Sydney, darling Sydney

Australia is AWESOME!
At two months in I was starting to feel a bit of Bali-fatigue, so a trip back to the first world was just what I needed. And, wonder of wonders, my old high-school friend Shantakumar, who is living in Sydney at the moment, was willing to put me up and show me around for a few days.  T

he first night I was there, I got to see him play tabla and guitar in a concert of devotional music at his Ashram in western Sydney, which was awesome. Just a little while after i arrived, he had to go to soundcheck and a last-minuit rehearsal, so he dropped me off a few blocks away at the west-sydney Koala Sanctuary. So within an hour of setting foot in Australia, I was hanging out with kangaroos.
they were all super relaxed because on a saturday afternoon, there was no one around, and on the remarkably cold first day of spring, each one had claimed a patch of sunlight, and didn't really want to move. So I literally got within petting distance, and all they did was kind of sniff at me, in a bored kind of way.

 then over the weekend he took me around the city, and we went surfing at Manly beach!  Despite his best efforts to teach me to "feel the waves" i spent most of the time sideways, underwater, or snorting water out of my nose while trying to crawl back up on my board. I had a ton of fun, but ....lets say my performance wasless than elegant.  Can't tell from the photos tho!

I then Spent a day just wandering around Sydney on my own, while Shan was in class. It was a breath of fresh air. It's hard to explain, but it felt really familiar. Like some perfect combination of Boston and LA. Boston's downtown and student population, plus LA's beaches and weather. I wandered, enjoyed not sticking out like a sore thumb, and bought myself a pair of pants that actually fit. BY Indonesia standards, I am an XXL.  Shopping for pants that only come in skinny-jean style size -2 is highly amusing, but not very effective, and in August, bali is surprisingly chilly. So I ended the trip with some key Items: jeans that fit, a few dozen koala keychains for people a the office, and a decent haircut. SCORE! 

Oh, but how could i forget: THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE!!! WOOOO!! I went there, and learned about how it was designed, engineered and built. Unfortunately i didn't have time to see a performance, but i did get to learn about the custom-designed tiles that cover the thing! This is an awesome building. And one of the many examples of why working as a structural engineer at ARUP is now officially my dream Job. 

One more night on the town with Shan, which included this lovely pic taken by an obliging photographier along the park walk at sunset, and then, all too soon, i headed back to Bali, refreshed, revived, and ready for another round.

Shan, you rock. Thanks for the awesome time! Australia, it was nice meeting you, I hope we can get to know each other better. 

North to the Forest

I've had two opportunities now to wander northward into the central part of Bali.

In late August, Szuyin and I took advantage of yet another festival day and went in a road trip on the occasion of the Galungan Festval. Galungan is kind of like new years (though not really).  It is the occasion of the Birthday of the World! This year it was August 29, and is an island-wide holiday.  So Szuyin and I decided to visit Pura Luhur Batukau, one of the most important temples in Bali, at the base of Agung mountain. We started out early in the morning, with Szuyin driving the motorbike, while I perched on the back with the infinitely-useful Bali Atlas and Road Guide. (This thing is 200 pages, and a miracle. Best book ever). As we drove along, every house was decked out with these giant bamboo poles outside the front door. Each house decorates their pole differently, with pink leaves, tinsel, christmas lights, paper machet, you name it. I'll think of this as the Bali Christmas Tree. It's cool.

First we stopped at  another large temple on our way up, which Szuyin had heard about. I’m honestly forgetting its name right now, but it was great. Taman Ayun! And it was Awesome.  It was the family temple of the kings of the local city, at one time, and is surrounded by a very impressive moat.  We had brought with us out formal garb from Odelan, Sarong, Kebaya and sash, and at the front gate, we put them on. A nice old lady passing by was so delighted with out attempt that she hung around and helped us out! Sarong tying is deceptively tricky. But once we had it all figured out, we proceeded into the temple. As we went in we got a lot of smiles and nods form all the Balinese ladies leaving the temple after delivering offerings. One lady, after passing the gaggle of booty-short wearing tourists ahead of us, saw us all dressed up, and gave us a big wink and a thumbs up!  Despite our success, we were not let into the temple itself, but were able to wander through the gardens, and look in over the chest-high wall. As we were ding so, marveling at all the (many) temples, a group of ladies came over and … to our utter surprise, asked if they could take a photo with us. This is a bunch of headscarf wearing, middle aged ladies on a sight-seeing tour with their mosque group, and all of a sudden they are clumping around us, gesturing to “scoot in closer” and “everybody smile!”  We were so amazed; we forgot to get out own photo documentation.  They were super sweet about it, and I was totally confused.  (This was the first of many many such requests that I have to field whenever I’m slightly off the western tourist path.)

Anyways, then we headed farther north. We wanted to avoid the big city traffic and see more of rural Bali, so, map in hand, we left the main roads behind. Hijinks ensued. Secondary roads on the map are all uniform thin red lines. In real life those thin red lines can either be a small-town’s main street, a gravel track through a rice field, or 5 km of potholes occasionally interrupted by patches of pavement.  At one point I was sure that all my teeth were about to rattle right out of my head. But eventually it payed off, as we found ourselves in the middle of unending rice terraces. of course this is when my camera battery ran out, so Szuyin has all the pictures. I'll post some later. The point is, it looked amazing, like bright green velvet covered stairs running the whole height of the mountain.

Eventually we got to the Pura, still (miraculously) with all our teeth. Hundreds of people were wandering through, delivering offerings, and participating in one part or another of what was to be ten solid days of ceremonies.  There were two complete gamelan orchestras, predominantly made of wiry little old men, so that one group could rest and smoke, while the other group played... and smoked.  Seriously funny to see a white-mustached wizened old man play gamalon with one had and take a drag from his cigarett with the other. He absolutely could play this music in his sleep.  No one was in any particular rush. Everyone was just hanging out, chatting about the most fashionable way to tie a sash, and texting away on their blackberries.  These two matching ladies were adorable.

We stuck around, took photos, ate more satay (I love satay. Have I mentioned that?) and eventually headed back. We took an even more rural rout back, hoping for fewer potholes, and got lost, winding up at yet another temple. This one mostly deserted, and covered in dragons. Eventually we figured out which thin red line we were supposed to be on, with the help of many ladies hanging out at many warungs along the way. In one town we even saw a troop of little boys acting out the Barong dance! Look at that awesome costume! Plus another dozen little kids with gongs and gamelan-pieces.

We made it back to Sibang at about 10 pm, exhausted, but super proud of ourselves. Szuying is a champion bike-rider, and I got significantly better with the practice. 

A couple days later, I headed off to Australia, for my first visa renewal, and to visit Shan!  So the next post will involve kangaroos. 

Temple Radio

About two weeks ago, my mother asked me "have you heard any gamelan music yet? You really should try to hear some authentic gamelan." I had to laugh, because, unbeknownst to her, I had heard plenty of gamelan, so much I was nearly sick of it. At the beginning of September, the temple got either rebuilt or renovated or something, and therefore needed to be re-consecrated. This means two weeks of constant ceremonies. Two solid weeks of 24/7 gamelan and chanting being blasted on the PA system across the entire neighbor hood. It never ended. People at the office  were offering favors and food to anyone with noise-canceling headphones. The thing about Balinese gamelan is that it is super angular, jumping from low, quiet calm tones to high-energy clanging in the blink of an eye. And it's awesome. It's just that it also comes with an equally jumpy, and super nasally high-pitched chanting in Balinese, that sounds like tin over the loudspeaker. This can sometimes be so surprising you nearly choke on your coffee, ro suddenly draw a jagged line on the page, like in a comedy movie. It's amazing for the first three days, but after two weeks, ...dear lord. 

I finally wandered over one night to check it out. Apparently a party this big only happens every 15 years or so. I got all dressed up again, like in the Odelan pics below, and just walked over after work. I got a couple of surprised looks at first, but since i was dressed correctly, and was camera-free, i was soon forgotten. I proceeded to squeeze into a packed courtyard were a few hundred people form the area were gathered around a central stage, and watch the dancing. There was some long story going on, which was obviously familiar to everyone there, and involved a princess with flowers woven all throughout her knee-length hair, two guys dressed up in full war-lord regalia, By ten at night, all the women were holding up sleeping kids sprawled int their mothers laps, and all the men were smoking like chimneys, and the princess had just been kidnapped, and there was no end in sight, so i finally went home, but it was a great time. When the women danced, they were were concentrating completely, the offerings on their plates were real fruit and rice, and they swayed back and forth like rice plants in a soft breeze. When the warlords launched into a comedy routine,  the entire house laughed, and I didn't need to know Balinese to know when the punch line would come, and who was  making the dirty jokes, who was looking more the fool. At one point the guy next to me turned to me in surprise, asking " you can understand?" and when i told him my guess, i wasn't too far off.  I credit UWC will giving me really good guessing skills. Thanks U-Dub. I have no idea what ended up happening to the princess, but I'm sure it worked out. A few nights later the festivities finally ended. I kind of missed Temple Radio constantly clanging away. ... up until yesterday, then the temple two blocks to the south started up their own, smaller bi-yearly party. 

Oh, Bali. I cant imagine doing all these festivals. Seriously, if you are Balinese, it's a special occasion when there ISN'T a festival to prep for. One of my friends explained Bali's political calm, and general tolerance this way: " No one has time to argue about politics or get all riled up and protest. They are too busy with ceremonies!"  This is very true. Apparently there was an election of some sort and people were protesting/rioting in Jakarta? No one blinked an eye or even mentioned it here. Jakarta can have all the drama they want, we've got fruit-pyramids to balance and flower offerings to distribute.  It's an awesome thing. I might sound flippant, but I swear, it's super effective. Everyone is just so chill here.  And the added benefit is that it leaves plenty of time for the non-hindus to go do other things!

Next up: going North into the mountain forests.

Life at the Office

Lets start at the office, I guess, since that's where I spend the most time. Work has been quite and education. I've finally kind of got my bearings, and have recently been working on designing a little hotel. The modeling/designing process here is very hands-on, and very very different from any methodology I ever learned in school Sometimes it drives me crazy, as we do things in (to me, at least) completely counter-intuitive ways. Some days it seems like everything is based only on intuition and the conflicting personal tastes of way too many people. But some how it works, so I've been trying to put aside my pre-conceptions and roll with it. My co-workers tend to have many opportunities to make fun of my "stress face." On the other hand, Szuyin and I have finally completed our first full model! It's basically a giant glob of glue, but I love it.  Version two will be much cleaner, but the first try was definitely a great learning process. I'm used to a pretty clearly defined methodology, with a fairly clear progression, from concept to execution, and from paper to model, with a division between works-like and looks-like models. Here we had to think about room arrangements, aesthetics, structure, cost, window placement plumbing, water, overhangs, everything all at once, while simultaneously trying not to burn my fingers with the glue gun. It was chaotic, and involved a lot of un-gluing and changing things around, but has taught be a great deal about how crazy complicated a "simple" building can get. Thankfully I had Szuyin (another intern and my partner on this project), to commiserate and collaborate with, and the infinitely patient architect Patricia and model-maker Pak Putra to help guide us through.
Things I've learned.

1. Bathrooms are surprisingly difficult.
2. "Measure twice" is still never enough.
3. Do NOT leave the glue gun next to the handle of the coffee mug. Very Bad. 

4. Do not even try to compare your joinery to that of Pak Putra. He is a Bamboo Master. Any comparison with your giant mass of glue will only end in tears. That’s ok. It still looks like a house. … kinda.

And, thanks to Patricia, I finally figured out what all the talk about "Concept" was in architecture class! Turns out, it actually has a practical use once you get to the nitty-gritty part of design. Unfortunately, we never got past the pretty-poster stage in my classes, so I never got to figure out why we kept talking about flowers as metaphors. Now I am a huge fan or "creating a strong guiding concept." This is a big step for me. Thank you Pat. 

I guess that brings me to the people at my office. In a word: amazing.  The company, may have it's flaws ( it is a business, after all.) but the people employed here, firstly, represent an amazing range of backgrounds and a ton of talent, and secondly, are just really really nice. Most of the people who work at the office are Indonesian, but not necessarily Balinese, so I've met a wide range of people, who have ended up at PTBP in all sorts fo ways. More on them, later, but I want to paint a little picture if life in Bali for you, so i'll move on. 

Bali Is full of westerners, but the vast majority of them are tourists. I can wander to Kuta Beach, or come here to Ubud, and be surrounded by familiar accents, signage in English, and all sorts of brands I recognize immediately (including, incidentally, Croc's Shoes EVERYWHERE). And I enjoy doing that on weekends. But the rest of my time is very removed form this side of bali. It's kind of weird being a full-time working student in a place that is famous for being a yoga and surfing vacation paradise.  Most of that stuff happens between 8 am and 5 pm, while I'm sitting at a desk. Most days I leave the office late, grab dinner with my co-workers, and go home to crash. I started out living in Ubud, but once I realized I wouldn't really be around to enjoy the Bule (foreigner attractions, but would still be paying Bule prices, I moved to a little boarding house (kost) closer to the big city of Denpasar. I can come up to tourist-central on weekends, but the rest fo the time, it's much calmer in my little neighborhood along Jl. A. Yani, with much less traffic, way fewer bugs, and much cheaper food options. Love it. 

On weekdays, the entertainment is going out to eat. In Indonesia, there isnt much difference between the three daily meals. You could have the same dish for breakfast or dinner, and in about the same size.   At lunch I go out to one of the little Warungs in town, mime/sign to the lady working at front what i would like to eat, pull up a stool, and hang out. I can get plate of Nasi Goreng (fried rice) or Cap Cai ( veggie stir fry) , and some ice tea later, for about 12000IDR or $1.25.  I've learned I can probably eat $1 goat satay for every meal for the rest of my life and not get tired of it. 

Then I head back to the office. Some people nap in the post-lunch heat, and I pretend to work while watching the latest temple procession march by. There is a temple, ro Pura right across the street, a kind of high-level one serving quite a few of the neighboring towns, and it seems like at least one a week there's a ceremony, or a cremation procession, or something going buy, each with it's own many-piece gamelan band equipped with a giant gong or three.  

Next up: more on those processions and ceremonies. 

Super Mega Posting Marathon. Go:

Hello Everyone! 
I'm still alive! I just thought I'd let you know, since my blog-upkeep might suggest otherwise. I have camped out in a cafe in Ubud for the evening, and am finally going to really write an update of how it's been here.  The last time I updated here, I was still basically brand new. And now, I've just hit the half-way mark! I arrived three months ago yesterday, and thinking about how much I've learned is kind of mind-boggling. So lets see, where to begin. I’m going to split this mega-post into chapters, so you don’t have to read it all at once. Sorry. Enjoy!