The Stranger Next To You: March 2012

GUYS.

Some awesome things happened today.

This happened:

My tutoring student (a fashionable, forty-something mother of another student of mine) knows that I LOVE WITH MY WHOLE SOUL anything to do with my outward appearance; so today, at the beginning of our tutoring session, she breezed in with this glorious thing in her hand.

FOR ME.

It's a thing of beauty.

(Every week, we talk about clothes, and shoes, and makeup, and nails. Best class time EVER.)

And then, THIS HAPPENED:

Sorry the picture is a little grainy; I couldn't focus the camera in all my excitement to gobble this down. SO YUMMY.

This may not look as chocolatey and delicious as it WAS, but let me tell you, it was the most amazing microwavable, chocolate, SUGAR-FREE cake on the history of this planet. I found this fabulous blog that has all sorts of amazing, healthy dessert recipes with WONDERFUL sugar free options! This moist little morsel was rich, warm, gooey, and FULL of (sugar free) chocolate. I'll be making this again real soon, FOR SURESIES.

This next month looks like it's going to go faster than anticipated.

PS: I told one of my students today that I was going off of sugar for an entire month, and she got this look of absolute horror on her face, as if I told her I had just murdered somebody (seriously, her eyes widened, her job dropped, and her eyebrows furrowed), and asked, "WHY?"

My gosh, these kids are awesome.

A holiday is coming up. Some people strike preemptively by celebrating it early and beating the rush.

TOMB SWEEPING.

That is a grave. A tomb, if you will. Two can fit in there nice and cozy.

That is a cemetery. Filled with lots of tombs.

And this is how you tomb sweep:

Step 1: You sweep. Make sure the area around the actual tomb is nice and clean. There are no caretakers for cemeteries over here; it's all up to living relatives to keep the dead ones looking pretty. So the first step is to make sure there are no unsightly twigs or clumps of dirt around.

Step 2: You re-cover the top of the grave. With egg shells and colored paper (what my cousins are doing in the picture above). There may have been a particular reason for egg shells and colored paper at some point, but that kinda got lost in the shuffle. So just do it, because it's respectful, okay?

Step 3: You place newspaper in front of the tomb, and in front of the statues of the Gods that protect the tomb, in preparation for food and money offerings.

Step 4: You place food on the newspaper as an offering to your ancestors. You wait until the "essence" of the food has been accepted (you know this through consulting the special "joss sticks" you brought with you).

Step 5: You burn certified fake paper money, so your ancestors will have something to spend up in Heaven.

Step 6: You eat the food you just offered. It's okay, because the essence of the food has already been eaten by your ancestors, remember? So don't even worry about it.

Repeat, if necessary. (Like, maybe you have more than just one dead ancestor.)

The idea of respecting those that came before you (or those that left before you) in this way makes me think I would like to show a similar respect for my deceased loved ones when I come back. We have a holiday like this too, you know. Except, I can't remember the last time I visited the graves of my ancestors on Memorial Day. Egg shells and colored paper aren't necessary for me, I believe, but it's through my ancestor's choices and decisions that I can enjoy the life I'm living now. I think that deserves something, don't you?

Tomb Sweeping isn't the only thing that's been happening around here. We've been having more familiar fun, as well.