welcome to jilin

We packed up and started our journey to Jilin, the poorest city in northeast China.  We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and some treats at the airport.

It took about a couple of hours by plane and about an hour by car to get to the city of 4 million.  Our first meal was a feast.

Some firsts at this meal were:

Corn juice (once was enough)

Deep fried pumpkin (salty, sweet, I want some right now.  Really bad.)

Cucumber soup (So good, I think I made a fool of myself by how much I had.)

Looks like I picked up some language skills.  Look at my label for the duck, "Peking Ducks."  Nice.

  

At most of the places we ate the napkins were folded in all kinds of cool ways.  Look closely at the vase at the bottom left square.  I thought math was universal.  Funny.

Though, not as clean and modern as Beijing, Jilin was great place to get some interesting photos.  

In my younger years, I could travel and stay just about anywhere.  Cockroach invested apt in Moscow, rats in hostels in China, the beach with who knows what creatures in Thailand...

But now, I just can't.  I got older.  I got pickier.  I hate it when my kids get sick so I got more aware of germs.  

So, we pulled up to the apt. building and I was so worried.  Inside was not so bad, but the outside seriously was so ghetto.  People just kind of threw their trash and trash bags in an area.  Throughout the day people would come pick through it until a guy came with a cart and swept up most of it.  Karl got kind of worried because he knows how grossed out I get.  I did my best to have a good attitude.  If anything, it made me appreciate home just a little bit more.