SO MANY SONGS TO SING: Only 21 years late

I am sitting and doing something that really feels a bit strange: I am scanning pictures that are 21 years old. From Russia - from when I was an exchange student through AFS in Krasnodar in 1991-1992.

At that time, taking pictures was a little bit different :) I brought a huge load of film rolls from Norway, but as I remember, there was only one place in the whole of Krasnodar - a town of 700000 inhabitants - where you occasionally could develop pictures. And it must have been only that place where I could have bought film rolls - but probably at an obscene price.

There are times when I cannot stand digital cameras. Let's for example say in weddings, where everyone is watching the ceremony - through digital screens. Sure, they'll have the pictures afterwards, but they weren't completely there. But then again, there are times when nothing is like a digital camera with a huge SD card and a charged battery. I cannot help thinking about all the pictures I would have had from all the places we went during that year if we had had digital cameras...

I only managed to develop all the pictures when I came back to Norway, and then life went on, and although I studied Russian and Eastern European politics at university, Krasnodar became very far away, and the picture albums were stuffed away in some shelf in some room.. And time went..

Then something happened that was a little bit magical to me! Early in 2013 I found my host sister on Facebook! After almost 13-14 years.. Internet provided a link.. Then, this summer, for some months I ended up in the same region in Norway as one of my Norwegian "co-students" in Krasnodar, so of course we met. And then it was the most natural thing to do was to try to collect the whole Norwegian gang - and we did meet, almost all of us. Sharing pictures, sharing stories and memories - after 22 years. It was quite a magical moment! Maybe only some few days after I understood that that moment had been far, far to short, because now the mind had started working again, and I remembered so many things that we had not talked about.

It took 22 years, and it is very strange to see those pictures again, but also very, very fantastic. To see my host family, to see some few pictures from the town, to see pictures of the people I travelled together with, to see pictures of places we travelled to...

I usually say: If I had known a little bit more about Russia before we chose which country to go to, there is no way that I would have chosen Russia. It was a cultural shock that the first weeks seemed completely unsurmountable. Then slowly, as time went by and we "settled" in the situation, we started to notice the thousands of thigns to appreciate. If I had known a little bit more about Russia before we chose which country to go to, there is no way that I would have chosen Russia, but the I never would have known what I would have missed. And looking at it now - I would not have missed it for the world.

Maybe there will be more blog posts about it.. This post is just about this: The strange feeling of finding pictures, memories and small treasures from years that are both long gone and very close...