A rushed notice for the two people that I suppose still stick with this poor, dusty thing - I'm out of Asia, out of censorship and online again! So, thank you to everyone who didn't disown me, especially those who barely knew me to begin with anyway - posting will commence again as of today! Yaayyy!

Arrgh. Urrgh. Still seething over here. How dare they.

Avast! A picture! ( Putting it under cut since it features naked women )
Back to studying for me. I have over 500 characters to memorize before Wednesday oh joy.

Just as I was getting into posting on a regular basis, the PRC ups and shuts down access to livejournal, just as abruptly as last time. It's a damn shame, I'd just found a few interesting communities and DIY people. Actually, it's terrible - this browser takes ages to load and again I've found myself cut off from everything that's happening. Auuurrrgghhh!

Not much to say, is there. Celebrating Christmas alone and on a different continent has been an interesting experience. By that I mean dull - there's nothing here to indicate that today really is the last day of 2008, the Chinese celebrate their new year on January 26th. I suppose we make our own luck, but it's difficult when you're supposed to turn up to school during Christmas and New year's, exhausted from envying all the people that are actually able to celebrate.

My hair's a right mess and my ego suffers accordingly. Arnór sent me the wrong haircolour and you can't dye over henna with other colours than red henna. So I have three things to choose from; shave it off right now, grow it out over a period of 2 years or wait 2 weeks and hope that Arnór won't make the same mistake again. This is the lousiest Christmas ever.

Still, I'm in China, and that in itself is awesome.

Yahoooo!

Through sheer force of will the poetry book cover is 85% finished. I have yet to add the ads and the neon signs, but as soon as I get this out of the way I can focus my energy on something more constructive. Like the upcoming Chinese exams.

( So you can imagine my relief.. )

Finally I seem to have reached a comfortable limbo in redecorating this page. I've thrown out most of the old icons and created the new ones from scratch and in the end I went with a cranberry colour palette because it feels like I've done every colour there is at some point. Coming soon: pictures of the poetry cover illustration (which incidentally is taking me <i>lifetimes</i> to finish.)

Hello,

I was going to share illustrations from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, but figured it would be less of a hustle to show them via Victorianweb. So, I bring you a few of Kipling's finest with his own commentary:
( Read on, my best beloved... )

Please bear with me while I change my journal style. I have no idea what I'm doing here.

Anyway, it's that time of year again and I guess I'll be drawing and sending out this year's Christmas cards before Monday. And I need to finish the poetry book cover this weekend. As soon as I've done my homework of course. Plus there're the shoes that I need to take to the repairman and that art biennial I have to see before it closes.

A sad side-effect of being so busy are all the unfinished sketches I keep scattering over the chairs and the tables, so I thought I'd share a few to give them a slight sense of purpose before I either throw them away or store them away till the end of time.( No musicians or Sandman characters behind this cut, I promise... )

Well, I wasn't thrown into jail after all - I had no time to post again before popping off to Shanghai, and now suddenly access to livejournal has been enabled. I've heard that a few pages get blocked every now and then so I don't know how long this change of heart will last. But one can hope

China is, obviously, very very different. The people are much nicer than in Europe, and the weather is so much better and the architecture is of course astounding. I have the internet to make up for the music I lost along with my ipod, and I'd say it didn't take long for me to settle in but I do miss Europe every now and then. The cafes, especially. The art galleries (my job!), dressing in style, making clothes on my sewing machine. The music. Going to concerts (but let's face it, no one back home listened to Cinema Strange or Neubauten either) . It's those little things. I'm not complaining, though - if I'd had an sense in my little head I'd have learned an European language that didn't take decades to master. The scariest part about being here is not knowing what you're supposed to do with a degree in Eastern-Asian studies when your heart is in fashion and design.

The credit crunch is affecting us all a bit too much. Back in September it wasn't too bad but early October it all collapsed in one day. Some of my classmates can't afford to stay the second term, and the cost of living has trippled for us. Shanghai is only a three hours drive away but going there for the weekend is now a huge deal, and only open for those who believe they can afford it. We go to Starbucks once a week (I spent the better half of October going cold caffeine turkey). The list goes on.

And it's because of this whole credit crunch that I'm starting to second-guess my bulletproof plan about going to Gothenburg and finishing my degree there, to be able to straight into goldsmithing or fashion afterwards. You can't learn it back home, but if I go there I'll end up stranded and poor. But it's too soon to worry.

So that's a little update. Thanks to everyone who kept me on their friends lists - I've missed livejournal, so I daresay I'll be updating often. But I always say that. In the meantime, here's a young Nick Cave taken on my camera.

I am superpsyched about the coilhouse magazine! I ordered a copy as soon as they released it, and I hope it'll get here before I leave for good September 5th, but I suppose I can ask mom and dad to forward it and hope that it won't get confiscated-

Phew -

Today is my first day off since I came back from Berlin a week ago. Yesterday was Reykjavik culture night - the opening of an exhibition that we'd worked on for days was a success. Hopefully I won't have to work as much overtime but I suspect I'll go back to the church to continue the repairs there. With the obligatory 2 hours-a-day overtime. Grumble.

Anywhos, Berlin was and is indescribably fabulous. It was my third time there, we spent 14 days in the city (albeit in the worst hostel in the History of German and Prussia) and never ran out of new things to try or see - the city is gorgeous and the people (in spite of their general lack of language skills) are all very friendly and helpful. If Sweden fails to lure me for my third academic year, Berlin is definitely where I'm headed.

Anyway, a few of the 900 photos that we took are behind the cut - I'll keep the text to a minimum: