It’s already 2:00 am of the second day of 2010, but I can’t still get over the celebration for the end of the decade. For the first time in my life, I truly felt like a gringa in my own city. After spending three years in Canada, I think that my Brazilian soul is not as patriotic as it is supposed to be. However, the new year’s party showed me that things change when you see yourself surrounded by two million of your best friends!

2009/2010 celebration was my second time at Copacabana beach and I’ve noticed that Rio is doing its homework to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Summer Games. Copacabana was one of the seven attractions that the city of Rio de Janeiro prepared to celebrate the end of the 2000′s. Even though the final numbers show that over 2 million people watched this year’s fireworks spectacle from Copacabana beach, everything went smoothly, Mr. Ames and I even had a chance to jump in the water.

Public transportation was the best way to get to Copacabana. Taxis, if you were able to find one, were charging R$ 60.00 (around 43 Canadian dollars) to go to that neighborhood. It took approximately 45 minutes each way for the 572 to bring us from Jardim Botânico to Copacabana and back, with the return trip happening at around 5:30 in the morning (I know… we Brazilians really know how to party!).

Here is taste of what I saw…

Happy 2010!

It has been three years since I flew all way from Brazil to Canada. It has been almost two years since I became a permanent resident and settled in Vancouver, BC. What first started as an quick mission to Canada to improve my English became a life changing decision and with time, I had to learn to call a transitional city home and grow my roots far from where I came from. Usually, when people ask me when was the last time that I went home, my answer always comes out with a self-conscious speech. I believe that my home is where my shoes are, but also I feel that I belong to two different countries – Canada and Brazil.

Mr. Ames has never been to my home country. However, after 21 months in our culturally intense relationship, he has become an expert on Brazilian-related issues, even being able to identify some of Brazil’s regional accents. But now that we are going a long way down home, I am concerned thinking that I oversold my country to my gringo husband!

Since I arrived in Canada, I made a commitment to myself to never say bad things about Brazil to anyone who wasn’t Brazilian. I acknowledge the fact that my home country fosters some significant social and political issues, but it also has a strong economy and incredibly talented people. I know people who visit Brazil several times and have only great things to say about my culture. The journalist who is still living inside me thinks that everybody needs a chance to decide what is bad and good, they don’t need my biased opinion!

But it a looooong flight I have lots of things to think about. I know that after being away for so long, life in Rio won’t be the same for me. Some friends got married, other had kids, my eldest goddaughter is turning 18 in May, and my youngest goddaughter is a 15-month-old beautiful toddler. I guess my life will be forever divided between two nationalities, especially now that my eyes fill up with tears when I watch YVR getting smaller through the window…