Where to even start? I just got back from a 10-day round Bali excursion- 5 days were spent in a small village near Tabanan, and 5 days were spent in north Bali, near Singaraja. Now, so much is happening because lots of holidays are coming up here!

I had a great birthday- thanks for everyone who sent cards! It was a relaxed day- we only had class in the morning, then I went to Ubud to work more on my batik, do yoga, and go out to eat with my friends. The next morning, we left with 9 Balinese students (English majors) that we had already met on our Denpasar trip to go to a small Balinese village. We took a long, winding, nauseating car ride most of the way there, but then got out and walked for about an hour and half to actually get to the village. It was an interesting walk, especially since we riled up all of the territorial dogs on our way and had to cross a river that I nearly fell in. There are beautiful rice fields surrounding the village because it is a really agricultural area. The village that we went to is actually the home of the academic director for my program, so she welcomed us to her house and gave us young coconut to drink. We were then randomly assigned host families for the next 5 days and all went to our new homes. My ibu (host mom) was really sweet, and really beautiful in a sort of proud, hard-working way. I wasn’t expecting much, but the room that I stayed in was pretty luxurious compared to what I had been thinking; it was small but the bed was fairly big. The downside was the fact that I could hear rats running around on the roof, and a large creepy gecko whose calls would echo loudly in the roof at all times of the night. I also didn’t have the luxury of a sitting toilet like I have in Bedulu- but I got pretty used to using the squatter and now it’s not such a big deal. I think that all of the water in the village comes directly from the river, hence its brownish color. The highlight of the evening was walking in the rice fields with friends and catching fireflies. When there are no lights around, the moon looks so impressively bright.

I am now realizing how hard it is going to be to talk about my stay in the village because there is so much to tell. Maybe I should just tell some of the highlights?? We’ll see how it goes…

One morning, all the students took a walk in the foresty area near the rice fields and collected food and herbs for lunch, and some things for offerings. We got a bunch of crazy stuff like ferns, water spinach, cacao plant, lemongrass, and breadfruit. During our little excursion, we came across what I will call the “man hut” (the hangout place for the guys of the village), and also saw someone rubbing the skin of a large dead, pig, and starting to roast it with a flame. It was then that we found out we would be having “babi guling”- roast pig for dinner. I did eat some and it was okay, but my complaint about all Balinese meat dishes is that they are so dry. Oh well, at least I tried it.

Funny story: Balinese people like to feed you a lot and often. I should have realized this the first morning in the village when my ibu brought me what I thought was breakfast- sweet potato fritters, and I ate 4 of them to be polite. Apparently, that was supposed to be my snack before breakfast, because after I was done I was called into the kitchen to eat breakfast- presented to me as a giant mound of rice and 3 plates of food. The moral of the story: I was fed a LOT at the village. Seriously, if I had to stay there for the whole semester I could easily come back 50 pounds heavier. One morning I asked my ibu if I could help her cook to see the magic that goes on in the kitchen. Turns out she doesn’t even have an electric stove. She sits on the floor and chops all of the ingredients on a cutting board (that’s actually a tree stump), lights a piece of wood on fire and puts it under the cement block that is the stove. Then she puts a pot on top of the hole in the block and directs the head towards it to cook everything. It was pretty badass, but not so sanitary which could explain some of the digestive issues I had in the village. But then again, there’s a lot of things that could explain that. Maybe the babi guling?

The last full day we were there, we all worked in the rice fields. It was so hot- I made sure to put on plenty of sunscreen. Also, people that work in the rice fields usually rub coconut oil on their skin so the mud won’t stick to them, but I didn’t put any on because I figured I would probably just roast in the sun. Anyway, they are before the planting stage right now, so we had to clear any grass or plants on the surface of the rice field. This involves getting barefoot and stepping into the rice field- which is basically a 2 ft deep pool of mud at this point- and using a hoe to clear everything out and push it underneath the surface. We used hoes that we borrowed from our families and worked hard to finish the rice field. Then, it was time for races across the field that turned into everyone tackling each other. To make a long story short, we were all so covered in mud by the end of that that we had to bathe and wash our clothes in the river.

A lot of the fun of being in the village was the night entertainment. It’s part of the reason why the villagers love hosting the students- because there’s always so much entertainment at night at the Balé (open-air local meeting place)

- One night we went to listen to the Gamelan, or the traditional Balinese music group. I don’t know much about music, but from what I have read it is very unique. There are only 5 notes in the scale, so a lot of the variation comes from different rhythms and layering the different instruments. The students got to try some different instruments too, but it is so difficult and we sounded terrible. I have decided that the only thing I am capable of playing is the gong.

-Another night, we went to the Joged dance, which is a social flirtation dance. The gamelan provides the music as a dancer comes out and performs traditional Balinese dance. After a few minutes, she will go up to someone that is watching and ask them to dance with her by bowing to them. Even though it is technically a flirtation dance, because we were all guests she invited up everyone (one by one). First she picked a Balinese boy, and then a Balinese girl, but then she picked me! I was so embarrassed- first of all because I was probably a foot taller than the dancer, and second of all because I can’t really dance anyway, let alone in the traditional Balinese style. After trying to copy her movements for a while, I realized that I didn’t know how to get out of it, and she wasn’t giving me any cues to go sit down. Eventually I just bowed down to her and told her thanks and escaped to my chair. Phew. (I think it was the paleness that made me stand out- one of the Balinese students asked me, “In America, is there anyone whiter than you?”)

- The last night we were there, they set up a Balinese shadow puppet show by calling in a dalang (puppeteer) and his crew to perform for us. I had really been looking forward to seeing this, but the fact that he showed up 2 hours late (so I was already tired), and the whole dialogue is in both ancient Javanese Kawi and Balinese (of which I know absolutely nothing), and they are usually stories from the Ramayana or Mahabrata (kind of hard to follow because I’m not so familiar with it). It was a great experience, and I got a video of a couple of parts of it, I just hope I can see another one when I’m not so exhausted and can try to figure out what’s going on. The voices are probably the best part- entertaining even if you don’t know what’s going on.

I was sad to leave the village homestay; it was so exciting and more of what I expected this whole trip to be like. But we did tour a little bit of the north coast after that, staying in Lovina and meeting more Balinese students from Singaraja. The best parts about that were:

- Going to a muslim community (northern Bali has much more religious diversity) and seeing tons of adorable kids that were so eager to talk to us and play with us, but really afraid of us at the same time.

- Going out on a boat at 6 AM to see wild dolphins off the coast of Lovina

- Buying DVDs and watching them in the hotel restaurant (the only place with a TV)- at least now I’ve seen Gran Torino and Slumdog Millionaire!

- The last day of our excursion, I hiked Mount Batur, an active volcano right next to a crater lake, and with a great view of the holiest mountain in Bali (Mt. Agung). We started our hike at 4 AM so that we would be able to watch the sunrise from the top. So we hiked up the entire mountain with our two Balinese guides using flashlights. Once at the top, we cooked our breakfast (eggs and bananas) using the steam of the volcano. Sweet! It was surprisingly kind of cold at the top of the volcano. For the first time besides when I had a fever, I felt cold in Bali! Watching that sunrise was so amazing though, especially since we had our backs to Mt.Agung and the crater lake the entire time we were climbing, so to turn around at the top and see this impressive mountain and lake with the sun rising behind it was literally one of the most breathtaking landscapes I have ever seen.

March 18^th was Galungan, the most important religious holiday of the Balinese calendar year (210 days). It is supposed to represent the victory of dharma over adharma in the context of the Majapahit (Hindu) kindom defeating an evil, anti-religious Balinese king a long time ago. Making large sacrifices on this holiday is very important, so the day before this, many pigs were slaughtered as animal sacrifices. But once they have symbolically offered these sacrifices to the gods, it is always okay to make use of them after. So I have been eating a lot of pig for the past couple days, although I did turn down the blood sausage because I have tried it once in Bali and that was enough. On the day of Galungan, my family got up and put on the traditional Balinese dress. They put a ton of offerings at the family/ancestor shrines in our family compound, including a lot of handmade offerings from bamboo leaves and flowers, holy water, a roast chicken, fruits, cakes, and incense. I asked my family if I could join them to the village temple, so I put on my traditional clothing and went with my 3 sisters to the temple. They asked me if I would pray with them, so I did. To do this, you have to put all of the offerings on a table in front of the shrine, kneel down in front of it and put a stick of burning incense in the ground. You then rub your hands in the smoke of the incense and put them to your forehead. Then you take a flower, rub it in the incense smoke and hold it while you pray, then put it behind your ear (this you do three times). Next you get blessed with a sprinkling of holy water and must drink the holy water 3 times by cupping your hands and sipping from them (No, thankfully I didn't get sick from drinking the holy water). Before leaving the temple, you press grains of rice to your forehead and collarbone and take the large offerings (like cakes or fruits) back from the shrine so you can eat them later! We went to two different temples to do this, then came back home. The rest of the day, lots of family visited and I was given lots of delicious fruits (snakeskin fruit, oranges, and bananas), and the closest thing to American cake I have had here. It was such an interesting experience to be here for the holiday. There are several more coming up in the next couple weeks. I will be sure to talk about NYEPI soon- it’s a holiday to scare away the demons, and people are already shooting off cannons randomly to prepare for it.

I am getting nervous for my Independent Study project, which starts the second week of april. I have to choose a topic, figure out where in Bali I need to go to study it, find a place to live, and then actually do it. Luckily I have academic directors to help me figure some of this stuff out. If you have any suggestions for an anthropology-related study topic I am always open to suggestions.