Shake it like a polaroid picture

photo: Collin David

When I realized that they were not gonna make Polaroid film anymore I finally bought myself a camera, just to have one. But soon the frenzy made all film on ebay unnaturally expensive. It was sad for me but really sad for these photographers.

But now, good news: A group of European entrepreneurs are planning to restart production in an abandoned factory in the Netherlands. Yay, that's the kind on news I like in the morning.

17th of May

Not that the picture itself is of supreme quality, but I love the face of this little guy's look. I took it as the 17th of May (Norway's national day) and I think it really reflect the way we all felt that day when we were little.

The last days ,luck, or actually, the Chinese government, has not exactly been on our side. Tuesday, after seeing a disapointingly small terracotta army, we headed for Lanzhou with plans of getting further to Xiahe, which is the town where the largest Tibetan monestary outside of Lasha is located . But after 9 hours on a train and probably a couple more running around the city trying to find the correct bus station (of course there is several. 'Cause Lanzhou is just a mid-size Chinese city of 8 mill.), we were refused to buy bus tickets since they dont allow for forigners into the city.

So, after the intitial anger with propaganda and mock-communism (and an awful fried burger at Dico's) we changed our route completly. Thus, we bough tickets for Chengdu, where we are now, and is today heading for the train station to buy tickets for Kunming in the Yunnan province and then head further on to Lijiang.

The tickets we bough were extremly cheap and we soon understood why. The trainride was awfully long. We though it would take 16 hours, but it did not. It took 28. The heat was extreme and only got worse when the train stopped for two whole hours in the middle of nowhere since the driver needed a luch break. Of course.

The worst was actually to pass trough the first class cart(soft sleeper), where the were blessed with air con, on our way to eat. And when actually getting there, to the eating cart, having to wait for food for 1.5 hours only then to be mocked by the waitress in front of the thirty people sitting there and being told that they actually did not have more rice left. An then being given a cabbage. Donc. C'est ca. On the train we:

Listened to music.
Ate vitamin bears.
Tried to order food on Chinese.
Read about universal travellers or evolutional biology.
Or of course: slept.

And one more thing. Finally David revealed to me why he is so funny: It is because he swallowed a clown when he was little.

When you see how huge the summer palace and the forbidden city is, which was owned by only one emperor, you see why there was revolutions.
Also in the Summer Palace.
Someone has stolen Buddha's head. That must surly lead to bad karma.
We slept in the top-bunk. Which was quite high up.
Little room...
Also some parts of the summer palace.
Love in China.
Chinese shoes in China.

Yesterday we went to the Summer Palace and David's university in Beijing to find a nice room for him for july. Still, the most impressive part of he's school for me was definitly the large cantine. For I while I though my dream of eating in a school cantine with the tray and everything would come true. But that was untill I realized that you needed a student card to be fed.

The summer palace was beautiful, but crammed with what seemed to be half of the chinese population. But in reality I guess it was not more than 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of it. Yes, I'm definitly realizing how many chinese there actually is. When you see the masses moving around from one place to another you are actually amazed how smooth it all goes. Still, yesterday we used 3 hours to travel 15km by bus. Puh.

Last night we took the train to Xi'an, where we are now. The train was really a positive suprise because the standard was very good. Except the toilet (of course), in which I almost vommited because of the SMELL, which is only ehanced by the fact that you almost have to sit on the ground cause' the toilets are what norwegians would refer to as "just a hole in the ground".

Ni hao!

Nice guys at the forbidden city.
Scorpion and stail kebabs at the night marked..
Pui #1 AND #2 on Tianiamen Square= The Square of Heavenly Peace.
The White Pagoda in a very widy afternoon.

From the forbidden city.
On top of the white Pogoda.

First: 1. I'm sorry about the gramatical mistakes that will occur cause this computer doesnt have spell check. 2. The fact that the pics come first (no cut and past, only 指定搜索语言).

So, after having a couple of days here in Beijing without being able to enter my blog I finally found a way of posting new posts.

Here everything is good. The last two days we've stayed at a great hostel here with the even more magnificient name: Sitting On the City Walls Courtyard House.

The culture shock is actually not that bad (yet). Probably much due to the fact that I live in Montreal and is used to not understanding much of what people around me is saying. And, actually, after having traveled in Central America I'm kinda shocked when guys are not whisteling after me in the street:) But still we had big problems ordering our first meal here and ended up with a soup of what I believe was sheep brain and cartilege. We also ended up walking all the way from the train station, where the bus from the airport dropped us of, to the hostel which was about 5km, cause we where not able to give directions to the cab driver. But that was yesterday. Today we have been masters of the Beijingese bus system and ordered both kebab and train tickets.

Tomorrow we'll take the night train to Xi'an, where the terracotta soldiers lives. More news will come then. Zaijian.

Such a Perfect day.

First: Congrats to Kaia which just got into the very cool film making school in Denmark where Lars Von Trier teach .

She also, as the good friend she is, gave me these great yellow shoes in a birthday-in-advance present. Today we spend our second day together.
We (me and Yellow-shoes) went to the Chinese embassy again, where there was a very long line , only to discover that Sabrina had forgotten the receipt she got when applying for the visa. But, despite an angry look from the consulate lady and a long and bureaucratic waiting time, Sabrina can now proclaim herself the proud owner of a Chinese Visa.

We then went to my favourite cafe at Majorstua: Rustique (under) to meet Kjersti and Mine.
There we ate The Worlds Best Chocolate Cake and drank cappuccino (kjersti 3 cup's in an hour).

17. mai

I guess I also have to post some pic's from the terrific 17 of May (the Norwegian national day):
A lunch including strawberries dipped in chocolate can never fail:

It was Thomas, which is the guy in the right, that had both made (I mean dipped) the berries and made the party/lunch.
Finally the sun came.
Max even came from Germany on a very little bike.

These Pic's I took late on the 17th of may both rather tired from to much walking in high heels and one to much glass of wine. Still, considering the fact that that I have done no "fixing" on afterwards, I find them quite cool. Kudos to the shop next to Kaia's house which has this great window display.

Today my dad and I went hiking in the forest just outside Oslo to a cabin called Ullevaalseter. 13 km later you could find two very proud members of the family Lilleby at Songsvann Station.

Norway at last.

Finally I'm back in Norway. Now I'm a bit too tired to write, but I'm putting these pictures from my new Polaroid camera that I scanned

Happy (porn)Martin.
Mathias
Save the coffee
This camera makes David weird.
Yes. Very weird.

Well, finally spring/summer is here and the day (apres my exam) has been spent eating mozzarella salad and installing hammock chair on the balcony.

David watering his precious basil.
Salad
New hammock chair.

Btw: I also have a new camera and that's probably the reason for this sudden urge to take pics.

Julie's birthday.

Hawaii/Birthday girl


Piu cake.
Maren and Silje.
Silje Lence-Lice.