My Last New Year In Hong Kong

January 1, 2022

It's been my fifth time spending New Year in Hong Kong since I stepped into this foreign land last September 2017. Every New Year event was so boring for me, except for Christmas days where I could spend my day roaming around the city, with or without my friends. But since December 31 is not a statutory holiday for us here, my friends are always working and I always found myself spending the night alone at home.

Prior to this pandemic, my boss's family always spent Christmas and New Year abroad, such as in Taiwan or Japan. That always allows me to rest more and be comfortable in their home alone. Being a HK newbie, my first Christmas vacation was boring as I only spent my days at home or anywhere around the near city, since I wasn't familiar yet with the transportation routes, tourist destinations, and so on. A literal noob I should say. And my daily routine was always spent at home, the market, and malls near us. 

December 2017

This was my first Christmas vacation in December 2017, the day after the Chinese family left the country. The one-week vacation was only spent sleeping, eating, marketing, and watching movies on my phone at home.

If I had only explored the country by myself too soon, my Christmas vacation every time my boss's family is abroad would have been so memorable. And this was the result when my boredom struck. Just take a lot of selfies at home and watch a lot of Korean TV series.  

But since I was still ignorant back then, I always relied on my friends and just waited for them to invite me to go somewhere else. Luckily, I have friends who love to explore the country.

This was my very first hike last December 31, 2017. And my New Year's Eve was just spent at home alone while watching movies and calling my family abroad.

December 2018

New Year 2018 was still the same. My boss' family went to Taiwan and I was left alone at home. The same boring routine every day, sleep, eat, watch movies, visit the park and the market, then eat and sleep again.

But at least on this new year's eve, I was able to cook some and celebrate it with my family virtually.

What I like about my boss when going abroad is that she's always giving me money so I could buy food or anything I wanted. 

December 2019

Here comes 2019 when the pandemic first hit China, but my boss' family still went on a vacation in Taiwan and I was again left alone at home.

This was my lonely Christmas eve after meeting my friend somewhere in the city.

My new year was just spent talking with my family through video calls and with my friends.

These are my friends from the US and the Philippines. We were using different funny filters that night and we were laughing out loud the whole time. At least, my new year was spent happily with them.

Then Covid-19 protocols were started to be implemented in February 2019 with more restrictions and social distancing.

Who would have thought that this will be my last hang out with my friends as everything changed when the pandemic started. Most of the holidays, they opted to just stay at home due to pandemic restrictions. Besides, their bosses are paying for their holidays as well.

Since then, we have never been complete anymore.

December 2020

The start of 2020 has been so boring as well. No more meet-ups with my friend and we had different holiday schedules and they opted to just stay at home.

Then I started to have my lone journey and visited different tourist destinations alone.

And since traveling abroad was restricted, my boss' family has never gone on vacation again since then. And their New Year's Eve was always spent with their extended family, from 2020 up to this year.

Until read.cash came in June 2020. The platform helped me ease the loneliness and boredomness through interacting with different users. And my emotions were easily expressed through writing articles.

December 2021

New Year 2021 was just as boring as 2020, as I just spent my new year's eve lying on my bed while calling my family abroad and watching movies.

And this was my first photo in 2021 during my birthday tour around the city.

2022: My Last New Year In Hong Kong

Here comes my last New Year in Hong Kong which was a working holiday for me. But I wasn't really that busy yesterday as I just stayed at home the whole morning until this Chinese family went out and spent their whole afternoon and night outside with their visitor from Canada.

I went out in the afternoon as I wanted to make my favorite dessert every new year, using the money my boss gave me which was supposed to be for my dinner.

Tada!! My favorite mango float. I made two so one is for my boss' family.

After eating dinner, I just spent my night watching movies, and I was able to finish three movies while waiting for the countdown, Matrix, Clifford the red dog, and ghostbusters.

At 11:30, my sister sent me a photo showing our table, and it was all set. As I mentioned in one of my articles, our family is more excited to celebrate New Year than Christmas. We also welcome anyone on New Year's Eve. Our neighbors, friends, and relatives could stay over and eat whatever they want. That's how we usually spend our New Year.

Here they are, my family. I just saw how tall our youngest brother is. He's even taller than my mother now, and to me, lol. Three of my siblings aren't there, perhaps doing something somewhere else. The other one is in Manila, while my two older brothers opted to stay with their own families and just visited the house the day after.

So instead of feeling sad, I just felt happy as I saw my family happy.

January 1st, 2022

I felt positive on the first day of the year, and I promised myself not to feel negative anymore. After dressing up, I took out the mango float I made, bought other food, and went toy favorite spot inside the park, just watching a funny Chinese series until the dark fall.

That's all folks. My boring new year celebrations here in Hing Kong. Thanks for reading another nonsensical rambling.

How's your night guys?

©read.cash/@Jane (All Rights Reserved 2021)