happy new year!

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TEA TIME!!!

Tea I'm sipping now: chai karak (yup, I am currently at home for my winter vacation for those who are wondering!). What **tea** would you like to be served?

I'd like to wish all you **tea mates** and **guests** a very happy new year! In the spirit of this special day, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite motivational articles titled Refresh Renew Rebirth from the Positive Provocations blog authored by a lovely **tea mate** and a beautiful soul called Zeenat <3 Hopefully, reading it will make you feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle this year head on! In my next post, which I may post either this week or the next, I plan to share my reflections on the ideas discussed in Zeenat's article and how it has been inspiring and motivating me since the time it was first posted.

As you may have noticed, I completely changed the **Tea House**'s playlist whereby each song represents a distinct region around the world (namely: Middle East, South Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas). I have also shifted the ipod gadget to the very top so that you may more easily change the music and/or mute it. 

Anyway...what have you all done to celebrate new years? Last night, I had dinner with my cousin and parents at a Lebanese restaurant (aside from the joy of eating home made Khaleeji food everyday, I'm so happy to be having authentic Lebanese food compared to what I get in Boston!). After dinner, we headed to a beach where we had a great view of the fireworks from Burj Khalifa, Burj al Arab, and Atlantis the Palm and munched on pistachios and chocolate.

All I had last night was my phone so I couldn't take good pictures worth posting here, so if you're interested, here are the links to videos of those fireworks (really sorry that I couldn't find a good video for Atlantis the Palm...if you know of any yourself, please do share!):

1) Burj Khalifa (though I still think the Opening of the Burj was WAY more impressive; I was personally at the VIP seating that night!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9CfvGu8sjU&feature=related

2) Burj Al Arab (certainly not as exciting as Burj Khalifa. On a random note, this video will give you a taste for Khaleeji music ;-) ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB4dV48XhUU

Hopefully you enjoy the refreshing article and the videos as you await a more reflective post :-)

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)