My Car's on Fire!

So in the last one I said I met my host dad's dad. Yeah, I forgot to mention that he's dead.

On Sunday, we took a really long drive up to a sort of graveyard, but you'd think it was more like an apartment complex for the dead. I was told that most religions were represented there, like Islam and Christianity, Buddhism and Daoism. It was raining when we arrived (I really need a new pair of sneakers), so that made it harder to light the incense and candles. I said hello to the earth god and then to my host grandpa. I told him I was an exchange student and that his descendants are treating me well and that I hoped he was doing well in the afterlife.
Some food was blessed as well: spring rolls, fruits, a bottle of tea. Then we set about burning some spirit money. You know that play money you can buy at the dollar store? That's spirit money. So, we burned New Taiwan Dollars (NT), Hong Kong Currency, Hundred Dollar Bills for traveling (USD), and some paper gold shaped in the ancient Chinese way (like a boat).
After we finished burning the money and some Buddhist blessings, we headed down to the temple where the monks were chanting. The were three big, gold Bhuddas sitting up front with Guang Gong on the left and that other guy on the right. So we said hello to them and had some more things blessed. Dad took me over to one side of the hall where there was a stand selling objects made out of paper that can be burned to give them to people in the afterlife. We're talking stuff like cars, money, credit cards, shirts, dresses, laptops, cellphones,and even a minature mansion (which I assume becomes normal sized in the afterlife, size probably doesn't matter there anyway). These paper offerings were selling for a pretty decent amount of money though and my dad told me that it's a big business over here.
Later we got some soup and started for home, stopping at this really creative coffee shop on the way. the shop reminded me that I want to have an awesome place like that too, like PeeWee's Playhouse.

That evening we went to see Sarah Brightman Symphony World Tour. I liked the visuals of the show, but I think her music is really over the top. Not that she's not good at what she does, apparently she's been making music for 25 years, but I never heard of her until I was here. Her "Da Jia Wan An!" was really funny to me for some reason, and there was some random part of the show that was supposed to represent Alice in Wonderland, but nothing came of it.

Yesterday, I went to the bookstore and bought some sheet music of songs from Juno and also a book of Chinese mythology (which I brought to school today and eveyone's like, "Wow, I haven't even read about that stuff,").

Skyped with Erin Mann last night. She's doing allright up in Finland, where there's snow on the ground, but everyone insists that it's springtime. I'm still feeling pretty amazing, it's been a sleepy day for everyone though.

I hope I can get to see Renaat's brother before he leaves.