New Year’s Eve Abroad: How Expats Celebrated During Unprecedented Times

I’ll never forget how different New Year’s Eve felt this year. Living abroad already makes holidays feel a bit surreal, but when I reached out to my expat friends scattered across the globe to hear their plans, I realized just how wildly different our experiences would be – and it really hit home that we were all navigating this strange new world in our own ways.

The Tale of Two Realities

The contrasts were absolutely mind-blowing. My buddy in Berlin was basically under house arrest – seriously, they couldn’t have more than five people together, and those had to be from just two households. Every bar and restaurant? Shuttered. There was even a nighttime curfew! He texted me saying his big plan was to “hibernate until 2021” – and honestly, I couldn’t blame him.

Then there was my colleague in Mauritius, living her best life. Zero COVID cases meant life as usual – packed shopping centers, big family dinners, the works. She was actually complaining about having too many party invitations! Talk about parallel universes. It really made me think about how this whole experience has been so drastically different depending on where your passport stamps have taken you.

Creative Celebrations in Challenging Times

But here’s what I love about expats – we’re nothing if not resourceful. Everyone found their own way to make the night special:

• My London friends went full romantic comedy mode – just the two of them, a fancy home-cooked meal, and enough champagne to pretend they were at a proper party
• The craziest plan? Some folks in Saudi decided freezing their butts off in the desert near Half Moon Beach was the way to go. Desert camping on NYE? Only expats would think that’s a good idea!
• One couple I know actually spent midnight somewhere over the Atlantic – they’d booked flights specifically to be in the air during the countdown. Now that’s commitment to avoiding crowds!
• And in Dubai? Well, leave it to Dubai to require appointments for everything – even New Year’s celebrations had to be pre-booked!

The Defiant Spirit

I have to admit, the responses to restrictions revealed a lot about human nature. While most people I talked to were playing by the rules (albeit grudgingly), there was definitely a rebellious streak among some. One group in particular made me laugh – they declared their apartment a “COVID-free zone” where mentioning the virus would result in taking a shot. “We’re going to party like it’s 2019,” they said, and honestly? Part of me envied their determination to find normalcy.

Lessons Learned

Looking back, this bizarre New Year’s taught me more about expat life than any “normal” celebration could have:

• We expats are masters of making lemonade from lemons – give us any situation, and we’ll find a way to celebrate
• Distance doesn’t diminish friendship – if anything, our scattered community grew tighter through shared experiences
• Those “traditional” celebrations we used to take for granted? They mean so much more when you can’t have them
• Learning to respect local rules is part of the expat deal – even when your friend three countries over is living it up while you’re stuck inside

Looking Forward

You know what struck me most? Every single person I talked to – whether they were bundled up in the Saudi desert, sneaking extra friends onto a balcony, or quietly toasting at home – had the same underlying hope. We all just wanted things to get better.

Being an expat during all this madness has been like getting a masterclass in resilience. We’ve learned to find joy in Zoom toasts, to appreciate the friends who become our chosen family abroad, and to never take a good party for granted again. Whether we rang in the new year with fireworks on a beach or Netflix on the couch, we all shared that universal midnight wish: here’s to better days ahead. Because at the end of the day, that’s what New Year’s is about – hope, fresh starts, and the belief that no matter where in the world we’ve landed, tomorrow can be brighter than today.