4/20 - 18 days past: #10daysinBali

Well, there's a lot to cover so here's the long story short (as short as I can):

2-5 of April I was very focused on a project that I was working on for my Creative Arts class. I got crammed for time because of my upcoming trip to Bali prevented me from working on the project over study break. Essentially I did most the writing, storyboarding, filming, and editing in this time. I finished writing on Monday, filmed the entire drama and dance piece Tuesday, Was in the lab all day until 1am encoding and editing the dance piece wednesday, and was in the lab till 6pm encoding and editing the drama on Thursday. I then quickly packed and caught a ride from my friend Joel up to the Brisbane airport for our flight out to Denpasar, Bali the following morning at 5:15am. Thus started our #10daysinbali! and by we, I mean Me, Max, Keller, and Kayla. They were the group of people who were perfectly okay with me tagging along on their trip that they had already (mostly) planned out.

We went to Bali and had a grand time! Our itinerary included:

• first staying in Uluwatu and seeing the Uluwatu temple (day 1), 
• travelling to Senur where we went to a beach that wasn't all that great and met our man Komain who helped us arrange a lot of future transportation (day 2), 
• cooking our own breakfast at our Airbnb because it had it's own kitchen and took ferry out to Nusa Lembongan where we walked to Dream beach (amazing) and Devil's tear (also amazing) (day 3), 
• Renting some mopeds and riding them to Blue Lagoon and Cennigan Island where we promptly went swimming off non-traditional diving boards (day 4),
• Snorkeled side by side with some Manta rays and got really close to being side-swiped by one as well as went to KelingKing beach and got super tired by the hike down and up to the beach (day 5),
• Took a taxi, and then a boat, and then a taxi, and then another boat and another taxi to get back to the Balie mainland where we all promptly crashed (day 6),
• Went to the Tegenugan waterfall and Monkey forest on a moped riding through the busy streets of Bali and then got a taxi to Sideman (day 7), 
• Saw the rice terraces and taxied to Batuan Resto right next to Mount Batur as well as got into watching some Naruto (day 8), 
• Woke up at 3am to climb Mount Batur and ate some food off of the volcano steam vents as well as hiked through the most recent solidified lava flow (about 1920s) (day 9),
• Taxied back to Denpasar where we promptly did very little of anything except some souvenir shopping (day 10)
• Went to the Woterbom water park and then walked to the airport where we caught our 10pm flight back to Brisbane (day 11)

Okay, so #10daysinbali was really 11 days and 10 nights but whatever. I'm trying to be trendy here and #10daysinbali works better than #11daysand10nightsinbali. Sue me.

Over all, there were a lot of places we went and a lot of things we saw. There were some great sites and some very liberating and relaxing moments. In the past 18 days, I've also completed 5 books which has been an amazing feeling. We had a lot of down moments, especially towards the end of our trip, where I did a lot of reading and it was very nice to just get some time to really dive into some books. 

However, I've been thinking a lot about travelling and the aspects behind tourism.

I read an Op-Ed article once (that I can't seem to find again) that had the title something along the lines of "The world is not your self-realization bucket". In the article, the author makes a case against the way people (and specifically, most commonly, white people) travel, saying that people tend to travel with this idea that travelling the world and seeing new and amazing sites and cultures will enlighten them and change them in a way that makes them more wholesome or something. Now, that's not to say that doesn't happen. Finding more about different groups of people in a respectful way is a great way to gain a better perspective on certain issues. Also, getting out of your comfort zone and going somewhere completely new can be a very validating experience and is the basis of most experiential learning programs (programs such as CCM, one I've benefited quite a lot through). But I think there's something inherently wrong with going somewhere with the intention and near demand for that new place and culture and people to teach you something. The world is not there to help you become a better person. People just live their lives and sometimes you just happen to be around to see it.

During my time in Bali, I felt much better about being there when I could simply be an observer and not a participant. I very much enjoyed riding a moped around the roads and seeing people living their lives, playing games, running their shops, and going from one place on the farm to another. I also enjoyed the times spent in the Uluwatu temple or Monkey forest or climbing Mount Batur.

The former, however, was much more pleasant for me.

Sure, the latter was certainly beautiful. The sites made for some amazing Vinny pics and I had some great experiences there. And I'm certainly not going to say that "in order to be a true traveler you must stay away from tourist places and only go to this X obscure hipster area where you get down to RAW f***ing REALITY in the culture maaaaaaan" because that's not it. In the former, on the moped, I observed. And in the latter, in the temple, I participated.

Either way, it's impossible to deny being a tourist in a country or pretend that you aren't one because you are one. And especially in a place like Bali, it's good to be a tourist. The money you spend in those tourist locations actually helps the country economy quite a good lot (that is, as far as I know, given my limited knowledge in economics or the logistics/ethics of tourism). Often times, too, trying to fit in with the locals and deeply rooting yourself is participating and it isn't always healthy, as that's the form of active participation the often feels entitled to being "awoken" by a place and a people.

I'd much rather be the observer.

Now maybe the mindset of observation is a bit toxic too, but for me, being an observer feels far less intrusive and it allows me to potentially see the perspective without feeling entitled to it. I don't always see it too. I didn't come away from Bali with any dramatic new realizations about life and the state of my humanity. I did observe a good amount of poverty and low level development while around on the Nusa Islands, which is something I've definitely never seen to that extent before, but it wasn't life changing. It was mostly sad and intriguing. The world isn't my self-realization bucket and I shouldn't expect it to inspire change in me, just like I shouldn't expect creative inspiration to knock on my doorstep one day when I'm eating lunch.

Now, I do know I'm actually not much of a travel-bug addict and that most the times I even prefer the comfort of playing a game of D&D with friends over the frantic and beauty of travel around the world. And maybe that puts me in a position to not really judge the way that people who actually do really enjoy travel do so. I don't know.

But that aside, I did enjoy the trip. I returned tired and weary from the trip and have spent this week in a bit of a grog trying to get back in the swing of things. I finished up my video project and submitted it Wednesday afternoon (the day after I returned) and have been planning and playing a lot of D&D since! Things are going well, but there are a lot of assignments around the corner that I've got to start working on. I spent all of today taking a day off and will be going into school work all next week.

Wish me the best of luck! If you're interested, here is the link to the finished project of my CA dance project: https://youtu.be/qQ8DLAqRzc0
Also, if you aren't already friends with me on Goodreads, you are missing out. I'm getting really into reviewing the books I'm reading and you should take a look! Also now that I've been reading a lot more, I've been finding that I have more and more to say about each one after I read them so if you ever want to talk about the books I've read or books I should read, I'm down.

4/2 - "Australia is not flat"

Continuing adventures and many more

It's been a while since I've updated! The good thing is, since I've been keeping a more accurate record of everything I'm doing in my bullet journal, I can easily remind myself what I've been doing. Which is super good because anybody who knows me knows that I have a very crappy memory and without keeping track of things, I easily forget what I did last week.

Which is totally why I need this to be my Year of Documentation. 

Anyway, since my last blog post, I've been doing a good healthy amount of stuff. On the 20th, I started my D&D group by teaching four people how to play and running through a first encounter for them. It was a lot of fun and people really enjoyed it so they started recruiting more people and the group outright exploded. Like I did not expect such a high response but we currently have a good 10 active members in our group and a couple more who are hoping to jump in eventually. On Thursday (22nd), a guy named Jared came over to make a character real quick and when he was done he was like, "let's play" and we did a spontaneous session that night with a couple of other people who were free and happened to be around. It was a blast! Even though everybody's characters almost died. But it was all good. People were so excited to play that they scheduled a session for that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So I played D&D for four days in a row which was a ton of fun but partly exhausting. They've been getting super into the lore of the world, so I've been making a lot of stuff for it. So far, as of writing this (4/2/18) we've had 8 DND sessions and we've only been going for 19 days. Geez.

That's not to say I haven't been doing school work (in case you were concerned mom). I've just been free all day on the weekends and my bullet journal has actually helped me better track when I need to do each of my readings. Currently, I'm caught up on all my readings, which is good because I'm leaving for a trip soon (ROFO: Read On, Find Out).

Anyway, this Monday I set out on a trip with my Outdoor Ed class to Camp Bornhoffen which is north of Lismore in Queensland Australia. We took the back road there which was a lot of ups and downs and there were a couple of points where I wasn't sure the bus was going to make it up the hill because it was so steep. With the driver's foot to the floor, we were barely crawling. But we made it through the hills and further along our journey. Later, we were stopped at a bridge where they were doing construction and one of the construction workers came up to us and was like, "ummm...do you know that your trailer is open?" Yeah. The trailer. The one with all of our bags. Every bit of gear we had. Wide. Open. All of us who were on the trip (there was 22 of us) panicked and were super afraid that our bags had dropped out the back of the trailer on one of the hills.

Luckily, all of them were still there. We don't know how long it was open for, but it sure gave us a scare.

When we arrived, we had to cross a creek to get to our campsite. And when I say creek, I mean river. It was a river. About knee deep into rushing water we had to walk across with our packs on. Needless to say, it was a HOOT.

Our campsite had a lot of cow poo everywhere, but we managed. We set up tents, talked with Andre and Paul (our outdoor guides) about expectations for the trip (doing a little psudo-group-contract-thing), did some basic trust activities like jumping off a pole and trust falls and lifting each other, cooked dinner, told some ghost stories, and went to bed.

The next day, we set out to different activities. One was called the high V, where two people went up at a time and stood on two cables that were stretched across like a high wire. In order to stay stable and start walking, you had to lean on each other and trust them to hold your weight as you held theirs. As you walked down the cables though, they got further apart and you had to lean on each other more and more as you walked. There were a couple of people who made it the whole way - you were essentially parallel with the cable when you got to the end - but most people fell some 15 feet in and were lowered down by our belay. As someone who is not too much of a fan of heights, it was scary, but also a lot of fun.
The other activity involved us breaking up in groups with a map and compass and navigating through a farmland looking for little blue markers in various parts of the farm. It was like a little scavenger hunt, but over several acres. It was frustrating at times but I got the hang of it after a few times and that served as good practice for later that night, where we were given a map and compass and told to navigate to our new campsite on the map.

It was on the top of a mountain.

(((Well not the top top. And it wasn't a mountain, as much as it was just really a large hill. But it was steep and I was tired after climbing it so I'm going to call it a mountain god-damn it!)))

We hiked it though and set up camp on a little flat bed at the base of the highest point of Turtle Rock (the name of the aforementioned "mountain"). We cooked dinner and I became the coolest kid in the school because I had brought a small bottle of salt, garlic, and oregano mix that I had prepared to season my food with. I shared it around and everybody seemed to really appreciate it. That night was real great because I got to talk to some people that I had not really gotten a chance to talk to all that much and it was nice to just chill and have a meal with some new-ish people.

The next day, we packed up some of our stuff and hiked up the rest of Turtle rock. we did some exploration in a cave area that is in and around the rock face, and then rappelled down the cliff side. Essentially, the tied a rope to us that we used to descend vertically down the side of the cliff, which was crazy fun! (but also very terrifying) but also crazy fun! At the start it was weird because you had to do a trust fall with yourself to go from your feet on the top of the cliff to your feet on the side of the cliff and you climbed down. We all descended pretty slowly, but then our professor (Dr Steve as we'd begun to call him) showed us all up by leaping down in bounds and getting down in like 2 seconds.

The rest of the day consisted of packing up, hiking back, and catching the bus and going home (this time with the trailer for sure closed. We all checked. Twice.)

After that, the rest of the week and this weekend has been homework and classwork! I've got a big creative arts project due after study break that's worth 50% of my grade so I've been working on it. Unfortunately, I'll be in Bali over study break so I need to do most of the project this week before Thursday the 5th. Which makes the fact that it's a long weekend with everything closed Friday-Monday because of Easter a real pain in my side. I've got everything planned out though. The project consists of creating a 2 minute dance routine displaying a concept and a 3 minute drama displaying a concept. I've got the entire routine and drama planned out (I finished and edited my drama script today and mapped the whole dance a while ago and then also on Saturday) I just need to get in and record it as well as edit it together. I have 2 days to film (because of darn Easter Monday...CURSE YOU CHRISTIAN HOLIDAYS) which is tight but doable. I'm hoping to do some of the editing before I leave to. Which reminds me.

I"M GOING TO BALI FOR TEN DAYS!

AHHHHHHHHHH I'm so excited. It's going to be super rad. I'm going with Kayla, Max, and Keller (2 guys in my D&D group and one other gal who's been doing all of the planning for the trip) we booked our AirBnBs on Saturday (3/31) and then watched some conspiracy theory series. It was a good time. They are awesome people and I'm excited to spend ten days in Bali with them. Kayla and I really want to climb a mountain so we're determined to fit it into our trip.

Anyway, that's enough of me rambling. Tl;Dr: D&D is going REALLY well. I went on a 3 day trip into the outdoors (and tried out my new backpack). I went caving and rappelling and also learned how to navigate effectively. I have a big project I'm working on and Easter is inconveniently placed. Also, I'm going to Bali for 10 days, and I leave this Thursday. WOOT!