家外之家 2021
San Pedro is a small town in The Philippines and the fun fact is: Xiamen is represented by egrets and in San Pedro, our mascot is a chicken. There’s a huge statue of a chicken with an egg under it. When I left San Pedro, I was like the chicken and now I’ve evolved to become an egret.圣佩特罗是菲律宾的一个小镇。有趣的是，厦门以白鹭为代表，而在圣佩德罗，我们的吉祥物是一只鸡。有一座巨大的雕像，是一只鸡，下面有一颗鸡蛋。我离开圣佩德罗时，我就像一只小鸡，现在我已经进化成一只白鹭了。
家外之家 2021
Do you want to hear my love-story with China? Okay! I was 22 years-old when I got a letter from the Embassy of China in Antananarivo. Antananarivo is the capital city of Madagascar, the country where I was born and raised. A country that I’d never left, not even once. This is how the house where I used to live looks like. Too old and out of date, isn’t it?
你想知道我和中国的“爱情故事”吗？听我给您道来。22 岁那年，我收到中国驻塔那那利佛大使馆的来信。塔那那利佛是马达加斯加的首都，我在那里出生长大。我从未出国，一次也没有。我儿时住的房子是这样的，太破旧了，对吧？
家外之家 2021
I can still remember watching a TV program on China and Chinese culture about 20 years ago when I was still very small. In the background, I heard melodious strains of Chinese music and I can still remember how the program featured key places of Chinese cultural interest and famous Chinese icons like The Great Wall. As I was just nine years old, this program formed such a deep impression in my mind that the longing to visit China one day was a longing that was present in my subconscious mind from that day onwards. I still remember 3 years ago; my editor called me into his room and asked me whether I would like to undertake a visit to China. He also added that the visit would last 10 months. I couldn’t believe what I heard. I was overjoyed. I could only mutter ‘yes sir’ because I was still suffering from the shock of having my childhood dream of going to China coming true.
我还记得大约 20 年前，那时候我还很小，看过一个电视节目，是关于中国和中国文化的，背景音乐是悠扬的中国传统音乐。我仍然记得这个节目介绍了中国的文化名胜和标志性建筑，如长城。那时我才 9 岁，但这个节目已经在我脑海中留下了深刻的印象。有朝一日我要去中国，这种渴望，自那天起便成为我潜意识的一部分。我还记得 3 年前，编辑把我叫到他的房间，问我是否愿意去中国。他还补充说，这次旅程将持续 10 个月。我简直不敢相信我的耳朵，欣喜若狂。因为儿时的梦想终于要成真了，我激动得话都说不出来，只能咕哝一声“是的，我愿意”。
家外之家 2021
My journey in China began back in 2018, when I saw a flyer at my university to study abroad for one semester. At that time, I recently won a prize to receive a free passport through a drawing so it just made sense to apply. When I applied I wasn’t thinking I’d actually get selected but come fall semester 2018 I was on the plane to Harbin, China with 11 other students from my school.
我的中国之旅始于 2018 年，当时我在大学看到了一张传单，内容是出国留学一个学期的项目。那时，我抽奖获得了免费护照，所以我才申请了这个项目。我申请的时候，万万没想到真的会被选中。到了 2018 年秋季学期，我和同校的 11 名学生搭上了飞往中国哈尔滨的航班。
家外之家 2021
“Maybe you were a Chinese person in your past life.”
Over the 8 years that I have been living in China this is the, somewhat corny, jokingly way some of my Chinese friends replied to my enthusiastic accounts of my experiences here. And while I don’t believe in reincarnation, I do think that some of us are blessed with the chance to enjoy a second life, and sometimes if we are lucky, it might be as good a life as the one I enjoy in China.
“也许你前世是个中国人。”
我生活在中国的 8 年里，一些中国朋友对我的经历就是这样描述的，有点老套，打趣的措辞。虽然我不相信轮回，但我确实认为有些人有幸享受第二人生。有时候想想，如果我们足够幸运的话，就能来中国享受精彩的人生。
家外之家 2021
* Was it every time I visited a new big city as a child and declared I’d live there someday?
— In hindsight, “big” is a relative term, since we considered them big, but most of them had a population smaller than Xiamen does now. Still, I was always drawn to cities.
* 小时候是不是每次去一个新的大城市，都会说总有一天我会住在那里？
——如今看来，“大”是相对的，只是我们认为它很大，但大多数城市的人口都比现在的厦门少。尽管如此，我总是被这些城市所吸引。
我在中国的家
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。
我在中国的家
I’m French and a Hunanese daughter-in-law! I’ve been attracted to China’s history, cuisine and language since I was a child… But what first made me fall in love with China was the giant pandas. My nickname is actually Panda because I have dark circles under my eyes, just like my dad. Now that I’m a grown-up, he still calls me that! When I was little, my dad showed me pictures of pandas for the first time and I fell in love and wanted to learn more about them.我是法国人，湖南媳妇！我从小就被中国的历史、美食和语言所吸引……但让我爱上中国的首要原因是大熊猫。我的外号就是熊猫，因为我的眼睛下面有黑眼圈，我爸也这么叫我。现在我长大了，他还这么叫我！小时候，爸爸第一次给我看大熊猫的照片，我就爱上了它们，并且想更加深入地了解它们。
我在中国的家
I love Shaoxing because there’s water and canals everywhere which fascinates me! Everyone always calls Shaoxing the “Venice of China” and I would see why it could be described in that way! The canals and waterways actually inspired me to build my own boat but I elaborate on that later on.我爱绍兴，那里到处都是水和运河，让我着迷！绍兴被誉为“中国的威尼斯”实至名归！运河和水道激发我造船的想法，我稍后会详细说明。
我在中国的家
I was a Spanish, English and Chinese translation major in my undergrad years. After 4 years of part-time Chinese learning, I could translate written texts, but could barely utter a few Chinese sentences with the tones all mixed-up… Luckily, the chance to visit China came with a scholarship from the Confucius Institute of the University of Granada, Spain. My classmates and I enjoyed our first China-experience at Beijing University in 2014, and that encouraged me to learn Chinese in Xiamen for 10 months. Then, after a year of work in Spain, I chose to pursue a Master’s Degree in Chinese translation at Xiamen university which led to working at MTS, and here I am! 我本科主修西班牙语、英语和汉语翻译。断断续续学了4年汉语，我可以翻译书面文字，但却说不了几句汉语，声调是混乱的……幸好西班牙格拉纳达大学孔子学院提供奖学金来华游学。2014 年，我和同学来到北京大学，那是我第一次来中国，然后我到厦门学习了 10 个月汉语。接着，在西班牙工作一年后，我选择在厦门大学攻读汉语翻译硕士学位，之后我选择在精艺达工作，也就是我现在工作的地方！
