"Just Another Walk in the Park"

Author: Jeremy L.
Location: Beijing
"Trust me, once you're done with this entire mess, you'll look back and laugh at the fact you were ever afraid of it, assuming you haven't done too much already"

-Marino Di Franco, When you're the laughingstock of your life

Usually the person in charge of the blogs is assigned to Baby Homes for that day, but today I was relocated to his position in the Group Homes instead. Prepared to meet a group of children that I had never met in my life, I packed an old school notebook and WaMu drawing book and set out with Zoe, Hannah, and Julia (who I just realized hasn't ever apologized for the rabbit incident). Upon reaching the house, we took upon the usual drill of watching the flow of things and then catching along to it accordingly, Zoe and Hannah with the drawing books and me...actually, I took longer than I liked to read the flow and even when I got it, I couldn't catch up. Eventually, everything worked out alright when I tore out several sheets of my notebook and began folding up paper claws, which ended with almost every kid screaming at me to make them paper claws and everyone else laughing at me for tiring to death. Final score: 27 large paper claws and 10 small ones before I plopped to the floor exhausted. We returned to the commons and had chicken-vegetable broth, one with ginger and the other with tomato. Honestly, that is probably the first American thing I've eaten here. After that, we set off for a park/pond/museum/amusement whatchamacallit with the kids from the other Group Home. In my opinion, having kids with us for a field trip is more trouble than I like, but that's just me since everyone else enjoys it. A good 20 pictures and 47 steps later, I found myself with our group in front of a Museum labeled "Sony ExploraScience," which is the idea that most adults I know use to entertain little kids as well as teach them something (everything there I learned in high school and have still yet to let it sink in properly so I have no idea how well it works with them). Before we were able to leave, the sky suddenly darkened and it rained quite heavily. I happened to be the only one who brought any level of rain-protective gear (an umbrella, which jammed and broke down right when I wanted to use it and took an hour to fix) so we sat inside the museum for a decent amount of time (in which the museum camera mysteriously malfunctioned due to physical sabotage and the echo chamber stopped functioning because of technical errors *cough* mysteriously...) before running out in the rain and storming the bus a mile away (Andy did a spin-trip-buttplant somewhere along the way and half of us missed it). After that, nothing that special happened until dinnertime, where I discovered our usual restaurant was unavailable to us and we were going to a noodle shop that was somewhat closer. Our translator came along with us and left after ordering, which became a huge problem because the host came over and started asking us for a favor, which I understood what he wanted me to do but found that I could neither do it nor tell him I couldn't do it. On a sidenote, the noodles brought back a sensation of home but somehow halted it halfway since it felt agonizingly incomplete. Either way, we returned to the apartment, discussed our plans for the future, starting pumping our mouths with whipped cream and popcorn, and even as I write away at the computer, I wonder if I ever dreamed or imagined that I would be spending part of my summer chatting happily with people I had only met a week ago, which brings back the fact I had a Deja-Vu moment during the calligraphy and disregarded it in the past since I had no idea who anyone was at that moment four years ago.

It feels almost nostalgic, walking through a forest of my past, a reality that I missed just by a mere decision made by my ancestors. Had the slightest change been made in the life of my parents, I would never have been placed into the society I had grown up in, never experienced the immensity of living in such a fortunate country, and most of all, never have had a chance to have an experience like the one I currently face with my own two eyes, an experience many others will never have. Occasionally, I look at a person that I've met and think to myself that I could very well be in that spot, having the same emotions and experiences that this person also has. Life is too inconsistent, too diverse and far too easy to change that I feel both blessed and disgusted that I have a life that many others would envy. As we prepare for the future in this project, and even when all of us in this group part ways and continue with our own lives, I know that with what we have seen here, we will continue with our lives with new mindsets and ideas for the world we live in.
Flickr Photos from Today
Flickr Photos from this Voyage