Hello Everyone!  Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I have been busy and my account wouldn't accept my password for a while, that was weird.  Anyways, its working now and I am officially back!  Well, Spring is well underway as the lilacs are all blooming here.  Most of the sakura and plum trees have already bloomed, but you can still find some that are still quite pretty!  A couple of weeks ago, my host family took me to bouin coen for ohanami, or flower watching.  It was really beautiful, it was full of pink plum and cherry blossoms!  That was fun, which is more than I can say for my classes right now.  We are learning counters and kanji, which isn't always fun. The counters are really confusing, as the Japanese count differently depending on what they are counting.  Sometimes the situation can count, as well.  For example, if you want to count one yen, you say ichien.  if you want to count one person, you say hitari.  If you want to count floors, you say ikkai.  You have to use different counters for things, big things, flat things, drinks, tall things, etc.  so it is easy to get lost.  We are also learning 10 kanji a week, which is difficult but kind of neat.  This weekend was pretty fun though.  On Friday, we all went to the Lilac festival in Odori park.  It was full of foods from all around the world, but didn't really have much else to do.  On Saturday, BCA students, other exchange students, and Japanese students all went to Toya lake for the weekend.  Its this gorgeous area with a great view of Mt. Una, an active volcano.  We stayed at this beautiful hotel and stayed in Japanese style rooms. Everything was free, including our all you can eat dinner and breakfast buffet! After dinner, my friends and I  got to go to an Onsen, or hot spring!  It was an interesting experience, I will tell you.  I was really nervous to do it, but I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit.  The only negative thing about it is that you get really hot!  Thankfully, they have water for you to drink when you get out.  Later that night we did karaoke with the other students, which was pretty fun.  I only had one beer that night, but I really don't like Japanese beer all that much.  It tastes like Coors Light.  I was pretty much the only person who didn't get incredibly drunk that night.  I had to spend the night looking after my drunk roommate, which wasn't too much fun.  I really don't like to party that much, and it was kind of annoying to have my sleep interrupted by everyone's partying. Many people were puking or passing out, which didn't really look like fun to me, I don't know why people love to do that to themselves.  Oh well.   The next day we went to a volcano museum, soba making workshop, and were able to see how Katanas, or swords, are made!  The day before we got to go to the Ainu museum and make musical instruments that none of us can make!  The Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan, much like Native Americans.  That weekend was so much fun, but everyone was pretty dead the next day!  Then today, I got to try on a real kimono!  It was really beautiful, but I couldn't breathe!  My body type, like most in my group, is a bit more curvy than the average person here, so they tried to bind everything in, which cut off much of my air supply!  Still, our group looked pretty awesome and it was a really cool experience.  I would post pictures of all of this, but for some reason my stupid account isn't letting me upload.  Everything is in Japanese, so its difficult to figure out what is wrong.  When it finally allows me to, I will upload all of my pictures.  Sorry!

Well, had an interesting Golden Week, I suppose.  The first half was sunny and beautiful, and the second half was rainy and cold.  It was fun, though.  On Friday, my friends and I went to a really nice Karaoke bar.  You get your own private soundproof room and a selection of drinks and food.  We also found an actual Mexican restaurant!!  I had a taco, it was wonderful! On Monday I went to Shin Sapporo, Thursday I went to Susukino(the nightlife district of Sapporo) to shop.  The night time is full of bars, clubs, and karaoke, but in the daytime it is a good place for shopping and eating.  I found a Hello Kitty doll there for Jessie, so that search is finally over.  Then on Friday we went to Otaru, the historic glass making town we went to before.  Apparently, its name means "little barrel", which is kinda cute. We took a train out there this time, so we were able to see the sea of Japan, which was nice.  Also, for lunch we stopped at this interesting restaurant.  The food was Italian, but the theme was Southwestern.  They even sold southwestern jewelry.  I have noticed though that southwestern style seems to be popular here.  I have seen more than a few guys sporting a Texas bow tie! The pizza was delicious though.  It was a decent sized Margarita pizza that was only 900 yen(much cheaper than pizza hut's prices, which is 1100 yen for a small pizza).  Sadly, the welcome barbecue that my host family was going to throw for me was canceled due to weather and the flu, but instead they gave me a sushi dinner instead, which was good too!  Afterwards we played card games, so it was a pretty fun evening.  Their daughter from Canada is staying with us for a month, and it has been really nice talking to her, as she is fluent in English and can clear up any translation issues that may occur.  So that was my Golden week.  It's technically not over, as it is still Saturday, but  I am not planning on going anywhere else, as I have my first big exam on Monday, and I have to study :(  Oh well.  Here are some pictures:
The mythical Japanese-Mexican restaurant. 

 Karaoke!  The people pictured are my friend Lexi and Shuhei. 

 Found some fishy cat treats!  If I bought these for comet, do you think he would forgive me for being away for four months?

 Random Jesus and Mary pens found in a department store.  They also had some Anubis pens in the mix, as those two religions go so well together!

 Susukino in the daytime (pretty sakura!)

 Sushi dinner (I bet I am making my family sooo jealous right now!)

 The family playing card games.

 My hello kitty quest is finally over!

 Went back to mister donut, had to try the strawberry version.  Apparently the doughnuts all have different facial expressions.  I almost felt guilty eating something so cute. 

 The sea of Japan as seen from the train. 

 Otaru mall.  Everywhere we went, there was fishy stuff.  I was in heaven!

 Row of restaurants.

 Shrine shop. 

 Gotta love the cherry blossoms!

 mmm, sushi!