家外之家 2021
My first time in China was 18 years ago. I visited Xiamen as a tourist with my mum, my aunt and her daughters. Not many tourists came here at the time, and everything was rather cheap. We had booked 3 rooms in Mandarin Hotel but they gave us an upgrade to stay at whole Vila. Yes, we got a 5 stars vila all to ourselves! That was so beautiful, like a wonderland. An unforgettable first impression.我第一次來中國是在 18 年前。我和媽媽、姨媽和她的女兒來廈門旅游。當時來這里的游客不多，而且東西都相當便宜。我們在悅?cè)A酒店訂了 3 個房間，但他們給我們升級到別墅房。沒錯，我們住進了一套五星級別墅！那里美得就像一個仙境。廈門給我留下了難忘的第一印象。
家外之家 2021
The first time I step foot on Chinese soil was in 1997 when I went to Beijing for a work trip regarding the design of a hotel there. Coming here for the first time helped to dispel a lot of the misconceptions in my head and the rumors that I heard about living here. I heard that China was so crowded absolutely everywhere, that people misbehaved, that there were no proper toilets!? Well, of course, it was all wrong.我第一次踏上中國的土地是在 1997 年，我當時去北京出差，為一家酒店進行設計。第一次來到這里，打消了我腦海中存在的許多誤解，那些關(guān)于在中國生活的傳言也不攻自破了。我聽說中國哪里都很擁擠，人們行為粗魯，也沒有體面的廁所！當然，這是完全錯誤的。
家外之家 2021
After my college graduation, I met up with my high school friend, Renelyn, who was at that time working as a foreign teacher in Xiamen city. After hearing her wonderful experience here in Xiamen, I asked her the procedure on how to apply to work as ESL teacher. At that time, the qualifications required for ESL teachers weren’t that stringent, basically, the requirements were to hold a Bachelor’s degree and a TESL? certificate. I was lucky enough to pass all interviews and landed my first job as a foreign teacher in Xiamen Educational College which eventually merged with 2 other colleges and renamed into Xiamen City Vocational College.大學畢業(yè)后，我偶遇了高中同學 Renelyn，她當時在廈門做外教。她給我講了在廈門的精彩故事，然后我問她如何申請成為 ESL（以英語為第二語言） 教師。當時，對 ESL 教師的資格要求并不嚴格，基本要求是持有學士學位和 TESL（英語作為第二外語教學） 證書。我很幸運地通過了所有的面試，在廈門教育學院找到了我的第一份工作——外教，該學院最終與其他兩所學院合并，更名為廈門城市職業(yè)學院。
家外之家 2021
My husband and I lived in Xiamen for almost ten years, but apart from colleagues or friends in groups involved in saving animals, we didn’t meet that many other foreigners. The reason is simple, we didn’t have time.?我和丈夫在廈門生活了近十年，但除了一起拯救動物的同事和朋友外，我們并沒有認識很多外國人 。原因很簡單，我們沒時間。
家外之家 2021
On Monday October 11th at 2 pm Beijing time, we held the third round giveaway for 1 bottles of wine sponsored by Babel Tower. In the end, we had one lucky prize-winners who are Kristina from Russia. The following is her winning story, you can open the link to read her great story.北京時間 10 月 11 日星期一下午兩點我們進行了第三輪抽獎，獲獎者是來自俄羅斯的秀穎，以下是她的獲獎故事，打開鏈接閱讀她的精彩故事吧！
家外之家 2021
When I tell many people that I live in China, they ask me questions about crowds, traffic, and other problems that they’ve heard exist in China. I’ve been living internationally for 18 years and this is the start of my fourth year in China. To answer these questions, I always show pictures of where I live – in a beautiful beach side community with no traffic and no crowds. Actually, I used to believe those stereotypes about China, too. At one point, I said ‘Never China’ when thinking of where to go next. I’m so glad I decided to change my mind and give China a chance.如果告訴別人我住在中國，他們會問我中國的人口、交通等問題。我已經(jīng)在世界各地生活了 18 年，今年是我在中國生活的第四年。我回答這些問題的方式就是向他們展示我家小區(qū)的照片——一個美麗的海濱小區(qū)，那里沒有擁堵的交通，沒有龐大的人口。事實上，我也曾認為那些對中國的刻板印象是真的。我在考慮下一站去哪里的時候，一度說“絕對不去中國”。我很慶幸自己改變了想法，給中國一個機會。
家外之家 2021
My journey began in 2011 when I started studying at the Confucius Institute of Ecuador. I fell in love with the language right away and committed to studying Mandarin Chinese until I could speak the language perfectly. This started a journey that will last forever.2011 年，我開始在厄瓜多爾孔子學院學習，我的中國之旅也由此開始。我一下子就愛上了漢語并開始學習，立志精通這門語言。從此，我開啟了一段永恒的旅程。
家外之家 2021
人們經(jīng)常問我為什么來中國。說實話，對于這個問題，我腦海中不會閃現(xiàn)一個現(xiàn)成的答案，除了簡單地說我很好奇以外。我來到中國之前，對這個國家了解不多，它的語言和文化對我來說是個謎。
家外之家 2021
My journey started in 2008 in Xiamen. It all started with when my previous employer came to India that year and saw what I was capable of. I had been offered an opportunity to come to China in 2005 but I turned it down so I figured that this second opportunity was a sign that I could not say no to. When I first came here, I was surprised that there were a lot of yoga places in Fujian and as I first worked in Xiamen, my company decided to send me to Quanzhou to live from 2008-2010. Those were the best 2 years of my life and it definitely left a lasting impression on me about China. After those 2 years, I pondered opening my own company and in 2011 I officially became a yoga entrepreneur.2008 年，我的中國之旅從廈門起航。那年，我之前的老板來到印度，發(fā)現(xiàn)了我的能力。2005年，我本有機會來到中國，但我拒絕了，所以我想這次一定要抓住機會。我第一次來到廈門的時候，我很驚訝，福建竟然有這么多瑜伽館。我第一次在廈門工作的時候，公司決定讓我 2008 年去泉州居住，在那兒居住兩年。那是我生命中最美好的兩年，也令我對中國形成了深刻的印象。兩年后，我考慮開一家自己的公司，2011 年我的瑜伽公司正式成立。
家外之家 2021
I used to work in the construction industry in Germany and in 2006 I got the opportunity to interview for a job as a Construction Manager for the company’s branch in Shanghai. I applied for the position and was successful! So, my journey to China started on January 2007 and I was really happy but also a bit worried.
我來中國之前，在德國工作，從事建筑行業(yè)。2006 年，我申請了上海分公司建筑經(jīng)理的職位。通過面試，我成功地獲得了這個崗位！就這樣，我的中國之旅從 2007 年 1 月開始，我當時非常高興，但又懷揣些許不安。
