My second New Year's Eve in Australia. I'm still definitely not accustomed to having it in summer. Today was a beautifully warm day and a lovely, cool night, and tomorrow should be much the same. Where I'm from, massive crowds of people will be huddled in the city centre in the freezing cold to watch a lit-up ball descend a pole, but here they'll be walking around in summer clothes watching fireworks over the river.
The thing for me is that, back in New York, I spent every NYE with my friends from university, at a party at the apartment in midtown with the best rooftop view of the ball dropping. Here, only a couple of people I know are having a party, and they're not particularly good friends, and they're also "before" parties to spend some time getting drunk at before heading off to clubs or bars, and I definitely don't relish going to some crowded club with a cover charge to drink overpriced drinks with strangers.
So it seems like it's anyone's guess what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'm thinking of possibly either watching the fireworks with a visiting houseguest, or going to a dressy Swing Dance Ball. A ticket isn't cheap and I'd probably be there alone, but on the other hand, dancing to swing music is the only thing this year that I've found that actually makes me feel really happy.
What do people do for NYE in some of the other countries represented here, I wonder? And is that what the rest of you (whether expats or natives) will be doing, or something else?
Before I had a child, I had many Christmases away from my family. Christmas sleeping on a beach in Thailand? No problem. Christmas working? Okay. Christmas at the houses of students? Sure. Christmas spent inside, eating a box of Christmas cookies and watching videos, alone? Better still. But after my son was born I felt he should have a Christmas Family Feeling, and so beginning with his first Christmas, we flew back to the States for Christmas.
If you travel anywhere for Christmas, you know that it is like joining a salmon run. Seriously: this mass of bodies, all driven to return home, many of us because of the spawn. Most journeys start off with great intentions and holiday cheer, but by the time you reach your destination you are exhausted by humanity and not in the best of all possible holiday moods. It's never pleasant to travel during the holidays, and the longer your journey, the less pleasant it becomes. At best, you're tired from traveling. On average, you've been listening to some small child (whose parents probably had the same crazy "home for the holidays" idea you do) scream for fifteen hours. In worse cases, the suitcase full of gifts has been lost. Or you have been.
Three Christmases ago, we met my parents at my cousin's in Florida. I went walking on the beach to watch the sunrise over the ocean every morning and ate almost enough seafood to satisfy me (there is not enough seafood to satisfy me, but I came close in Florida). It was a good Christmas, but at some point my mother said what a shame it was that my husband wasn't with us, that he didn't want to spend Christmas with his family (he won't fly). And I thought: this is ridiculous.
So- the last two Christmases, we haven't gone anywhere. We've stayed here at home. Because when I think of HOME, I think of here, I think of the Czech Republic and I think of Brno and I even think specifically of this apartment. This "home for the holidays" thing doesn't need to involve 20 hours of travel because I am already home.
I do realize that for many people, the week off at Christmas is the only time they can travel, and I think I would travel if those were my circumstances, only a one-week window in which I could see my folks. I mean: I do feel a need to stay connected to my, ah, ancestral home. It's just that we're going in February. Because I love my American family, but for Christmas I wanted to be home. I wanted to be here.
Where is your home? Were you there for Christmas?
1. Travel light. Face it, it's just easier.
2. Be nice. Please and thank you go a long way in any language.
3. Ask locals. They live there. They know where the best pizza is and the friendliest clubs. And when you're in those places, ask the people who work there where they go.
4. Think positive. Everyone is NOT out to get you and paranoia is a really heavy piece of baggage to carry around.
5. Speak softly. Also, slowly and clearly. They're not deaf, they just don't speak your language.
6. Be adventurous. Try something you don't recognize on the menu, wander a neighborhood instead of taking a tour bus.
7. Visit supermarkets. Seriously. Supermarkets in "other" places can blow your mind. Stuff on the shelf you don't recognize, the way people interact, what their junk food looks like... (a personal favorite of mine).
8. Don't judge. Things are different in other places, not always better or worse.Be humble about where you come from and gracious about what you receive.
9. Slow down. There's no way you're going to see it all, so why not really see what there's time for
10. Spread understanding. Interactions with other cultures and countries not only gives us the chance to learn about them, but for those places to learn about us. Take that on with great honor and responsibility and make your home country proud.
Today's weather in my part of Melbourne:
Morning: Rain
Early Afternoon: Hailstorm with stones as big as corn kernels
Late Afternoon: Sunny and clear, high temperature 14.5°C/58°F (coldest Christmas here on record)
Evening: Rain
And the mountainous Alpine region of the state got blanketed by an overnight snowstorm.