Earlier in the semester, I went with my host family and some of their friends to a place
called Ya’an. This trip was really special because it provided time for me to bond with my host family and talk to some kids outside of my school. The group was pretty large, more than fifteen people made up of four to five families. All of the parents are friends and the kids go to middle school together and are good friends. At first, I thought I would be excluded from the group because all of the kids know each other, so I wouldn’t be able to fit in. I knew I couldn’t keep up with their conversations in Chinese and that scared me. In my mind, I compared my anticipation of the weekend ahead to how Simon interacted with my friends in Brookline. When Simon was in the US, I made an effort to introduce him to my friends and try to get him to hang out with us. Even though Simon spoke English really well he understandably had trouble connecting with the group. The problem wasn’t the language barrier, It was the cultural differences and being thrown into a group of people he had never met before. My friends were all very nice and welcoming towards Simon, but it was still a struggle to make him feel comfortable around the group. If this experience was that rough for Simon even though his English was excellent, what was it going to be like for me? Fortunately, the trip went really well and I had a great time. Admittedly, most of the time I had no idea what everyone was saying and just had to sit by and smile. However, my host brother constantly tried to include me in the conversation and everyone else was really nice as well. They all wanted to know about my life back in Brookline and how I thought China was so far. Their interest in my life moved me and made me feel a lot more at home around these strangers. While I wasn’t involved in the real conversation everyone else was having, it was enough for me.