?作者：Felix Kraemer
翻譯：潘澤彬
校對：Luz、Joanne、James
Hi there! I am Felix from Germany and my China adventure began 10 years ago.
大家好！我是來自德國的 Felix，我的中國之旅 10?年前就啟程啦。
In 2012, I was invited by a professor from Xiamen University to teach design workshops here for second year students. When I came to China first, I travelled with my German friend David.?We traveled through China for a good four weeks, and then we landed in Xiamen where we stayed.
2012 年，我受一位廈門大學(xué)教授的邀請，為大二學(xué)生講授設(shè)計工作坊。當時是我第一次來到中國，我和德國朋友 David 一起旅行。我們在中國玩了四個星期，然后在廈門落腳，住了下來。
10 years ago, Xiamen was kind of blooming, in the sense that it was seen as a very creative, and a little bit romantic place. There were couples traveling to Xiamen to walk along the beach. In the Zengcuo’an area, there were lots of indie concerts from small Chinese bands, and then paddle boarding started. There was a small beach resort there called Daring Duck, which had water sports facilities, a restaurant, a bar, and cozy areas to chill. That business was just starting, so we could go sailing and paddle boarding, and chill near Huangdao Road, with all those picturesque palm trees.
10?年前，廈門正在蓬勃發(fā)展，這里是一個富有創(chuàng)造力的地方，帶有一點浪漫的氛圍。情侶們會來廈門旅游，沿著海灘散步。許多小樂隊在曾厝垵開獨立演唱會，單槳沖浪運動也如火如荼地開展。那里有一個小型海灘度假村，叫“大膽鴨”（Daring Duck），水上運動設(shè)施豐富，還有餐廳、酒吧以及舒適的休閑區(qū)。那時候我們的工作剛剛起步，所以有空出海劃船，在環(huán)島路附近休息，欣賞如畫的棕櫚樹。
As for my name — as you may know — many foreigners adopt a Chinese name so that it is easier to blend in with the locals. Some foreign names have translations or transliterations into Chinese. Sometimes, if they don’t, it’s usually language teachers or local friends who help foreigners choose a name. For David it was easy, but that was not the case for me. The story behind my Chinese name goes like this: people couldn’t pronounce Felix, and there is no name that has a similar meaning to Felix (from Latin, “the lucky one, the happy one”). I was with my wife, May, and we used a phone app where you put in all your data, when you were born, and it will spit out a few names suggestions. There was a list of around 40 names or so, so we chose the one that was close to the original meaning. And I thought it was kind of cool that people call me 達樂, meaning?“happy.” Then, I adopted my wife’s family name 韓?(Han).
談?wù)勎业拿帧ＴS多外國人會取個中文名，以便融入當?shù)厝恕Ｓ行┩鈬挚梢灾苯臃g或音譯成中文。如果行不通，中文老師或當?shù)嘏笥褧椭≈形拿?。?David 來說，取一個中文名非常容易，但對我而言，情況就大不相同了。講講我的取名歷程：人們不會讀?“Felix”，而且沒有與 Felix（來自拉丁語，”幸運的人，快樂的人”）含義接近的名字。我和妻子 May 使用一個手機 App 取名，只要輸入你的數(shù)據(jù)，包括你的生日，就會生成一些推薦名字。這個 App 生成了大約 40?個名字，我們選擇了與原意接近的一個。我覺得叫“達樂”有點酷，意思是“快樂”。然后，我借用了妻子的姓氏“韓”。
I met my wife May at a bar I had opened with my friend. It was called Amoy Brau, and it was located on Daxue Road near the University campus. She came with a friend of hers. She doesn’t even drink beer, or alcohol for that matter. I cooked some Western dishes for her, and somehow we ended up together. Probably because she was helping a great deal setting up Fat Fat Beer Horse brewery at the time, and we spent a lot of time together. I love that she’s a very natural girl. She accepts me for who I am, and that’s actually the point.
我和朋友一起開了一家酒吧，在那里認識了我的妻子 May。那家酒吧叫 Amoy Brau，位于廈大附近的大學(xué)路。當時 May 是和她朋友一起來的。她不喝啤酒，含酒精的飲料都不喝。我給她做了一些西餐，不知為何最后我們在一起了?？赡苁且驗楫敃r我正在裝修“胖胖啤酒馬”酒廠，她幫了很大的忙，我們也經(jīng)常在一起。她是一個很樸實的女孩，我非常愛她。她接受了我這個人，這才是最重要的。
Currently, we live in Xiang’an district, a more rural area of Xiamen, on the inland. We moved here because I had had enough of working in a bar. There was too much drinking involved, and too much of the same kind of vibe all the time… Then I was kind of free, and an Italian friend of mine, Lisa, who lived in Xiang’an campus, had rented an old house and opened some kind of café. I helped her to decorate it a little bit, and that’s how I learned there were some old houses available for rent, and that there were international and local students in that area.
目前，我們住在翔安區(qū)，這是廈門一個更偏向于內(nèi)陸的農(nóng)村地區(qū)。我們搬到這里是因為我已經(jīng)受夠了在酒吧工作。每天都喝很多酒，每天的氛圍都一樣……后來我終于獲得些許自由，我有一個意大利朋友 Lisa，住在翔安校區(qū)，租了一個老房子開咖啡館。我?guī)退晕⒀b修了一下，就這樣我才知道翔安有一些老房子待租，而且那里生活著許多留學(xué)生和本地學(xué)生。Then, a local friend said to me: “Hey, let’s have a few beers in Xiang’an district. I have an old house there that can be rented out,” and I thought that it sounded like a good plan.
然后，一位當?shù)氐呐笥褜ξ艺f：”嘿，我們?nèi)ハ璋矃^(qū)喝幾杯吧。我在那里有一間老房子待租。”這聽起來不錯。
I spent a night in the old stone house and I thought it was so relaxing, and so cool. So I asked May, my wife, “What do you think, should we go to the countryside and experiment a little bit? Maybe open a bar or a restaurant?” And May said, “Sounds good to me, I work online so I’m fine with that.” I did a bit of research about what students here would like to eat and they said as long as there’s cheese on it, it’s all good. So I thought, pizza sounds good. There’s lots of cheese on it. Then I started doing research about pizza, like which flours and what cheese to use. I bought some stuff, and actually, the house I was renting already had a kitchen built, with an oven, so it was perfect.
我在老舊的石屋里呆了一晚上，這里太舒服，太棒了。所以我問妻子：”你怎么想，我們是不是應(yīng)該去鄉(xiāng)下看一看，實地考察一下？也許可以開個酒吧或餐館？”May 說：”聽起來不錯，我線上辦公，沒問題。”我調(diào)查了一下這里學(xué)生的飲食偏好，他們說只要上面有芝士就行。披薩是一個很好的選項，上面有很多芝士。然后我開始研究怎么做比薩，比如用什么面粉和芝士。我采購了一些東西，我租的房子有廚房，還有烤箱，太完美了。Then, step by step, I bought more things, and people started coming. In the first year, we had so many international students. We had Thai students coming often, so I asked them to teach us how to cook their local delicacies, to cater to the international students. The idea was to build a place for everyone to feel welcome in Xiang’an. A home away from home, which is still our slogan.
然后，一步一步地，我買了更多東西，人們開始光顧。第一年，很多留學(xué)生慕名而來，包括泰國留學(xué)生，他們經(jīng)常來，所以我請教如何做他們國家的美食，以滿足留學(xué)生的需求。我們的想法是在翔安打造一個讓每個人都感到賓至如歸的地方?！凹彝庵摇?，這也是我們的口號。
Every month, the Yellow Stone House got better and better, so it gave me confidence that I’m doing the right thing. Now, the international students are basically gone, and I’ve realized that I have to make more dishes to cater to both international and local friends. We have turned into a family restaurant. Lots of people from the surrounding area come with their kids, who love spaghetti, sausage, pork knuckle, and all our other specialties. This is how we built our home in Xiamen and a quite successful restaurant in Xiang’an district.
每個月，“黃石屋”都變得越來越好，它給了我信心，讓我明白，我做的事情是對的?，F(xiàn)在，留學(xué)生基本上都走了，我意識到必須開發(fā)更多的菜品，滿足外國朋友和本地朋友的需求。我們已經(jīng)轉(zhuǎn)型成為家庭餐館。周邊地區(qū)的人們帶著孩子來吃飯，他們喜歡意大利面、香腸、豬肘子和我們店其他的特色菜。就這樣，我們在廈門建立了自己的家，在翔安區(qū)開了一家相當成功的餐廳。
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