all about Christmas to this Chinese girl

Since November I have already felt like listening to Christmas songs. The only thing that seems a bit unreal to me is the weather here in Freiburg. Although I grew up in the subtropical belt, to be honest, I do miss the snow back in Madison. It's beginning to feel christmassy and I miss hearing to the snow crunching under my winter boots.

This is going to be the 6th year that I spend my Christmas abroad. China is not a Christian-oriented country nor is Christmas celebrated, but as a kid I always had this fascination to foreign countries. This fascination comes from English-speaking movies like"Home Alone" and  "Jingle All the Way." People in the movies spoke another language as I do, and I wanted to learn it and be able to speak it. As so much I wanted to go abroad, I went as early as I could. I went abroad alone when I was fifteen.

Since my first year abroad, Christmas has become more and more meaningful to me. Being abroad means that I get to experience the holiday culture, especially Christmas. For the last few years, I have spent my Christmas all over the world: 2008 in Atlanta, 2010 in Cottbus (very east side of Germany), 2011 in Wisconsin, 2012 in the Netherlands, 2013 in Norwich (UK), and this year is going to be in Heidelberg (southwest of Germany).  From the South to the Midwest in the U.S., and from East to West in Europe, no matter where I went, there were always kind people that I could spend winter holidays with. As December approaches, everything looks more festive: streets with lights, stores with Christmas music, cinnamon scents, everywhere looks, sounds and even smells like Christmas. I was excited that one day I said "I want to celebrate Christmas!" Then my friend asked, "Celebrate Christmas? Are you Christian?"  Oops, I guess used the wrong word in this not-first-language-of-mine. No, I wasn't brought up as a Christian, but I still cherish a holiday like Christmas, where family come together and simply enjoy time with each other. In this way, I call it celebrate. Celebrate with people you care and love. And be grateful to the warmth that can be found in the cold winter days.

When I was little, my parents would always put something next to my bed on the morning of December 25th every year and told me that Santa gave me a present. Somehow I doubted if they were lying to me. "Is it really Santa? No...it must be you!" No matter how hard they tried to defend that wasn't them, deep in my young little mind, I knew it was my parents that did it.

My dad used to tell me, "Daughter, if you can read English newspapers, then you are really top." Since then I always thought I must be able to read newspapers in English someday somehow. And that little thought has been realized. 

Sometimes I still find it unbelievable of how I stepped out of my motherland and have been so far from home for so long already. I guess it was all this childhood fascination that leads me to today. All I wanted in the beginning was to learn the language. And it seems that I haven't only gained the language skills, but also harvested family, friends, love, and more.