游弋在重庆的外国姑娘

◇ 文 |本刊记者 胡 婷 图 | 游 宇

“如果以后不能再继续水下芭蕾表演，你们会选择干什么？”

问题一出，我们和五个大眼睛、活泼热情的外国姑娘热闹的对话中断了一下。

“我喜欢和人交流，想做记者。”乌克兰的萨沙最先回答，“但现在，我还是想继续现在的工作，直到真的游不动了。”

其他四人连连点头。

她们来自不同的国家，从小和泳池结缘，如今辗转世界各地的海洋公园，表演水下芭蕾。去年冬天，她们聚集重庆，成为重庆唯一的外籍美人鱼演出团队。

“What will you do after retiring from underwater ballet performance?” I asked the fi ve cheery, enthusiastic alien girls.

My question was followed by a brief silence.

“I like communicating with people, so I wanna be a reporter.” replied Sasha from the Ukraine. “But I’d like to carry on until I can’t swim anymore.”

The answer was echoed by the other four.

Coming from different nations, they learned to swim since they were little, and are now performing underwater ballet in ocean parks all over the world.They have been together in Chongqing since last winter,forming the one and only foreign underwater ballet group in the city.

最怕“咸”和“冷” The Greatest Dread: Salt and Cold

元旦后第二个工作日，重庆汉海海洋公园。下午两点，“美人鱼”表演准时开始。

透过玻璃巨幕，大海来的鱼儿们在蓝色的“海底”游来游去，音乐响起，美人鱼出场了。她们穿着鱼尾服，舞若翩然，和触手可及的牛鼻鲼、鳐鱼、圆燕鱼肆意徜徉。时而轻盈敏捷地旋转，时而曼妙优雅地游走，队列造型花样百出。

“世界上真的有美人鱼欸。”小朋友们兴奋地走上前去，手贴着玻璃幕墙，目不转睛地望着。姑娘们游上前去，对着他们比了一个心型。

表演持续了十分钟。这是当天的第三场，两小时后，还有最后一场。

每场演出结束，美人鱼都立刻冲向澡堂。因为“海水”里都是海盐，不赶紧洗掉盐分，皮肤就得受伤。掐指一算，从周一到周五，每天四场表演，周末每天五场，一周要洗30次。

半小时后，冲洗完毕。先前婀娜多姿的美人鱼生生裹成了“粽子”，穿上厚厚的羽绒服，戴上针织帽，回到寝室休息一会儿。

五个姑娘分别来自俄罗斯、白俄罗斯和乌克兰，那里的冬天想想就冷。本以为这群妹子耐寒力惊人，没想到她们一回到寝室，立马打开空调，调到26℃，然后迅速穿上厚袜子。

原来，水下是恒定的26℃，而元旦这几天，重庆的气温不到10℃。温差太大，保暖就成了必修课。

On the second workday after New Year’s Day, the“mermaids” performance began on time in Chongqing Andover Ocean Park.

As sea fish swimming far and near in the blue“seabed”, the mermaids entered the arena with music.Dressed like beautiful fi sh, they danced gracefully and swam freely with cow-nosed rays, rays, and orbiculate bat fi sh. Now gyrating swiftly, now swimming elegantly,they formed a variety of complex group patterns.

“Wow, there are mermaids indeed！” Kids stared in excitement, hands touching the glass wall. The dancers swam to them, and made a hand heart.

The ten-minute performance was the day’s third round, followed by the last round in two hours.

The performers rush to shower the minute the show comes to an end, otherwise their skin will be hurt by the salt in the “sea water”. There are four rounds of shows every day on weekdays, and fi ve at weekends, so they have to take shower thirty times per week.

After a half-an-hour shower, the girls wrapped themselves up in thick down jackets and wore knit caps,and then took a break in their bedrooms.

The girls are from Russia, the Republic of Belarus,and Ukraine, where the winter is bitterly cold. Beyond expectation, they turned on AC immediately when they came back at bedrooms, and put on thick socks.

They told me then that the temperature of the water was always 26℃, while these days that of Chongqing was below 10℃. To adapt to the wide range of temperature difference, they had to keep warm.

人鱼的主食是沙拉 Salad: Mermaids’ Main Course

在水下，她们要经历“撞鱼”考验。俄罗斯的娜塔莎说，“鱼喜欢和人亲近，常常成群结队地过来。尤其是鳐鱼，块头大，一不留神就会被撞翻。”白俄罗斯的萨莎接过话茬，“水下不做动作，我可以憋两分钟，如果做动作，最多40秒。要是撞上了鱼，就更艰难一点。”

水下表演很耗费能量，休息时，姑娘们拿出一块最小规格的士力架。萨莎还没吃两口，就放下了，原因是“怕长胖”。水下表演需要保持身材，姑娘们对身材管理近乎苛刻。

平时的饮食更是清淡。打开姑娘们的冰箱，里面有酸奶、鸡蛋、柚子、火腿肠和蔬菜。沙拉就是她们的主食，逢年过节也不例外。

三天前，她们第一次在重庆过元旦。那天，她们吃了一顿沙拉大餐：蟹肉沙拉、鸡肉沙拉和水果沙拉。只不过多了两道萨沙的家乡菜：乌克兰的土豆泥和肉饼。哦，她们还破例开了瓶威斯忌，这是只有节日才有的福利。

顺便说一句，萨沙出生在乌克兰游泳世家，十岁开始学习游泳，曾是乌克兰国家游泳队运动员，多次获得顿涅次冠军，参加乌克兰冠军赛。

Beneath the water surface, they may run into fi sh, which can be a sore trial. “Fish enjoy being close to people, and often a school swims to us. The most troublesome one is ray. If not careful enough, we can be knocked down by such a big fi sh.” complained Natasha from Russia. “I can hold my breath for two minutes without moving. If I have to move, I can hold it for at most forty seconds. If I meet a fi sh, the time is shorter.”said Sarah from the Republic of Belarus.

Giving a show in the water is exhausting. While taking a break, the girls took out a smallest piece of Snickers. Sasha took a couple of bites before putting it down, fearing “gaining weight”. As the performers have to keep slim, they are strict weight-watchers.

They often have light food. There were yogurts,eggs, pomelos, hams and vegetables in the refrigerator.Salad is their main course, even in festivals.

Three days before interview, the group spent New Year’s Day in Chongqing. It was their fi rst time to spend the festival here. They had a feast of salad: crabmeat salad, chicken salad and fruit salad. There were also two specialties of the Ukraine, Sasha’s hometown: mashed potatoes and patties. Well, they also opened a bottle of Whiskey, which they enjoy only in festivals.

By the way, Sasha was born into a swimmer family,and learned to swim when she was ten. She took part in Ukrainian championship when she was one member of Ukrainian national swimming team.

游来游去的生活 Travelling Mermaids

五个姑娘与重庆的缘分不算深，约定的表演期限有的是三个月，有的是半年。她们都是游泳运动员出身，由于年龄、伤病等原因，多数人挥别泳坛，却始终舍不下水池。眼下，她们必须面对如水般流动的水下表演工作。

“上半年我还在广州表演，11月就到了重庆，不知道下个地方去哪里。”白俄罗斯的萨莎是队伍中唯一的现役游泳运动员。据说，她是白俄罗斯25米短池、50米长池的200米仰泳记录保持者。

去年上半年，她受了腿伤，休养期间开始了美人鱼演出。她还辅修了白俄罗斯国立体育大学体育师范专业和维捷布斯克国立技术大学的经济学专业，退役后，打算当游泳教练。

这也是她们中多数人的第一选择。

24岁的俄罗斯姑娘喀秋莎已经有了20个学生。 今年2月，喀秋莎就要离开重庆，她打算买些中国结送给学生们。

别看平时表演日程很满，姑娘们可一点没耽误买买买。尽管在每个城市呆的时间不长，没有办银行卡，她们人手一个淘宝账号，看中的东西就把链接发给翻译代买。乌克兰来的尤利娅，23岁，二月份也将回国。她一次性发给了翻译50多条链接。“我给家人朋友买了衣服、茶叶、鞋子……”她撒欢地说着，一旁的翻译妹子忍不住插了句话，“我现在都不敢看我的支付宝。”

The five girls once were all swimmers, and were mostly forced to leave the swimming pool because of age or illness. However, they cannot say goodbye to their beloved career. At present, they must travel across China to give underwater performance. According to the contracts, some would perform three months, some half a year.

“I worked in Guangzhou during the fi rst half of the year, and came to Chongqing in November. I have no idea where I will go next.” said Sasha, the only active swimmer in the team. It’s said that she still holds the national records of Republic of Belarus for 200-metre backstroke in 25-metre short pool and 50-metre long pool.

Suffering leg injuries last year, she started the underwater performance when she left the swimming arena temporarily to recover. Besides, she majored in sport education in Belarusian State Sport University, and economics in Vitebsk State Technology University. She plans to teach swimming after retirement, the way as the fi rst choice of other team members.

24-year-old Russian girl Katyusha has already recruited twenty students. She would leave Chongqing this February, and is going to buy some Chinese knots for them.

Despite of the full working schedule, the girls still make the time to do online shopping. Without bank account in China, they all have applied for Taobao accounts, and they would send the item’s links to their interpreters, who would do them a favor. Yulia, a 23-year-old girl from the Ukraine, is going to return to her country in February. She has sent over fi fty links to her interpreter. “I have bought my family and friends clothes, tea, shoes…”she said joyfully. “I dare not see my Alipay bill.” her interpreter put in.