10 Years

Only few more hours were left out of 2011... And as my ghosts were having their own party in my home last night, making it impossible for me to sleep, I remembered...

Last time I had a party for New Years Eve was exactly 10 years ago... I spent that night in Bucharest with people I cared about, people I knew and some I did not at the time... I remember Abdul, so stable, so wise, so patient with the child I still was... I remember Nada, so beautiful and so grown up, a fresh and upbeat breeze in my so serious life... I remember the foods we all prepared in a small kitchen, the laughter and the easy camaraderie of the few girls smoking and gossiping in the kitchen... The dinner on a white tablecloth in the middle of the lounge as there were not enough seats for all of us... I remember Ahmed bringing lychees fruits who looked like hard, pink strawberries... But most off all I remember the laughter, the joy of facing a new year even though we all were away from home.

This year I did not have a big group of friends around... Just an Aussie style New Years Eve with pub hopping and a lot of drinking. The people that matter were away, scattered around the world, most of them, and the other ones all over the country...

This year there is no Latin celebration in the streets with long beeping cars and loud screams! Fireworks from University Piazza in Bucharest instead were watched by me from a bridge without a name for me, facing the Harbor Bridge in Sydney. But the sky was full of love hearts and if there was no mistletoe and no friends to easy kiss at midnight, there were phone calls to my loved ones...

One can take a Latin out of Europe, but can not take the Latin out of the person... So I screamed as I was counting the seconds, laughing like an idiot. I managed to stop short from dancing in the street... And when an unexpected friend called as the first fireworks were lighting the dark sky, I had tears in my eyes...

I walked until my feet were screaming, and Aussie enough now, folded my evening pants and took off my 6 inch stilettos. I had laughter in my voice and laughter in my heart...

Since I left my country so long ago, since I swapped cultures and continents, it was the first New Year  Eve I felt no sorrow. The longing was there as I guess it will always be, but I was happy and having fun. Most likely in the future I will be going to an organized party on a boat or in a restaurant, leaving the pub hopping to younger people. But for 2012, I know that I laughed and I sang on the music... I know that after 10 years I welcomed a new year being happy to the core.