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In the morning, we broke into smaller groups to study specific instruments. One half of the group worked on gender wayang, which is played with a mallet in each hand and traditionally accompanies shadow plays. The other half worked on gamelan selonding, an older and very sacred form of gamelan with iron-keyed instruments and no…

This morning, we finished learning the notes to our first piece, Genggongan. The explosive final passage features a sudden speed-up that was particularly tricky to get down (Dewa Berata described it as “a little kebyar”). Now, we will continue practicing to get the “feel” of the music, as Dewa put it, not just the notes.…

After our day of music instruction, different members of our group went to explore the area of Ubud. One group of students went to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, just a short walk from the Guest House and one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of Bali. This forested site truly is a…

Today, I had a beautiful Balinese breakfast on the terrace which consisted of Balinese cakes, coffee, and fruit. Afterwards, I headed to our class. We had gamelan rehearsal from 9-3. In the morning session, we continued the piece that we were learning and during our breaks I had wonderful Balinese pastries and fruit. In the…

Hey guys! I’m Ming. I’m so exhausted as I am writing this blog; but look back to today’s experience it’s very exciting and intriguing. Tim, Grace, Angelina, and I had a wonderful breakfast in the HK airport. The meal provided by the airline was good too. They had water spinach with the meal, and I…

Hello friends! Thanks for hopping onto the blog! My name is Grace ‘26, and I will be beginning our blog for our Embedded Study Abroad Program in Bali, Indonesia! My last two days consisted of so much traveling, but we made it! I started in Boston and made my way down to Swarthmore, and then…