Ahh, glorious Communism

Vegard, great pics. I'm sure I'll enjoy the captions more once my Norwegian dictionary arrives. What the hell does "paa" mean? I think if I learn that one I'll understand Norwegian. Does "og" mean "and?" The Chinese cities truly are impressive though, aren't they? Skyscrapers like none other, and I live in the birthplace of the skyscraper. Do people take you for an American often? Have you found yourself a nice Chinese girl to settle down with and have card-carrying, chopstick-toting babies? I, too, was pleased to see Barca's success. Saw a kid in a Barca jersey the other day, and I started humming the song of the Gent del Barca. And you'll have to ask Ulli about the Owen-Kluivert deal. I'm sure he's found a website that tracks the daily activities and phone conversations of all of Chelsea's foes, Premiership or otherwise. Glad to have your input to the blog, Vegard. This blog gets to seem like a bit of a threesome at times, and when I think threesome I don't think Adam and Ulli.

Cheers,
Tim

No comments now, Ulli??

New Look

Just wanted a little change...if you want to change anything just tell me and Ill try my best.

Úlli

Newly affianced...

Well, it was my girlfriend's 21st today, so I figured what better birthday present than a lovely diamond ring and a marriage proposal. Went to a local park (no Parc Guell, but hey), got down on the ol' knee in a secluded part of the park and popped the question. She said yes (makes the story better, in my opinion, although a bit less interesting). So as y'all (haha) are not confused, my girlfriend will be referred to hereon out as "my fiancee." Nah, just kidding about all that, but it is kinda scary thinking of her as my fiancee. Scary in a good way, though. Like we're growing up. That's the scary part I guess...accelerating into the brick wall that is life after Uni. Wanted you guys to be among the first to know, though. Cava sent by express air post would not go unappreciated ;) But alas, time to hit the pit, as our brethren on the country/continent say.

Tim

PS-Enjoyed Vegard's post about the "yellow fellows." I've decided that from this day forth I will live vicariously through Vegard (sorry Adam, you were a close second).

Damien Rice

This post goes to y'all but specially Tim. Ok there is this guy whos been a hit here and came to throw a concert in downtown Reykjavík, I did miss it specially coz I didnt have a clue who he was but I heard great things about him and so I got myself his album. Ok his name is Damien Rice and he's kind of like David Gray but yet different, he has great lyrics and is often just his wonderful Irish (smile Tim) voice and a guitar. He also has this female singer with him and some songs are very much produced (not in a negative way). So y'all should get this album coz you'll love it (ok maybe not Constance but even Seema might:D). I have a feeling though that you've all heard of this fella and specially my beloved Tim.

Greetings from a studyroom,
The Mofo

No surrender to the knifes and forks - by Vegard Vik

Cheerio guys!
Compliments to you for managing to make your blogspot censored in China. I don't know whether it's Ulli's sleazy girl stories or your idiomatic discussions that caused it, but somehow the chinese ministers decided to cut off the entire chinese population from it. What a shame! Thanks Ulli for keeping me updated every now and then. All the free internet porn is available though...

Well, what to say? I'm bounded at a deserted village in the outskirts of a medium sized chinese city (4 mill.). Life is very relaxed. I'm teaching about 14 hours per week, and I just bought a bike that basically is my major joy right now. People are the most friendly I've ever met, and because I'm generally the only foreigner they have got to know as well they seem very excited to have this norwegian curiousity here. I arranged a football tournament last week. The response was overwhelming with more than 20 teams. More than 500 people came to watch the final. My norwegian football shirt was given away to the one voted "Most valuable player" of the tournament. I know it's a really american thing to do, but it was great fun...

To make this short I made a list with things I like and don't like about China:

Likes:
- Prices
- Pirate DVDs. After buying 4 seasons of the Sopranos and 3 seasons of the West Wing I've got home entertainment for the next month or so..
- Chinese, which must be the funniest language I've ever tried to learn.

Dislikes:
- "Guanxi", a chinese word you better learn if you're ever gonna get into business with the yellow fellows. Guanxi means "friends/connections" and is essencial for every thing you do. Hence, what you do is not as important as who you know. People here use to hang photos of their most important "Guanxi's" on the wall in their office so that everybody can see that if you mess with me, you are also messing with him.
- Red Tape and Bureaucracy. If there's something you want to change or do, wait for at least 10 peoples approval. Something that normally takes from 10-30 days. I've been here for almost three months, but the college still haven't managed to give me an employment contract.
- As the subject indicates, why the hell do they stick to the chopsticks after the discoveries of knife and fork. We're living in the 21st century for Christ sake,

William Hong VS. Leoncie

Im at school now and trying to study for Finance II the most boring course Ive ever taken. Anyway Ive been listening to some CD that are on the school network and I just finished listening to the William Hong CD. Ok I think the guy is great but give me a brake. This is fun for the first 2 or 3 songs but then you just get a headache, he really cant finish off more than 1/2 a song so the first part of his songs are always so much better than the second. Anyway here in Iceland we've got Leoncie!!! Shes this Indian who believes shes the best thing since well... EVER. Shes always in some fight with somebody around here calling them racist and something like that. Now shes leaving the country for a huge record deal (Yeah right).

Back to finance.

Drugs

Yesterday I went drinking downtown and actually it was a blast. The bars and clubs opened at midnight so we started at my friends house and then went to the bars which are like 10 minutes from his house. I met alot of people and one girl asked for my phone number.

The strangest thing happened when I was on my way home I saw this girl waiting for a taxi and we started talking and decided to take the cab together because then we can save the start fee. Ok so when we come to my house and I give the driver my card, but its denied so he tries again and in the meanwhile I get the girls phone number coz she had offered to pay it if it wouldn't come through... Finally it did and I went in. Ok so I decided to send her a text message and tell her that if she was paying more than usual and the start fee didn't pay off I´d pay her back.

Well she called me and we talked for a while and she told me that after I left the cab the driver had said to her that I was definitely popping E. Im not gonna lie about that Im not the healthiest of 'em all but I dont take (illegal) drugs.

We then decided that I'd come over and we just talked alot and I'm meeting her later tonight. And to clarify things I didn't have sex with her... yet.

And for Tim ... she has no kids at all:)

Úlli

Thoughts of home...

I was listening to some David Gray tonight and he got me thinking of how much I miss the places I lived in Europe. I listened to David for an entire bus trip from Dingle to Galway, which is lengthy. Gotta love the repeat function. And Ulli and I would occasionally listen to David on the ghetto setup that Ulli had going on in his flat (Discman, crazy cords, need I say more?). My girlfriend insists on you guys being at the wedding. Only problem is if Ulli's coming, I'll have to tell my mom she can't go. Had a rough week at school here, too, and it's going to be rough for the rest of the term. I've got a Field Research Project to complete on a company's inventory control systems, and we haven't even selected a company yet. Due at the end of the month. I envy Adam and his ESADE courses right now.

To clear up Ulli's confusion..."lil' hunk o' tin" simply means little piece of metal, referring to Conor's camera. "Bumping and grinding" is just what we call dancing all up on girls, and "camera-thumping toughs" just means tough guys who feel the need to beat up on innocent cameras. The whole bit about Prince of Tides and discuss is taken from a Saturday Night Live skit from a long time ago. If you search for Prince of Tides and SNL on Kazaa, something might turn up. And by Bob, I was referring to Bob Ross, who has this 1/2 hour programme on television where he teaches people how to paint. He's always talking about "happy little trees" and "happy little clouds." I was reading in the Wall Street Journal that his show is broadcast in 20 countries, and Iceland is one of them. He's soon to expand into Russia and Africa. Weird part is, he's been dead for 9 years. Ulli, let me know if that clears everything up (I would offer to clear it up for anyone else, but no one else even reads this blog). Bed calls.

T

Tim shut the &%$# up

No, just kidding,

Ok what's up in Reykjavík..Well not much I'm still looking for a job and now I have to start pulling strings which I really don't like. I haven't yet heard about the guide job but I'm still as pessimistic as before about that. I might get a job at the countries biggest insurance company or Iceland's BBC but that's not really interesting except for the fact that I'm really nervous.

Last Monday we had first (of two exams) and the next one is on the 20th of this month so we rented a house in the country and got wasted for two days. It was fairly interesting though I did behave unlike last year when I made a big scandal (not to be published anywhere). The second day I was more drunk but still didn't do anything terrible. My friend was another one of those houses like an hour away probable more drunk than I was (it's possible) and decided he wanted to pay me a visit, we'll something like 15-20 people came out and stopped him. Thank god!!!!

Ok I have to ask about few things here since English isn't my first language and there are just quite a few things in Tims post that aren't adding up in my book. What does "lil' hunk o' tin" mean (and pretty much all the sentence before that one too).... Second Bob who?... Prince of Tides ... Yes Barbara Str&%$# is my all time favoractressrice so I wouldn't stop talking about her so I won't begin. ..

I would like to tell you about the pretty much only thing that happens in this city but Svana says that I'm sad if I do so.

Well I can't think of anything useless to say so I guess I have to go back to study for my Finance II exam.

Later,
Úlli

Adam saves the blog

Well, I'm glad we've heard from Adam. After that last blog from Ulli concerning Icelandic vocabulary I thought we'd begun the inevitable downhill slide toward the end of our blog. Ulli, I know more interesting stuff than that happens in Reykjavik. I hear they even broadcast Bob Ross' painting show in Iceland (as well as the UK). He's an icon over here....discuss. Prince of Tides is about neither princes nor tides...discuss.

A, what's happened to the camera? Have a spill while bumping and grinding? Run into some camera-thumping toughs prowling the Raval? Conor's got himself a new camera...the Pentax one that fits in an Altoids tin. Pretty sweet lil' hunk o' tin. Currently I'm enjoying the lingering sunshine due to daylight savings time (just happened this Sat...I believe we're behind you Europeans). The baseball season kicked off today...Vice President Cheney threw out the first pitch for my Cubbies, but we managed to win despite the fact.

Gotta get some grub now...I'll throw more at ya later.

T-dog