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

Phew... and the travelling begins!
I'm in Halifax right now, and have been driving around Atlantic Canada (the East Coast) for the past 9 days... 5813km behind the wheel... I think I need a break from driving, hihi!
I'll be back in Toronto for 2 days (the 27th and the 28th), I'll try to put up some pictures and tell you some more details then.
Basically, we flew into Halifax, then drove down the east coast of Nova Scotia, then up the west coast, over to Moncton in New Brunswick, then to Fredericton in New Brunswick, then over to Prince Edward Island (but only for 1,5 days), then we drove to North Sydney, Nova Scotia and took the overnight ferry up to Newfoundland. We spent 4 days in Newfoundland, took the overnight ferry back, had a look around Cape Breton Island (the northern part of Nova Scotia), and then we drove back into Halifax this morning, returned the car... and now we have 2 days to have a look around Halifax before we fly back to Toronto on the evening of the 26th.
I'm doing well - I have some bruises from challenging (but awesome!) hiking experiences and a little tired from all the driving, but other than that, I really enjoyed myself!
Okay, I'll try to put up pictures soon, promise!

2008-04-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

Phew... much better. A sandwich can do wonders!
On march 22nd, the international office at York offered a day trip to the maple Syrup Festival at Bronte Creek. It was so much fun (even though it was cold), and very interesting! Now I know why maple syrup is so expensive! The trees you can get the sap out of only grow (basically) in the Great Lakes region, and you can only harvest the sap for 6-8 weeks a year! One tree gives enough sap for 1 litre of syrup per season! So, no wonder it doesn't come cheap. As you can probably tell, we took a tour where they explained to us how maple syrup was made, how it was made 300 years ago, etc. After that, we walked around, looking at an old farmhouse, had some pancakes with (what else?) maple syrup, and managed to find the ONLY tree in Bronte Creek that was dripping sap!! It was just a little too cold yet for the trees to start dripping, but we found the first one (after looking into many empty buckets)! Very cool.

Our tour guide, Kip, is showing us how maple syrup was made... I think 200 years ago.

mmmmmmmmh... sugar!

Beautiful Bronte Creek Park on a beautiful winter's, almost spring, day.
That saturday evening, my two German friends (Betti & Uli) came back from their road trip. And since the weather was good, we decided to go skating on the harbourfront the next day, before they had to get on their flght back to Germany. The weather was beautiful! I ended up not skating too much, since a guy from India joined us and he had barely ever skated before, so for some reason, i ended up trying to teach him how to skate... instead of Marc, who is an actual hockey player... anyways.

The Natrel skating rink at the Toronto harbourfront. In the background, you can see bits of Lake Ontario and the Toronto islands.
Finally, it was "Earth Hour" on saturday, the 29th, so Dani, Marc and I went to Nathan Philips Square to hear some bands play (Nelly Furtado and The Philosopher Kings played a couple of songs, and the mayor held a speech) and watch the city go dark for 1 hour, as a reminder that we should conserve energy to save the world... and stop global warming... all that good stuff. Quite a few buildings went dark, so that was an unusual sight for Toronto at night, since usually it's bright as day. Also, it's weird to me that you actually seem to have to remind Canadians to turn off their lights when they leave their home - I've been doing that since I was a kid! But then I come home from school or wake up in the morning and my roommates have left at least 3 lights on in our appartment, and suddenly I think, that, maybe, Canadians really need to learn how to do that.
And that's it for now: I have my final paper I hope to hand in today, and then it's mostly organizing stuff until I leave for Halifax on the 15th. Hope the weather is good enough for us to go hiking - and I hope there won't be any blizzards, since I will be driving *sigh*
After my east coast trip i'll be heading west, and then I should be back in Toronto around june 29th... hopefully with tons of great pictures and even greater memories!
Until next time!

2008-04-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

Omg, things are happening fast now! So, we went out for my roommate Kaela's birthday, and we drove in a "limo"... hahaha!
When my friends from Germany got here saturday, march the 8th, I picked them up from the airport.. and didn't really do much with them after that for the next couple of days, because I was so sick I got dizzy whenever I tried standing up. Great. Anyways, so they went off to explore Toronto on their own, and by tuesday I was feeling better, so Kaela, Betti, Uli and I went to the Toronto Zoo. It was a beautiful day out - very sunny, fairly mild temperatures, and lots of snow! The unfortunate part about going to the zoo in winter, and when they're doing some construction, is, that you don't get to see all of the animals. The grizzlies were hibernating, the polar bears were somewhere in the North because their space at the zoo was under contruction, the elephants weren't on display that day, and so on and so forth. Anyway, we still saw some amazing animals, and I think everyone enjoyed it. The gorillas were awesome! And the zoo has an Orang-Utan that was born in Borneo in 1958!!!!

Apparently, they think we're just as interesting as we think they are...

Watch out! Danger!

Go for the eyes, go for the eyes!

Betti and Uli, standing on the zoo's equator... and Kaela, waving in the background

A cheetah in the snow... now here's something you don't see everyday!
Oh, and Betti and I ate crickets covered in chocolate - actually, it doesn't taste that bad.
Betti and Uli left early thursday to go on their Ontario roadtrip, I went to school to write an exam, and then headed off on my own roadtrip - to Chicago, for St. Patrick's day! It was Matthias and Sara, who did the driving, and then Ian (a British guy Sara knows) and Florian (a French guy, also a friend of Sara's). We drove all night and arrived in Chicago around 9 a.m. on friday morning. We spent friday exploring Chicago - that was a trip down memory lane. Kind of weird, but also kind of nice - I really like Chicago! And we had 10°C, plants were growing - it felt like spring! I had completely forgotten that there was anything other than winter... it was nice. Saturday we got up early, because that was the day of the St. Patrick's day celebrations - meaning there was a parade, and, much more importantly: the dye the river green!!! And when I say green, i mean BRIGHT green! So that was fun! I also went to about 10 different shops to find Converse for my sister, but it turns out none of them had the ones she wanted... that sucked. We ended up not going to any bars, because two of us weren't 21 yet, so they wouldn't let them in. We went out for dinner instead and then bought some beer on the way home. So we spent that night playing card games, laughing a lot and having a beer in our room back at the hostel. On sunday, we went up on the Hancock Building, picked up a dozen donuts at Dunkin Donuts (YAY!!) and then started our drive back. We didn't get back on time, so we ended up driving everybody home because they had missed their last bus - and I didn't get back home to Toronto until the next morning, I crashed at Matthias' place - on the up side, that way he didn't have to drive on his own for 2 hours after driving for most of the day.

from left to right: Ian, Flo, Matthias, and Sara - in the background, the Chicago skyline.

Even the dogs get dressed up for St. Patrick's day!

Me, in front of the green river (the day AFTER they dyed it!!)

In case it doesn't come out on the previous picture: THIS is how green the river was!

... St. Patrick's day.
I got back to Toronto on monday the 17th - and my Jazz choir's concert was on the 18th. The concert went well, we had fun - it was a little sad to say goodbye to some of them, though. Afterwards, Dani and I met up with Steffen, who'd come to the city from Waterloo to show his friends that were visiting from Germany around.

The man flailing his hands in front of us is Bob, our conductor/professor. The black&white shirt, that's me.
Okay, once again, I'm getting hungry. I'll tell you about the rest of it later... meaning everything after march 18th up until now. Hope you guys are well!

2008-02-28T17:48:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-02-12T14:06:00.001-08:00

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!!!

2008-02-12T13:23:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-01T15:26:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-02-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

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.

:)

2008-01-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone... sorry I'm not posting anything new... my computer is down and I can't steal my roommates computer... at least not long enough to write a post... and then, of course, all my pictures are on my - currently dead - computer... *sigh*
But I'm working on it.
Cheers!

2007-12-29T15:50:00.001-08:00

And I'm back :)
Before the big snow storm, Daniela, Maike and I met to bake some christmas cookies - German ones, of course! It was fun! We made "Buttergebäck", obviously, and "Kokosmakronen"... oh, and Schoko Crossies as well, when we found chocolate and cornflakes in the cupboard. And then I made some others on my own as well... it's safe to say we had the cookie situation more than covered.

And the cookies turned out to be life savers: Maike got "snowed in" during the winter storm, she survived on the cookies she took home. Good thing we made so many!
On Christmas, Kaela's parents invited James and myself over to their house in Bracebridge (which is a couple of hours up North). But James had to work and Sara and Thorsten were coming over, so Kaela went to her parents' house and James, Sara, Thorsten and I spent Christmas at our place. Thorsten is working on his thesis in Detroit right now. On Christmas Eve, we had spinach lasagna, salad and dessert - and Matthias joined us, too, since he was in Toronto, spending Christmas (at least parts of it) with his girlfriend's family. Oh, did I mention I got us a tree?! A real one! But then we ended up not having a lot of things to decorate it with, so now it is bare, exept for the candy canes James put on... still, I love it! We bought it at a grocery store at 1 a.m. at night, and used Kaela's new car to transport it back to our appartment.
Since James told his mom that I wasn't getting any presents for christmas, his mum got me little tacky things for my stocking for christmas morning (and socks as well!), and Kaela's parents gave me tea.. so I did end up having a few things to open over the holidays. That was really sweet. And James's mom got my the most annoying present ever (everyone else thinks so, I love it, though... and the dog goes crazy for it!): a singing snowman! and, since I just realized I can also post videos on here, I'm going to give it a try and post the snowman!

the tree!!!!

Our table set on Christmas Eve... and the tree in the background :)

Thorsten, Sara, Matthias, Rocco and James.. stuffed with food and content.

Our stockings, left to right: Rocco's, then Sara's and Thorsten's shoes, James' stocking, and mine - isn't it pretty? Exept that I gt a potatoe in it, when everyone else got an orange!! So unfair - I swear I've been a good girl this year! ... hihi...
And here's the snowman video - I hope it works:

And Sara, Thorsten and I went downtown on Boxing Day (dec 26th) - that was an experience! Everything's on sale, so EVERYONE is hitting the stores... Thorsten and I saw a man and his daughter sitting on the floor in a mall, surrounded by shopping bags... I think they were still breathing, but they looked exhausted! And people get in line to get into stores! Crazy North Americans - what can you do.
Okay, that's it for now. Merry Christmas everyone!! And a happy New Year!! You'll hear from me in January '08!!!!

2007-12-16T16:21:00.000-08:00

hahahahahahahahhaahahahahaha... okay, I know I wanted to come back and write about Montréal and all that... turns out, the Winter Storm that passed over the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) had something else in mind. So let me jump ahead real quick:
last night a Winter Storm Warning was released for the GTA for saturday evening and sunday... which is why Kaela didn't risk driving back here yesterday, but rather stayed at her parents' house. Yesterday it was pretty much just light snow through the whole afternoon and evening... then, when I got up this morning, I discovered that the power must have gone out overnight, because clocks were off, my computer was turned off etc... and as the day proceded, more and more snow fell, the wind picked up a lot, so we decided to stay indoors. Then, around 4:15p.m., the power went out again. So James and I took Rocco for a walk (or rather, a swim, because he is so small he almost drowned in the snow, and I was literally up to my knees at some point)... when we came back the power was still out, so we lit some candles, played Yahtzee and made tea with the still hot water we got out of the tab. The power was turned back on after about 2 hours. So, lessons learned: the grocery store closes when the power's out. I can still get in and out of my building despite the electrical lock system, because they have an emergency generator that keeps it running. And lastly, - and this is quite important if you consider that we live on the 19th floor - ONE of the 4 elevators still runs even when the power's out (on said generator). That was reassuring.
By the way, this is our living room (and Rocco, our - or rather, James' - dog) while the power was out - romantic, isn't it?! ... not really.
Okay, so that was that... when I go out tomorrow, I'll take my camera, so you guys can see.

Back to... where was I? Oh, right. Montréal. So, Sara and I left Toronto early last friday, got on the bus and off we were to Montréal. We stayed at this guys place who Sara found through couch surfing, and he said we could sleep on his couch. Sébastien, really nice guy, kept trying to speak German and understand what we were saying... but apparently I was too fast for him... how shocking, never heard that before, hihi. Anyways, we stayed on his couch with NINE blankets (and we needed them... WITH them though, it was quite cosy). While we were there, temperatures were around -9 to -16°C... which is what we have here in Toronto now, one week later with the storm coming in. Freezing if you don't wear sufficient layers of clothing. Was a good test for my stuff I got, and I LOVE my new winter boots (my feet weren't cold ONCE through the weekend, and even stayed dry after 5 hours of walking through the snow... so I'm happy), and my scarf... and turns out my coat I brought from Germany is actually warm enough... at least so far. But you can layer... actually, in Montréal you HAVE to layer, because they heat the subway stations up to more than 20°C, so you are freezing outside, come in to take the subway, and start sweating even if you take your coat off! I saw a man walking around in a short-sleeved shirt! Such extreme temperature changes can not possibly promote your health. It's kind of the reversed situation of what we had in August, when it was 30°C outside and about 17°C inside... and about 3/4 of the exchange students got a cold in late august / early september.... I know I did.
Anyway. Friday night Sébastien let us tag along when he went out with some friends of his (all anglophones, so I could actually follow the conversation... turns out, the Québec accent is a LOT harder for me to understand than the French they speak in France), and he made us eat the one food that's typical of Québec (according to him, and Sara's travel guide): poutine. Which basically consists of French Fries, curd cheese, and gravy. Sounds disgusting, tastes awesome! Apparently that got invented when it was really cold and they wanted to come up with a dish that had as many calories as possible, to keep their energy up... so there you have it.
Saturday, we pretty much just walked around Montréal... "downtown", if you will. We had breakfast in the Quartier Latin, walked down to Vieux Montréal, did a little walk recommended by one of the travel guides... oh, and walked into the wrong direction for about 30 MINUTES!!, because when I asked Sara where on Rue Ste Catherine we had to pick up the tickets for the show she wanted to go to, east or west, she said "it doesn't say". We walked West. Turned out, the place was East. That was a LOT of walking in the cold!! :) I teased her about that for most of the time left, hihihi. Anyways, we walked through Vieux Montréal, they had some nice Christmas decorations, there were horse carriages (we didn't take one, though)... some nice Roman churches (which makes it a little more European, I guess)... in fact, they are very big on copying things: they build a copy of Notre Dame, of the "Petersdom" in Rome... just about everything. Why they can not just come up with something if their own is beyond me. But that's how it is. Then we went down to the harbor and saw the St. Lawrence river (St. Lorenz Strom), which we thought was pretty cool... as a matter of fact, we found a part that was frozen and STOOD on it. So I stood on the St. Lawrence River! ... we thought it was neat. Oh, and this Swedish guitar player / singer that Sara was playing at a club, so we went - that guy knows how to play, let me tell you! Plus it was a cute little old theatre, so that was nice, too.
On sunday, we went up to see this huge cathedral or church or whatever where apparently people pilger to... up the 99 steps to the church. Nice church, quite modern though, since it was only built in the 1920s. But it's almost up on the Mont Réal, so you can see it when you drive into Montréal - it's quite big. After, we walked up the Mont Réal, did some tobogganing... exept we didn't have a toboggan, so we used a plastic bag :) And we made snow angels. And of course got a gorgeous view of Montréal from up there!! When the sun went down and it got a notch colder, we went back down, took the subway to Little Italy and had dinner... after we had a quick look at one of the little indoor markets right before it closed.
On Monday, we pretty much just tried to find appropriate winter boots for Sara, and combined that shopping trip with some more sight seeing by walking through the underground city... about 32km worth of shops and paths etc. And Sara didn't fall, since we were indoors, so that was a nice change ;)... all weekend, she slipped and tripped and... well, she really fell only once, but down 4 stairs, and right after I almost fell and had warned her... it was really funny... only because she never got hurt, obviously. We think that either her shoes' profile wasn't as good as mine, or that, somehow, I have more experience walking on ice and other slippery surfaces. We don't know. Oh, and we went to one of the original Bagel Shops, because apparently, Bagels were invented in Québec. At 3:30 p.m. our bus left for Toronto, and we arrived early, at about 10p.m.
Sara used the time to study for her final exam that she had the next morning, and I read, slept, listened to music, watched the world go by... the things you do when you are on the bus for 7 hours. After we arrived in Toronto, Sara continued on to her home in St. Catherines, and I took the subway home. It was a really beautiful weekend, we had lots of fun, saw some nice things... and all this even though we decided to take the trip very short notice. And since I worked, Sara was so kind to look up the buses and find us a couch to sleep on and to get travel guides and do some preparation - so I was very grateful!
So, here are some pictures of Montréal - enjoy!
This is our couch... or rather, proof of the many many blanket we used to keep us warm at night!
That's Sara enjoying GOOD COFFEE (*sigh* such a rare thing...) in a beautiful, cosy little place in the Quartier Latin, where we had breakfast.
Um... one of the churches we saw... actually, a cathedral. The Cathedral Marie-Reigne-du-Monde... really nice buiding, inside and out.
Yes, yes - lots of snow on the streets of Montréal... quite handy if you want to take a break and sit down, hihi.
Um... down by the harbor.
Vieux Montréal... and it is almost dark.
Sara standing ON the St. Lawrence River!!!
We're making snow angels!! .... or drowning in the snow, whatever :) Yay!!!
Oh, yes, in case you haven't noticed on the other pictures... I am Little Green Ridinghood ("Grünkäppchen")!! ALL the way :)
The huge church built in the 20ies that all the pilgrims come to... including the 99 steps.
... aren't those stairs awesome?! And a nice building, too.
Okay, I wanted to bring this up to date today (there's still one thing missing), but now it seems like I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow... so I have things to do! But that was Montréal for you - hope you enjoyed the pictures!!
And yes, I realize i haven't answered Emails for almost 2-3 months... I will get to them around Christmas, I promise!!!

2007-12-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

Let me just say that I MUCH MUCH MUCH prefer festivals or smaller indoor venues to the freaking huge places like the ACC is... but EVERY band seems to play in the ACC (almost), so you don't really have a choice *sigh*... okay, now I'm off to the kitchen - FOOOOOOOOOD!!!! :)

no 5

2007-12-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

I'm back! :) After I finished the last entry, things really started to get tight at school - at some point I was convinced that I would most likely drop dead by the end of november... but, what do you know, I'm still here!
On november 9th, a couple of us went to see The Police at the Air Canada Center in Toronto... that was a pretty big thing. A really fun, great concert... even though I think Sara got a lot more excited than I did... but still, really good fun, and some great music! Apparently, Sting's son has a band of his own, so they were opening... they were really good, so 2 fun bands in one night. Oh, and we got reseated because they didn't sell all the tickets (it was their third concert in Toronto on this tour), so we ended up in seats that were a lot better than those we paid for! :) Steffen took some pictures, so I'll put one in here, just for the heck of it. So, picture number one: The Police and the ACC.

As far as school goes, I got to interview Randy who is a counselor for Aboriginal students at York, which was really interesting, because he is a First Nations person himself (what we used to call "Indian" up until 1982), so I learned a lot about their culture and history. Plus our presentation we did based on the interview turned out really well, so what more can you ask for?!
On november 20th, I had the first concert with my Jazz Choir (the second one is in march) - not a lot of people there, but we did well and our conductor Bob couldn't wipe the grin off his face, so it was a great night for us... I can't wait to do the next one!! Joining the choir was weird at first, since I hadn't been in one since... 2002?! And I had never ever been in a Jazz choir, for that matter. So it took some getting used to, but now it's really good, and fun, and hard work... and a nice change from all the psychology courses I do otherwise :)
So, for me at least, the semester ended by the end of november... which doesn't mean that I'm just lazy now, because I work three days a week, so I'm keeping busy. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, november was quite straining, so I need some time to recover... the next time I hear someone say that exchange students don't do anything for school and just hang around and party and travel, I'm going to kick them, hard! Turns out that that is not AT ALL what it's like to be an exchange student... at least not in Canada... at least not in Toronto. Although I do plan to go out some more next semester, since I've been here for four months now and have hardly seen anything of Toronto - and that's kind of pathetic. So, that's about to change :)

To celebrate (well, kind of) the end of the semester, I went to see Bon Jovi play at the ACC - one of the best Bon Jovi shows I've seen, ever... and (although usually with Betti and Ramona and in Germany, not Canada) I've seen quite a few! :) But SO worth going to, especially since the ones in Germany will be open air, so, if you get the chance and even remotely like the music, I really recommend you go!! It was GREAT!!! They played tons of old songs, of course the new ones... it was just really amazing... and even Andreas and Sara thought it was a good show, and they aren't into Bon Jovi too much, so there you go - must've been good! And of course it didn't hurt the general mood of the audience when the singer put on a Maple Leafs jersey, which is Toronto's beloved hockey team ("Eishockey", that is) - they go crazy for them! Anyway, in case you were wondering what the blue shirt on picture number 2 is... it's a Maple Leafs jersey. I really really really want to go to a Maple Leafs game (they are like Bayern München for Munich... or the VfB to Stuttgart... important, anyway), but the tickets are outrageously expensive!!! 100 dollars at least, is what a friend told me!
Anyway, Bon Jovi was fun, and Hedley opened for them - which is a Canadian band that everyone goes crazy for around here right now (especially teenage girls, oddly enough ;) ), so that was a nice treat to see them play as well - they're entertaining... but I like them better on CD (or television, rather) than I liked them live.

Hm... lots of concerts in this post, huh? Well, that's it, too, because I'm starving and need to go get food before I can finish this off. So, Bon Jovi was december 6th, and on the 7th I left for a long weekend in Montréal (after having had to turn down Maike and Magali and their trip to Québec city because I had to work on tuesday :( )... so that's coming up!

no 4

2007-11-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

Right. So after the horseback riding, I've basically done nothing exept study... well, occasionally i sleep a few hours, too *sigh* The term is almost over, so I have lots and lots of tests coming up, papers to write and hand in, a group presentation, 2 projects I have to do and then write a report on.. in other words, I'm quite busy. Which is funny because David, the professor in charge of our exchange program, said he would be disappointed if studying for university ad going to classes would make up more than 50% of our time - ha!! More like 85%, these past weeks!!!! The good news is, I'll be done by november 27th, and then the next term only starts in january. So I should have time to recover from all the madness.
The only thing that came up was Halloween, but since I didn't have much time (or energy) for partying, I just went to see a Stephen King movie on friday (they were showing it on campus, and it was for free)... I must say, I was scared out of my mind when I watched that movie when I was 12 years old... now I just kind of thought it was funny.. and a little scary. Still, I went with Stephan, a French exchange student, and Jette, a German exchange student - we had a nice evening, away from all the schoolwork the 3 of us have to do. And then, on wednesday, the 31st, I heard the Dalai Lama was speaking in Toronto, so I got a ticket and went there... that was very interesting, he's a very smart man - I think - and very funny, too! I was impressed.
The first thing he did was take off his shoes, and then put on that funny hat because the spotlights were blinding him :) Very funny.
And that night, I went out with James and Kaela (my roommates) and Aaron and Magali and some other people, since it was Halloween. So we actually dressed up (which, if you know me, is a big thing, because I usually do not do that), and went to the Gay Village, where they had a kind of street parade. We saw some pretty amazing costumes, and had fun (AND were home by 11:30 p.m.) :)
So. I was... i don't know, an evil monk? I wore one of Kaela's masks. James was "Dead Cedric Diggory's Reanimated Corpse" (Cedric being a character from the Harry Potter books), Kaela was the crazy/sexy clown, Aaron was Elton John, Magali was... maybe the Invisible Man from a movie, but really she just put on a mask last minute, and Julie was Amy Winehouse... we all looked the part, I think :)

Okay, I have to get back to work, I want to get some more things done for school before the day is over (it's about 4 in the afternoon, now). I'll let you know if anything out of the ordinary happens!
biiiiiig hug!!!! :)

Stef

no 3

2007-11-04T10:20:00.001-08:00

Hm... let's see. So I went to New York for a week with Philipp, Thorsten and Thomas (we met up at JFK, since Thorsten was flying in from Frankfurt, and the other 2 from San Diego). It was fun, we got to see a lot of things... my feet hurt like HELL every night... I had to study, too, because I had a test coming up... yup. So, we did a lot of sightseeing, Statue of Liberty, Time Square, Empire State, WTC site, Grand Central, Battery Park, Central Park, the Public Library, Soho, Brooklyn, Rockefeller Center by night, the UN, went to see the MoMA... all kinds of stuff. Took some pretty good pictures, too (especially the guys took millions and millions of pictures of tall buildings :p). So, it was fun! New York itself is kind of dirty... and noisy (lots of honking all the time). So not really my kind of city, but most definitely interesting to see. I'll post some pictures:

Those 3 extremely handsome guys are Philipp, Thomas and Thorsten (left to right), in front of the Public Library - in case I haven't mentioned this, we had beautiful weather all week long, around 18-23 °C. The other picture is Manhattan by night, and the Brooklyn Bridge (we took the subway over the river to Brooklyn to take a few pictures :)
And here you can see Philipp, Thorsten and myself, taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty's back... well.
Anyways, so I got back to Toronto on Thursday, october 4th, and on friday I left for Waterloo - to attend the World's Second Biggest Oktoberfest! (no, I'm not kidding). That was very funny, Sara and I had tons of fun, dancing to the German version of "99 Luftballons" (strangely, we seemed to be the only ones who knew the words ;)), and marvelling at the people, who basically dressed up as if it was Halloween - with hats with pink feathers etc. The good thing is that, unlike the German Oktoberfest in Munich, in Waterloo the beer doesn't cost more than it would in a store, so that made some of the boys really happy, I think.
Sara and I had a piece of Black Forest Cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte) - which was pretty disgusting. Nothing like the real thing. And Steffen (who we were staying with over the weekend) cooked for us and made sausages and sauerkraut, that was kind of funny... so we had a "real" oktoberfest with "real" German food :p Some impressions:

So, a Canadian in Lederhosen, and the place we went to on saturday...
And Steffen and Andreas, dressed up for the occasion (they actually bought those hats... and the color for the German flag Andreas brought long, I think.
I should mention that, on the 2nd day, they braided my hair and made me wear the German flag on my cheeks too...
That was Oktoberfest for you... and of course there were servers with extremely short dresses, but I guess you've all seen that before.
The next 2 weeks I didn't do anything other than studying.. had my first tests, papers I had to hand in etc... oh, well, I went to see a movie once.
Then on october 20th Sara, Andreas and I went horseback riding with the McMaster outdoor club (and yes, I know that's not my university... I'm still a member of the club :)). That was fun, and I was the only one who had ever been on a horse before, so somehow that made them decide I should get the slowest horse they had (because I would know how to make it keep up with the others). Still, it was great to be back on horseback again, and we finally got to see some of the Indian Summer (so colorful leaves)!

Pretty, ay? :)

2007-10-04T20:08:00.001-07:00

Hey! :)
Sorry I didn't post anything for so long... first I didn't have time, then our internet was down for a week, and now I just got back from a week in NY... but anyways.
Finally, today, a (brief) summary of what I've been doing since I got here, and then hopefully I will keep this up to date :p
Okay, so first few days were orientation from our exchange program - tons of fun... well, at least funny, and I spent time with some really really nice people, so there you go! We even had the Consul General of Germany over for dinner, and he invited us to a october 3rd celebration dinner... I was out of the country, don't know if anyone else went.
When orientation was over I moved in with my roommates (they let me sleep on the couch, since my room wasn't empty yet), I stayed there for 2 nights, and then we were off to Algonquin Park! "Us" meaning a bunch of German people (since none of the French had time to go). It was a little chaotic, we didn't get a car etc., so we ended up taking a bus and a taxi, camping on a lookout for one night where, apparently, you're not supposed to camp... the police were really nice, though ;) We then spent 5 days canoeing through the national park, which is AMAZING because there's NOONE there, absolute wildlife. So, lots of canoeing, camping, carrying the canoes from one lake to the other etc... the biggest distance we covered was 2,4km... quite painful, let me tell you, with all kinds of stuff on your back! We saw tons of birds, chipmunks, got robbed by a racoon and a few mice (I think they might belong to the same gang...), heard wolves... and didn't see any bears (which I wasn't too sad about, really). But beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL landscapes, lakes, forest - really nice, and we had awesome weather, so we stayed dry until the last day, when it rained a little. Well, some of us stayed dry... Sara and Andreas fell into the water (taking our tent and their sleeping bags and clothes, too) - but they enjoyed it, I think.
Anyways, the picture up there is from Algonquin... our first morning in the park, I think. And some sunset picture, of course. and a picture of our dear friend, the beaver (we had to pass some of his friends' homes in order to get to our destinations... don't think we wrecked them, though.. putting a picture of that in, as well. and a picture of me (after we finished and had taken a shower back at the outfitter before leaving the park (so without the 10 layers of dirt ;)). Alright, enough pictures.
Oh, not just yet: the two "pirates" in the boat with me are Andreas and Steffen, the two in the canoe mastering the beaver dam are Dominik and Antje... and then there's me. I just realized the only one not on the pictures is Sara.. so here you go, a picture of Sara - with Steffen and myself, at a bar in Toronto (pretty chilly night, by the way), the night after we got back from our trip.
After that we went to the world's biggest Spare Rib Festival on Labour day weekend (just Andreas, Steffen, Sara and myself), just before classes started on september 5th.
Our campus is pretty cool, LOTS of squirrels that aren't afraid of anything... yeah. I'm struggling with administration, they're giving me a hard time by not letting me into the courses I want... maybe it'll work out in winter term (january - march). Now I have some pretty good courses, interesting, AND a lot lot lot of work, but should be fun! AND I'm in a Jazz Choir, YAY!
Okay, so the first two weeks of class I didn't do much (Andreas came to Toronto and we bought him dresspants because he's at a university with a freaking DRESSCODE!!, my roommates and I had a housewarming and had some people over, we cleaned out my room, put my stuff in closets etc... went swimming in our house pool and worked out in our gym ;) (yup, I live in a nice place, have nice roommates, 2 dogs, pool AND good access to public transport and grocery shopping! :) HAAAAAPPY :)!). Got some things done for school, too.
Oh, and I went to a baseball game - the Toronto Blue Jays vs. the New York Yankees - WE WON!!!! And I got a free towel (you have to wave those on occasion - apparently baseball isn't a game where you just sit and watch, noooo sir!):

On my birthday I had some of the girls over, we made burritos and had cake (I had a hard time finding all the ingredients for a cheese cake!) and later on some of us went out... on the picture, left to right, that's my roommate, Kaela, my other roommate James, myself, Sara, and Magali, a French girl who goes to York as well. I had so much fun, was a GREAT GREAT birthday! I got some pretty awesome emails, too, so thank you for that - oh, and a present per mail, and one I had in my suitcase but had forgotten about, and I got tons of cake, and a LION!!! Here's a picture of the cake my roommates presented me with the night before my birthday, when I got home from class at 11 at night - and they'd made dinner! :)

Okay, so... had an amazing birthday, Sara came to visit and stayed until friday, because that was the day we were leaving for our hiking trip to Georgian Bay (just a weekend this time) - also very beautiful, quite different from Algonquin, and a very challenging hike! but I think everyone enjoyed themselves and we stayed on the best campground ever, in the middle of the woods! And we met the fattest racoon, I have ever seen (Bob, and his brother... forgot his name :p).
Oops, forgot to rotate the picture... but you get the idea - he's up in a tree, and was stalking us all weekend.
We were more people this time, too (9 to be precise). But first, a picture of Georgian Bay - neat, huh? On Saturday we hiked for about 7 hours, and another 5 on Sunday. Beautiful, again. We had to do some rock climbing along the trail, that was interesting... and Steffen actually dove through a hole in a cavern wall and came up on the outside on the bay shore. Pretty neat. And some did some cliff jumping as well. And Tristan had brought his guitar, so I was happy because he played a little when we were sitting at our campfire and he even let me play some, so I finally got the chance to do that again after AGES of not playing :) :) :) Oh, and here's a group picture of us, as well:

So, from left to right: Tristan (from Spain, with an Irish mother - going to York), Julie (from France - going to Waterloo University), Andreas (German, going to McMaster in Hamilton), Maike (German, going to York), Sara (German, going to Brock in St. Catherines - yes, that's where the Niagara Falls are), Steffen (German, going to U Waterloo), Matthias (German, Waterloo), then, hidden behind the tree, Antje (German, going to Brock as well).
Okay, so, to wrap it up: we returned Sunday night (the 23rd), and on Thursday I left for New York. But I'll tell you about that one some other time (because it's late and I have an early day tomorrow).

2007-09-13T08:38:00.001-07:00

So... this is where I live nowadays. The LOVELY city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Pretty CN-Tower, huh? Tallest free-standing building in the world... until they finish building the one in Dubai, at least.
Anyway, so far for my first Blog entry... and more to come, hopefully.
By now I'm pretty much adjusted and can find my way around the city... meaning I know how to use the subway and how to read maps. Toronto is BIG. Not Toronto itself (that's only, what, 3 million), but the GTA (greater toronto area) should be about 6. So no fun walking from one end to the other, unless you bring a sleeping bag and enough food ;)
Very impressive city.
And a pretty campus, too (mine, not UofT) - I'll try to get some pictures up here as soon as possible.
Gotta get going, have errands to run etc.
But I'll be back to briefly wrap up what's been happening the past 3 weeks, and to put pictures up and stuff - it'll be fun!!