7.17

F = friend, D = Denisa

F What was your best ever New Year’s Eve? One you always remember?

D Oh, definitely 2014, when I was in Rio.

F Who were you with?

D I was with my boyfriend Marcelo, who’s Brazilian.

F Why was it so special?

D Well, Brazil has special traditions for New Year’s Eve, and they were all new for me. For example, it’s a Brazilian tradition to wear white clothes for New Year’s Eve because white is a symbol of peace, so I wore a beautiful white dress, which Marcelo’s mother bought me. I have a photo somewhere on my phone. Yes, here, look!

F How pretty. So what did you do?

D Uh, let me think. Well, first we had a typical New Year’s Eve dinner with Marcelo’s family. And then, I guess it was about ten, we got a bus to Copacabana.

F What was the atmosphere like there?

D Oh, it was amazing! The streets were already full of people. We went to a show at a place near the beach. It was great, and we danced samba.

F Wow. Were you there at midnight?

D No, no. When we saw it was almost midnight, we went to the beach, and the typical countdown started, you know – ten, nine, eight…Happy New Year! Everywhere we heard the sound of people celebrating, and we watched the wonderful fireworks.

F It sounds great. What did people do when the fireworks finished?

D Most people went to other parties, or they went home.

F And what about you?

D We decided to go to a different beach, a beach called Praia do Arpoador, and we took our first swim of the new year. It was magical.