UKM was fantastic! For those of you who are not Norwegian, UKM (Ungdommens Kulturmønstring) is a national art/music/dance/culture festival for teens. Creative people from all over the country, ranging in age from 13 to 20, gather in Trondheim to show off their skills and make new friends.

And boy, did I make friends.

I traveled all alone to the other side of the country, and I knew NO ONE. Six hundred and fifty teens, yes, 650 kids were there - And I did not know a single one of them. Not for long, though.

I met first by randomly sitting down next to her at breakfast, and bonded with her straight away. Half-thai-half-italian girl who entered UKM with a manga picture... Seriously, ultimate instant connection. She invited me to come with her and a friends of hers - A guy with purple hair.

Later, I met the guy with the purple hair, , and assaulted him by babbling about how we were going out later and yadda yadda yadda. He had no idea what I was talking about, but we made really great friends.

Arjo and came later, and together with , (whom we smuggled into Trondheim Spektrum, where we were sleeping) and we formed Circus Retardo - A freakshow.

UKM is all about freaky-emo-nerdy outsider-kids, and we were the biggest group of freaky-emo-nerdy kids there. The outsiders amongst the outsiders. Haha...

Anyway. I have so many memories from those five days! From how told me to cover up my girly-parts (he got distracted and had troubles talking to my face) to how did not eat anything but 7/11 cookies and how I spent a night sitting up with (he would poke me if I fell asleep)listening to Arjo snoring.. and how the two of us went for a walk at 5 in the morning... Seriously, I will miss these people. Great artists, great people.

The workshops I attended have really inspired me to work more with traditional media, and has inspired me to work more with manga...