牛肉乾 Beef Jerky

剛剛在一個BBS網站上看到有人問了一個問題，他説他媽媽進海關時因為被發現帶牛肉乾而被罰款，他擔心會不會因此將來再次申請簽證時會受到影響。這讓我想到十幾年前我們剛來美國一年多，媽媽帶著妹妹來看我們，她也帶了牛肉乾，而且是好幾斤上好的牛肉乾，裝在一個蒸鍋裏，在進海關時被發現。那時海關人員問她鍋裏是什麼，她也聽不懂，但她看到海關人員拿出牛肉乾還很生氣地念念有詞時，竟然很奮勇地上前要把牛肉乾搶回來，與海關人員發生拉扯。。。那個海關被她氣得半死，竟然有人如此大膽，可是因為語言不通，到最後也沒罰她也沒原機遣返，只是沒收了事。後來我聽了妹妹的描述，非常佩服我媽膽識過人（家族遺傳？？）。。。但是我們從此以後就再也沒有幹過這種夾帶的事了。

I just read a post on BBS. A guy asked a question... his mom got fined at the custom for bringing beef jerky. He is worried that it will cause problem when she re-applies visa in the future. This reminds me that more than 10 years ago when we just came to the US for a little more than one year. My mom and my sister came visit us. She also brought several ponds of top-graded beef jerky. She put it in a steamer and packed it in her luggage. She didn't understand when the custom official was asking about what it was. But when she saw the custom official took out the jerky and talking angrily, she went up to the official and tried to grab and hold on to the big pack of beef jerky... The custom official was surprised that she would do something like that and got so mad at her. But due to the language barrier, she (it was a female officer) only seized the jerky without giving her a fine or sending her back to Taiwan on the same flight. When I heard my sister described my mom's bravery acts, I admire her for her courage(it runs in the family??)... But we have never done anything like this ever since.