When 2007 turned into 2008, in Long Beach, California, I had no idea I would experience New Year’s Eve outside the U.S. for the next four years.

Way outside the U.S.

The first in Hong Kong. The next three in the United Arab Emirates.

I don’t quite yet consider myself an expatriate, but the evidence is beginning to mount that I, in fact, am.

What do I recall of those four NYEs?

From NYE in Hong Kong, I remember “discovering” the sitcom “30 Rock” and spending half a day in a really teeny apartment … watching most of the first season. Loved it. At midnight, I went out in the street, there in the gritty Wan Chai neighborhood and listened for fireworks being shot off somewhere over the harbor.

Two years ago, we were in Abu Dhabi, and I recall two American friends coming over to the Teeny Apartment we had here, and helping us bring in 2010 with more than a little wine.

A year ago? I don’t recall. I seriously don’t. Did we have people over? Did I work?

Good thing I chronicled it on this blog. Six of us in this room? What a concept! I know that happened, but that was a New Year’s Eve?

This year, I covered the final day of the Abu Dhabi tennis tournament. (Word to the wise: You do not want to play Novak Djokovic any time soon in a game of tennis with money on the line.)

After that, I came home and … crashed. Four long days of tennis, writing four, five, six stories a day. Leah worked the late late shift on the desk, and I watched tape of the Insight Bowl. The one Oklahoma was in. While riding my stationary bikey thing.

At midnight, I had on Dubai One, on TV, and they showed the fireworks from Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. It’s the world’s tallest building, you know (till Saudi Arabia beats it) and recently had a starring role in the latest Mission Impossible movie.

This isn’t the first time I’ve spent the final minutes of a year alone. I distinctly remember doing the same as 1976 became 1977. I was just out of college and had a new job as a professional journalist, and I helped put out the section that night, and I just went back to my apartment. I made myself some toast around midnight, called my soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend at midnight and interrupted her having a terrific time at a party (yes, without me) and went back to watching Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve, as I believe it was called.

Another year on the other side of an ocean. Hmm. Have to say it mostly has been good for us. Real jobs. Steady income. Interesting travels. Different cultures.

Again, it’s hard to imagine what we would be doing in California or the States. Economy still flat. Few hopeful signs. Polarized and nearly immobilized government. Does it seem that grim over there, too? From a distance, it doesn’t seem promising, at the moment.

I may have a more social NYE next year … hard to tell … but I have a strong feeling that wherever it is, I will still have an ocean between me and California.