About Me

Education, the knowledge society, the global market all connected through technology and cross-cultural communication skills are I am all about. I hope through this blog to both guide others and travel myself across disciplines, borders, theories, languages, and cultures in order to create connections to knowledge around the world. I teach at the University level in the areas of Business, Language, Communication, and Technology.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Year's Challenge



My family and I were discussing the most memorable New Year's recently. For me it was when the new Century began. Our television had 24 hour coverage of New Year's activities. It was wonderful watching the Maori ceremony welcoming the New Year from the shores of New Zealand, watching the fireworks over the Sydney Opera House, watching the Chinese ballet/acrobats, seeing the fireworks around the giant Ferris Wheel in London, etc... It was an anticlimax as the ball fell down in Times Square to mark the millennium.

With this in mind, I would like to offer a challenge. Over the next couple of days, I would like to invite bloggers to post about what they did for New Years, sharing photos if they have them, giving a slice of life at the turn of the new year in your corner of the world. You can post the link in the comments section here or just cut and paste the url (I'll add the link to the post).

I hope you have a happy and prosperous new year.

Our New Year's


After 9 inches of light powdery snow on New Year's Eve, we did not do very much for New Year's Eve. My daughter had basketball practice (of which only 4 out the 14 members of the team came), we had a spaghetti dinner with just the family, then "special" cupcakes (with a surprise mint in the cupcake--my family was surprised but not pleasantly--I won't try that again). We then watched TV until the ball in times square fell, bringing in the New Year.

By the next morning, it was 3 degrees F(without windchill, that's about -16C) and windy. So we spent the day watching the Rose Parade (imagining it was as warm there!) and then football.

4 comments:

Helen said...

Hello from sunny Australia - I live in Bendiog which is in central Victori. It was nice to hear about your NYE celebrations. I am married, no kids and had my sister and her partner and two kids here for NYE. For me, we had a quiet night. We went out to a Japanese restaurant at around 6.30 pm and enjoyed a delicious teppanyaki dinner. Then we walked to the centre of town where there was a family carnival with kids entertainment (no alcohol). We wandered into the park and watched the kids fireworks at around 9.30pm, then got an ice-cream on the way back to the car. We were home around 10.30 and opened a bottle of champagne and watched the fireworks in Sydney and Melbourne on TV. We were in bed by 12.30. Pretty boring huh!

Paul C said...

I'm from southern Ontario. My wife and I visited our daughter and son-in-law in Toronto. They rent this beautiful condo with a spectacular view of the CN Tower, Royal York Hotel and other skyscrapers. After a dinner of spaghetti and salad we played Scrabble and ushered the New Year in with a glass of champagne. All the best!

V Yonkers said...

Helen, we used to have a family night on New Year's Eve (called first night), nearby, but it got too big and I think people stopped coming because of the poor whether. Some of the smaller cities further north from us have it, but I think the fact that it is in a more compact area helps make it WARMER.

It seems odd to have ice cream on New Year's day, but I assume it was probably a nice summer night for you. Is the day long also? (Sun goes down by 4:30 here this time of year).

Paul, I'm assuming you got the snow we did a bit earlier. Are there fire works from the CN tower or over the lake? If it was as cold as it was here in Eastern NY, you probably wanted to just stay cozy inside anyways.

Paul C said...

There were no fireworks but Yonge Street was alive with partiers, young and old. It's great to walk in a city with a dynamic downtown core.