Yesterday I went back to Harmony House to play with the kids, along with my partner, Wang Xia, a Chinese girl who works at the China CDC.  The kids were very young, from 1-4 years old, younger than any child I have worked with in the past.  Wang Xia was also a little surprised at the age of the kids, but we managed with excitement and enthusiasm to entertain them pretty well.  We played 'Ring Around the Rosie', colored, and read very simple picture books (in my case, in English and broken Chinese).  The kids were mostly happy to see us, some disturbingly a little too much for their age, which tells me they are used to having strangers around them often.  Only one little girl seemed scared of me - and she started crying everytime I looked at her!  Other than that though, everyone had a great time.

Some of the Harmony House children.

Wang Xia with a little boy who wrote with his feet due to deformed hands - pretty impressive!

After coming back to Beijing, Wang Xia and I got lunch together before she went to her English class and I returned home. We had a pleasant time, discussing our experience in the orphanage, and somehow the conversation wandered onto the topic of Chinese education.  She told me that life is very tough for high school students because they have no lives outside of studying (school from 7 am to 10 pm!) but that the system means everyone has a chance to go to university.  She told me that her parents are both farmers but she has a Masters degree and will be a scientist because she worked hard in high school and did well on the college entrance exam. She did not like the way of life of high schoolers, but seemed to think it was the only way to insure everyone a fair chance. This is interesting to think about because I normally consider that our system of high school also allows everyone a chance at college, but there is certainly less stress put on the students and we have opportunities for outside activities.  But does everyone really have equal chance to succeed?

 On the way home from lunch, I realized that this was the first time I have ever hung out with a Chinese person all on their own, just as friends. The language barrier is sadly HUGE when it comes to making Chinese friends, as due to my poor Chinese, all potential friends must be relatively fluent in English. And that sets the tone for our relationship - it is limited to their vocabulary and comfort level in English. I wish I knew Chinese, because I feel like its impossible to really make friends or understand the culture here without it, but it was an impossible task for 10 months.  I feel like for many foreigners here, it is considered an impossible task no matter their duration of stay, and hence the 'expat' (expatriate) areas of town, stores just for expats, clubs/bars just for expats, and activities, like sports clubs and game nights just for expats. It is perceived as impossible to assimilate, and so instead people clump together with other people like them and recreate a foreign world here in Beijing. This kind of shuts out the Chinese world, even though it is all around us.  Perhaps a necessary survival mechanism, but still, sad...