1、Preface ...
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June 2002 to May 2003. One year’s time
Christina, a farmer’s (non-comparable to Dutch farmers) girl (non-comparable to Dutch girls) from North China, had studied (semi-lingually) and worked (semi-legally) in Amsterdam (more or less Holland) for the year (felt like ages).
Meanwhile the best girl friend (non lesbian) of Christina, Ling (a non-farmer’s girl) had stayed (semi-independently) and worked (semi-consciously) in Chang Chun (more or less the size of Holland) for the year.
What had one year’s time done to their lives? What had they gone through on the same days?
How did Christina survive (or still surviving) from Cultural clashes, accommodation disasters,loss of identity, financial hardships and moral confrontations in Holland?
How did Ling recover (or still recovering) from family match-makers, different forms of corruption, job changes, regional economic development imbalances and SARS in China?
After a year of up & down, laughter & tear, love & pain,
Christina was ready to follow her Master program in Nyenrode.
Ling was ready to get married.
很多人不解括号里面的词的意思
我试着解释一下哈：
故事讲的是一个中国农村出身的女大学生毕业出国留学，好朋友继续在国内的经历。
non-comparable to Dutch farmers 是说，跟荷兰农民没法比。(故事里会提到，荷兰没有我们理解中的农民，有的也是农场主，也没有我们熟悉的农村，所有的村镇都是通油漆路，并有银行，邮局等等，而女主家的农村是泥巴路，每户人间几笼田，不能相提并论)
semi—通常指部分的，一半一半，semi-lingually 指杂七杂八的语言环境，就像sei-legally是半合法，半不合法一样。
Amsterdam (more or less Holland)，很多人不知道荷兰真名是尼德兰，（Netherlands）, 不过呢，阿姆斯特丹所在省份叫荷兰省，荷兰省在国内地位重要，久而久之，国外的人把尼德兰就叫做荷兰了。荷兰人自己呢，觉得这蛮好笑的…
felt like ages 是说，虽然只是一年时间而已，感觉上却像过了整整一个世纪/许多许多年一样
accommodation disasters, identity loss，moral confrontations
住宿难题，对自己身份的迷茫，精神文化的冲突
family match makers, different form of corruptions, regional economic development imbalances
家族的媒婆，各种腐败现象，地区发展不平衡
follow her Master program in Nyenrode
去Nyenrode 大学读硕士。 （Nyenrode 是校名）.
目前我没时间把文章翻译成中文，不过亲亲阿川有一直在大力帮忙，十分感谢！
想读文的朋友们，要有点耐心，很多时候，前面不懂得地方，读到后面自然就豁然开朗了。
贵在坚持。
作者有话说
第1章 Preface
，还差