合而为一诐此相爱

Last week we threw a surprise birthday party for Elizabeth, and it was a surprise up until she saw Rose coming down the stairs from my apartment. We had a lot of fun even though my apartment still hasn't entirely recovered. Here are some pictures:

In a totally unrelated yet fun story, yesterday I was on my way back from trying for the 3rd time to buy some books when I flagged a taxi, opened the door, and told him I wanted to go to 三峡大学 (my school). He pointed at the passenger seat like he wanted me to sit down. So I got in the taxi and he took off. I mean, he really took off. We went flying through traffic, using the horn almost continuously and I swear he actually sped up for the speed bumps. I was wondering what in the world his hurry was for, when matters got more interesting. He proceeded to spout out a bunch of completely unintelligible sentences to me, getting more and more frustrated when I "ting bu dong" (don't understand). He continued to try to tell me something and laughed hysterically every time he said something I didn't understand, which was most of the time. I was starting to get a little irritated with him laughing at me, I really don't understand why it was so funny. We stopped at a traffic light, amazingly enough, instead of just plowing right through it, when he leaned over and opened my door and yelled to the guy driving the taxi next to us. They had a nice little conversation with him leaning on me and then he started gesturing for me to get in the taxi next to us. I was utterly confused but I obeyed, even though my fare was around 4元--I left him without paying and got into the other taxi, which proceeded to take me the rest of the way home. I still have absolutely no idea what happened or why but I just wanted to give you a little glimpse of what it is like to do a simple task in China. Nothing is ever easy or logical. That's what makes it fun!

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence;
two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, 1916