August in a Nutshell

I've been busy recently, I apologize. I know it's no good excuse for rejecting my home, but it's an excuse nonetheless, so you can deal with it.

What have I done recently? I suppose what haven't I done is a more applicable question.

For the record, I haven't:
1. committed murder
2. learned how to be a ventriloquist
3. eaten meat (sorry, people, I know)

I have, however:
1. set off fireworks in front of my colleague's house, after going to an organic buffet restaurant with him and his girlfriend. It was lovely to meet her as well, they are both beautiful people. We also went to the grocery store, and I managed to snap a photo of an entire dried squid, as per my mom's request. Here is the photo:


2. Gone to Sapporo orientation. It was lovely to hang out with other ALTs and be once again surrounded by English. Call me pathetic, but it is comforting to have people around you that you can understand. We also went out on the town, and one of the ALTs and I spent the entire night walking around Sapporo in the rain. We got soaked and it was lovely. I managed to snap this beautiful shot of a covered shopping street while we were roaming, looking for a place to eat dinner.

3. Went camping at lake Shikotsu. It was quite the adventure. Jessica made onigiri for us to eat on the train for lunch, and they were absolutely adorable. Here is a picture of them.


Once we got to Shikotsu-ko, we spent the night eating, drinking, and playing silly games. Here's a photo of me attempting to win the bubble blowing competition for my team at the crazy olympics. I wish I could share the beauty of the spot with you, but for some strange reason, I forgot to take pictures.

4. Taught my first class. No pictures for this one, but it was absolutely terrifying. Let's hope that the next ones go better. Woo self introductions for the next few weeks!

5. Went to Noboribetsu for the Hell Festival! We had a chance to see the beautiful town and go to the beach, which was a lot of fun as well. I kind of wish I had a coastal placement so that I could go to the beach daily. You know I totally would. But it's all good. Here's a couple pictures of the beach.

When we got to the town, we came across this restaurant called Canadian Fried Chicken, and couldn't resist the urge to go inside. They had a flag outside that was basically the Italian flag with a maple leaf in the middle. No clue why. They served pasta and fried chicken. Canadian-Italian fusion, maybe? Who knows. Regardless, here's a picture of the sign.



Also also! They had a vending machine that sold piping hot buttered popcorn! And it had a giant hello kitty in it! I obviously had to buy some. Here's a picture of the vending machine:


Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the actual festival because both my camera and phone died. Sigh.

6. Rode my bike with Jessica all the way to the Kuriyama dam (It's about 7 km each way on street bikes). I know it's nothing to be impressed about, but it's a lot for me. :) The dam was actually quite impressive, and we spent some time just lying on the grass in the shade, eating the picnic lunch I'd packed. FUN TIMES I KNOW!


Other than that, it's been relatively quiet. I hope to post a few sort of themed posts in the future to alleviate the boring "I did this, then I did that"-ness of this blog. We'll see how it goes.