Home away from home is a collection of the unique stories written by foreigners in China and compiled by Master Translations Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "MTS"), Babel Tower Translation Service Co., Ltd. and Moze (Beijing) Technology Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Moze"), aiming to explore the unique stories of approximately 100 foreign friends who came to China from all over the world.《家外之家》是一本外国人在中国的独特故事集，由外国人撰写，厦门精艺达翻译服务有限公司（以下简称“精艺达”）、巴别塔（深圳）翻译有限公司、墨责（北京）科技传播有限公司（以下简称“墨责”）面向全国共同征集汇编。

I came to China by surprise and without thinking too much, after more than five years in China, coming was without a doubt a good decision, and the good memories are much more than the bad ones.我来中国完全是一个意外，也没有多想。我已经在中国呆了五年多，这无疑是一个很棒的决定，美好的回忆远远多于糟糕的回忆。

Hey Everyone! Welcome to my story. Be prepared for wonder, miracles, and unnecessary flamboyance. So, how did I get to China ehhh? Well, I came two different times for two very different reasons.嘿，大家好！欢迎聆听我的故事。这是一个精彩而又神奇的故事，我会讲的天花乱坠，请你们做好准备。我是怎么来到中国的呢？好吧，我来过中国两次，每次来的原因都不同。

Greetings to anyone who might be reading this. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything meaningful so let me start off by telling you a little bit about myself. I first came to China roughly five years ago which was 1 year after I had finished university. Uncertain of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, one thing I was certain of was that a change was needed. I began looking into various opportunities abroad and stumbled upon the option of teaching English in China. Having travelled to most parts of the world, I thought: “What could be more different than China, right?”正在阅读这篇文章的朋友，你们好。我已经有段时间没写过特别有意思的东西了，所以让我先简单介绍一下自己。我第一次来到中国是五年前，那年是我大学毕业一年后。当时我不确定未来想做什么，但有一件事是确定的，那就是我需要改变。我开始在国外寻找各种机会，偶然间我发现可以去中国教英语。我走遍了世界上的大部分地方，心想：“还有什么地方比中国更与众不同呢？”

The first time I had a Chinese friend was at the age of 6. I had two Chinese classmates who could barely speak Italian, but at that time language wasn’t as important as it is now.我在 6 岁时交到了第一个中国朋友。那时候班上有两个几乎不会说意大利语的中国同学，不过那时候语言也没现在这么重要。