11 Guys, 1 Girl, & Free Refills.

Frequently I say yes to trips, and assume I'll be able to use my skills in marketing to pitch my friends to come along for the ride. A ski trip to Japan was no exception.

My friend Jad had texted me two or three months before the trip - asking if I was cool being the only girl. Well - I'm clearly not going to get hired for a job in recruitment anytime soon - because my skills are weaker than a skinny girl margarita.

On the bazillion hour flight there - I was trying to think what it would be like to hang out with a ton of dudes on a trip. Would there be drama? Would we eat ramen from a vending machine every night? Would we actually ski or snowboard? Would we do anything that didn't require alcohol? The questions were pretty much endless until I checked customs in Hokkiado.

It was honestly...the most relaxing vacation - I've ever been on. There was no arguing that what you're wearing wasn't appropriate enough to go to dinner. No forced pictures for the 'gram. And especially no arguing about the groups having to everything together.

If 5 dudes went to bed at 7:30 no one stopped them, or even shit talked them. If the other half wanted to rage & and bump lines off a public bus seat no one stopped them (this was before COVID social distancing).

Those are pretty extreme ends but my point is - there was no drama. None. Nadda. Zip. Ziltch.

The only thing every guy was talking about - was getting up to earn their turns & free refills (free snow refills because it snowed, every hour, of every day.)

I'm a pretty free bird (meaning that I'm not the easiest to travel with) - I like to wake up and take my time on vacation. Explore some local coffee shops, check out the shopping, check my emails. And nothing is more frustrating than being rushed through the things that you traveled a zillion hours to do and see.

Every morning I woke up and told them I was going to do my own thing. They said "text us so we know you're not dead". And we parted ways then they found me around dinner time to assure that I was actually not dead.

Some call it hostility, I called it love.

A few answers from questions that my girlfriends were dying to know (and I'm sure you are too) about what it's like to be the only female in a house of dudes for a week.

Top 5 Questions Answered:

1) Was the AIRBNB clean? Freakishly so - guys do actually clean up after themselves when someone isn't around to do it (or maybe this crew has super solid mommas). However by the end of the trip the room that kept the ski gear smelled like soles of some nasty football cleats.

2) What did they do other than ski? There was an incredible amount of strip club visits and crazy, raging, bar hopping - Mario Kart on Nintendo switches. And, if the switches were dead, it was watching YouTube videos of professional skiiers doing runs that they just did that day, to relive their glory I guess.

3) What did they eat every night? It varied a ton - but mostly dinners came from the 7/11 - ish gas station and then one fancy meal during the course of the whole week out.

4) Did they eat things off street vendors and get Giardia? Yes to the first part - and if they got the g-bug - they didn't let me know.

5) Were the absolutely obsessed with the heated bidets. That's a positive ghost rider.