Before I get distracted again...

I will be putting up some pictures and commentary of my recent Hokkaido vacation, but first I want to bring your attention to a very very important website... well actually it's a blog of a couple of awesome people, Steve and Sandy. I met them on my volunteer trip in Thailand where Sandy was teaching English at the local school, and Steve was managing the Baan Unrak home for orphaned kids... their blog is amazing, giving insights into the daily life and also the projects that Steve is always getting off the ground to improve the way of live for many people in the area. Please check it out. For your reference here, it is http://www.steveandsandy.blogspot.com/ but I have also put it into my links.. please check it out, it'll blow your mind.

By the way I had an absolutely fabulous holiday in Hokkaido - with 7 other Kobe JETs - Farah, Caroline, Steph, Adrian, Dustin, Leigh and Rogi... we named ourselves the infamous Gak 8 (after our place of residence, Gakuentoshi...). We managed not to get arrested, which is always nice, and we enjoyed some beautiful snow... and thanks to Leigh and his super cautious driving, we survived on the roads.

I tried really hard to pick up a Scottish accent (under the tutelage of Glaswegian Rogi, who had me and Farah repeating some typical Scottish conversations.. how's it going? Not bad.. fancy a pint? Alright...) possibly failed miserably, but had lots of fun in the process. Also tried snowboarding and fell over so many times I cried like a baby with frustration. Dustin, my mountain angel on skis, stayed by my side through the worst of it, until Rogi and Leigh found me and finally taught me how to actually steer the frickin' thing (didn't stop me falling over, but helped me avoid the trees and dangerous precipices). It was an experience, I am glad it's over, and strangely enough, really want to give it another go! Must be a sucker for torture.

We had all you can eat lamb at the Genghis Khan restaurant at the Sapporo Beer Museum... that was an interesting eating experience... we set up 4 against four.. Me, Rogi, Leigh and Caroline against Farah, Dustin, Steph and Adrian. I think that eat-off was rigged from the start. We lost by a plate, but did well considering the odds weren't in our favour - no one can out eat Farah... not even Adrian... so what chance did we have? He he, I love you guys!

I had a bad cold on the last day, and my camera died, so I don't have great photo's of the last day with all the snow sculptures etc, but will be rading my friends SD-cards for theirs. So stay tuned!