New Years Eve 2009

New Years Eve is a special holiday for Nathan and I. It is our 11th time celebrating it together and marks the day we both were falling in love 10 years ago. Basically no NYE has even come close to the one that rang in 2000... until this year. We now have a 2nd place NYE, in Taiwan. Who woulda thought?

We went out with 3 other fun couples and we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner and surprisingly my only disappointment was how careful I had to be with what I ate since I share it with Ander. It was really good food which is something I am rarely able to say here.

Next we all piled into one 4-Runner and headed down towards the river. Despite all of the coats you see in the picture, it was really a nice night. We went down by the river with tons of other people to look across and watch the fireworks that they shoot off of Taipei 101- the world's second tallest building. We all enjoyed each others company and the surrounding while the last few minutes of 2009 slipped away.

At midnight the fireworks began. They were cool from our vantage point but honestly didn't blow my mind. Plus they lasted all of 3 minutes. What did blow my mind was all of the amazing fireworks literally everyone else was letting off everywhere around us. It was so cool!

Everywhere you looked nearby and across the sky line there were beautiful fire flowers in the sky and reflected in the river. It was unexpected and so beautiful. I mean, I know the Chinese are fans of pyrotechnics but I had no idea that everybody got in on the action.

Anyway, I was happy with our decision not to go downtown with 20,000 other people to fight for a spot to see a 3 minute fireworks display... until I found these pictures on the internet the next morning.
Ummm, we may have to venture downtown next year.
Now, the conundrum of the night appeared toward the end of the 3 min show when from across the river our little band of friends all began straining our eyes to see what the words said that had suddenly appeared in lights at the top of 101. After a brief minute of confusion and several attempts to read it correctly and make sense (is it 'Thumbs up'???) we realized it read:

2010

TAIWAN

UP

Huh??? What in the world is that supposed to mean? Taiwan Up? Up where? Why? We all laughed and kind of shrugged and let it be as we watched all the rogue fireworks going off everywhere else around us.

But once we got home Nathan and I got on the subject again. It's like some brain teaser we have to figure out. What is it supposed to mean dang it?! After several Google searches (at about 2am mind you, when I do my clearest thinking) my conclusion is that what they were going for was more like, Taiwan Rise- but obviously something was lost in translation.

But that's okay because it has given Nathan and I a lot of good laughs in the last week and since then we have a new term for when something doesn't make sense here, is lost in translation or we simply don't understand: "TAIWAN UP"!