A week with Princess和公主的一星期

I met a princess at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC. Well, let me rephrase that. I met a girl named Princess while applying for my Chinese Visa. She’s the first princess I’ve ever met, so I instantly befriended her. We went out to lunch together and she told me about her plans to travel around the world before going to graduate school. One of her stops was Beijing, so I offered to host her during her visit. We kept in contact for five months until she finally arrived.

Spending a week with Princess Walsh was quite a learning experience. She’s the only African American friend that I have had in Beijing, so it was interesting to see how Chinese people reacted to her. On trips around the city, it was strange to see people taking pictures of her, not me. As it turns out, African American females are a rare sighting in Asia. On the subway, someone even asked me how we were talking to each other. How can an African and an American communicate with one another? Princess Walsh handled all stares, camera flashes and questions with grace and poise. I suppose she’s used to it though, because she’s a princess.

On the weekend, we went to Mu Tian Yu, which is a less touristy part of the Great Wall. We left the royal motorcade behind, instead opting to go in a rusty grey Volkswagen whose driver agreed to take us for a cheap price. There were times that Princess and I both wanted to stop climbing, but the Great Wall is a metaphor for life. It ain’t easy. We kept pushing ourselves, despite the fatigue. When we looked back at how far we had come, we both were amazed. Princess, a girl from the Bronx, and me, a girl from North Carolina, had made it all the way to an unmaintained section that very few other people had managed to reach. There’s still further up the wall for us to climb, as there always will be. But, we’ll save that for the next time Princess Walsh visits Beijing.

我在华盛顿特区的中国大使馆遇到了一位公主。嗯，确切点我应该这么陈述，当我在申请我的中国签证时，遇到了一个女孩名叫公主。她是我遇见的第一个公主，所以我立即结识了她。我们一起去吃午餐，她告诉我她在去研究生院前打算环游世界。她准备停留的站点中的一个是北京，所以我提出在她游览北京期间要招待她。我们保持联系了五个月，直到她最终来了。

与公主沃尔什在一起的一周是一个不断学习的经历。她是我在北京唯一的非裔美国朋友，所以看看中国人如何对待她是很有趣的。在城市旅行时，看到人们喜欢给她拍照留念，而不是我，令我感到奇怪。事实证明，非裔美国女性在亚洲是一个稀罕的景观。在地铁上，甚至有人问我，我们之间是如何相互交谈的。一个非洲人和美国人是如何彼此沟通的？公主沃尔什以其特有的优雅和风度处理所有的目光，闪光灯和问题。我想她已经习惯了这些，毕竟因为她是一位公主么。

在周末，我们去慕田峪，这是一个很少游客去的长城景点。我们没有用皇家车队，而是选择了一个生锈的灰色的大众汽车——司机同意以一个便宜的价格带我们去。很多次公主和我都想停止攀登了，但爬长城就像人生中的奋斗一样。它并不容易。尽管疲劳，但我们不停地鼓励自己。当我们回头看了看我们走到了多远时，我们都感到惊讶。公主，一个来自布朗克斯的女孩，和我，一个来自北卡罗来纳州的女孩，排除万难到达这些年久失修的，很少有其他的人到达这里的地方。还有更多的城墙需要我们去攀登，一直会有。但是，我们会留到下次，当公主沃尔什再次来到北京的时候。