The Taxi Driver Who Tried To Hand Me Over To The Police

So the other night I’m taking a taxi home from dinner with friends in another part of the city, and we pass a cluster of policemen off to the side of the road, and my taxi driver says, “I need to stop because you are a foreigner.” At least, I think that’s what he said, his dialect accent was pretty strong. I said, “What? Why?” He said, “You are a foreigner, I have to stop.” WHAT? So he stops and pulls up to the police and the police look at him like “What the hell are you doing?” and motion for him to keep moving. They actually yell at him, “Don’t stop here, drive on!” Um, taxi driver? I have no idea if that was some sort of joke on your part and you thought it was funny?  Or you just don’t know that foreigners don’t have to stop and talk to all policemen they pass? Whatever it was, that was weird. Please don’t do that again.

We had dinner at a Korean barbecue place, all you can eat. The funny thing to me about Korean barbecue is, you pay to cook your own food. Part of the reason I eat out is so I don’t have to cook! It was pretty good, though. They had quail’s eggs, so we made the tiniest fried eggs ever:



Here’s a shot of our table:



I’m showing you this because it was one of those recessed-into-the-floor tables, where the seat is floor level and your legs hang down below the floor, and at the end of the night I was climbing out and fell over and crashed onto the table. I was near the back so most people were out of the room, but my friend Erin and I laughed for about 5 minutes straight. Luckily the grill was off and I was not hurt. I have balance problems, I fall over all the time. Just another night in China.

And oh, I can’t forget this picture! I took it at the train station on the way home from the dentist:



This outfit is pretty standard for China. Proportionately, she looks great: the length of the jacket and shirt, the tight pants and boots, it all works. The colors and patterns were cracking me up, though. It just doesn’t matter here what combinations you wear. It’s awesome.

I got my temporary crown put on. It took three hours. Is that normal? It was not fun. I go back in two weeks to get the permanent one put on. I hate traveling that far to the dentist!