A: I’ve been thinking about what you said about how it wasn’t always that easy to travel overseas.
B: As a boy, my father went to boarding school in what was then Rhodesia. He told me it took him many flights over four days to make the journey. He would dread the thought of making that trip.
A: When my parents visited me in Japan, it was the first time they’d been out of the country. They had to apply for their first ever passport. They were already in their 60s.
Photo: Paul Cooper, Taipei Times 照片：台北時報古德謙
B: So your parents had never been on a plane until they were over 60, and their first trip was to the other side of the world! How did they cope with the long-haul flight?
A: My mother hated it. She’s always been very active, and hates sitting down for hours on end. My father was in his element, sitting down for 12 hours and being waited on hand and foot.
A: 我最近一直在想你說的，以前要出國不總是那麼方便。
B: 我爸小時候上的是寄宿學校，在以前叫做羅德西亞的地方。他跟我說，他要花四天、轉機好幾次才會到那裡。他一想到這行程就害怕。
A: 我爸媽到日本來看我的時候，是他們第一次出國，所以也是他們第一次辦護照，他們那時候已經六十多歲了。
B: 所以你爸媽在六十歲以前，都沒有坐過飛機，而且第一次出國，竟然是要到半個地球以外的地方！他們是怎麼忍受長途飛行的？
A: 我媽痛恨得要命。她是很有活力的人，很討厭連續幾小時一直坐著。我爸就很自在，坐在那邊十二個小時，享受無微不至的伺候。
（Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱譯）
English 英文:
Chinese 中文:
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