|
Chinese Man's Life with Beautiful Ukrainian Wife Envied
12 years ago, Mei Aicai only scored 320 points on the Gaokao examination [out of 750 points]. With this, he thought his academic career was over, and suddenly found himself at a loss for what to do. At that point, a friend dragged him along to go study abroad in Ukraine, and even though he thought Ukraine was in Africa at the time and couldn’t speak a single word of the language there, Mei Aicai still boarded the flight to this strange new country, never imagining that once he went, he would be there for 12 years…
Anxiety – he only knew one Russian phrase before leaving the country [going abroad]
For Mei Aicai, Ukraine was an unknown country, and initially thought this country was in Africa.
”Before I left the country, I went to Shijiazhuang and learned Russian for a month, but ultimately only learned “hello, I want water”. When I got on the plane, I was really nervous, not knowing what would be waiting for me in an unknown country,” Mei Aicai said.
Upon arriving in Ukraine, Mei Aicai took a preparatory course at the local university, and because he didn’t speak the language, he made a mockery of himself. “When I first arrived, I saw black bread in the store. I thought it was made with chocolate and bought a whole bunch, but when I took a bite, it was both bitter and hard, like a rock. In the end, I had to throw it all away,” Mei Aicai said.
Another time, Mei Aicai went to the hair salon for a haircut and had a lot of trouble describing the hairstyle he wanted to the barber. Eventually, he resorted to buying a pair of scissors and used a mirror to cut his own hair. Russian words are very long, and its grammar is even more complex, with many Ukrainians themselves not even fully understanding it. Mei Aicai couldn’t understand anything during class, as the professor had a deep accent, and to him it all sounded like someone selling lamb skewers.
A lonely life – tomatoes scrambled with egg was a luxury for him
To outsiders, Mei Aicai must have come from a rich household to be able to go abroad, but in reality his parents were average working class people. He chose to go to Ukraine because the cost of a university education was similar to China, and moreover visas were also relatively easy to obtain.
Although his family was not wealthy, Mei Aicai didn’t grow up in hardship either, but when he arrived in Ukraine, the first problem he had to solve was how to feed himself. During the winter in Ukraine, vegetables are very expensive, the price tags all listed prices in kilograms, and no matter what Mei Aicai looked at, he felt he couldn’t afford anything.
“Only after going out in the world did I slowly understand my parents’ hardships. For the first two years, the things I ate the most were potatoes and cabbage, as these two things are the cheapest in Ukraine. Only during Chinese New Year was I willing to buy two tomatoes. At the time, I thought tomato scrambled with egg was a luxurious meal.”
Although it was hard, Mei Aicai quickly became independent, and as someone who had never cooked before at home, he gradually learned how to even cook a few specialties. Mei Aicai said: “The first year abroad, what I felt most was loneliness and helplessness, and everyday I wanted to go [back] home. At that time, I did not have a phone or a computer, so I eagerly waited for the weekends when I could go to the internet cafe to chat with my family”.
sumber http://www.chinasmack.com/2014/s ... an-wife-envied.html
|
|