Quote from Chenchangheng:
下面的我的英文日记,也是我的真实生活,我常用英文写日记,觉得有些东西更好表达。
August 2, 2009 Rotterdam
when I’m about to leave China, a country that I’ve never stepped out of, I had nothing with me but a red suitcase which held a few summer dresses and a dictionary(Chinese and English). I was not sad to leave. I was just excited to see a new land that I’ve never been to and a man who’s going to meet me at the airport. It was not a day with sensational farewell with family, but a day of fight. As usual, I left that home with tears. But this time, I’m going to leave forever. Mother and father didn’t realize the consequence at that moment: the eldest one of the family and their hope is going to leave for a long time and live in a place that they couldn’t imagine how far away it can be. They also didn’t realize that I am not going to be with them when they got old and sick and need somebody to take care of. They supposed that I am going to bring money and fortune to the family once I go abroad, as the others in the city go to countries like Japan, Australia or Ireland. Those people work like a horse as second class citizen, live like in the hell abroad and save all the “sweaty” money back home. My parents made a big mistake; I am not going to one of them. I am going to discover my romance and new life in Holland, a country that I barely have any knowledge. I am not afraid of this strange land though, because I am going to be someone who loves me, and this gives me confidence. Everything is unclear to me there, but that he loves me is clear. I am going to discover the first time the mystery of love.
I remember I was standing in the living room helplessly because mother took away my suitcase and wouldn’t let me leave. It was not because she was not willing to let me go but she was angry with me because I didn’t do the thing in her will. She asked me to call all the relatives to announce this “big news” that I’m going abroad. The concept of Chinese relatives is much wider than western relatives. They are people like my grandmother’s sister’s son’s children who I’ve never met. I felt a bit embarrassed to call them for this private thing. But mother insisted that I should call and ensured me that some relatives will give me some money if they know that I’m going abroad. After knowing this, I was even more unwilling to call anybody, because I don’t want to own other people, and I was just embarrassed.
Mother was hysterias as usual.
“Are you afraid that I’m going to take away the money if they give it to you? I brought you up and I pay for all your education, don’t I deserve to have this little wish? You are already so unrespectable to me now; I don’t expect you to be nice to me if you’ll ever get rich in the future. I’m not going to let you go today if you don’t do what I tell you to! ”
Mother was shouting at me while pointing her forefinger angrily at me.
I was just afraid that I’m not going to get that suitcase, which carries all my beautiful clothing that I’m going to wear in the summer of Holland. And my dictionary of course, I need that in a completely strange place. Scared and threatened, I did what she told me to. Father couldn’t do anything while mother is doing that to me. He is dreadful of her since I have memory of him. All I could ask father to do is to carry that suitcase from the sixth floor to downstairs. They didn’t have an elevator in the building.
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I enjoy reading them. It is really beautifully written. It even surprised me that beauty can be coming out of a sad land. - Du
“Chang, please help me go to Holland someday, I don’t want to live with your mother, I can’t stand her. You are my only hope now.” Father begged me secretly at the last moment before I was about to sit on the taxi.
My brother Hang heard father,
“Please don’t say these things today, sister, don’t listen to father’s nonsense”, he said. Hang is the only one that’s normal in the family. I’m going to miss him and take pity on him. He’ll still have to be with my parents for a while. Poor him! I’m just scared of my mother and I feel so freed that I’m going to be away from her. And father, he’s a piece of white paper for me. He seems to be invisible all the time.
Like all of us, he wants to escape, but he’s not able to. He’s a sacrifice of a sad and failed marriage. And we are the sacrifice of an unhappy family. From the day when I left that home, I knew that I was going to have a different life. |