Yes, I was Attacked by Monkeys

Saturday morning a group of us left Sanur and chartered a transport to Padang Padang, which has a great white sand beach on the coast. When we got there, it was high tide, so the beach was small and there were a lot of people, so we decided to hike around a bit. We stopped at a cliff overlooking the beach and put our bags down for a moment to enjoy the view, when suddenly someone yelled "No!" I looked over to see a monkey hovering over the Dunkin Donuts our Academic Director bought us and a bag of mine that had four bottles of perfume in it that I'd bought as gifts in Sanur. Needless to say, the monkey picked up my bag and threw it over the cliff before I could snatch it away. It got caught in a tree, and I could see him playing with the perfume bottles, but there was no way we were able to get it back. A few minutes later, he and a few of his friends came after me, because I was carrying the donuts, so I dropped the box and ran while they climbed up a nearby tree with the snack. It was hilarious, but I left empty handed..no donuts, no perfume. :) Because the beach was crowded, we started walking to a town 10 km away but soon hitchhiked with a guy in the back of his old pickup truck. Uluwatu has an amazing temple on the cliff, but we decided to find a place to stay to put our bags down before we explored it. After walking forever, we found a place and went to check out the nearby beach. We climbed down a cliff to find a little surfing village with a pile of warungs (food stalls) and a path down the rockface. Because it was low tide, there were all kind of caves and we were able to watch the sunset from a pretty white sand beach that is normally underwater. Later we hung out with some friends that we met and even went to an Aussie's birthday party! It was fun. The next morning we watched the surfers (who are absolutely crazy, because the waves are HUGE!) and headed home early, because my friend Erica had a bad fever and migraine. Once there, we worked on homework and spent time with our families.

Monday was spent having class, listening to speakers, finishing my second batik piece (which I just found out a couple from Japan wants to buy!) and preparing for the midterm on Wednesday. On Tuesday, we had Bahasa Indonesia, then I went home to change into traditional clothing to attend a wedding proposal with my family. In Bali, the entire family of the bridegroom goes to the house of the bride to symbolically and literally take her from her family and bring her to her future husband's. It was really interesting! There were about 100 people, all dressed in traditional clothing, and me, the only one who spoke English. It was a great cultural experience. On Wednesday, we took the exam, which went well, and headed into Ubud. I meant to work on a paper due Friday, but instead went to a pool that my friend's parents are staying at. It was nice to relax. Today we had Bahasa Indonesia, lunch, I worked on my Archaeological paper (I'm writing on Goa Gaja, a nearby "Elephant Cave" and the influence of the Javanese and Buddhism that are present there. I'm also making a new claim that the entrance to the cave is actually a figure of the goddess Durga, which is symbolic of the Queen Bajfdjska(long name) from Java who married Prince Udayana of Bali shortly before the building of Goa Gaja. As legend has it, the Queen only married the prince if he would take her as his only wife (polygamy is common among kings, even today). But, he went against her wishes and took on a new wife. She was so furious that she started practicing black magic and was transformed into a witch, Ragma, which incidentally Durga has been represented as in the past. We were really only supposed to write about the site and conduct an interview to back up our secondary source, but I was just too interested when I started making the connections. There are more, but I will spare you lol. It is my friend's birthday tonight, so we are taking her out to dinner.

Tomorrow I am attending a toothfiling ceremony with my family, a wedding, and am then heading out to my Academic Director's village called Munduk Pakel with nine students from Bali. There, we will work in the rice field, practice gamelan music, learn a flirtation dance called Joged Bumbung, will conduct interviews in preparation for our ISP, and will live with host families. From there, we will travel around Bali for another six days, so I will have much to tell in my next entry! Hope all is well!