I thought it was still too early to see Christmas decoration. However, when I entered the mall, I was quickly attracted by Christmas atmosphere. I love Christmas season simply because of the beautiful decorations and Christmas songs. My first time to hear Christmas songs happened when I was an undergraduate student in Shanghai . The song’s name was “Silent night, holy night”. I was not a Christian. But I did have a peaceful feeling in my heart at that time. After I came to the US , I had opportunities to listen to more Christmas songs during holiday season. One of my American friends loved to introduce me good songs and told me stories hidden in the songs. Some of them are peaceful, some of them are cheerful, some of them are funny and some of them sound a little sad. I used to listen to those songs played by music radio station all day while I was working until my American colleagues, sometimes, “begged” me to switch to another station. To them, this was too much. J

My train of thought is tracking back to Shanghai now, where I spent my seven best years. Shanghai is like my second hometown, which has been rooted deeply in my heart. When I first entered my university I was shocked by its beautiful scenes, including a wriggling river, seven bridges, small gardens and stretches of grass. Flowers were always indispensable, such as winter jasmine (forsythia 迎春花 ), magnolia ( 玉兰 ) and camellia( 山茶 ) in Spring, water lily, lotus, cape jasmine ( 栀子花 ) and white michelia ( 白兰花 ) in Summer, fragrant olive ( 桂花 ) in Autumn and wintersweet ( 腊梅 ) in Winter. I had to confess that I never could stop stealing some flower petals, drying them and sending to my family and friends in mails. J

Needless to say, I cherished many unforgettable memories in my mind. One of them was my supervisor for my Master Degree study. He was a very kind-hearted, honest and broad-minded old man, short and skinny. He treated me as his student, friend and even daughter. Besides teaching me professional knowledge and enlightening my interest in science, he loved “persuading” me to get married as soon as possible, or at least have a boyfriend. He regarded it as his important job and seemed always worrying that nobody would marry me. J Both my female classmates and I felt sorry for ourselves simply because we were born too late and missed this charismatic guy. We even complained why he did not have any son or nephew, whom we might date and marry to. J He is in the States now and calls me from time to time. Our friendship is still going on pretty well although he is 30 years older than me. I AM DEFINITELY INTERESTED IN OLD MEN. J Because getting life experiences from old men is a shortcut for the process of being mature. J LOL