Mask demonstration and new male/female coreo

More technique today, also the musicians are learning the new music pieces for both dances. I’m still sick but I wasn’t about to miss another class, so i mustered energy and I think the sweating really helped. The new pieces are really fluid when you get them, but are so technically challenging even missing one day has set me back alot. There are alot of eye movements and my arms are exhausted from the long holds.

I realized that I never really talk about what I do in my evenings. Class is from 9-4, breakfast and day starts around 7a, and after class is usually catching up online, running around to exchange money, and grabbing an early bite to eat so we can go to bed early. Some nights I go swimming at the hotel under the incredible stars. There are bats here too, but its cool. It’s nice to swim at night since no one else is around and i can float to star watch. Some nights it pours and we’re stuck without internet and confined to whatever porch we are on. The thing I hate most are the flies and mosquitoes. I swear I wish i had the mosquito racket here- it would be over for those suckers. The worst part is when my roommate leaves the window open at night because she feels the air is stuffy. I agree but damn the mosquitoes!! i can’t even count the bites i have. And I’m also on anti-histamine thanks to arm swelling from several bites.

Next week is the last week (so soon) and I will be mask-making next week, although with the class I’ve missed I may just switch back to afternoon dance intensive. This is the first year they’re offering an electives option. Other choices were music and dance intensives and also offering making- really important around now because on the 21st of July begins the big village cremation ceremony that only happens i think twice every 3 years. And 100,000s of offerings are being prepared for families and neighbors with bodies that need to be creamated or who’ve recently held their own cremations in the past 3 years and are honouring their dead at the ceremony. Offering making is a huge part of the culture here, there are so many complexities in Balinese traditions and it would probably take years to understand them all.