The days leading up to my departure for Beijing – Charlotte McGarry, September 2016

14237470_10209346899337218_3925509507185040632_n搬到中国前几天

我搬到中国的前一周忙得不得了。我星期三从国外旅行回来了英国,星期六打算上飞机到中国。。。。但是我还没拿到签证,还没把英镑兑换成人民币,还没装行李等等。起初,我暗自想 ‘需要办好的事这么多,上飞机前能处理完才怪呢!’。那三天我忙得要命,一天到晚都跑来跑去!幸亏我办好所有的手续 – 事情进展顺利。

上飞机的前夜,我住在朋友那里, 她也去北京,我们刚好坐同一班的飞机。说来也奇怪,我们的空座紧挨着!在飞机上,我用中文点餐。起初, 我担心我已经把所学的汉语都忘了,但我一开口说话 ,全都想起来。我告诉空中小姐我要练习中文,所以他只用中文跟我说-真是很有用!

星期六上午飞机在北京机场着陆了。人们常说北京的天气污染很严重所以我以为北京的天空一直是灰色的。出乎我的意料, 我到北京的那一天,天空却是纯净蓝色的,比我老家(迪拜)好得多!我对北京的最初影响很不错!

ENGLISH:

The weeks before my departure to China were extremely hectic. I arrived in England from abroad on a Wednesday and planned to take a plane to China on the Saturday … but I hadn’t got my visa, I hadn’t changed my British pounds to Chinese yuan, and I hadn’t packed! At first, I inwardly thought ‘There’s so much to do, there’s no way I’ll get it done in time!’. On those three days I was extremely busy and spent the whole time running around like crazy. Fortunately, I managed to get everything done – everything went according to plan. The night before I caught the plane, I stayed over at a friend’s house. She was also going to Beijing and it just so happened we were on the same flight. Strangely enough, our seats were even next to each other!

On the plane, I ordered my food in Chinese. At first I was worried that I’d have forgotten everything I learned, but the minute I opened my mouth to speak, it all came back to me. I told the stewardess I wanted to practice my Chinese, so she only spoke Chinese to me during the flight – it was really useful.

The plane landed in China on Saturday morning.  People often speak of how serious the air pollution is in China, so I thought the sky in Beijing would be permanently grey. Contrary to my expectations, on the day I arrived in Beijing the sky was a pure blue – it was even bluer than the sky in my hometown, Dubai! So my first impression of Beijing was definitely good.

After getting off the plane, I collected my luggage and stepped outside to hail a cab. Beijing, I’ve arrived!

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