Confessions of a Korean-American Man in New York City

Celebrating New Year´s in Rio is one of those "have to do" things in life. There we were with 2 million others in one of the most festive moments of life: Revellion 2008 in Rio. All auto traffic was halted between Leblon and Copacabana at 6pm which meant we had to walk 3+ miles to the beaches of Copacabana in slippers. A custom here at Rio during New Year`s is to wear all white in which we did. We walked 3 miles in flip flops, which isn`t that pleasant at all. We arrived at Copacabana and there were a ton of people walking the streets and the beach. After getting dinner, we headed to the beach near the concert stage and found a nice spot to situate ourselves for 90 mins. We ended up buying 3 blankets to sit down on as we waited for the grand finale of fireworks. During our wait, a very drunken Brazilian gent came over asking if he could take our picture. After a 2nd attempt by him, we gave in after assessing he was harmless. He was actually a lot of fun because his tent was camped out next to us and he was piss drunk, which was very entertainig for us. About 15mins prior to midnight, we got up and just stood with the masses -- many in all white -- for the countdown. At the stroke of midnight, the fireworks went up and Rio went swinging for the fences. They blew their wad in the first 5 minutes as the whole night sky just blew up and was illuminated. The next 15 mins was more controlled chaos of fireworks, but the first 5 was one of the greatest spectacles I`ve ever seen. At the conclusion, we begain our exit from Copacabana. There were people dancing everywhere with the music blaring from the megaspeakers along the beach. It was one of the most festive moments I have ever witnessed in my life. It`s one of those things I hope you can experience once in your life. People from all walks of (Brazilian) life were just singing and dancing in the streets. It was just fun watching it. It really was one of the greatest large scale parties that I have ever experienced.