Argus New Years article

5…4…3…2…1…HAPPY NEW YEAR!
These are familiar sounds to most everyone I know but they are not the words I heard around midnight on December 31st. Though there was not a formal countdown, my New Years celebration in Taiwan was a very memorable one. Some of you might have been watching CNN as they panned around the world to give viewers a sense of how different parts of our world celebrate the beginning of a New Year. One of those shots was in Taiwan at the famous Taipei 101 building where a dazzling firework display was briefly caught by the cameras and beamed to the network. Being at the 101 on New Year’s Eve is like being in Times Square in the States and………………I was there. Here is the story of that memorable evening and the few days after January 1 when I had a chance to explore the main city of Taiwan, Taipei.

Kevin, another expatriate English teacher from Long Island, and I met at the train station in Taipei City before 7pm and decided to find our way to Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the world) right away and then make our plans for the evening. Navigating this city, nearly the size of New York, was surprisingly easy using the MRT (subway) and before long we had located the famous landmark around which the New Year’s celebration would take place. There was no giant crystal ball hanging from any of the skyscrapers so I figured that was purely a New York thing but there was obviously going to be some sort of festivity. There were tons of people already milling around and midnight was still over 4 hours away. I was already excited!

Since we had both been on a train for several hours to reach Taipei and only eaten snacks, we were famished. Now that we had our bearings of where the celebration would take place, our thoughts turned to food-----not any food -----we craved a good ole fashion American meal. We knew from a trip we took in August that there was an Outback Steakhouse near Taipei 101. It took a while, but once we found it, our appetites had preceded us! We enjoyed every bit of our dinner because we rarely have an opportunity to enjoy this once familiar cuisine. After the leisurely meal we still had two hours to kill until Midnight so we walked around a little, got some drinks at one of the many street establishments and found a spot that we thought would be perfect to watch the show. We didn’t want to risk losing our spot, so we took turns leaving to walk around and “people watch”. The crowd was beginning to press in on everyone and the excitement, although tempered in terms of western standards, was palpable. You could feel the anticipation in the air but, interestingly, there was not that much noise or “craziness” that you see on television in regards to New York. We had our great seat in the middle of a street about a block and a half from Taipei 101. From our vantage point we had a super view of the building and were, essentially, in the middle of everything! As the hour crept slowly by towards midnight, many times we had to “protect” our turf from would be squatters. Thankfully, being a New Yorker, Kevin was an expert at this.
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With only a few minutes until midnight we geared up for the traditional countdown. It never arrived. Somewhere around 12am all the lights of the 101 went out, there was a reaction from the crowd and a massive show of fireworks commenced from the building itself. Not over top the building, FROM the building----from the roof, from the sides and from the area around the structure. Actually I think it was a few minutes after the hour when the fireworks started. So much for the traditional countdown and obligatory eruption that follows 3-2-1…………. I thought the count down was a world-wide thing, evidently not. The show lasted about 6-8 minutes and on the last explosion, Kevin screamed "HAPPPPYYYY NNNEEEWWW YEEAARRR." You would think that he would have been one of many voicing the same thing but strangely, Kevin’s voice was the only one ringing in the New Year in this fashion. The firework show was nothing short of spectacular but I missed the noise and celebration we all grew up seeing on our televisions from Times Square. Following Kevin’s boisterous broadcast, everyone, thousands and thousands of people, got up and left. I'm sure it was just a funny coincidence, but it seemed as if Kevin's yell was the announcing of the end of the show. NO hugging, kissing or celebrating; the show was over so it was time for everyone to move on!

Kevin knew that when a huge show like this is over, it is not the best idea to get up and leave with the crowd...there is a lot of pushing, shoving and frustration so we sat and watched everyone else leave. Many people wanted to get their picture taken with the funny and loud Americans so we gladly obliged. For one couple, Kevin laid completely on his back so he could get a good shot with the 101 in the background. Many others found this remarkable, so he took about 5 more couples' pictures in this position. Onlookers were even taking pictures of Kevin on his back with a camera because this was very odd to them and ended up creating quite the scene. With the crowd thinning out after several minutes we looked at each other and wondered; what should we do now? Since this trip was arranged rather spontaneously, neither of us had made any arrangements for the evening, ie; we had no place to stay for the night! We decided not worry about it until we got tired so we just took in the night life of Taipei until a bit after 2am when the rigors of our travels and the events of the evening finally caught up with us. I was cold and tired. Both of us were ready for sleep but the question was where? There was not a hotel or hostel room to be had anywhere in the city, not on New Years Eve night. What now?

This is the craziest thing I've ever done, and I wouldn't have done anything like this if I weren't with Kevin but, really, we didn’t have many options. Kevin is quite a bit older than I am and is like an uncle to me; he's responsible and always puts my safety before anything else so I figured we'd be ok. I guess when you catch the “traveling bug” you do more adventurous things and take bigger risks than you normally would, at least that is what I will attribute our lack of planning to. Luckily, we both refrained from drinking much (note: it is legal to drink anywhere…even walking on the sidewalk) because in the back of our minds, we wanted to have control when it came time to find somewhere to stay. We got on the MRT and went to the stop where our hostel for the next night was located (Kevin had a room reserved for the next night but not THIS night). We walked into about 3 hotels where they just laughed at us when we asked for a room. The last hostel that rejected us was on the 3rd floor of a building so, seeing no other options, Kevin decided to find a nook in this building where we could crash. He left me in the stairwell (a bit frightened I might say) to find a spot and in a few minutes came back and said that he found a place out of the way and, by his estimation, it was the best place we were going to find. He led me up some stairs to a balcony where two comforters were hanging over a railing either drying or airing out. We now had covers and protection from the elements! Soon Kevin was snoring but I don't think I fell asleep until after the sun rose. It seemed like as soon as I got to sleep he was waking me up and telling me that we needed to leave before we were found. So, about 9am January 1, 2009, we rolled into McDonald's after a night of being homeless, and “refueled”. Neither a night not soon forgotten nor one I care to repeat in its entirety again!



As I stated above, Kevin had reserved a bed at a hostel for the next evening so I figured I could just sleep on the floor in his room or perhaps they had a roll-a-way bed for such situations. Obviously, I had never been to a hostel, nor did I really know what a hostel was. I thought it was just like a cheap hotel. WRONG. A hostel is a bunk room for cheap travelers, and you can't have guests so I inquired about a bed for me. No such luck but they offered a couch for half price. It was better than someone’s balcony but not by a wide margin. Being a hostel, there is nothing provided; no towels for wet hair, no shampoo, conditioner...etc. This I didn't realize until after I was in the process of showering. Along with no towels, they also don’t supply any soap. Luckily, I found a sample of shampoo that quickly was transformed into “body wash and shampoo”. There was one more lesson I learned from this situation: that in a pinch yesterday’s clothes can easily double as today’s towel! If not an adventure, it sure was an experience!


The rest of the weekend was much less eventful, very educational and enjoying. We spent most of the time learning some history of Taiwan by visiting many of the museums around Taipei. The National Palace Museum is a magnificent collection of artifacts from the Chi’ing Dynasty. I would love to share pictures, but no cameras were allowed in the museum. We also visited the Taiwan Aboriginal Museum, which was also a great experience. The aboriginals here are so similar to the Native Americans. They use similar resources from the earth, make similar clothing and jewelry, and celebrate similar rituals.
The holidays were definitely different for me, but a growth experience being away from home. The whole episode of New Years Eve 2009 will always be a great memory for me. I experienced a new way to celebrate, and was far more daring than I have ever been in the past. I pray that our nation and the world will have a better year in 2009 than it did the previous year. The economic downturn is worldwide and is also felt here in the East.

January marks the 5th month of my living in Taiwan. I have already experienced and learned so much. I look forward to my last 6 months here but will also be glad to step foot on American soil again. In the New Year, I expect to write about future travels, and more on the Taiwan culture. I will be traveling around Taiwan as well as Japan during my winter break so, hopefully, you can look forward to hearing about those excursions. It would be ok with me if they weren’t quite as “adventurous” as the New Year’s experience.