New Years Eve in Copacabana...

Gringo photo shoot before leaving the house to catch the bus to Copacabana. Most of us wearing the "traditional" white for New Years. Tommy later changed his shirt on the way to catch the bus.

Me rocking a R$10 hat I bought... I thought it looked cool anyways lol. They also had 2010 bandanas and glasses, the kind that Elton John would wear.

Having a beer while mixing it with the locals. If I had 1 real for every time myself or one of the other Asian gringos got called "Japa" or "Japonês" I could of had R$1000. It kind of got annoying because none of us are Japanese.

Pictures of pictures...

The crowd, imagine this but times 100x that's how crowded it was.. literally shoulder to shoulder with people

I don't know what's going on here, but I've also seen the dude with the whack Mr. T haircut at Maracanã stadium before.

Group shots before we all got split up...

Amongst the muck at the stroke of midnight...

The fireworks show was crazy, it literally went for about 20 minutes straight. Everytime I thought it was the "Grand finale" and that was the end a few more fireworks would shoot up and Boom! Boom! for another 5 minutes straight.

Crowded would be an understatement if I was to describe Copacabana beach that night. We got separated from the other guys (trying to walk to the toilets, literally it took us about 20-30mins to walk 50metres it was sooo crowded) and ended up right on the edge of the water with some of the waves coming in and splashing up to our shins. I don't even want to think of how many people pissed in that water. Kind of funny because alot of people were swimming in it as well haha. I can't even remember the countdown except that my portugues counting backwards sucks haha and unfortunately I wasn't next to any single ladies (unless you include 13year olds lol) during the countdown.

The fireworks show was awesome though. Wish I had of brought my digital camera instead of buying a disposable film one. But I was too paranoid of it getting stolen or something since there's a few favelas close by to Copacabana (lol @ stereotypes...).

Overall it was an event to experience. But I think next time if I'm in Brasil for New Years I'd rather stay in Barra or somewhere local. The huge crowds and LONG wait for the bus or for an unoccupied taxi really put me off, mainly the long wait for a bus/taxi part.

Plans for 2010
Well this year will definitely be about change and growth. When I get back home I'm going to have to find a job and will be moving to another city mid year with my family. I'll also look to keep up my jiu jitsu training (at a good level I hope) and perhaps have my first MMA fight, but I still feel the need to work more on my ground game. I'm kind of thinking just getting in there and having a go, not wasting time etc. because win or lose it's all an experience/lesson. But I want to be 100% confident going in. Either way I have a feeling this year will be a year that I really find myself and the direction I want to go in life, which I already know but it's kind of like that old Bruce Lee quote:

"Knowing is not enough, you must apply; willing is not enough, you must do."