Carol Bontekoe

This blog has been keeping track of my adventures since 2004. The stories and the adventures have come from my college dorm room to Uganda, Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan, learning Dutch in the Netherlands to living in the wilds of Homer, Alaska. I went back to school in Amsterdam to study Theaterwetenschap (Theatre Science) at University of Amsterdam. And now my adventures as a Fruit Fly, a Sexy Unicorn, and creating a movement with Team Sparkle in Chicago.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year

My friend Caitlin once told me this whole theory she has about how you spend your New Year is how your up coming year is going to be. She believes this, that is probably why she spent New Year's Eve in Thailand.
I'm not exactly a believer of that. I have had super weird New Year's that didn't represent my next year at all. There was even one very sad and depressing one my sophomore year of high school that my lil sister Diane still likes to bring up and laugh about. However, when she does bring it up it almost brings a tear to my eye. And I don't see where how I spent 2006 with Sara in a basement bar where we were the first ones to show up, we ate all the food, and sara got us kicked out 15 minutes after the new year; represents my graduating university and joing the peace corps.
I spent one new year with Tommy and his sisters having his sister smuggle us shots and telling us if we got caught for drinking underage we were to say a dirty mexican gave us the shots. I went to Africa to work with children who have AIDS that year.
But last night I was thinking of Caitin's theory and thinking of what that would mean about my 2008 based on last night. I was watching the movie Holiday with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz with my bosses till a lil after 11:30 when we went and woke the kids up and got them dressed. We watched the clock count down then opened a bottle of Rose champagane and eat olibalen(What Dutch think are doughnuts). Then we went out into the front yard and light fire works. I was given a sparkler. Not one of those little ones but one of those GIAGANTIC ones(ny true American knows what I'm talking about). I used all my restraint to keep myself from running away when Rob gave it to me. In my head I took off running and was giggling and laughing just like I wanted to be. However, Peace Corps broke my spirit and now I feel I need to show restraint instead of joy. I did show Lucas, age six, how freakin' cool it was to watch me spell out happy new year with th sparkler. After the fireworks were done we took the kids back to bed. Ellen went to bed and Rob and I walked into th village to see what was going on. There were some trash cans with fires going in them. We stood around and talked to some Fries guys and one guy who recently got out of an Ethiopian Jail. ONe guy grabbed me and gave me a very long hug and told me in English that he loved me. The Ethiopian told me how he loves George Bush and hates muslims. Rob and I took that as our cue to go. I came back to the house watched some news about the riots in Kenya and Arrested Devlopment(disc 2, season 2) and fell asleep. What does this say about my upcoming year? I have no idea. But I had fun on New Year despite trying to act grown up.
2008: the year I grow up?
Keep reading, we'll see how it goes.

2 comments :

  1. Anonymous said...

    hmm... this past new year's my brother & i tried to crash a mormon party. then we drank this kinda gross hot [yes, hot] german wine. then at midnight [after doing our tradition of shaking money outside] i sat outside, freezing in flip-flops, talking to eric on the phone [we have a tradition of calling each other at midnight in our respective time zones, no matter where we are], then i talked to my boyfriend. i have no idea what any of that would mean.

  2. Anonymous said...

    ok so i admit that i have been very out of the loop with reading your writings, even though i have a link to it bookmarked underneath my own blog...which i still don't even frequent.

    and so i just saw this and got a really good laugh because you make some good points. although carol, i do see the correlation between shots from 'dirty mexicans'and working with AIDS in africa. clearly.

    but really, my theory lies not so much with the literal things you're doing but moreso with the overall feeling you have and overall time you have on new years eve. probably because it is my favorite holiday, but also because the theory has held true with me, if for no one else. despite considering that (obvious) connection between your experiences at sharkie's and in the peace corps. you were a martyr in both. (now that i've written that, there's actually no sarcasm there!)

    but come on carol, you know me. too overanalytical and too deep for my own good. i do have a history of my feelings and overall attitude on new years eve carrying on throughout the rest of said year. superstition, yes. that far-fetched, who really knows, yeah?

    and it sounds to me like all of your new years eve's have been pretty fricken random. and your life, well my dear...

    ;-P