作者：Mea Andrews
翻譯：潘澤彬
校對：Luz、Zuzana、Joanne
Hello everyone, I’m Mea Andrews and I’m an American living and working in Beijing. I just moved here from Chongqing, and I had been living there since 2017. I came to China for the same reasons I think most of expatriates can relate to:?I wanted to explore a new culture, meet new kinds of people, and broaden my world view. I actually had a fourth, more selfish reason for coming to China, and that was to better my writing by experiencing new words, places, and people.
大家好，我叫 Mea Andrews，是一個在北京生活和工作的美國人。2017 年，我從重慶搬到北京，之后就一直住在這里。我來到中國的原因和大多數(shù)外國人是一樣的：我想探尋新文化，認識新朋友，拓寬我的世界觀。實際上，我來中國還有第四個理由，出于私心，那就是感受新文字，游覽新地方，交往新伙伴，提升我的寫作水平。
In Chongqing I encountered so many new things: the Sichuan pepper, hotpot, chuanchuan, mahua (love me some mahua), incredible mountain city views that rival Hong Kong, I could go on. Even when I was in a situation that felt uncomfortable, like the very nice lady who took me aside to?tell me my organs were different than Chinese organs, or when people would take my photo without asking on the subway or in the streets, it was easy to get over because there was always something unique and new to see or experience.
在重慶，我遇見了許多新事物：四川辣椒、火鍋、串串、麻花（我超喜歡吃麻花），還有與香港媲美的山城美景等等，不勝枚舉。有一次，我身體不適，一位非常友好的女士把我?guī)У揭贿?，告訴我身體不適的原因——水土不服。人們在地鐵或街道上偷拍我的時候，我也會理解，因為生活中總有新奇事物等你發(fā)現(xiàn)，等你探索。
I had not intended to make China my home, in fact, I hadn’t planned on staying more than one year. By the end of my first contract, I felt like I hadn’t done or seen enough, so I stayed on telling myself I’d leave after three years. By the time I was close to hitting the three year mark I had started to advanced my career and had met people I would consider good friends and, in one case, a second family. There was no way I could just leave all of these great people behind, so I stayed another year…and then COVID hit and right in the middle of that, I got married.?
我以前并沒有打算扎根中國，事實上，我不打算待在中國超過一年。第一份合同到期的時候，我覺得自己做得不夠好，看得不夠多，所以我選擇繼續(xù)留在中國，三年后再離開。時間來到第三年，那時我的事業(yè)開始蒸蒸日上，遇見了許多好朋友，這里是我第二個家，我不會拋下這群優(yōu)秀的人，所以我又待了一年……然后疫情爆發(fā)了，在這時候，我步入了婚姻的殿堂。
I was never the little kid who dreamed of their wedding, if anything I wanted to learn how to wield a broadsword and go on epic monster fighting adventures! Yet here I was, in a foreign country, getting married, right as a global pandemic was happening all around us. Of course, marriage is never easy, but it has an extra twist when it includes what can be exasperating cultural differences and trying to get acquainted with a new family. I’m from a relatively unstable family background, so of course there were concerns that as a foreigner, I would run away back to my country, or that I wouldn’t have much in terms of family values and would simply choose divorce if times got tough. There were actually a lot of things said that I wonder if other mixed nationality couples experience, but despite that, my husband’s immediate family was incredibly welcoming of me.
我小時候從來不會幻想自己的婚禮，而是想學習揮舞闊劍，與史詩級的怪物英勇戰(zhàn)斗！但我最終選擇了結婚，選擇在中國，選擇在全球疫情肆虐的時候結婚。婚姻向來都不容易，對我而言格外曲折，文化差異令人抓狂，而且還得熟悉一個新家庭。我的家庭背景相對不穩(wěn)定，所以當然有人擔心，作為一個外國人，我會跑回國，或者擔心我的家庭觀念不夠強，如果日子不好過，我會直接選擇離婚。我不知道其他跨國夫妻是否也有這樣的憂慮，但盡管如此，我丈夫的家人還是非常歡迎我的。
We felt as a newly married couple we had a decision to make: where were we going to live? To settle down? We thought about his hometown in Henan and being closer to his parents, to moving closer to his sisters in the outskirts of Chongqing, about getting him a green card and moving back to the states. We had to take a moment and list what our goals are, what we want from a city we live in, what we could afford. In the end, we decided to take a risk and move to Beijing. Neither of us had lived in a tier one city before and both of us had places we wanted to visit and goals we could reach while living in Beijing, however neither of us believe Beijing will be our last stop.
新婚的我們必須做出決定：我們要在哪里生活？在哪里扎根？我們考慮過在他的家鄉(xiāng)河南生活，離他的父母更近一些，也考慮過搬到重慶郊區(qū)，離他的姐妹們更近一些，還考慮過給他申請綠卡，搬到美國。我們必須列出我們的目標，必須考慮想從居住的城市得到什么，還得顧及我們能負擔得起什么。最后，我們決定冒險搬到北京。我們倆以前都沒有在一線城市生活過，北京有我們倆都想玩的景點，北京有我們追尋的目標，但我們都不相信北京會是我們的終點站。
My husband, a great guy from Henan, and I have decided that we want to spend our time together traveling more. As he says, ‘We want to live a nomadic lifestyle.’ Therefore, our home in China now is wherever we choose to make it together. Chongqing is a beautiful city nestled in the mountains, but after seeing many of the Chongqing hotspots, we chose to move on to Beijing for a bit to travel around some of the historical places and take stock of where we would like to go next. Our life in China looks very much open-ended, we know we want to go to Guilin, Guangzhou, Xian, and so many other places in the near future.?
我的丈夫是一位河南好男人，我們想多出去走走看看。就像他所說的：“我們想過一種游牧生活。”因此，我們共同選擇了北京，我在中國的家。重慶是一座美麗的山城，我們游覽了重慶許多熱門景點，然后我們選擇到北京游玩，參觀一些歷史悠久的景點，再思考下一站該去哪里。我們在中國的生活看起來非常隨性，不久的將來我們想去桂林、廣州、西安等等。
Where I’m from in Georgia (though technically I grew up shuffling around the majority of the southern states), many people never have the opportunity to travel abroad, much less live in another country for a long period of time. China has given me the ability to grow in ways I had not expected and will be my home for years to come. I suspect China will always hold a special place in my heart.
我的家鄉(xiāng)是佐治亞州（但我是在南方的州之間輾轉長大的），在我的家鄉(xiāng)，許多人一輩子都沒有出國旅行，更不用說在外國長期生活了。我從未想到，中國能令我成長，在未來的幾年里，中國將是我的家。中國將永遠在我心中占據(jù)一個特殊的位置。
