I'm Here

Finally here in Bali after the long air journey. Its just as beautiful as I remembered, but this time the crazy SE Asian driving doesn't freak me out. Danu, a member of Cudamani, picked me up at the airport and drove me to the lovely Artini 3 hotel. Since it was 6:30 by the time I got showered and went out to get food I haven't done anything, I'm pretty beat. Will save the errands I need to do for tomorrow morning after I have a nice sleep on my lovely bed. Tomorrow the program officially starts and I'll have a roomie and we'll have our welcome dinner. For now, I'll entice you with some pictures of my hotel.

Balinese Gamelan

This is what Balinese gamelan instruments look like, a little different to Javanese. They have different names too- I better learn them before I go!

Back to Bali Ba-by!

Next Thursday I leave for Bali! I'm staying for a month, woohoo! 3 weeks of that time will be spent in a gamelan course through Cudamani. A prof at UO took it last year and loved it. You can check out Cudamani at www.cudamani.org where you can also see some pictures of what gamelan is, in case you are not one of the now many classmates and friends who have been forced to look at pictures or go to a performance of my group in Eugene, Gamelan Sari Pandhawa. Another woman my age from Sari Pandhawa is coming to take the course as well. I have been in the gamelan since October. We play Javanese style which is different from Balinese, so hopefully I don't get my butt kicked. Mark Levy (the prof) said it was really difficult, so I'm a bit scared. I'm also going to try to take some extra lessons in wayang kulit (shadow puppetry). Plus if it works out I'm going to try to meet or at least speak with some women in Indonesian social/activist groups. I've sent out feeler emails, so fingers are crossed. Its going to be a fieldwork extravaganza! Woohoo for grad school. I do have an extra 5 days after the course ends, and if not doing more fieldwork or taking more lessons plan on hitting up a beach and doing some diving.

I'll be staying in Ubud, the Cudamani complex is in a village just outside of it. In case you don't know where Indonesia is, here's a map-


And one of Bali-


My terminal project for my M.A. is going to be a wayang kulit performance- in May of 2009, in Eugene. Everyone in the area can expect an email, or several, about it closer to the date. I've applied for a Lane County Arts Council grant and I've got some funding from UO cultural forum, so the project should get funded without me having to pay for it with student loans, yippee!

I'm so excited that I have the opportunity to travel outside the US again. The last time I was in Ubud I knew I would find a way to get back there, and next week I will be. Check back for pictures and posts about the course and everything else in Ubud.

Matilda got hitched!

My friend Matilda got married to Ian over memorial day weekend. The ceremony was lovely, in a park setting outside of Seattle. She's my first good friend from high school to get married- my first good friend period to get married. I've heard that at this age its a snowball affect, once you go to 1 wedding you're going to 1 a month. Though no one else is engaged or even close as far as I know, so we'll see how long it is until friend wedding number 2.