Hey again,

so it has been quite a while since my last entry - that is basically cause I've recently experienced pretty many not so Bali-like major set backs, but that's a part of every trip right, so move on from negative stuff,,,I'm still exactly where I want to be and there are so many activities and so much fun in this place, that can compensate for any unwanted experiences. Well the concept of Balinese karma just kinda stopped working for me recetly:) But anyway - back to the to the positive.... Everything is hapening so fast in here, that optimal time for a day in Bali should be at least 48hrs!

School is still here right, so we've had other swell workshops and excursions, firstly to the government law office and then there was this musical workshop, where we actually got to play the traditional Bali instruments called gamelan (xylophone like instruments with wooden bars), but we ended up having pretty much the same results as in the dancing workshop, which i mentioned last time. So nope, no major talent was discovered :D but heaps of fun - again. Well and last week was ultrabusy since we had mid term tests happening = basically every day - some of it was in form of classic test - we even had two in Bahasa Indonesia, in other subjects it was either to work on a paper or an essay on a given subject. So I guess we are all really looking forward for the results :)

Anyway after test week came a holiday week, can't decide yet which one I loved more:) and with it the major purification festival in Bali - the Nyepi day aka Silence day - its a Hindu new year and the concept behind it is really worth writing about. Basically the whole island switch off for 24 hours - no airplanes land or take off, no vehicles, no electricity - and you have to stay off the streets. As boring as it might sound for westerners, its actually a perfect time to be in Bali and I kinda got into this concept of being forced into doing nothing:) how often it can happen to u back in Europe, I guess the answer is never! So we worked on our sleeping deficit, read books, watched movies and the day was gone before we even had time to notice. Actually the only downpart was that we somehow didn't get enough food for the whole day->so "starvation-silence day" for me as well :), and yep, that was actually the traditional part of Nyepi for us, since for locals its a time of meditation and fasting. Anyway the whole point of this day is to get rid off the demons to trick them into thinking that Bali was deserted. There are also two super-awesome ceremonies that accompanies the silent day - the eve before there is this huge Ogoh-Ogoh ceremony - massive street parade with a gigantic colorful paper-mache sculptures all blocking the main streets of the capital city Denpasar. The morning after there is a kissing-war - there is only one community in the Sesetan district which still practises this unique tradition. It s basically about boys and girls being carried on shoulders of others being forced to kiss each other on cheeks while the spectators throw water on them. I saw both of the ceremonies with our great local tutors and must say that especially the Ogoh-Ogoh was definitely the most impressive ceremony I've ever witnessed! The kissing war experience was also rather "special" since the time for Balinese is like a chewing gum and we've been waiting for this event to start for more than two hours on a direct sunlight - so for us it was more a sweating war:) but still every experience counts right. So that much for it, during the holiday break we took a scooter trip around the island - already third one for me, but - I can never get enough of Bali! It was excellent getaway and full of everything u might expect from a trip like this-so about that soon!

C u