Welcome to Ubud

After the Galungan ceremony blessing

    My staycation came to a very quick end, and after saying bye to Nick, jumping in the van prearranged to get me from the hostel in Sanur, and driving an hour to Ubud, I pulled up in front of a café called Kopi Desa and was told the house across the street was where I'd be staying. The arrival and greeting portion of my new placement was all a bit disorganized, but once I had it all sorted out, I dropped my bags in my new room and slowly met some of the other people already living there. My house is a traditional Balinese-style family compound, with rooms/houses for everyone in my host family, a kitchen, a family temple, and a ceremonial area only visited for deaths, births and tooth fillings. It is quite beautiful, with palm trees, banana trees, bougainvillea and stone paths filling the surrounding areas within the stone walls. Our house is made up of 4 rooms, each with 4 beds, all of which are now full except for 2.

    My first week was full, exciting, fun, informative, overwhelming and exhausting all at the same time. My placement began with an orientation week that is used to introduce you to the culture and your surroundings. Days were packed with a lot of walking, visits to temples, lessons, you name it. To be honest, I feel like I've done and seen just about everything there is! We covered the following -

Penjors

    The Sacred Monkey Forest (again), rice paddy fields, markets, city/village tours, Batik Painting, language lessons, Tirta Empul Temple, cooking class, making flower offerings, Campuhan Ridge, Galungan ceremony and I'm sure some things I'm missing. This past week and next week are holidays here in Bali - Galungan and Kuningan. They mark and are a celebration of ancestors coming back to visit the earth and then leaving again. We were welcomed into a ceremomy at our village's temple on Wednesday to welcome the ancestors back to earth, and were blessed. It was definitely an interesting experience! The streets here are all decorated and lined with penjors, which are tall, bent, bamboo trunks that every family decorates and then stands up outside their house.

Batik Painting

   
    My favorite activities from last week's orientation were the Batik Painting and visiting the Tirta Empul Temple. The group of us got to go to a paint shop down the road from us, learn how to do Batik painting and then make our own piece to take. It involved drawing/tracing out a design of our choice on the white sheet, waxing the outline, painting the inside with watercolours of our choice,  letting it dry, removing the wax, and voila! Pretty happy with my final product.

    Our visit to Tirta (holy water) Empul Temple was incredible. We arrived in our full temple wear - shoulders covered, proper sarongs, belts - and had the chance to join the locals in the holy water, makes wishes and receive blessings. After 2 hours spent there, I had waded in the (very cold) holy water, made 14 wishes, splashed myself (14x3) 42 times, and dunked under 14 seperate waterfalls. It was neat being able to watch all of the locals who were there as well, from newborns to great grandparents, most people being there with their entire family. They all seemed very happy to see/have us there,  though that has been a common trend with most people I have encountered here so far, especially in the smaller villages - extremely welcoming amd friendly.

  

   The week has been capped off with a girls weekend to Seminyak to relax on the beach, enjoy some A/C, sit by the pool and sip on a drink or two from an IV bag. Confused? Look-up Frankensteins in Seminyak...you'll understand!

    XOXO Nicky