Sandra has traveled alone to Brazil to fulfill her childhood dream of visiting the country. She has been enjoying exploring Rio de Janeiro, including watching the beautiful sunset on the beach while playing soccer with local children. She plans to visit Christ the Redeemer statue tomorrow and keep her plans open for the rest of the week to fully enjoy her relaxing trip. She asks her sister if she should bring their mother a special souvenir from Brazil.

1. Hi sis:
First of all, let me tell you I'm fine, I know
you are a little bit worried about me going so
far alone. But I was really looking forward to
this, I needed some time for me and for
making my childhood dream come true.
I landed last week here in Brazil, when I was
on the plane I could see the Amazon River
from the sky, it was amazing, I started to
feel excited and I decided to listen to music,
so I put some Bossa Nova on the Ipad and it was the perfect way of starting
this incredible trip.
I came to Rio de Janeiro on Monday. There’s no way I can explain to you how
beautiful the beach is here, local people are really nice. Yesterday a group of
children invited me to play football with them at the beach, we played for
hours and later we sat down to watch the sunset , such a unique experience.
Tomorrow I'm going to visit Redentor Christ, and for next week I have nothing
planned yet, I'll decide later. This is what it's all about, isn't it? to enjoy and
relax!!!
Love,
Sandra.
PS: Shall I get mom a special souvenir?

2. THE MAGIC OF CHILDHOOD
When I was a child, my knowledge of
the world arrived to me trough the books and
the cinema. Out of my neighborhood,
everything was really far. The world had plenty
of strange places.
Spain was then a poor country but I remember a kind of joy of living in y family
when something good happened.
Adult people were very busy. My father worked from very early in the morning
until the end of the day and my mother worked at home, cleaning, cooking, and
making the clothes for me and my three sisters. The radio was sounding all the time
and all songs were sung in Spanish language. The stories of the songs were very
dramatic. But children were freer. Possibly life was less safe for them, but they had a lot
of time for playing. When I wasn´t at school, I was outdoors with my friends. We
invented many activities for fun and sometimes someone got hurt, but most of the time
nobody paid attention.
My happiest memories are joined to this time of freedom out of the watching of
adults.