This is the story of the 621st real person we tell
I am Huya sister, a native of Zhongshan, Guangdong, after 80.
8 years ago, I didn't know anything about foreign languages, but I went across thousands of miles with my husband to open restaurants in Chile, and I tasted the bittersweet and bittersweet of life, the warm moments of foreigners and Chinese friends, and the cold experience of being claimed by relatives.
Although Chile has no leisure and entertainment, life is very boring, but the domestic catering industry competition is very strong, I thought I would stay in Chile before retirement, who expected the global epidemic, Chile's economy is unstable, even during the day there are often robberies. Therefore, we quickly bought a ticket to return to China for development, even if the road fare is 250,000, even if the isolation is very hard, we must return to China.
(Chilean friend sent us off at the airport)
Cantonese people love to wander, and many families have many relatives who go abroad. In my hometown of Zhongshan, there are many such families, including my own family. At the end of the 20th century, my father's 6 siblings all went abroad to develop, and he was the only one who stayed in his hometown.
From a young age, I often listen to adults nagging, who is next door and whose relatives are in which country; Among the friends who play together, who has a foreign toy; Occasionally, there are more strange faces at family dinners, and it turns out that it is the family that has been famous for a long time and has not been seen for many years.
Therefore, although I come from the countryside, I have never felt that it is out of reach to go abroad, and I have always wanted to go abroad to see a different broad world.
(Feeding black-necked swans with his son at The Double Centennial Park in Chile)
When I was in high school, I planned to study in Canada, but for various reasons I couldn't.
One of the big reasons is that there are no relatives who can run. Studying abroad more than a decade ago, unlike the current system is perfect, if there is no reliable host family, there will be a lot of inconvenience, and my parents are not at ease with me going out.
In fact, in Canada, we have relatives. But my relatives politely refused my family's request for surrender. As a result, my dream of going abroad was stranded.
Without the colorful dream of going abroad, my world turned gray. After finishing college, I went with the flow to find a job to make a living, and I didn't have the heart to fall in love, so after a year or two, my family began to worry about my marriage, but I had no interest in blind dates.
One day, a relative introduced a young man from the next village to my mother. My mother complained to me: "Forget about this, saying that people in Chile, the sky is high and the sky is far away, not to mention I don't know what kind of country Chile is, I have never heard of it before." ”
"Huh? Chile? Sky high? Haven't heard of countries? "I was inexplicably excited, and the latent spirit of exploration was revived." Ask for his contact details, I want to talk. "My mom was a bit surprised, but she still helped me ask for the guy's contact information."
(I'm in the Snowy Mountains of Chile, Parques de farellones)
Although it is thousands of miles away, the first chat is as kind and relaxed as an old friend.
I was like a curious baby: "Where is Chile?" What does it look like? When did you go there? Why run here? What are you doing there? ”
The young men came slowly and methodically, opening the door to a new world for me, rekindling my dream of going abroad, and the spirit of exploring challenges in my bones was uplifted. Since then, we often chat, talk about life, talk about dreams, talk about differences, and chat with each other has become the most pleasant thing in life.
I learned a lot about Chile, and one of the things that surprised me the most was the prevalence of unmarried children in Chile. Chile is a country that prohibits abortion, and it is legal to have children out of wedlock, so illegitimate children are common, and more than half of the children are born out of wedlock, following single mothers from an early age.
(I am in Chile vineyards)
After talking like this for more than a year, our relationship is getting better and better. In 2013, the boy deliberately returned to China to see me, and temporarily closed the restaurant in Chile to make long-term "combat preparations".
The guy's previous restaurant was rented from his cousin's storefront. At that time, the cousin's shop business was not satisfactory, so he did not want to open a shop, but the lease period was still several years, so he became a second-hand landlord and rented it to the young man.
Although the boy returned to China this time, he did not want to quit the rent, after all, no matter what the result was, he still had to return to Chile to make a living. After years of careful management, it is difficult to accumulate a good reputation and old customers, so I would rather continue to pay rent in vain than be willing to quit the rent.
The boy came from thousands of miles like this, sent me to and from work, week after week, month after month, silently gave up a year's income, and wasted a year's rent. In 2014, the heart changed for the heart, the boy became my husband, he said: "For the rest of your life, let me take you to see the beauty of this world."
(Family trip to southern Chile in 2013)
Shortly after the wedding, we decided to return to Chile together. When the restaurant reopened, he was the chef, and I was the helper, responsible for logistics and collection. In addition to the restaurant, the rental office also includes a place to live, and the contract is still there, so it can be directly moved in.
At that time, to go to Chile, a plane ticket cost more than 10,000 yuan, the cost of round-trip is very high, and the visa is also very troublesome, so this trip is ready not to return to China for many years. Fortunately, my brother developed in China, and my parents reassured me to go back.
When I arrived in Chile, everything was very fresh, different customs and customs, unfamiliar language in the ears, and different skin tones in the eyes. But soon, reality made me feel fresh without idleness.
My husband and I were happy to go to the store, planning to reopen the restaurant to give a discount, thanking the old customers. Who knew that my cousin herself had opened a restaurant there, and the business was good, and she didn't want to give up. So the husband had to find a new place to open a shop.
We want to find a two-story rental, downstairs to do storefront, upstairs life, so as to save a lot of money, but such a rent for several days has not been suitable. Later, under the introduction of guangdong compatriots, he took over a two-storey small restaurant.
During the search for a house and renovation, we did not have a place to live, thanks to the pillar aunt took in, she insisted on not collecting rent. In addition, because we did not know in-depth Spanish, she accompanied us to various departments and helped us translate when applying for various documents. Aunt Pillar is a husband who met in a previous restaurant, and thinks it is not easy for him to cross the ocean, so he is eager to help without asking for anything in return.
(Our family portrait)
Life after opening a shop is very hard, and it is particularly difficult to prepare ingredients. Foreigners like to eat Chinese spring rolls and dumplings, but at that time there was no finished spring roll skin and dumpling skin made by machine, so they had to be made by hand, rolling out the noodles to make a thin skin, often hand-played until midnight.
In addition to rolling the skin, we also have to mechanically cut a lot of cabbage and broccoli every day, and there is a more troublesome beef cut, because Chileans eat beef and do not eat the gluten part, so we have to cut out the tendon part, and cut the beef until the early morning when there is time.
Although it is very hard, but a point of hard work and a harvest, the days are getting better and better. The reputation of our store has slowly become better and better, and its popularity is getting better and better. We have made a lot of foreign friends, some of them are old customers in the store, and some of them are occasionally met when we go out to run errands. Some people see our Asian faces and take the initiative to chat, while others are interested in China themselves.
(We attended a family dinner with our Chilean friend Maurico)
The feelings between people need to interact with each other and maintain together.
On the one hand, foreign friends who have made good friends will often invite us to play together, some invite us to the barbecue party at home, some call us to spend Christmas together, some call us to eat together on The National Day of Chile, and some invite us to the son's birthday party.
On the other hand, we also take the initiative to care for friends, and we send birthday gifts and holiday wishes every year. "Courtesy exchange", universal.
We have not forgotten the kindness of Aunt Pillar to us, and every important holiday, we will prepare gifts for Aunt Pillar with care. Wherever we travel to Chile, we ask her if she would like to play together. She has taken her to the south of Chile to see the snowy mountains, to the north to see the sea, to play in the big pool when it is hot, and Aunt Pillar also likes to hang out with us.
(Take Aunt Pillar on a tour)
In addition, our relationship with the charter company is also very good. The charter public is the kind of person who speaks a lot, distinguishes between public and private, and has the spirit of contract, and the agreed rent and other expenses have not changed. Every Christmas we pick out gifts for the chartered man because we are also very conservative, so he likes us very much.
We also became good friends with our nearby Chinese neighbors. Because most Chinese people open restaurants, theory is that the Chinese are in a competitive relationship, but our relationship with our Chinese neighbors is very good, if anyone is missing any ingredients, they will run to the next house to borrow something.
Once there were not enough soybean sprouts in our shop, so I ran to a nearby Chinese friend's store to borrow bean sprouts, and my friend gave me a full bag and said that it was not enough to come again.
In addition, we have not encountered any prejudice in Chile, which is probably related to the diligence of the Chinese. In Chile, the average monthly income of locals is about 4,000 to 5,000, while the average monthly income of Chinese people is tens of thousands. Opening a restaurant in Chile, the competition is very small, the restaurants are basically Opened by Chinese, as long as you are diligent and diligent, the business will be good. Perhaps because Chilean welfare is very good, Chileans are lazy and not too enterprising.
(Photo with my son in San Lucia Hills, San Diego)
The only prejudice I encountered was the kind that was funny. I was in line that time, and a white-skinned young man in front of the line inadvertently turned his head and found me behind me. I saw a surprised expression on his face, his eyebrows were high, and there was some doubt in his eyes. Soon he smiled and made such an expression: one hand pulled up the corners of his eyes, and the other hand pulled his face down, making the appearance of Dan Phoenix's eyes hanging from the corners of his eyes.
I laughed on the spot, a little funny, it is really exaggerated, I can't help but think of the foreign very popular cartoon "Mulan", the character image in it is not an exaggerated Dan Phoenix Eye? It turns out that in the eyes of most foreigners, our Chinese are still thin and long faces, narrow eyes hanging at the end of the eyes!
(I compare it to Mulan's cartoon image)
However, in 2017 we suffered the most painful psychological injury: being "stabbed" by a loved one. My husband's cousin filed a lawsuit and took my old announcement to court, demanding compensation of more than 400,000 yuan!
My husband rented her storefront before, and then when my husband returned to China, she opened her own restaurant there, not only simply using the restaurant arranged by my husband, but also the most important thing is the reputation of the shop and the old customers.
So in 2014, when we returned to Chile, we found that the store was occupied, which was still very sad, but it was originally rented and rented, and it was a relative, so we could only find another storefront, and everything started over.
The first year or two of the new store is the most difficult, because the reputation and customers are accumulated from scratch, so the business is average. Later, Huangtian did not live up to the painstaking people, and finally won the recognition of many customers, and the more he did, the better. On the cousin's side, although the owner chef has changed, but the old customers do not know this, it will take several years to find out and slowly affect the reputation, so we are at peace with each other.
(Participate in the parent-child activities of the son's kindergarten)
Until 2017, my cousin may have been because of the deterioration of business, the red eye of our side of the booming, so he actually did not explicitly terminate the original lease contract, sued my husband for owing the rent for these years, asked for a one-time compensation.
In general, who would have thought that a special termination contract would be required? They are all Chinese from other places and relatives. And at that time, the other party occupied the store first and was unwilling to vacate it. So cousin's complaint, we were caught off guard.
Fortunately, the Chinese circle is still very warm, and many friends have given us support and are indignant for us. In the end, my husband handed over all the property to me, because the defendant was penniless and unable to compensate, so the civil lawsuit could not be settled.
(Photo with Chinese friends)
On the road of growth in life, we will always meet people who make us grow, and every injury is a mark of our growth, but no matter what, we will also meet people who help us. Let the injury become the past, remember the grateful people, and live on.
Since the beginning of 2018, the situation in Chile has slowly not improved as before. I think the main reason is that the president from 2014 to 2018 advocated the rescue of refugees, which led to the influx of many international refugees into Chile, occupying a lot of public resources such as education and medical care, as well as jobs. The living standards of Chileans began to decline, and the security in Chile slowly deteriorated, and there were more thieves, and slowly people did not go out much at night.
The business in our shop has also been affected a bit, but it is generally good. After several years of stabilization, life began to become boring, basically cutting vegetables, ordering, packing, and checking out day after day, and restaurants were basically 365 days a day.
(Mother's Day, I'm hard at chopping vegetables)
Chile is not as rich as the country's entertainment, and the local people's life is simple. I know a fellow from Dongguan who came to Chile with his parents at the age of 15 and settled here for more than 30 years.
He returned to China many times, in contrast, he felt that in Chile is really boring, and Chile has a slow pace, social development and change is also very slow, while China is changing with each passing day, developing rapidly, and changing a lot in one or two years.
In 2018, I went back to China once, because my ID card expired, and I came back to apply for it. I haven't been in the motherland for four years, and when I went back, I sighed, how has Zhongshan changed so much! High-rise buildings, spacious asphalt roads, bustling day and night, traffic and water horses. Classmates and friends took me to eat all kinds of food, and the fun things were really dizzying.
The country stands in stark contrast with Chile. The lives of ordinary intellectuals are two points and one line, and the place of work and the home are two points and one line. If you open a restaurant like us and live in a restaurant, it is really a little bit and a line, so life is boring, and the loneliness that comes from the heart is really indescribable.
(The world's largest man-made swimming pool in Chile)
And what am I doing in Chile? Very cheap cherries, blackcurrants, prunes and other fruits, three or four dollars a pound. Sometimes before the restaurant opens at 12 noon, you can go out and hang out from 10:00 to 12:00, visit the market, buy some small things of your choice, visit the park, feed the fish, feed the wild ducks, feed the pigeons and the black-necked swans.
Overall, there's not much to spend money on in Chile, so it's easy to save.
Since the beginning of 2019, the epidemic has seriously affected chile's economy and security. The currencies of south America as a whole began to be unstable, and the currency exchange rate of the Chilean peso fluctuated greatly, sometimes the exchange rate fell sharply, and the assets would shrink in half overnight, and after a while, the exchange rate rose, and the heart of the people to the throat slowly fell.
This kind of psychological stimulation of gain and loss has cast a layer of anxiety and uneasiness on everyone's life. The Chinese have one more choice and a way of guarantee than the locals, that is, to quickly remit the Chilean peso and convert it into renminbi, and their hearts will be solid.
(Almost every shop in Chile has iron doors))
Chile's order is also getting worse, with more sneaking during the day, and sometimes the parade is seen venting their dissatisfaction, and almost every storefront has been equipped with thick iron gates. At night, it is even more dangerous, everyone just wants to get home quickly after work, and they dare not go out at night, and the door is closed tightly.
In this case, we began to have the idea of returning to China for development. Although the domestic epidemic prevention and control is strict, it ensures stability, and last year we returned to China to personally feel the rapid development of the motherland, worried that in another five years, I am afraid that the former partners will follow the pace of the motherland and leave us far behind.
In addition, we also take into account that parents are getting older, want to accompany their parents, and children are getting older, hoping to give children a better reading environment. Chile's side is the Western concept of happy education, that is, children have no learning pressure from an early age, and it is easy to be wasted.
Coupled with the Spanish we only communicate in daily life, we can't help children's homework and study, so we can't understand the child's learning situation in time, so we want to go back to China, on the one hand, to accompany the elderly, on the other hand, the children are better at studying in China.
So in 2020, we began to pay attention to the domestic epidemic prevention and control policy and pay attention to flight information. However, it is difficult to return to China, and the air ticket has soared from more than 6,000 yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, and we have to continue to wait and see, hoping that the epidemic will improve.
(My friend with Chile)
No one expected that the epidemic would develop normally, and in 2020, the whole world will be affected by the epidemic, and the environment in Chile will become worse. Originally planned to return to China before the Spring Festival in 2021, but the domestic requirements were quarantined for seven days in the transit country, when the epidemic situation abroad was chaotic and uneasy, we did not dare to stay in the transit country that was not familiar with life for so long, the risk was too great, so we could only continue to wait and see.
In 2021, the open epidemic prevention and control in foreign countries tends to be stable, the whole people have taken nucleic acid vaccines, worn masks when going out, and if there are signs of illness, they will do nucleic acid at home and consciously isolate at home. Many people survived at home on autoimmunity, and many people died.
Although the prevention and control of the epidemic abroad is more free, and even laughs at calling the new crown a big cold, we are not at ease, although the probabilistic event has no impact on others, but for the experiencer, once it occurs, it is the cost of life, and the whole family cannot afford it.
Therefore, we are determined to return to China, even if the air ticket is sky-high, even if it is troublesome to isolate and do nucleic acid, we must go back!
In addition, in the past two years, because of the epidemic, the robbery rate in Chile has been much higher, and there are often robberies, grabbing mobile phones, cars, and wallets. At eight or nine o'clock in the evening, there was basically no one on the street. Ordinary people are afraid to go out at night, and they lock their doors and stay at home. And the domestic night life is still colorful, the lights shine.
(In the country with girlfriends at night skewers)
Although our heart to return to China is particularly firm and fully prepared psychologically, we did not expect that the road back to China was so bumpy and full of twists and turns! I bought the ticket back to china four times.
The fare of the aircraft bought in July 2021 is 48,000 yuan. In November 2021, a friend told me that there was a special ticket for only 18,500 yuan, and I would refund the ticket for this. How to expect that when the route stayed in Brazil, 9 Chinese were detained, the Chinese embassy did not issue a green code, we could only refund the ticket.
In December and January, a large number of flights were circuitized, but fortunately, the Chilean long-term residence permit supported the U.S. visa, so we bought tickets for the U.S. route, and the result was also melted.
When I bought a ticket for the fourth time, there was no room for choice, and I was very fortunate to be able to buy a ticket and return to China smoothly. The aircraft fare is 31,000 yuan, flying from Chile to the United States and then to Shanghai. Tickets bought three months in advance, after three months of fifty or sixty thousand are difficult to buy tickets.
(I talk to the chartered company)
We stayed at friend Maurico's house for a month and a half before we left Chile and are very grateful to him for letting us his house stay. I am also grateful that the charter public has insisted on the original rent in the past few years of the epidemic and has not increased the price.
On March 12, 2022, we finished our second nucleic acid test in Chile, and Chilean friends prepared a barbecue feast for us. After flying from Chile to Houston, USA, after nine hours on March 13, waiting for a flight for 4 hours and staying up for another 4 hours to get to San Francisco, it was too difficult to return from South America.
According to the regulations of the Chinese Embassy, in transit countries need to be quarantined for 7 days, like our time, after arriving in San Francisco, we have to do a nucleic acid, two days before boarding, and stay for 7 days to take a flight back to China. In the United States, quarantine and nucleic acid testing are self-supervised, during which time we can move freely, but we only go out to the supermarket to buy food, and we do not dare to run around.
On March 21, he finally embarked on the road back to China, flying from the United States to Shanghai. The flight, although it didn't require a transfer, was also hard work, and it took 14 hours on the plane. My neighbor is an old man who looks to be in his 60s, who also returned from Chile and seems to be eager, even if the road back home is so hard.
I asked him, "Are you returning to China for the elderly?" How long have you been in Chile? He said: "For more than ten years, I am still not used to foreign countries, even if I stay for a hundred years, I will not get used to it, and it is better to always return to China." ”
(In Chile, there are Chinese classes with children every week, and after the epidemic, Chinese schools have been closed)
After arriving in Shanghai, when the plane security checked out of the station, we saw the four words "welcome home", and the tired body and mind were like nectar. Everything was so familiar, familiar faces, kind language.
In Shanghai, we need to quarantine for 14 days, and the other day we can order some fruit snacks for takeaway. Who wants to encounter a lockdown in Shanghai, the service industry is basically completely closed, let alone takeaway.
April 3rd can finally be free to move, we can't wait to buy a ticket to Guangzhou on April 4th, who knows the flight to Guangzhou has been cancelled three times in a row! There was no time to be uncomfortable, there was a ticket, and finally the flight on April 7 took off smoothly. On April 15, after seven days of isolation in Zhongshan, the five members of the family finally arrived home safely.
From Chile back to the motherland, this road is really bumpy, lasting more than a month, each person cost 50,000 yuan, the whole family is 250,000, in addition to time, economy and intangible mental and health losses, the price paid is not small.
But we have no complaints, it is a great blessing to be able to get home safely, I am grateful, I am grateful to the motherland for not blocking us from the door of home, I am grateful to my relatives for always waiting silently with rich dishes, and I am grateful to God for blessing our whole family all the way to peace and security.
(Aunt Pillar prays for us)
Nowadays, it has been several months since I unconsciously returned to China, and sometimes I will recall my days in Chile, after all, it was 8 years of youth, how many 8 years can a person have in his life?
Remembering the mood change when I first arrived in Chile, from everything fresh to lonely and boring; Remembering the heartache of a different place, every New Year's Festival can only briefly greet parents across the Internet; I think of the warm people in Chile, the first real Christmas, fighting side by side with my husband every day.
Although I sometimes miss the places where I once wanted to escape, I cherish the present more when I miss it, respect the decisions made in each period, and live without regrets and move forward with all my strength.
【Dictation: Huya Sister】
【Editor: Zhu Zimu】
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