Today we started learning our 3rd piece. I'm playing the sanse part, which means I play on the offbeat, its really challenging! I ca do it once I get going but can never hear when I'm supposed to come in. Plus its super fast, but its fun.

The Odalan Bali performance was really good, go see it if it ever tours in your city. The concept was to show an international audience the culture of Bali, not just what you see in tourist performances. It was very contemporary in that sense, they showed giving offerings, the spiritual side of Bali that is part of everyday life. One piece is based on Balinese cockfighting, its a lot of fun, at one point they're doing a kecak like thing but its placing bets, hard to describe accurately but its great. We all enjoyed seeing them in full costume, especially the girl dancers, they were unrecognizable. For a lot of the performers it was their first time in a big show, a lot of young members have just moved up into the professional group.

I would have posted this yesterday, but I was a bit "sleepy" from drinking arak,the local moonshine, with some other students and Cudamani members. Lets just say that stuff is potent! I wasn't too bad cause I had a big dinner before and had good old lemon water afterwards (I was so exited to see one of my fave Japanese drinks in the Circle K), but some of my cohorts did not do as well. It was prime bonding time, we were speaking in Indonesian, Balinese, English, and Japanese all at the same time with a few people acting as translator. One of the guys is married to a Japanese woman so we started speaking in Nihon-go, it was fun to practice, and I'm awesome after a few "beverages." I learned a few Indonesian and Balinese words the ones repeated most throughout the evening were drunk, Mabok in Indo and Punya in Balinese, remember that if you ever come here and drink with the locals. A good time was had by all.

Tonight heading to the girls gamelan rehearsal, haven't seen them play yet so I'm looking forward to it. One of the guys has a nephew who is a puppeteer, so I'm going to try to get a lesson at some point, though free time is limited. Sunday was a much needed day of rest. It was raining pretty hard most of the day so I didn't feel guilty at all about doing nothing, it was nice.