Happy New Year!

Today's weather: High = 1 Low = -5
Sunny and freezing

My favorite day of the year is New Years Eve. As always, it's a great time to go out and celebrate, regardless of what the weather might throw my way. This year, it promised to be super chilly with gale-force winds, and a survey from the newspaper showed that 60% of people planned to opt out and stay at home this time due to the cold weather.

This was good news, as taxis are always scarce in Shanghai on New Years Eve. The public transport extends for just a wee while longer into the night, but it still shuts down around midnight so this is harldy an option. It's not like in my hometown Vancouver, where the buses run all night and are free. Because of all that, the original plan was to shuttle around on the motorcycle from venue to venue, and brave the sub-zero temperatures while doing so -- in the hopes that I could be guaranteed a ride home at 1am or 2am. Thankfully that plan was no longer needed, as I unexpectedly saw all kinds of empty taxis plying the streets while shuttling between parties on the bike. So I happened to be near the school while on a run between parties. Thus I stashed the bike underground in the warm shelter, and took a taxi the rest of the way. It will more or less remain there in hibernation until the end of February when we get back from the winter holiday break. The weather is just too cold here to be riding bikes anymore.

Actually I'm more concerned about the bike than myself -- I can survive the chilling winds while riding, but if the bike stays outside for long periods of time, then the engine gets cold, the battery loses its potential, and it's really hard to start it up again. Let's face it, motocycles were made for Thailand weather, not this.

Having to work on New Years Eve wasn't the most fun thing, but I showed movies in one class and the other had their test delayed to this day, so it went relatively smoothly. After that, a nap, then getting ready in the cold for two parties. First one was clear across the city to watch a student sing in a band. It was mostly Korean and Japanese young people playing grunge music, and cover versions of the likes of Simple Plan, Green Day, etc... Korean teens are famous for joining high school bands, as we saw dozens of performances like this at the former school I taught at in Dalian. Every day after schoool, for example, you could hear them rehearshing. The performance by my student's band, however, pretty much rocked them all, and it was very well done -- albeit the noise level was crazy loud!

After that, another sub-zero motorcycle ride across the city, by now it was about 9pm. This time I gave up halfway through, as mentioned above. I caught a taxi the rest of the way to the hotel, where there was a party held by the Alpha Course I was a leader for in the past 3 months. After that, a church event downstairs to welcome in the New Year, more or less. We had to clear out by 12:30, as there was another event scheduled to use that room after us. By that time I was exhausted and had to turn down another party invitation. Then it was a surprisingly easy case of finding a taxi and getting a ride home.

Exactly two years ago this day it was a similar scenario for New Years Eve -- but I was living way out in the suburbs at the time, and it was an absolute nightmare to get a taxi to where I wanted. To make a long story short, I made several mistakes and went to after-party invitations that I shouldn't have gone to. That ended up having me stay the entire night up in a club, drink too much, and then fall asleep on the metro station bench like a bum, waiting for the first train that would get me to Songjiang at around 5:30am. When I finally got there around 7am, the local taxis there still wouldn't pick me up, and I walked the final 3km home in the freezing cold, cursing under my breath. Like I said, that was a nightmare. Comparing this New Years to 2 years ago I'm amazed at all the positive changes taking place, and very thankful that I wouldn't have the desire or inclination to do anymore of these after-parties again.

So let's just say that 2011 is off to a great start by waltzing into a cab at 12:36, getting home at 12:48 to a nice warm place, and paying a very reasonable 25RMB for that 5km journey and having no fuss and hassles along the way.