My room gets very beautiful morning light. When I wake up early I see the sunrise from the window. Sunrises and sunsets have always fascinated me. I though I would share one my my many pictures of the horizon that I took from my window at home in Norway a few years ago.

In the most recent classes it has been exciting and interesting to see how we have been able to apply what we have learned to create short performances of the scenes of the Ramayana. I really did not think we knew enough about classical Asian performance to create some of the scenes we have made. The most surprising thing about it, I think, is that it has been seemingly easy as well. There has not been much thinking or planning of how to do the scene, who should be the characters etc. We decide on a scene, people step up as the characters and everything else seems to work it self out. The first scene we made was the when Ravana was trying to rape Sita, and currently we are working on the scene when Sita sees the golden deer and asks Rama to get it for her. Through creating these scenes I have also finally understood the importance of the chack (?) circle. Before I thought they were just there for the sake of making "music", but now I understand that their purpose is much greater than that. The circle holds the rasa (spelling?) of what is going on in the performance, and what they chant is reflected in the actors. In essence, the chack circle determines what happens in the performance.

I was a little hesitant about the performance at Kimball. I didn't know if I wanted to do it or if I would be brave enough to do it. Now that we started working on it, it doesn't seem so bad anymore. I just hope I don't get too nervous before the performance.

I think it was fun how we worked on expressions last class! I did not know there were so many specific actions that would be made to express an emotion. It was also fun to see how it actually worked! You could really see the emotion of your partner. Sometimes it was hard to keep a straight face and not say anything because some of the movements and expressions we made seemed strange and funny, but also because we are not used to showing silent emotions. We are so used to using vocal sounds to accompany our emotional expressions that it was hard not to.

I would also like to comment on the class before last class when we got to try on the costumes and told the Ramayana in our sub banjars. It seemed more authentic when we wore the costumes. It was a different feeling and I felt like there was a different atmosphere in the classroom all together. The storytelling went fairly well. There was quite a big jumping back and forth in the story because some people would break in and continue the story and others would have more information that should fit in between when the two others were talking about. This made it a little confusing, but after a while we figured it out and the story a had a pretty good flow in the end.

After telling the story we had extra time so ended up taking about Hindu gods and traditions. It was interesting to hear some of the background information and understand more of the full complexity of the religion. I think it is neat how there are so many gods in one religion that people pray to for different reasons.

Lately, I feel like the class has changed a lot or maybe I have just gained a different understanding of what we have been doing all along. It is not just a class about classical Asian performance. It is a class about togetherness, unity, community, communication and many other things. I think I have realized this through all the conversations we have had about the banjar and in the banjar itself. That everyone contributes a part of themselves and that the others in the banjar actually take an interest and care about the troubles or thoughts of the others is a unique experience. This type of society organization is so different from the western way of governing a society. From a practical perspective I think it would be very difficult, if not impossible to apply this technique of governance and common rule to western countries. The communities are just too big and disconnected. We all have fish to fry, and the banjar gives each person the opportunity to share and to be helped by the others in the community. The individual, as well as the whole is important. If one person has an issue, like we saw in class, it many help that person and also benefit the banjar if the issue is spoken out loud. The things that affect an individual will also impact the banjar.

It was my birthday this weekend, and in class this came to attention. I do not like to be in the center of attention, and this was literally what happened. I felt uncomfortable at first, but when the circle closed in on me and chanted for me I felt good. It was relaxing to have so many voices around me. It almost felt like I was inside an enclosed space, like a bubble of some kind. It was an interesting experience!