New Year's Eve 101, pt 2

Sorry, as I finished my Christmas re-cap I realized that it really should be its own posting. Now, for New Year's Eve...

The city of Taipei was really hopping. If you were wanting for something to do that night all you had to do was head downtown to Taipei 101 (hereinafter referred to as "101").

Work ended, I headed over to Chinese class and at 9:30 met up with Joy and some other friends for a rooftop party. I'm sure we've all be to a rooftop party or at the very least partied on a roof somewhere. There was great food and great company to be had. To be honest, the roof was just a typical roof -- oh, except for the AWESOME view of 101!!! We were maybe 5 or 6 blocks from the building itself.

For those that don't know, Taipei 101 is currently the world's tallest building. (Aside: Taiwan really doesn't seem like the place to find the world's tallest/most anything) Yes, I've heard about the Dubai Tower, but that's not done yet so it doesn't count in my book.

So there we are on the roof looking at 101 all lit up. Suddenly, I realize I didn't have a watch and had no idea when to start the countdown! All concerns were allayed when 101 suddenly went dark and a countdown of lights running up the building clued us in.

Then at 00:00:01 1/1/2008 the biggest New Year's firework show I've seen went off. These pictures hardly does it justice...

New Year's Eve 101, pt 1

Happy (belated) New Year!!! The new year (albeit for the Gregorian calendar, not the Chinese lunar one) celebration was HUGE here in Taipei.

Really quick, let me re-cap a Taiwanese Christmas:
It's a bit funny -- sad, perhaps too -- that Christmas came and went and there was barely a stir in the air. Christmas just isn't here. And with that neither is there a feeling of "Christmas spirit". It was weird...for me, Christmas didn't really happen this last year.

There were Santas and Christmas trees in the departments stores, but they were all cheap imitations of the real thing. I maybe saw that word "Christmas" written a few times around here and there. Most of the time it was, "X-mas". I loathe -- LOATHE -- that term. It doesn't convey anything that is or represents the holiday or what it means.

There were Christmas parties at friends' places and gift exchanges and in those brief moments the spirit of the season was felt. Still, all this amounted to one grand realization for me: Christmas (and the holidays) are founded in family and traditions, and supported by society. For me, I never want to spend Christmas without my family again. They -- all of them -- make the spirit come alive for me.