2018-08-24

【Aiden in English】

        Today truly was the first day I felt this adventure was almost over. Thirty-six hours in Nanjing, twenty-four more in Beijing, and then fourteen hours sitting in one place surrounded by strangers while flying through freezing clouds. Oddly enough, when the finish line is in sit, mom slows the pace down, deciding now would be the best time to spend some family time. 

        Normally, Chinese families only have a section move overseas, and hence so many ABC's living in the US. However, most make annual trips back to China, seeing family and never leaving their family behind. I wish I could say the same of my family, but that isn't true. I haven't been anywhere in China outside of Beijing, and mom hasn't been to China for 18 years as her parents or my grandparents went abroad. So pretty much, this side of the house hasn't visited its corresponding relatives for as long as I've been alive. 

        As for my mom's relatives, it isn't a complete mystery. Her sister, my aunt, and daughter visited the US several times a few years ago, and they stayed over at our house. Once again, that was a while ago. Regardless, the family doesn't change that dramatically over such a short period of time, so I expected to know everyone pretty well. At least, that's what I thought.

        I shouldn't underestimate the growth of young kids. From a constant perspective of parents, sometimes growth can be overlooked. But if you see someone years apart, you forget the young years hold growth spurts every other month it seems. Unfortunately, the Chinese population appears to lack a few of these spurts, so my tiny seven-year-old cousin spent most of her growth within her mind. It's really depressing to know a little girl eight years younger than you and a Chinese vocabulary twice the size of yours. And I even took AP Chinese. Therefore, my cousin kind of bossed me around at times, and I let her have her fun. That is until I realized she had an irrational fear of water, water banks, and bridges. Some may say it's cruel, but I had to make her cross every bridge we saw.

        Due to the lack of exposure, mom's modern Chinese technology skills took a severe dip. WeChat has built quite a monopoly, controlling the texting system, voice chat, calls, video messages, photos, social media, calling taxis, and wireless paying (Alipay). Now that's what I call growth. WeChat officially combined iMessage, FaceTime, calling, Snapchat, Uber, and ApplePay into one app. The result? Practically everyone has WeChat. Of course, we as Americans don't. At least, not all its features. So for the entire trip mom and I were walking on one leg, paying with cash and hailing cabs on the street. Sometimes I wondered if it would've just been better to spend an hour’s time one night and set up WeChat, but I highly doubt it would spread through the rest of the world like China, so perhaps an account now wouldn't be too meaningful. 

        Family time with mom consists of food and a long walk around the area, which happened right after food, and similarly, food followed the walk. Not the greatest idea from the standpoint of one’s digestive tract. However, some great memories were made with my little cousin who grew up quite a bit from the last time I saw her, but not enough to become a stranger. I'm glad about that. Hopefully, the next time we meet, we still won't be strangers, and maybe I'll have a bigger Chinese vocabulary.

【紅霞譯文】

        今天真的是我頭一次感到此行出遊即將終結，剩下的只有南京卅六鐘頭，外加北京廿四小時，然後穿越冰凍雲層期間再與周圍陌生人一道危襟正坐十四個鐘點。邪門的是，結束之前媽媽居然放慢了節奏，專心致志與家人共度良宵。

        通常情況下，中國人家只有部分成員移居海外，結果便出現很多華裔子弟在美國出生長大，他們中不少同胞心繫家人，每年都要回國探親，但願我也有同樣經歷，可事實並非如此。除北京之外，我從來沒有到訪過中國其它地方，因為媽媽的父母即我的外祖輩旅居海外，她已有十八年沒回國，所以說長這麼大，我還沒跟媽媽家的親戚朋友打過照面。

        媽媽的親戚於我並不完全陌生，她的妹妹即我的小姨及其女兒幾年前多次來美並住在我家，這已是多年以前的事情，不管怎麼，親情並非因短暫離別而發生戲劇性變化，至少我這麼認為。

        “士別三日，當刮目相看”。我不該低估兒童成長，但從父母慣有的眼光來看，身體增長無需大驚小怪，不過如果與人時隔幾年未曾相見，你會忘記發育期個頭竄得日新月異，可惜咱中國人似乎缺乏的就是這點驟變，因此我家七歲小表妹最突出的成長莫過於心眼。面對一個年幼八歲而漢語詞彙量卻高出兩倍之多的丫頭片子真讓你無地自容，殊不知我持有美國大學中文預科結業文憑。這下倒好，表妹幾度神氣活現拿我開涮，我只好認栽隨她取樂，直到我發現她對溪流河沿浮橋有種莫名其妙的恐懼感方才出現轉機，有人或許認為此招太損，但我不得不擠兌她走完一路上遇到的所有橋梁。

        由於生活脫節，媽媽對中國現代技術知之甚少。當今微信幾近壟斷一切，操控短信系統、語音聊天、電話交流、視頻傳遞、相片成像、社交媒體、出租打的、無線支付（支付寶），目前我把這些發展稱為成長，微信正式將電子短信、同步視頻、即時電話、快照聊天、優步打的及蘋果支付火併成一個應用程序，結果呢？幾乎人人有微信，而在美國生活的我們則不盡然，起碼沒有這麼多功能。這趟中國之旅我和媽媽獨腿前行，用現金付賬，靠上街攔車，有時禁不住捫心自問，假如晚上花上個把鐘頭設好微信是否會有改觀，但我高度懷疑世界其它國家會像中國發展如此神速，所以說即使眼下有個賬戶也無濟於事。

        與媽媽家人團圓少不了聚餐及飯後就近化食，吃飽了散步，散步完了接着再吃，這對人體消化道來說未必有益，不過與小表妹度過的美好時光卻成了我記憶中最珍貴的部分，儘管自打上次見面之後她長大了許多，但彼此相得甚歡毫無陌生之意，令我倍感欣慰，希望下次相見的時候依舊談笑自若，沒準我將擴大不少漢語詞彙量。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2017: Lucerne—Salvation through Christ, CHE(瑞士盧塞恩─救贖之城)

2017: Lucerne—Romantic Pearl of Swiss, CHE(瑞士盧塞恩─浪漫明珠)

2017: Lucerne the Mournful Lion, Swiss(瑞士盧塞恩─垂死獅子像)

2017: Lucerne the Chapel Bridge, Swiss(瑞士盧塞恩─教堂廊橋)

2017: Lucerne—Variety of Standard, Swiss(瑞士盧塞恩─多元文化)

2017: Basel the Fable Basilisk, Swiss(瑞士巴塞爾—蛇王仙境)

2017: Basel—Home to Roche & Novartis, CHE(瑞士巴塞爾—羅氏與諾華藥業總部)

2010: 天大地大(Heaven and Earth)

2009: 證書獎狀獎盃(Awards)

Crosslink(相關博文):

2012: 兄弟姐妹(Siblings)

China(出遊中國)