B Dear Lan Lan, I’m now writing to you at Hartsop, a village in the Lake District, a place to have most beautiful scenery ( 景色 ) in English couple here to spend Christmas with them. This was planned for overseas students to know British way of life by living with British families. We came two days before Christmas and during our stay, we have had everything we expected. Christmas turkey, Christmas cake, Christmas puddings, Christmas parties and Christmas gifts under the Christmas tree. All are exciting and amusing ( 有趣的 ) , but above all these, we are deeply touched by the hospitality ( 好客 ) of the family, Roger and Anne Marie. Anne Marie was a nurse and all these days, she had been busy cooking meals, washing dishes and showing us around. Roger, who was a doctor, knows a lot about China and still wants to know more. He plays us Chinese music and it seems to me he does better in that than we do. In the evenings, we all sit around the fireplace with Tim, a lovely dog, by our side. Like long-time-no-see friends, we talk about all the things that have happened or we hope to happen in our lives. There is always so much to tell and to know. After three months away from home, we are again feeling how sweet a home can be. Roger and Anne Marrie are not like most of the other people we have met who always make us feel we are foreigners in a foreign country. They show such kindness to us that they bring us a person-to-person feeling, instead of a British-to-Chinese feeling. They make us believe that though there are differences of languages and cultures, one may always expect to find in every corner of the world the feeling of love and being loved. How I wish Mum and Dad could meet them! How I wish you were here with me! How strange it is that the more I feel at home here, the more I miss my real home and all of you. We always talk about “when we go back home next year ... ” and soon we will turn this into “when we go back home THIS year ... ” for the New Year’s Day is coming. Miss you. Love Cao Wen