Last Days of the Semester: Galungan and Bedulu

It's a bit surreal to realize that as I'm writing this, my semester abroad is officially over. Last night, we had our final party with the host families, ISP advisers, and some of the students from Udayana University who came to Munduk Pakel with us back in March. Then this morning we signed off and said our goodbyes. Most of us are either sticking around in Bali for a few days or traveling throughout Southeast Asia, so I might run into some of the other students in the next week (and I did about an hour ago) but still, the semester is done. Odd.

For the last few days we've been back in Bedulu, finishing things up for the semester. Tuesday and Wednesday of this week were Galungan, which some Balinese people have described to me as their version of Christmas, but I'm not sure I see the connection. (I think it's mostly because they hang decorations that kind of look like Christmas trees, in a very vague sense.) Everyone's description of the "purpose" of Galungan varies, but from what I understand, it's mostly a time to honor ancestors and make lots of offerings. (Balinese Hinduism is, to massively oversimplify, sort of a combination of Indian Hinduism, traditional ancestor worship, and a little bit of animism.) For the first day, people stay home and make offerings in their own family temple -- each family compound has their own temple/shrine -- and on the second day, people visit their friends and extended family.

The alleyway by my house. If you blow the picture up, you should be able to see the things that are "like Christmas trees" -- they're the palm leaf arches over the road.

Oh, of course I'd forget this sort of thing: on Galungan and the holiday ten days after it, Kuningan, lots of pigs get sacrificed to make babi guling (roast suckling pig) and lawar (a dish made of vegetables, coconut, and pig blood).

 This is not a roasting pig. It is, in fact, a dog eating offerings (which isn't considered bad -- once the offerings are out they're fair game for animals to eat). As soon as I tried to take a picture of her eating them, she started barking at me angrily. See why I say the dogs here are mean?

(I should also point out that right now there are a bunch of kids playing gamelan outside the cafe I'm sitting in, and two of the kids are dressed in a very elaborate boar costume and dancing. I wish I had my camera!)

Now to jump forward in time: I have a day to kill in Ubud, and then tomorrow my family comes to Bali! For a little over a week I'll get to play tour guide, and then after that we head to Thailand (assuming the political situation is stable enough, touch wood). So I'll have more adventures to post about there, and then I'm home May 31st. Excitement!

Nusa Lembongan Roundup

On Thursday, we all presented our Independent Study Projects, which marked the last bit of work for the semester. (I got to read one of my stories to everyone, which was fun.) After that, we had a quick trip to Immigration to get our visas renewed for the last time, which also involved getting fingerprinted. Kind of creepy, but we were assured that it's standard procedure for anyone staying in Indonesia over a couple of months (there's a precise time limit, but I forget what it is).

Once that was all accomplished, it was off to Nusa Lembongan, one of the three small islands off the coast of Bali (still part of the Bali province), for our last excursion. Unlike the other excursions we've taken, where we had classes and lectures to attend, this one was pure vacation, a final hurrah for the group. (The semester ends on the 14th, and has gone by amazingly quickly.) We stayed right on the beach, at a small hotel with fantastic curry.

 The view from the hotel.

Since most of the coast is used for seaweed farming, each day we took another, smaller boat about ten minutes away to a beach better for swimming. Two of the guys and I found a beach even better for swimming that required crawling through a hole in the rock, timing it carefully so we didn't get squished by incoming waves. (Of course, Ary and Yudi then proceeded to find a path over the cliff. Not as fun, though.)

On Saturday morning, we went snorkeling. I found a huge fish with a big protrusion coming out of his forehead that the boat driver said was called a "jacket fish," although I'm not sure why. (Upon a Google search, I think that's wrong. I'm pretty sure it was a "unicorn fish," which is even cooler.)

The next day, we rented bikes and went all around the island. It's not a very big island, and the trip took us maybe three hours, a significant proportion of which was spent hanging out and swimming around in a mangrove...grove (forest? copse?). After the mangroves, we continued on, heading up a huge, endless hill and then down its equally steep side with our questionable rental bike breaks.

 Mangroves!

Aside from the snorkeling and biking, we spent a lot of time swimming and playing scrabble and cards. Then, this morning we returned to Bali, where we're back with our homestay families. Tomorrow and Wednesday are Galungan, a holiday to celebrate each family's ancestors. Almost everyone roasts a pig to celebrate -- not sure what I'll end up eating!