harbin

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.

married in China

I knew that I would lose the motivation to blog about China once I got home.  That is why I tried so hard to post during the trip...

On about day 5 of the trip when we called the kids the conversation with Samuel went something like this:

S:  Where are you?

Me:  I am in China.

S:  Did you go get married?

Me:  No, Mommy and Daddy got married a long time ago.

S:  I don't want you get married.

Me:  What does that mean?

S:  (frustrated) It means when you go get married.  (Really frustrated) I don't want to talk to you anymore.

I don't really know what he was talking about but apparently he talked to everyone about his frustrations.  As soon as he saw us he told Karl he wanted to go to the dollar store and he asked me, "Did you get married?"  He then explained that getting married means that I will still be the same (I could tell someone tried to convince him of that because he really thought that it meant I would change).

So, yesterday I drop him off at preschool.  His teacher walks up, cups her hand under my chin, looks at my face and says, "It's good to see that you didn't change." 

 Looks like Samuel was taking his worries to preschool, too.  I said, "Isn't that funny, I don't really understand why he was so worried about me getting married." 

 She says, "I think he was just worried that you would change."  

Laugh laugh, funny funny.  Drive away.  Get home.  Chuckle about the conversation.  

Then it hits me.  She really thinks I got married in China!

I needed to set this straight.

When I pick up Samuel, I say, "So any more talk about weddings today?"  She laughs.  

I say, "The funny thing is that I have been married for almost 10 years."  

Surprised she laughs and says, "Oh really!?  Well, did you get married in China?"  

Uh, Chinese mail order bride I am not.  Romantic wedding destination China is not. 

She says, "Well, then I guess we have to start checking all the facts when."

Can you believe it?  Samuel had his teacher thinking I was getting married in China.  

I still have no idea how he came up with this.  (I just asked him what it means if I get married.  He says, "That your going to get different.")

Jokes on me.  Good one, Samuel.

ligers, dumplings, cake... happy birthday karl

This is my 200th post!

Warning:
This post is not for PETA people, animal lovers, and I'm guessing most normal people. Guys, hunters, gather round...
I am behind on my posts because of the lame internet connection. I am skipping ahead to Karl's birthday.

So, we went to this city called Harbin. It is a four hour drive from where we are staying right now. The reason? To see these tigers. Specifically, to pay money to watch the tigers devour live animals. Ew, I know.

We pile in a bus and drive around these Siberian Tigers like it is no big deal. The first lucky victims were these chickens. A guy drives up in a Land Cruiser and just chucks them out the door. The tigers are all over the car and the guy seems unphased.

Ok, so here is where is gets gross. I felt compelled to share all the grossness. Maybe to diffuse it a little. A little goat. A cute little goat. They let it loose. It runs a bit and then all these cats attack it (which apparently is unnatural because in the wild these animals hunt alone but when we are dumping goats out of cars for money, do we really give thought to what is natural anymore?)

Next, is Karl's birthday present from his dad and Jill. A cow. A cute little yearling (I am learning lots of new words from my country boy) gets dumped out of the truck. Look at the tigers go. The saddest part was the mooing/crying.

So, those that have been to China (it is crazy how many of my friends have been to China) can agree that this next part is "so Chinese." Once the tigers get the cow dead, two SUVs pull up. One guy GETS OUT (note: tigers are all around) while the other guy shoos the tigers away. I show him lighting the fire cracker that he throws to get one of the tigers to back off. They tie the cow up, and, get this one, DRAG it around so the cats will chase it. So sad. Even sadder that it was entertaining us. In the end, they chop up the cow and drop big hunks so all the tigers get a piece.

Here were some other cats:

The white tiger. Yep, perfect for printing onto black velvet. A liger. Yep, bred for its skills in magic. And that black thing.

And here are some awesome signs: The service promise that among other mistakes does not list the phone number for English speakers to call. The price list for the live animals. Gross, I know. And check out this candy bar I found. Guts. We tried it, it tasted chocolaty, nutty, creamy, and crunchy. Nothing like guts at all.

But, Karl's birthday celebration was not all disgusting. These nice ladies made us this tasty lunch. Handmade fresh noodles are one of my favorite things, ever. Of course, the fresh dumplings also make me happy. This meal for three? $2.22 US.

This nice guy decorated this cake for us. It took all the guts (and not meaning the above candy bar) I had to go and order this cake. The only thing that we could communicate were the numbers and "happy birthday." This guy made that animal out of frosting in like 1 minute. The detail was amazing.

Since all of us were sick and achy and tired, we stayed in and ate cake. The flowers on the table are from a couple of people from the university. They knew it was his birthday (because they were lucky enough to see Karl's birthday cow get eaten). Karl got all the candles out in one shot. He was a good sport and wore the crown that the bakery provided with the cake.