The Dam in Amsterdam

VOC Ship

This is the blog for the studentexchange between 24 students from Utrecht(Unic) and 24 students from Bali. At the end of september the students from Utrecht will go to Bali. In november/december the 24 students from Bali will come to Utrecht.
This was the last full day in
This day we went to school and visit
First we went to school to see a movie about the sawa’s and subak. After one hour the movie was ended and we checked our email and after that we went to the bus. In the bus we song songs and rest a bit. After a long trip to Nusa Dua we had the opportunity to get money at the ATM (pin) to pay for the activities we could do at the beach like going to the sea turtle Island, snorkeling, hiring a jet ski or just don’t use the opportunity of spending money and just relax at the beach. A large group went to the ATM (they didn’t know where to find one) to withdraw some money of the bank. After a half hour of waiting the group finally arrived back at the beach. There we payed the man to go snorkeling, when we want to leave the man told us there was no boot so we waited for the moment a boot was available. Then we finally moved up to the sea to see some coral and tropical fish. After one hour of snorkeling we went back to the beach to tell everybody it was really fun to see the coral. Jorien had her lunch they told her there were no peanuts inside but there was. Jorien was allergic for peanut and she went to the hospital.
Saturday was the last day of the week with planned activities for the first week. On Saturday we went to school at 8:30AM because we were going to interview the teachers. But first we had to make questions again to ask the teachers, the question had to be about sustainability. First the Balinese students asked some questions to the music teacher. After he answered some of our questions we went to the headmaster and ask him the same questions. Some of his answers were the same as the music teacher. After all of our questions were answered, we got in to the computer room to work out our answers. After working in the computer room we played gamelan again. Some other were dancing and some others are working on the website. We finished everything at 5 o’clock.
Friday was a very active day. We woke up at 8 o’clock. We went to school to finish the experience reports for Xplore. After finishing the assignment we went to the beautiful place called Ceking to see the rice terraces. When we arrived in Ceking we get split in three groups, the profit, planet and people groups. First we had to made research questions together, those questions we ask to the farmers to know about the rice fields. When we finally finished making questions, we went down to find a farmer to ask all the questions we made. After a small search one of the Balinese students found a farmer in a small house. It was hard to get to the house because it was slippery and there were some steep parts of the hill. When we finally arrived at the house, the Balinese students nearly killed the man with all our questions. After each question the Balinese students translated the answer for the Dutch students because we maybe knew some other questions to ask. After all, the farmer tried to sell one of his hats to us. Hanneke bought one because we broke his house by leaning against one of the bars.
The second full day of the trip, this day we woke up at 8 o’clock in the morning because we had to be on school at 9 o’clock. We were a little bit too late, but we were not the last one so the rest of the group was still waiting. When we were waiting for the rest of the group we drunk some water and just talked about the second night.
When we finally were complete we get splitted in two groups, one group was going to play gamelan and the second group was going to learn Balinese dance. First we played a “song” with the Balinese students, the teached us which buttons you had to hit at what moment. When we finished our first song, the Balinese students showed us how to play. So we only had to watch and stare. After there song, we could take our places again. When everybody was ready we played the same song again and when we were finished we did so well, they told us to change a bit more early.
Then we went to the dance room. The dance teacher (a Balinese student also involved in the exchange program) followed her group to the gamelan so there was no teacher! After 15 minutes of doing nothing finally the teacher arrived. Then we finally started to dance, that was the meaning. We learned the dance for man who is very difficult, we couldn’t do the basic steps so the teacher gave up and we were free to stop dancing because we were too bad. After everything on school we went home and some other Dutch students joined us with there Balinese drivers for dinner at our place.