12/31/02               Happy New Year…Twice

 

Was a fun New Year’s.  All day I was waffling about whether to go out tonight or just stay in and avoid the crowds.  There were several annual New Year’s concerts around town:  at CKS Memorial, the President’s house, and Warner Village.  Susan and I finally agreed to go to the CKS one where she was meeting her friends from 8 o’clock class.  As I headed out, my coworkers warned me that the whole area would be incredibly crowded, that we wouldn’t be able to find each other or call each other because all cellphone signals would be too busy tonight.  After all that, they said, “[But you should still go, it will be fun.]”  So I was dubious, but when we arrived it was cool—big stage with several large screens, lots of famous Taiwan pop singers performed, the crowds got bigger as it got later, and they gave out free coffee and KitKats.  The 8 o’clock class is definitely a friendly, close-knit bunch.  I bought glowsticks and a blinking light earring. 

 

At 9:45 Susan and I went to Niclas’ friend’s new bar, J’s.  It was very chill and more like a quiet house party, a totally different atmosphere than the noisy CKS.  We had free cake and cookies baked by the owner, and looked at naked art on the walls.  Sitting at the table in the “dining room” we realized we sort of crashed someone’s private party, oops.  We sipped wine that was not so good, and as it neared 11:30 I was itching to check out her friend’s party at the presidential suite in the Westin that she’d mentioned, so we grabbed a cab and rushed over.

 

About 40 people chipped in to reserve the presidential suite tonight (about 1000NT/person).  It was a costume party and the couple with the best costume got to have the suite for the night.  This atmosphere was again, totally different.  It was all ABC professionals, and it reminded me of college Asian parties but the crowd was older, the girls all pretty and dressed up.  Her friend was a very outgoing party guy who pushed drinks on us.  They turned on the TV for the countdown, Susan’s bf called her, and we all watched it on TV and cheered.  It was a nice crowd but wished I wasn’t with all strangers.  But I was glad I got to know Susan better. 

 

Next we hopped to Juliana’s.  My old friend from home Simon who I hadn’t seen in years was in town; he and Brad and Elsa were trying to reach me and vice versa all night, but cellphone lines really were bad, getting cabs was hard too.  In the end we just met up with Niclas outside Julianas and found it was 1000 cover so we negged it.  We ended up at TU which at first I wasn’t thrilled about, but it was crowded and had pretty good music overall, and we got “VIP cover”, 500 with a free drink.  Susan coaxed us to dance on the stage, and we tore down strips of tinsel from the wall, she and I wore them like halos. Niclas wore my blinking earring and held my Prada bag again, looked so funny.  Some whitie tried to bother us, telling me and Susan to get away from Niclas not realizing he was our friend.  But we just had fun, dancing endlessly, like Halloween night.  Missed Ginger and Jonathan though.  And of course Dave.

 

January 1, 2003

            Couldn’t sleep past 10AM this morning.  My parents called at 11, Dave right afterwards.  He was doing New Year’s Eve with his college buds and Pete.  I told him I’d call just before his midnight to ring in the New Year.  I called a little too early, 11:50, and he was in a loud bar and couldn’t hear me.  Called again after I estimated it was almost time, and it was 30 seconds to go.  I heard the crowd and counted down with them and heard them all cheer and yell and we said Happy New Year.  So at least we got to sort of ring it in together.  And I got to do it twice!  I was home alone in bed, with a cup of tea as my “drink,” but I liked it even better that time.