Ghost blog

Yeah, so, it had to happen sooner or later, and now it has - my blog is filled up with pictures and Google wants me to pay 10 USD per month to post new posts, which I'm obviously is not going to do. However, I started a new blog, so feel free to follow me there instead.

http://kongliandtheworld.blogspot.com

See ya!

Taroko, but not so much Hualien

A couple of weeks ago, a message popped up on Facebook saying "Wanna join for Hualien?" Staying in Taipei isn't really my favorite activity, so I said yes without hesitating. However, this wasn't a nice little trip with a few people, no, this was was a trip with FIFTEEN people. 15! Well, for the few of you that know me, know I'm a solo traveler and I don't particularly like people. So much for that. However, I can say it was a great trip, but never EVER again with so many people.

A cheer life

So, who'd thought that I'd, I repeat I, start doing cheerleading. Don't blame me; blame NTU and Synnøve. Yup, it's all their fault. Why? Because on our orientation day the cheer team had a performance, and I said to Synnøve that I'd like to join, because it looked so stupid. She replied rather sarcastic "haha, good luck". Well, people shouldn't dare me like that, because then I start doing things like cheerleading.

I'm not a quiter so I went to the cheerleading orientation, and decided that this is what I want to spend my evenings doing for the next year. Sounds fun, huh? 

Cheerleading is not piece of cake, even though it might look like it sometimes, so on the very next Saturday we got up early and took the bus to NCCU to have a whole day of cheerleading camp. 

  
Let me introduce Jemina, often called Jenny, from Finland. She's also doing cheerleading. She's a flyer, where as I'm a base (I think it might have something to do with that she's like a feather and I'm a big Viking), so she gets lifted, I lift. Looks fun, right? This one is called elevator, and when we started doing this it took quite long time, some screaming was involved and we were quite unsure of ourselves.

A new beginning

Three weeks has passed here in Taipei, and I've started school, celebrated my birthday, had a couple of beers and settled in my little prison cell. Here are some pictures of random things I've seen in Taipei. Enjoy. More updates will appear later!

 My view the next ten months - the boys dorm (I saw two people have sex in the window the other day).

Zhujiajiao

I hadn't really done any research about Shanghai, but Greg had, so I he decided (well, it was so easy and convenient to let him do all the decision making in China) we were to go the Zhujiajiao one day. And so we did.

Zhujiajiao is an old channel town with narrow streets. Once upon a time it must have been a beautiful town, and it still is, but has been very turistified, and there is souvenirs everywhere. However, in contrast to other places, they don't yell after you.

Hai

I have finally gotten internet that works, so here is some more pics from Shanghai.

I have to admit, at first I hated Shanghai, but after two weeks and one more Chinese guy that had fallen in love with me I didn't want to leave the city.

Shang

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but I blame it all the ultra slow internet the hostel provides. There's not really much to say, so enjoy the pics, more will come later when I find internet that works.

Jingan Temple - a perfect example of Shanghai's love for mixing old and new.

The beer city

After my friends went to Qingdao and told me tales of great beer and sandy beaches, I have been dreaming of going there, so I jumped on a plane in Xi'an and left for the City of Beer. 

The journey to Qingdao was everything than easy; the flight was delayed, the airport bus was delayed, the bus stopped at the wrong stop, I asked for directions and was shown the wrong way and in the end I ended up taking the taxi, which brought me to the completely wrong place. The only positive thing was a lovely sun set on the bus and that I made it inside the hostel before the typhoon rain set in.

Xi'an

I might have showed you the terra cottas, but here's the rest of the pictures from Xi'an.

Every hostel should have a pet, and this is Doudou the turtle - of course named after Doudou the hostel dog in Beijing. First he didn't like me, but after a few days we were best friends!

Terra cotta-otta-ye-ye

New day, new opportunities, new city - or something like that. Anyway, the day before yesterday I arrived slightly hungover and very tired here in Xi'an, but I'm not easy to stop, so yesterday morning I got up really early and went on a guided tour of the terra cotta army right outside Xi'an.

First stop on the tour was the tomb of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang. If you can see that mountain thing in the background I can now tell you that is the tomb. It's man made and this is the closest we got. 

Tiantan

My days here in Beijing are coming to an end, and I figured it's time to do the last sightseeing in stead of sitting the hostel all day. I've been to the Temple of Heaven before, but I met to guys and they really wanted to go there, so I went with them.

A big activity in Tiantan is playing cards and majiang, and everybody line up to look at the game and also to criticize the way they're playing. Quite interesting.

798 Art District

It has been another rainy, smoggy and to say the least moist day in Beijing. This is the city where I spend all day sitting the hostel, stalking people on Facebook and eat food, because I consider the city as conquered. Yes, I feel like I been to every place all the tourists should go to and some more, but when I woke up this morning I suddenly remembered there is one major place I haven't been to so far; 798 Art District. 

A very rainy day

Rain. Raaaain. Raaaaaaiiiiiin. Seriously, I have never seen so much rain in my entire life. It has been raining all day, and I suspect it's closer to 20 cm. There's not much to do in Beijing when it's raining, so I spent the day testing my rain gear when I walked between the bar and the bathroom.

Amelia, one of the staff in the bar, loved my rain gear so much she had to try the whole outfit. I'm pleased to say it works really good!

Looking for a place to stay

So, it's been a whole week since I left Norway, heading for China. My God, it feels good to be back! Everything is so cheap, people are so polite and the food tastes so good. It has also been a bit strange to be back, a lot of things have changed; Huaqingjiayuan is closed up, you need a key to get in (or just sneak in behind someone like I do) and all the staff at Helen's is transferred (I actually find this the worst).

A returning redhead

So, here we go again. In about six hours I leave Norway, head for Denmark before I end up in my favorite city - Beijing! The bag is far from being packed, but I can't do anything but walk around like a zombie doing nothing. Why? I got butterflies!

It's time to pack, I'll update again sometime after I arrive in Beijing. 再见！

London Calling

So, Lisa, Vanja and I stayed a couple of days in London together and here are some of the pictures I took.

 Lisa and Vanja at Oxford Street

 St. Paul's Cathedral

Family trip

While I'm here in Norway, packing my stuff, waiting for visas, health certificates, HIV-tests and so on, my wonderful family went to Ullared in Sweden, and here's the picture I got from them.

Don't they look lovely?

Au revoir

Acceptance letter received, tickets are booked, and I am too ready to leave Norway. Yes, I'm leaving, this time I'm leaving for a whole year. Think of that, I'm moving. So, now your big question is 'where are you moving?'. Well I'm pleased to tell you all I'm moving to Taipei to study at National Taiwan University (NTU). 

I can't tell how excited I am to move back to Asia. It's not China-China, but it's almost China and only two hours away, which means I can go there almost every week! I have to admit, I'm not going straight to Taiwan, first I'm going to Beijing to visit my friends (all the Norwegians have of course left for Norway when I go to China, but hey, shit happens). 

There is so many things left to do; rent out the apartment, book the last tickets, book places to stay in China, fill out papers and forms to the university, apply for visas. The list goes on, and I have one essay, one exam, about a thousand emails to reply, a trip to Rhodos before I leave. 

And you're not going to believe this shit, but it's not 2012 in Taiwan, it's the year 101. Stupid. 

Where are all the yellow people?

I've been in Norway for six days already, and I can't really say I like it. Everything is the same, nothing has changed except for everybody talks about Utøya instead of the weather. I haven't watched TV for half a year, but when I came home, the first thing I did was to turn on the TV. I eat the same unhealthy food (not that the food in China was much healthier) and sit in the same corner of the sofa. Nothing has changed. The metro passes my window every five minutes. Like always. People are white, they're coldhearted, they don't smile. Here in Oslo I blend in, I'm one in 600 000, I'm nothing special; in China I can be myself, there I'm one in 22 millions. I miss the staring Chinese people at every corner, I miss the funny staff at Helen's and Nick at Lush, I miss being carefree and don't have to worry about money.

I'm bringing sexy back.

I'm back in University of Oslo. I'm trying to write my essay and practice for my exam, but procrastinating is so much more funnier. I'm going to upload some of my best pictures from China in a later blog post, but now practicing for my exam is a tiny bit more important.

A trip to Tianjin

After living in Wudaokou, Beijing, for almost half a year without even concidering go anywhere else, Ting and I yesterday decided to go to Tianjin. Tianjin is known for being the harbour of Beijing, but as we realized when we arrived, Tianjin is 60 kms from the ocean. Neither of us had heard anything of the city before, so the both of us thought "why not, lets go". The train, which travels with the speed of 300 km/h, took only half an hour.

We found a BIG clock in Tianjin and we had to, of course, take a picture of it!