大家好， 新年快樂 (Hello everyone and Happy New Year)!
I hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year. Can you believe it is 2012? Many people that I know rang in the New Year in style this year as some people jetted off to New York and experienced NYE in Times Square. Well I never thought that I would be able to say this, but I was in Taipei Taiwan to celebrate the beginning of 2012. It will definitely be a NYE to remember, as I will probably never has this experience again (unless I stay in Taiwan)!
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| Taipei 101 |
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| Fireworks! |
So as the New Year approached, my friends and I were trying to figure out what to do, when we were told by one of our Taiwanese friends, that she had rented out a restaurant near the Taipei 101 building for everyone to come and enjoy dinner and drinks all night long. All of my closest friends that I have made here along with many other people I had never met before all arrived to celebrate the ending of 2011 and the coming of 2012. It was great, all of us girls got dressed up and headed downtown. Of course all of us girls got fancied up, because thats just what girls do on NYE, wear their nicest clothing and head out on the town. Of course I wore my stiletto high heels and was towering over all of the Taiwanese men and women...but that is not a surprise as I do anyway without heels on, ha!
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| Mary and I |
The evening was great and by the time 11:30 pm rolled around we knew it was time to head out to "try" and get a decent standing place to watch the fireworks. As we all headed to watch the fireworks, people had already filled the streets and there was almost no room to watch the fireworks. But, I weaseled my way in and out of the crowed and found a perfect place to stand with my scottish buddies! The 101 was so beautiful that night, because it was lit up like a rainbow, every floor a different color. So we waited and the time finally arrived, and it sounded like all of Taipei counted down...3....2....1....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Then the fireworks went off.....blasting from all sides of the Taipei 101 building. It was fabulous....although I have seen fireworks many, many times before, this was different, because they weren't just shot into the sky. They were actually coming off of the building and it looked great!
So as the fireworks ended, everyone cleared the streets and it was time to head back to all of the parties going on! My friends and I ended up staying out dancing and having fun until early morning, but I guess that is expected on NYE!
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| Just some of the HESS teachers |
In addition to NYE, just this past weekend I had a HESS school event at the Taipei International Convention Center for ALL of the Chinese Teachers and English teachers from Northern Taiwan. Just to give you a little idea about HESS, which is the school that I work for here, it is like the "McDonalds" of English schools. HESS is a very large corporate English language school company and there are many schools run through the head office or privately owned as a franchise (I work at a franchise). Every year HESS hold its Annual End of the year banquet for all of its employees. I honestly don't even know how I can describe this event to you. I felt as though I was walking into some sort of "rally" or "event that was trying to brainwash people" into liking HESS. GO HESS. HESS IS THE BEST. I am not saying that it was a bad thing, but there were so many people there dressed in HESS uniforms and cheering for Hess, that I was very overwhelmed and couldn't believe how large this event was. OH, and remember this was ONLY just the teachers from Northern Taiwan...tomorrow was the event for Southern Taiwan. WOW!
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Me, Joe & Rachel (My co-workers)
At the HESS Banquet |
Also it was very funny to see all of the Taiwanese teachers so incredibly dressed up in their finest dresses and their hair all done. When Taiwanese girls have the chance to get dressed up and go out, they go ALL OUT! Since many Taiwanese woman do not go out on the weekends/stay out late and many of them don't drink, they really take any opportunity they get to dress up. It is very funny to see how dressed up they really get! I believe it is just a cultural thing here, where many young Taiwanese girls can't stay out late, because they are either living with their families and they need to be home at a certain time, or they need to get back to their boyfriends because they are "waiting for them." It is really hard for me to understand this, because many of these girls, or should I say women, don't ever have the chance of personal growth or fulfillment, because they have never been "alone" their entire life. If it is not living with their families or doing something for their grandparents or parents, they immediately get into a serious relationship where they are always with their boyfriends. But, I guess that is just the way some things work around here. It definitely is not like that for everyone though!
Anyway, it was a great experience and I had a great time with my co-workers as well. But, that is all for me now! Once again, I hope you all had a great NYE and I hope 2012 has been good to you so far.
Sincerely,
Olivia
