Helloooooo, Bali!

Alas...

...though I've just joined this blogging community, I must be going pretty soon. Only for three weeks, though!

In a few short days I will be on the plane to Bali, Indonesia, the beautiful little island sandwiched between Java and Lombok. Actually, I'll be on the plane to JFK airport for an overnight in New York, followed by the plane to Seoul, South Korea, followed by the plane to Denpasar. I've never been to any of these places before, so it will surely be an adventure!

SO. With a country and province new to me come customs, foods, arts and lifestyles that are new to me. Most of what I will be studying there is Gamelan music, playing in a gong kebyar ensemble. Gamelan is actually the term for 'ensemble,' and there are many different types. For instance - Beleganjur is the marching style Gamelan, performing not only for cremation ceremonies, but also in large contests held throughout the island. When our group gets there, the Bali Arts Festival will just be ending, so hopefully we will get to see all the action for at least a little while upon arrival!

Dancing is one of the coolest art forms in Bali. The dancers, male and female, pop their eyes wide, move delicately, wiggling fingers fluidly and moving so well in ornate costume to the Gamelan ensemble’s music - it's so beautiful. We're chilling with an Australian man named Doug who has leased a compound, a bit of which is pictured above. Fun fact - non-Indonesian peoples cannot actually own land in Indonesia, they must lease it or rent it, and you have to leave the country every 6 months for at least 24 hours.

Anyhoo, I'm uber excited to see painters and instrument-makers in action, to perform with dancers, to learn a bit of drumming, and to figure out the strange bathroom set-up. We have a sort of nozzle thing, but there's no real shower, per se, and there's just a floor with a drain, no real separate space or anything. Again, adventures!

I'm also excited for the food. Just about everything we'll have will be cooked save for fruit. The bananas we're going to have are ADORABLE. They're less than half the size of a regular banana. And snakefruit gets its name from the feel of its skin. Eeee! I'm so, so excited. Other fun facts, a Balinese meal isn't really a meal unless there's rice with it, and eating isn't a super-celebrated act because it is associated with animals. Being animalistic is very taboo in Bali. There's also a lot of right v. left, good v. evil, clean v. unclean, and nearly every religious ritual carried out pertains to maintaining balance between gods/spirits and demons.

I'll post more Balinese fun facts in the days to come, and I might have WiFi there to put up pictures! This is going to be wonderful - no better way to get to know a culture than to jump right in.