2015-08-18

【Aiden in English】

        Sometimes I look back and view scary events, and I can't help mumbling “hey, that wasn’t half bad!” Now that the moment has passed and the event is in your past, it seems quick easy. As I look back at one of the most monumental moments of my life, I say that it was a walk in the park.

        A 12-year-old boy flying on a plane by himself seems strange enough. To start, people would wonder if that were even legal, and they would also say if the kid were an orphan. My answers to those questions are a) yes, it’s legal, and b) no, I’m not an orphan or hobo. I’m just a 12-year-old kid flying by myself to Beijing from PA to visit my extended family before the summer is over. A regular child would think that I might be out of the mind, but I’m not the simple, every day sixth grader. In other words, I’ve traveled around the world, and a direct flight to China is as easy as getting a 103% average for my trimester in science. However, I haven’t really gone on a plane alone before. But there are a lot of things I haven’t done before and the only way to do them is to try.

        The plane seemed so much hotter when you’re alone. Or it was just because the air-conditioning wasn’t working. The waiting seemed to stretch out longer, even though I knew it was just an hour delay for refueling. And I also had to consistently go to the restroom. As a matter of fact, it was just that I chugged an entire bottle of water before the security checkpoint. Nevertheless, the attendants looked welcoming almost since I’d been on it so many times. I was delighted with the TV screen, and so I was set. I just needed to keep an eye on my passport, and all would be well. The plane took off and doing the math, I would need to sleep 4 hours to balance the time out. But something tells I slept way more than necessary. Although I was clonked out for a long, long time, plane flights were tricky since this plane followed the sun, and it felt like a 36-hour a day. There were 12 hours of the time difference between Beijing and the East Coast of the USA in the summer. So the jet-lag was kind of inevitable. Now the easy part was done, and I was ready for the challenges Beijing’s airport brought me at the destination. 

        The only reason I decided to travel alone to China was that I’d been on so many plane flights, going through customs and baggage claim, the process even got a tad boring. This time, “boring” was the one emotion and the trip wasn’t. Dad told me to follow the crowd at PEK, which got me confused at first since nearly half the plane’s passengers were transferring flights. Customs was easy too, although I was freaking out. Luckily, I didn’t have to say a word. I took a shuttle train to Terminal 3C where all the exits were. By then, I had the situation under control to a point where I could actually breathe normally. In Beijing, I was living with my uncle and his wife. They recognized me almost immediately as I stepped outside.

       The entire process wasn’t really all that bad. This moment stood as evidence for an individual person, and I guess I can do this again if I have to.

【紅霞譯文】

        驀然回首，記憶中不時閃現一幕幕驚人場景，我禁不住喃喃喃自語“根本沒那麼糟糕！”如今時過境遷往事如煙，從前所經歷的一切好像都變得非常簡單，我甚至把永生難忘的某一時刻視作去公園漫步。

        一位年僅十二歲的男孩獨自乘坐飛機，乍看起來好像異乎尋常，人們免不了質疑這麼做是否合法，莫非真是孤兒不成。針對上述兩個問題，我的回答是：第一，時至今朝，我有權天馬行空獨往獨來；第二，本人既不是無依無靠，也不是無家可歸，此行純粹為了趕在暑假結束之前，由賓州專程到北京拜親訪友。同齡人也許認為我腦袋進水，可我哪像兩耳不聞窗外事的初中一年級學生，換句話說，為了週遊世界，我不惜浪跡天涯，直飛中國實在不足為奇，好比科學課三學制輕鬆拿下平均分103%。然而，隻身飛行尚屬我平生第一次。但世上有許多事情本人從未涉獵過，只要勇於嘗試，才能掌握新知。

        人在獨自飛行的時候，難免感覺機艙里異常悶熱，或許因為空調失靈；候機時間似乎格外漫長，可能因為飛機加油要推後個把時辰起飛；上廁所的次數驟增，那是因為安檢前我把隨身攜帶的瓶裝水一滴不落狂飲下肚。言而總之，乘務員笑容可掬，待人親切如故，況且我又喜歡座前的電視屏幕，心情不覺鎮定下來，唯一需要留意的就是護照，其它安然無恙。飛機起飛了，我開始盤算要睡足四小時方能確保充沛精力，但直覺在說這遠遠不夠，即使我酣睡良久，航空生活仍叫我感覺天昏地暗，尤其這架飛機奔向東方太陽升起的地方，晝夜之間足有卅六鐘頭之長，夏末秋初時節，北京與美東一直維持十二個小時時間差，因此時差效應難以避免。到現在為止，一切進展順利，我已經做好抵達終點站北京機場所需的心理準備。

        我決定獨自前往中國的唯一原因無疑源於以往多次乘坐飛機、頻繁出入海關、熟悉提取行李的氛圍，完成上述全部過場確實耗費精力，而此行“耗費精力”更帶有情感色彩，其實旅程本身並不乏味。事先爸爸叮囑我，下了飛機後一定要緊隨大流，這讓我傷透腦筋，因為將近一半以上的乘客需要在首都機場轉機。儘管我內心忐忑不安，但出關手續簡便效率神速，何況又無需多費口舌。我坐上機場中轉火車到3C號站台下車，所有到京的乘客均在此地離開機場，直到這時，我才長噓了一口氣。在京期間，我將與叔嬸生活在一起，他們接機時一下子認出了我。

         整個過程真的沒那麼可怕，獨行經歷增強了自我意識，今後若有必要，我還會再來一次。