when it takes 25 minutes to load a internet page, it makes it not *quite* as exciting to write a blog post!
i keep feeling at a loss for what to write about on these blogs....maybe because our days are mostly pretty mellow, and when we are traveling around more it seems easier to grasp the juicy things to share about on the blog. but living here is so nurturing and easy, and we were talking yesterday about how it's the perfect completion for our trip. yesterday i just stayed home *all day*....it's easy to order food from some local restaurants, they drive it over to our place either for free or for 50 cents. there is an organic restaurant called sari organick on the rice path, and they grow all sorts of heirloom varieties of rice (red rice, brown sticky rice...) we ordered that for lunch, and for dinner jesse brought back some great local indonesian food from lala and lily's, a restaurant we've only gone to with him and margot (vegetable curry with hard boiled egg, vegetable lawar which is coconut with greens and green beans....tasty stuff) and two big durians to satisfy carson's newly awakened love of durian (i love them too....actually as i write this i am smelling a durian that a woman is eating through the courtyard of this internet place, yum! you can imagine the scent wafting over me like in those old cartoons.) the bali durians are sweeter than the thailand ones, and more consistent. i wish i could take one home for everyone, but they are forbidden on airplanes because of the "horrific stench" (to quote the lonely planet definition of a durian) (though i think they smell lovely). :)
we may be going to an island with margot and jesse in a couple of days...nusa lombongan, which is down off the south coast of bali. it would be good for us, as we've just been in ubud the whole time here exept for our volcano excursion one day. it seems like a lot of people that we meet get 'stuck' in ubud, even when they come here year after year. it's such an easy place to be, the community, the food, the cost of living, etc. there are so many beautiful things here....jesse and margot are in the process of buying some amazing pieces of recycled teak furniture to ship home and use for their new home. there are countless artisans here, everywhere. almost too much, as we drove a couple days ago up to tagala-long and on either side of the road was shop after shop after shop of hand carved wooden figures, or chairs, or buddhas or bowls or ceramics or paintings, or clothing. i wish i could help support some of the local people here by purchasing some of their incredible art. even on our walk in the rice paddy, we came across several little artist studios with the artists sitting there painting intricate pictures of the ramayana, or of various deities, or of the rice fields. sometimes i find it hard to drive and walk by shop after shop of people selling these things, sitting outside the doors, waiting for a traveler to come in and help to support them. it's hard for us to, as we're at the end of our trip and also we can't really carry anything else in our bags (did i mention how excited we are to unpack our bags for good?! to wear other clothes beyond the same rotation of items we've had for the past 6+ months?!!!)
since it is both full moon and equinox, there have been so many ceremonies constantly happening. the other night we drove into town and had to stop for about 10 minutes as literally hundreds of balinese people were walking down the street in a procession. the women carry these impressive offerings on their heads, stacked with several bunches of bananas, apples, oranges, snakefruit, flowers, all woven within pieces of banana leaf and other plant matter, frangipani, incense smoking out of the top....three groups of men playing instruments in unison, gongs and bells and flutes...all people dressed in their ceremonial clothing, even the cute little girls and boys holding hands with their moms down the street...some people wearing large headdresses of different animal spirits. at night we hear singing wafting over the rice fields from the nearby village temples as they have ceremony. last night some friends of made's came over and made our house several new offerings full of fruit, crackers, flowers, incense, etc and put them all over the compound (the cats found one of them and were munching on a cracker as i came down for dinner :) i love the sense of spirit everywhere, and the reverence for their traditions and rituals. the touches of beauty everywhere are stunning, and i love how their culture is so alive amongst their daily lives, every day.
tonight is a full moon 'goddess' gathering that my friend chloe is helping to put on...i am going to go to it with faith. it will be nice to spend time with some women! carson and joke that we are 'carmel', as we've spent soooo much time together we often think or say the same thing at the same time, and barely need to ask each other what we think about something as we already know, or have many moments with each other of 'i knew you were going to say that!' it's great.
the weather here is varied but also predictable. it usually rains once a day, sometime in the afternoon. we sit up in the third floor yoga space and watch the clouds roll in, deep dark gray with an indigo hue. the thunder here is the loudest i've heard, and long too. at night there is often lightening, but it is different than a lightening bolt, just a flash of brightness in the clouds far above. the clouds are big and puffy and dramatic, with a deep blue sky behind. at night the frogs by the kitchen call out to each other, we joke that they sound like machine guns, they go back and forth in conversation for hours. we just got a new puppy at the house, bonnie or boney, his name keeps changing, and he's a new friend to our other dog, kaman. we tend to spend a lot of time with margot and jesse and made and komong at the house.....two nights ago we had a big dinner there for doug, who left back to the US of A. it is just so special to have this community here (it feels like we've been here for a long time, though i guess it's already been three weeks!) and to have this time to decompress and relax and enjoy before we come back home (which we are still quite excited for too!) if anyone reading this has any ideas for work opportunities for us when we get home, send them our way! we'll need to get on it soon! :)
i feel i'm out of ideas for what to write about...if anyone has any suggestions or questions, please forward them our way! happy spring to everyone!
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