At the time, I was pretty sure that Mr. Li was keeping something from me. As an American, I of course had heard about the mysterious phenomenon of "losing face", but aside from brief mentions in magazine articles and obscure lines in poorly translated Kungfu movies, I had no real understanding of what that term meant. Still, I was pretty sure I had caused it to happen to the driver and Mr. Li was just too polite to let me know. After seven years of living in China, I now know that they were probably just talking about the weather, or the best way to get to the airport. At the time though, I was convinced I had just insulted a Chinese person on my first day in China.
当时我非常确定李先生对我有所避讳。作为一个美国人，我当然听说过一种令人费解的现象“丢脸”。但是除了杂志文章的只言片语和粗制滥造的功夫片的含糊其辞，我真是对丢脸这回事不解其意。尽管如此，我依然确信我遭遇了这种尴尬，但是出于礼貌，司机和李先生都避而不谈。七年之后的今天，我终于明白，也许彼时他们只是在谈论天气或者赶往飞机场的最佳路径。此刻我才彻底地明白到中国的第一天我就羞辱了一个中国人。
After an, albeit one sided, tense ride, we finally arrived at the airport. After paying the driver, Mr. Li grabbed one of my bags and ran into the terminal. I grabbed my other bag, and with a quick backwards "sorry" to the confused driver, I ran after him. Once inside, it became clear that Mr. Li had not actually bought the tickets yet and that was why we had to get to the airport so early. He asked me for my passport, told me to wait where I was, and ran to a very full counter. I thought he would have to wait in line for hours, but Mr. Li just pushed and prodded his way to the front and was back with our tickets within minutes. As it turned out, our next plane would leave in a little less than an hour.
经过一段单向的紧张的车程之后，我们终于到达了机场。付过钱，李先生抓着我的一只包飞奔进终点站。回头对摸不着头脑的司机道声“抱歉”，我也抓起另外一只包紧随其后。进到里面之后，我才明白原来李先生并没有事先买票所以我们不得不提前登机。他要过我的护照嘱咐我等在原地然后向特别远的售票处走去。我以为他会排很长时间的队，但是李先生径直插到队首两分钟不到就搞定了我们的票。事实证明离我们的下一趟航班起飞还有近一个小时。
"Don't worry, we'll take breakfast on the plane", said Mr. Li, before grabbing my bag and running in the direction of the security entrance.
“别担心，我们在飞机上吃早餐。”在抓起我的包飞奔至安全入口的方向之前李先生说。
After getting through security and making our way to the terminal, I had just enough time to get a bottle of water, before I had to get in line for the plane. It soon became pretty clear that everyone there somehow came to the silent consensus that I would be the last person to get on the plane. As Mr. Li jostled his way through the line, he looked back and frantically waved for me to follow. Not wanting to offend a second person on my first day in China, I timidly made my way through the line, letting anyone with the notion, or just the elbow power, to get in front of me, do so. Finally, an older woman, who must have bemusedly watched my first attempt at getting through a crowd in China, held out her two arms ladened with bags of some kind of food, and nodded that I should go ahead of her. With a grateful smile, I finally made my way on the plane and sat down beside Mr. Li, who was already fast asleep. Four hours later, and I was in Wuhan.
通过安检之后我们开始向终点站走，排队登机之前我只有一点时间买瓶水。明摆着大家都心照不宣地知道我将是最后一个登机的人。李先生一边冲撞着挤在队里一边向后看还疯狂地挥手示意我跟上。实在是不想在初到中国的第一天就得罪第二个人，我胆怯地插进队伍里，同时也默许有此种意图的人，或许已经蠢蠢欲动的人插在我前面。最后，一位肯定已经很迷惑地见证过我在中国第一次尝试闯过人群的囧态的老妇人，伸出了她挂着食品袋的双臂，向我示意走到她前面去。对老人报以感恩的微笑，我终于杀出重围坐到李先生身边，此时的他已是昏昏欲睡了。四个小时之后，我抵达一座叫做武汉的城。
Which, of course, was not the end of my trip. Jingmen, which was where my new home was located, was another six hour bus trip away. But, after a nap on the plane, I was ready to go. And hungry. We had had no time to eat anything in the morning and if breakfast was served on the plane, I had slept through it...although I did notice that Mr. Li had two empty tinfoil containers on the pull down table in front of him, when I woke up. So, I was pretty excited when Mr. Li told me that we had a few hours before we had to be at the bus station and he wanted to treat me to lunch. Not only was I hungry, but I was also thrilled at the idea of finally eating real, authentic, Chinese food.
而我的旅程，还在继续。荆门，我的新家还在六个小时的公交车程之外遥遥相望。但是在飞机上小憩过后，我已经准备好迎接挑战。只是饥饿难耐啊！早晨出门之前没吃任何东西，而在飞机上的就餐机会也被我睡过了。我醒来时却发现李先生面前的推拉桌下有两个空瘪的锡纸袋。当李先生告诉我还有几个小时到公交车站，所以他想请我吃午餐时，我感到非常兴奋。不仅仅是因为饿了，而是我终于要见识地地道道的中国食物的庐山真面目了。
From the airport, we got on a shuttle flyer. On the hour long bus ride from the airport, I thought about Peking Duck and real, authentic, General Tso's chicken, and...well, to be honest, my imagination stopped there. I had no idea what real Chinese food would be like, but after an hour on the bus and then another thirty minutes of walking along the street, I was beginning to think that I would never get to try Peking Duck and that General Tso probably never really existed and even if he had, a general didn't sound like the kind of guy who would spend too much time cooking. The longer we walked, and the more restaurants we passed, and the more I tried to imagine what real Chinese food would be like, the more excited I became. That excitement quickly turned to disappointment however, when we finally arrived at Mr. Li's restaurant of choice.
我从飞机上得到一张传单。所以从机场到公交车站的漫长旅途中我便对北京烤鸭和正宗地道的左宗棠鸡念念不忘。当然，坦白说，我也就知道这么些。我不知道真正的中国食物什么样子，但是一个小时的公交车程和半个小时的步行之后，我开始胡思乱：我永远也不会尝到北京烤鸭，而那个所谓的左宗棠鸡也许根本就是个传说。即使它是真的，一个将军也不太可能会在厨艺上大费周章。走的路越长，路过的饭馆越多，我越好奇中国食物究竟什么样子。我越想越兴奋。但是当我们一迈进李先生挑中的馆子，我的那种莫名的兴奋瞬时变为泡影。
I had left America. I had left my job and my family and my friends. I had left the only culture that I had ever known. To travel to China. To see China. To meet Chinese people. To eat Chinese food! But what I got was McDonald's. I don't know if Mr. Li thought he was doing me a favor by buying me food he thought I would be more familiar with, or if he just wanted to finally try a hamburger (he told me as we ate that our town had no McDonald's) but my very first meal in China was a No 2 Big Mac combo meal.
我离乡背井，放弃工作，不顾亲人和朋友的劝阻，远离我熟悉的唯一的文化，不远千里，只身一人来到中国，其目的不过是想看看真正的中国，见见中国人，亲口尝一尝中国菜。现在我看到的是什么？麦当劳！我不知道李先生是出于对我的尊重才买我比较熟悉的食物还是他只不过是想尝个汉堡（就餐时他告诉我我们镇没有麦当劳），不过我在中国的第一顿饭竟然是一个巨无霸套餐，真是匪夷所思。
Disappointed, but full, we left the McDonald's and headed to the bus station, which turned out to be right across the street. We got on the small, crowded bus and started our final trip to Jingmen. As the bus drew closer to its destination, I noticed that each town we drove through was smaller than the last. Some towns seemed to be no more that a single street, surrounded by vast stretches of farmland. With each village that we entered, the same words passed through my head, "Please, not here! Don't let this be my new home!" Finally though, we made it to Jingmen, a town that was smaller than Wuhan and Shanghai, but much bigger than the villages we passed on our way.
尽管失望，但总算是填饱了肚子。我们离开麦当劳向正对面的公交站走去。我们挤上狭小拥挤的公车开始了我们通往终点荆门的最后旅程。随着目的地的接近，我发现途经的小镇变得越来越小。有些镇被深埋在无限延伸的田野里只剩一条街。每走进一个小镇，我便开始祈祷“不是这儿，千万别是这儿。我不想住在这里。”最终我们还是到达了荆门，虽然不及武汉和上海，但总比我们经过的那些村庄气派得多。
From the bus station in Jingmen, we jumped into one final taxi, which would take me to the school where my new apartment was. Once again, Mr. Li sat in the front, while I sat in the back with my bags. Even though it was October, the weather was much warmer here than it was back home. With the windows rolled down, I felt the cool wind dry the dampness from my hair and face. I let out a quiet sigh, knowing that I was almost there. Over thirty hours of traveling, all in two days, was about to come to an end. I finally felt that the stressful ordeal of traveling from one country to another was almost over and even though I also knew that soon I would be confronted with the new stresses of finding my way around a city where I did not speak the language and later still I would find myself in front of a classroom for the first time, for now, I could be at peace. And as I sat there, with the strange new sounds and smells of a strange new city carried by the cool breeze across my smiling face, I heard what sounded like a deep hacking from Mr. Li. I opened my eyes just in time to see him spit out the window. I watched as the glob of yellowish liquid flew out his window, got caught by the wind, and was then thrown back into the car through my window, to land with a splatter across my forehead. I wiped the spittle from my face and smiled. I was home.
在荆门下了公交车，跳进一辆的士，我们现在要向着我新公寓的学校出发了。李先生再一次坐在了前面（副驾驶座位），我和行李在后面。此刻虽然已经是十月，这边的气候依然比我的家暖和的多。车窗摇下，我感到习习凉风拂去我发间和脸上的沮丧之意。我轻叹一声，惬意而满足。整整两天三十多个小时的车马劳顿，终于要结束了。我的跨国之旅的苦难行将修成正果，尽管我知道我马上要面临的新的挑战：在一个语言不通的城市里找到生路；接下来我还会发现自己第一次站在一间教室的前面，虽然现在我镇定自若。我坐在那里，凉风轻抚着我微笑的面颊，一个全然陌生的城市的声音和气息向我涌来。此刻我听见李先生深重的咳嗽声，睁开眼正看见他向窗外呕吐。我看着微黄色液体水珠被风卷携着从他的窗口飞了出去，然后又从我的车窗被丢回车里，在我的额头上安全着陆。我抹去脸上的唾沫，露出了笑容：我到家了。
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