初来乍到Arriving in China

文/史蒂芬·方嘉提 (Steven Fogarty)译/史聪一

（作者单位：广州誉德莱国际学校）

（the author is from Utahloy International School Guangzhou）

史蒂芬·方嘉提的全家福

我愿意同诸位分享的故事不胜枚举，这次我要讲述的故事却使我感到尤为贴心。

这个故事讲述了我们一家来到中国最初几日的所见所闻。

当一个人初次来到一个国度，缩手缩脚的经历或将不可避免，尤其是带着两个孩子并且不会讲任何中文，而且对新的地方一点儿也不了解。幸运的是，我们得贵人相助，迈克费什先生（非其真实姓名，以下简称费什先生）来机场迎接我们：他不仅是我未来在学校的同事，还是邀请我们来华之人。对此，我记忆犹新，因为当时费什先生本人一直处于紧张不安的情绪中，他似乎急于将我们送到巴士之上，并尽快让我们入住其体贴安排的公寓之中。总之，一切越快越好！

There are many stories that I would like to tell, but this is one that is particularly close to my heart.

This is the story of my family and myself, and our first couple of days’ experience in China.

Now arriving in any country for the first time can be a rather daunting experience especially if you have a family with two small children, you don’t yet speak any Chinese and you have no idea what to expect. Luckily for us we were in good hands and were met at the airport by Mr. MacFish (not his real name),one of my future colleagues at the school that invited us here. I remember it vividly because he is a rather nervous man, and he seemed to be in a great hurry to get us on the bus and to the flat that they had kindly arranged for us, as quickly as possible.

对我而言，每当来到一个新的国度后，寻找自动取款机并兑换一定金额的当地货币，已然成为例行公事；如若不然，我便会在机场的外汇兑换点，用先前随身携带的本币兑换一些外币。但是，费什先生雷厉风行的举动，让我不敢有丝毫的耽搁与拖沓。

At this point I should say that having arrived in a new country,it is a custom of mine to visit an ATM (cash point) and collect some of the local currency or, failing that, to visit an exchange point at the airport and change some of the cash that I brought with me, but Mr. MacFish seem in such a sweaty rush that I didn’t have the nerve to delay him.

接着，我们全家被接送至一所属于自己的公寓中，这天是个周六。这里相当不错，并附带一些指引信息。因为筋疲力尽与时差作梗，当得知这里能够在周一早晨乘坐巴士前往学校后，我们一家随即瘫倒在凌乱的床上睡了几个小时。但对我们而言，休息时间并没有持续太久，因为孩子们在飞机上睡得很香（小孩子的典型特征），在一个陌生的环境中，孩子们热衷于探索每一个角落，所以我和妻子必须保持警惕。此时，妻子要求我必须去做的第一件事情便是外出购买食物，因为过不了多久饥饿感便会笼罩全家。于是，我带着信用卡与一些欧元，希望能够找到兑换人民币的地方，那样我就能够在超市购买一些食物。果然不久之后我便找到一家拥有自动取款机的银行，取款机上显示能够使用VISA，并且支持英文服务（并不是所有的取款机都支持英文服务）。于是，我迅速掏出了我的信用卡，试图换取一些人民币。那么，结果如何呢？得到的答案是：不可以！

我在国内的银行拥有足够的信用额度，并在出国前夕已确认过，我甚至询问了信用卡能否在中国使用，银行回复我说没有问题。然而，在永泰当地辗转了两三家银行后，我意识到使用信用卡并不奏效。这时我身无分文（人民币），无法在超市买到食物，我的孩子们将会饿肚子。冷静思考后，我认为事情应该可以解决，因为我随身携带了许多欧元现金。于是，我找到一位银行职员询问哪里可以兑换人民币，但他们只是茫然地望着我，平静地用中文对我说着什么。之后，他们给了我一个尴尬的微笑，看起来因为什么原因而觉得抱歉。其实我能够理解，并不是每一个人都会说英语，于是我决定询问其他人，因为我认为必然有人懂英语，毕竟这是国际通用语言，难道不是吗？但我确实错了，在其他银行，被询问过的银行职员们全部都是同样的反应：先对我用中文说些什么，然后面露愧疚地站在原地。也许，他们在后悔上学期间并没有足够重视英语课。我该何去何从？

事实证明，周六下午在永泰兑换外币绝非易事。这时我开始有些气恼，饥饿与压抑并存。我不是一位称职的父亲，我究竟做了什么，把全家带到了这个湿热的地方并且让他们饥肠辘辘——这是何等的绝望（每当悲剧浮出水面时，那些具有西班牙基因的人们总是按捺不住）。如果下一位银行职员仍然对我尴尬一笑，那我着实做好了尖叫的准备。但幸运的是，我遇到了一位美丽的女士，她的英语非常出色，伴随着令人倍感安慰的音调，同时向我解释该业务并非每家银行在周六都能够办理，应该前往市中心的一家银行进行办理。随后，她为我写下一些路线指引，并告诉我搭车前往那里即可。欣喜之余，我准备带着满满的温暖离开银行，但当我走下台阶之时，突然意识到：如果出租车司机载我到任何地方，我都需要付现金！没有现金使我感到绝望，这该如何是好？我折回银行，向那位唯一能与我进行语言交流的女士进行询问，周围是否存在其他银行能够步行前往？她在询问了她的同事们后，抱歉地告知我：那是他们所知唯一能够进行兑换的银行。

Now we have been left in a rather nice flat on our own on a Saturday with some instructions and told were we may catch the bus that will take us to school on the Monday morning, so exhausted and jet lagged after a long flight from Europe, we collapse onto the unmade beds and fall asleep for a couple of hours, not long because our children slept wonderfully on the plane (typical of children) and being in a strange environment they are keen to put their little fingers everywhere and so we have to keep our guard up. Now the first thing that my wife quite rightly tells me is to go out and find something to eat, we will soon have a number of hungry mouths to feed. So with that I take my credit card and some euros and hope that there is somewhere where I can find some local currency so that I can buy food at the super market. Being fairly resourceful it wasn’t long before I found a bank with cash machines and promptly, tried to withdraw some money on my international credit card on a machine that clearly accepted VISA and even to my delight worked in English (they don’t all do that). Could I withdraw money? No.

I had plenty of credit available at my bank, I made sure of that before I left, I even asked if my card would work in China and my bank had told me that it would. After trying two or three different banks in Yongtai I realized that this just wasn’t going to work, I had no money and my children were going to go hungry unless I could find a way to buy some food at the supermarket. But wait, I should be OK because I brought plenty of cash in Euro’s, so I found a bank clerk and asked where I could change some money, they just gave me a blank look and said something calmly in Chinese, gave me an awkward smile and stood their looking guilty for some strange reason. So yes, not everyone can speak English, I decided to try and ask someone else, someone had to have some English, it is after all the lingua franca, is n’t it?No, even in other banks, the same reaction, they say something in Chinese and then just stand there looking guilty that perhaps they did not spend enough attention in English class when they were at school. What was I going to do?

Turns out that changing cash is not so easy in Yogtai on a Saturday afternoon, by this time I am beginning to get annoyed,hungry and stressed, I have failed as a father, what have I done,I have brought my family to this humid place and now I can’t feed them, oh what despair (that would be those Spanish genes with their love of tragedy coming to the surface at every opportunity). If one more bank clerk would give me an awkward look,I was ready to scream, but luckily for me I found a beautiful young lady who spoke wonderful English in a lovely reassuring voice, and explained that the service I was looking for is not provided by every bank on a Saturday, and that I should go and visit a bank in the center, so she wrote down some directions for me and explained that I could jump in a taxi and find my way with no problem. Happily, I left the bank with a warm feeling,and on my way down the steps it struck me that the taxi driver would need to be paid if he was to take me anywhere. I had nomoney Oh despair, what was I to do? I went back in, to the only person that I had found that could speak my language, and again asked if there was a bank close enough for me to perhaps walk to? She went to ask some of her colleagues and she came back to me apologetically, she had given me details of the only place that they knew of where I could change cash.

但是，她接下来的举动却让我感到如此的伟大。

她来到柜台后方打开了自己的钱包，拿出了属于自己的20元人民币，并将这些钱转交到我的手中。她向我表示这些现金足够打车使用，同时示意我不要担心，偿还与否并不重要。

对于一位处于烦躁状态且不堪酷暑的外国人士而言，她的举动着实令人感到震撼，使我无言以对。但我随即明白：在这个国度，人与人之间的关系超乎金钱；我还明白了：我会喜欢中国，喜欢这里的文化，同时还有这里人与人之间的友善与耐心；我也意识到：我当时正身处于一个美好的地方。

之后，我的确找到了她为我指引的那家银行，就在它刚刚准备结束一天营业之时，我兑换到了一些人民币。后来，我还找到了一家超市，购买了食物，并带回给公寓中的妻子与两个孩子。后来，我们还找到了前往学校的路。然而，我却再也没有机会能找到返回那里的道路，再也没能找到那天曾经帮助过我的天使，并向她说一声“谢谢”！因此，我特此写下这篇短文，希望在未来的某一天，她也许能够听到或读到我写的故事，并认出故事中的自己，这样她便能够收到我所致的谢意。

非常感谢你能够在我来华第一天给予我的帮助，是你给我留下了持续深刻的印象，牢牢地牵挂于心。

（作者单位：广州誉德莱国际学校）

She then did the most extraordinary thing that I have ever seen.

She opened up her own purse from behind the counter, she took out 20RMB of her own money, she held my hand and she gave it to me, she told me that this would be enough for the taxi and not to worry about paying her back.

What a shock, such kindness and to a crazy, over heated, foreign desperado, I didn’t know what to say. I knew then, that I was in a country where people valued each other more than money, I knew then that I would like China, and the culture and kindness and patience that people have for each other here, I knew then that I was in a good place.

I did find the bank that she sent me to, just before they closed for the day, and I managed to change some money. I managed to find a supermarket and buy food to take home for my wife and children, and we all made it to school a couple of days later,but I never managed to find my way back to the angel that had helped me that day, I never had the opportunity to find her to say ‘thank you’ and so I write this short essay in the hope that perhaps one day she might read or hear of my story and recognize herself in it and so receive my thanks.

Thank you for your help on my first day in China, you left a lasting impression that I will always hold close to my heart.

（the author is from Utahloy International School Guangzhou）