It all started a couple of years ago: I won one of four Christmas trees the International Housing Department of our school distributes every year through a raffle. Before that I had never even thought of getting a Christmas tree. Now that I had one for the season (we would have to return them after Christmas so they could be used again the following year), I realized I was in need of some decoration. So I went to the city in search for some nice ornaments. Now, those of you who don’t live in China need to know that there’s only one kind of Christmas decoration available here: the sparkly, glittery kind (not exactly my style). However, a Christmas tree without ornaments is an even sadder thing to behold. So I just bought what I found in the spur of the moment.
Well, the following year, I decided to be a little more organized. Not wanting to depend on a raffle again, I got my own tree, plus a box full of ornaments. And this is what my tree looks like now:
