When I first arrived in London, I found a job working as an au pair girl （做轻松家务以换食宿的外国女子） in a wealthy Jewish family while studying in a local language school. After a day of hard work both at school and around the house, you could imagine the anxiety I felt to get my fingers on some food when it was finally the hour for the family to sit down for dinner. But who was to know that it was only the beginning of my ordeal(严酷的考验)?



First came the soup, one of my favorites. Without inquiring what was in the soup, I started sipping from my bowl as elegantly as I could manage. "Jian, that's not the way to drink soup," the old lady remarked from across the table.

"You have to use a spoon."

"OK," I thought to myself, "that shouldn't be too difficult." So I grabbed a spoon which was laid out in front of me alongside half a dozen other cutlery(餐具). Hardly before I could put the spoon into my mouth further objections came.

"It's the wrong spoon. Save it for dessert later."

By the time I figured out the right spoon to use, the soup was already half cold.

Then the main course was served.

"Knife and fork for the main course. Surely nothing can possibly go wrong with that," I assured myself.

"No, " the objection sounded even more definite this time.

"You should always hold the knife in your right hand and the fork in the other!"

In this manner, I "enjoyed" my first proper Western meal. Was the food nice? To be honest, I had almost forgotten what the food itself tasted like by the time the meal was finished. Simply too much excitement to go through for one meal.
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