I have been fully disregarding this Happy New Year rule and have been wishing, “Happy New Year” to everyone I haven’t seen since 2023. I’ll continue to do so through the end of January, so be warned. Happy New Year, everyone!
We just finished the first week of the Spring semester. It’s an incredible irony to be speaking so much of being in the spring (semester) when we’re snowed in today and walks to school have been looking like this:
Yesterday, we all saw each other again since going on break in mid-December and it was sweet to catch up and hear how everyone spent the month off. Some stayed in Philly while others traveled across the US, Canada, and beyond to celebrate this holiday season. Here are a few of the ways we said goodbye to 2023 and celebrated the arrival of this new year.
Nicole welcomed 2024 from Parque Central in Antigua, Guatemala with her family. There she saw the most fireworks she had ever seen. As the clock struck 12, she followed the tradition of eating 12 grapes, each symbolizing a wish for each month of the new year.
Bin traveled to Atlanta to spend time with friends and their cat. On the 31st during the day, they played piano, talked, and went to the circus. During the evening around a fire pit, they wrote letters for themselves to open in 10 years. Then leading up to midnight they counted down to the new year and had a champagne shower! As you can tell, the cat was the most important party member.
Joy spent a very meaningful last day of 2023 volunteering at her friend’s church during a praise performance competition. She ended the year gleaming with pride since her friend’s dance group took home first place!
Chagodi’s celebration was twofold since Sudan’s Independence Day is January 1st. He rang in the new year commemorating his country’s independence with friends in Harrisburg (Pennsylvania’s capital city).
I spent New Year’s Eve with my family in the Poconos and not to one-up Chagodi, but we had a triple celebration since my aunt and I share a birthday on the 1st. She was born exactly at midnight so we rang in the year celebrating her.
Fiona and her boyfriend’s family celebrated the New Year with a homemade Chinese dinner. The family spent the day cooking together, but each person was responsible for one dish. Fiona’s was a pork dish. While Fiona’s boyfriend’s family has been living in Canada for many years, they have maintained their love for home-cooked seafood.
Fatima and Rameen went to the Delaware Waterfront for the midnight fireworks and rang in 2024 “with the cutest old couple,” whose adoring heads are pictured here.
The International Educational Development Program 