Erica and I walked into our room and were shocked! Despite the 3rd floor walk up that left some people huffing with their heavy roller boards, yay for my duffle!, the room itself is quite nice. Twin beds, two desks, two nightstands, two armoirs, two desk chairs, an outside bathroom with a working toilet, shower and western style sink! Plus a view of the ocean AND a drying rack. We are positively spoiled.
We did some quick unpacking before walking in the MISERABLE heat to the university. I think i heard it was 30C? I never quite learned celsius despite trying before this trip, but I think that’s in the 90s. All of us were pretty disgusting when we arrived, but the AC in our room quickly dried us off and cooled us down. Quick introductions through two truths and a lie followed. Mine were 1) my favorite color is yellow 2) I love skiing and 3) I love ice cream. Which one is a lie?
Then we had our usual lunch and began discussing issues in both of our communities. Breakout groups to further discuss some of the issues followed. I participated in water insecurity and climate change/pollution and it was really interesting to learn more about the Balinese perspective on littering as from the American perspective it seems to be a huge problem, although in Singaraja it seems to be less of an issue.
We got out of class early, went to the local IndoMart for some snacks (Thai iced tea, saltines (+ my first peanut butter container! 2 to go for the next two months) and a chocolate cashew bar for later) and headed back to the dorm where I had the best shower ever. For our past two living situations the showers have been less than ideal, mainly relying on a ladle and huge bucket of cold water. Additionally we sent our laundry out, which is beyond exciting since I only have one clean skirt and two t-shirts left.
Next was a quick trip to the Internet cafe and back to school for our welcome dinner and breaking up into our actual groups for the next 3 weeks. My group is the Seven Semuts! AKA the 7 Ants. Maybe I'll tell you the story of this name later. Everyone seems great so far although it will be interesting to see what issue we eventually end up tackling as our interests are quite diverse. I obviously want to do something related to the environment, and had been initially hoping to address the amounts if inorganic waste throughout Bali, but thus far no one has seemed similarly inclined. One of our Balinese members suggested prostitution and from there Alessia suggested Gender Inequality but he quickly shot down that idea by saying that there was absolutely no gender inequality in Bali. I think all three of our NU members were pretty surprised by that comment, especially as the other two Balinese members had chosen the Gender Discrimination group for our initial brainstorm.
Anyway, tomorrow will be interesting and long, but I’m excited to see where this goes.
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