Last night for New Year's Eve I decided not to barge in on the family celebration to which I'd been invited (invited by a couple who was also going-- I had never met the family). After the excitment of my trip back to my old city and back (more on that another time) I wasn't at all sure I'd be able to stay awake until midnight, and I certainly wasn't sure I had the mental clarity left to be sociable with strangers. One of my friends was sick and hadn't been out of her apartment since last Thursday, and two of my friends moved here on the train with me yesterday (closely related to the aforementioned excitement), so we decided to have a quiet night of pizza, Chinese food, and a movie.

As I left my apartment building on my way to join my friends, my boab (doorman) stopped me and told me that I needed to make sure I came home early that night. You need to understand that there's a definite class system here, and trust me, it's far from normal for a boab to give one of his tenants an order like that, however polite his tone of voice. I thought I must have misunderstood him. (He doesn't speak any English.) So I asked him to say it again, and he started explaining to me that I must be home by 11:00, because it was very bad to be out on the streets after that time. I was flabbergasted. Apart from occasional harrassment from too-friendly men and the crazy style of driving here, this is probably the safest city I've ever lived in. I thought perhaps he was trying to protect my reputation (women aren't usually out late here), but I told him that it was the new year and I had to be at my friend's house until midnight so we could all welcome the new year together. He smiled then, and said that would be fine, as long as I didn't come home until 12:30 or after. By this time I was thoroughly dumbfuzzled, but I said goodbye to him and went on my way. Fortunately, a couple of my friends were able to clear up that mystery for me. (They've been here a lot longer than I have.) In this city, in addition to setting off the usual firecrackers at midnight, people welcome in the new year by throwing glass and plastic bags filled with water into the streets from their balconies. So yes, it's very bad to be on the streets from about 11:30 till whenever everything quiets down again... usually by 12:30. We, of course, had to join in the celebration. The girl at whose apartment we were didn't have any glasses or plates she was willing to toss into the street, but we filled nearly a dozen bags with water and slung them off her balcony, watching each of them explode with satisfying splats on the concrete far below. Glass and flaming fireworks rained down from the apartments above us, and we took care not to stick our heads too far out from underneath the shelter of our balcony ceiling.

By about half-past, the streets were quiet again, except for the clatter of the occasional rogue firecracker, and so I set out for my apartment. I thanked my boab for his warning and dragged my weary body up the stairs and into bed.