Angels, Marys, Flying Jesus, Oh My!

They certainly do not spare any expense when putting on a show here in Manaus. I mean, we are in the middle of the Amazon here, right? Yet, we still have a 4 story high flying Jesus, people suspended from cranes doing gymnastic Cirque-du-Soleil-type stunts, hundreds of kids dressed as angels, choreographed water shows from fountains, and on top of that, thousands of screaming fans. We might as well be in Vegas for all this action!
The short list of people and groups involved include: (these are my translations)
Amazonas Filarmonica, Full Professional Chorus, Youth Orchestra, Little kid singers, Prof. Dance Corps, Kids dancing, Prof. Jazz Band, solo singers...

They reenacted the whole story of Christmas and set it to music, dance, and narration. We had 2 weeks of rehearsals to prepare for this show, and the entire thing took place surrounding the theater outside on raised platforms. It felt like the whole city came out to see the show, and every one took a lot of pride in this production. Our camera unfortunately died after only a few pics, but you can get the idea...

One crowded area outside the theater before it started.

There were cameramen all over the place recording the show,

and then it was broadcast on the screens for everyone to see.

Just a few of the hundreds of adorable angels.

Other kids involved in the show.

Last, but not least.... THE FLYING JESUS!!!

He was attached to a crane and was flown through

the air while he talked to the crowds.

He even moved his hands while talking!

This is definitely one concert I will never forget!

Noite Feliz

Feliz Natal pra todos! Today is technically Christmas, but we already celebrated it last night at our friend's house. It was, like always, a party full of good friends and good food. Since the orchestra is playing in a concert tonight and everyone has to delay their travel plans home, we decided to get together with our Manaus "family."
It is normal here to celebrate Natal by getting together the night before for a midnight dinner. Everyone invited arrived with something good to eat. Jay made a delicious turkey, and we also had a pork roast, grilled beef, rice, farofa, potato salad, homemade apple sauce, and lots of bebidas (drinks).

Unlike in the states where kids are encouraged to go to bed early so Santa will bring their presents, kids stay up really late and get their presents on Christmas Eve here. While there were no kids at our party, we grown-ups still exchanged presents and stayed up really late. We did a Secret Santa thing, and we each had to give clues about our person while everyone else tried to guess who it was. I usually don't like those games very much, but this was a hilarious and really fun way to do it. The fact that we are all pretty similar- almost all musicians, all from somewhere else- made it tricky to come up with clues.

Me trying to explain my amigo secreto

(don't mind the nudity behind me :)

Jay and his secret friend

We mostly spent the night laughing, eating, and talking with our friends, but we also snuck in some time for posing and a little harp playing.

This was our conservative pose ;)

Tough guys

OMG it's a real smile!!!!

Realizing how complicated the harp is to play.

In case you're wondering, we are spending today like any other day- a lil laundry, lil cleaning, lil napping. It is weird to get all "in the spirit" when we are used to seeing snow on the ground, and rushing around, stressing about getting the right presents at this time of year. It is a very welcome change to both of us to be completely relaxed and stress-free, and we plan on bringing this attitude with us back to the states.

Happy Holidays to everyone! Abraços e beijos do Brasil!

O Casamento!!! The Wedding!!!

Last week Jay and I had the pleasure of being invited and involved with the wedding of two great friends here, Aline and Eduardo. They are an incredibly adorable couple, super sweet, and perfect for each other. In case you're paying attention, they are the ones that got legally married earlier in the week, but made it official at their reception.
Since they were already married legally, the reception was more of a celebration of their lives together and was not at a church. A wonderful friend guided the ceremony as they said their vows and exchanged rings. Even in portuguese, it was a very touching union, and it was hard to hold in the tears.

Eduardo plays violin in the philharmonic, and of course, he arranged to have friends from the orchestra play at the wedding. It's been a while since I played a wedding, and it was cool to have the best seat in the house to see the couple. Instead of facing the guests or standing side by side like in the above picture, they actually sit side by side with their backs to the guests during the 45 minutes or so of talking. This is the second wedding I've been to in Brazil, and they were both arranged like that.

All of the musicians involved in the wedding

After the ceremony was over and the wedding party filed out, we all moved to another beautiful room for dinner. The couple walked around and received their congratulations from everyone and were obviously so happy. Their joy was very contagious!

Me, tiny Aline, and Débora all smiles

They have an interesting tradition in Brazil, kind of like our Dollar Dance in the US, but much more lucrative! The groom wears a tie (like an old one from home), and he is paraded around the room by his groomsmen with a pair of scissors. The guests all pay what they wish and get to keep a small piece of the tie. From what the people sitting at out table said, it's basically obligatory to participate, and people are encouraged to give as much as they can. There were lots of $20's and $50's in the collection. It's not uncommon to make $500-800R just from selling the tie! Now that is a tradition worth bringing to the US...

Eduardo selling pieces of his tie

  

Once we finished with that business, we made our way closer to the dessert table and the dance music. A perfect combination.

Beautiful and delicious desserts-

all individually wrapped sweets

Waltzing

Samba-ing with the ladies

This was such a special night for our friends, and we were privileged to be included in their celebration.

And who doesn't love a reason to get dressed up?! ;)

It's Raining! It's Pouring!

After being here for a few months and wondering why anyone would call this area a "rainforest," it is finally starting to make sense. It RAINS here. A lot! We'd all been waiting for this time of year to start because it had been super hot and humid (like 95º and 90% humidity) with no rain since August. Just last week, we got the on-again, off-again rain around here, and that cooled off the temperature to make it a pleasant 80 degrees.
Yesterday it started raining before we woke up and only stopped briefly in the middle of the day, then started again and continued to the end of the night. It started raining again before we woke up today, and it has already poured for 6 straight hours now. We're not talking about drizzling, light rain. It is seriously pouring here!

The wet street outside our house

As long as you don't have to go outside during this weather, it's actually quite nice and a great relief to the hot temps. Now, if only it weren't raining inside our house, too!!!
(And yes, Mom... the landlord does know!)

Feliz Natal or Happy Christmas!

Last night, we walked the few blocks together from our house to the Teatro Amazonas because I had a concert there. To our lovely surprise, as we approached the praça outside of the theater, we were reminded of our good ol' Rockefeller Christmas tree in NYC. Ok, so it's not a real tree like the one at Rockefeller, and it's still in the 80's here, but the spirit was certainly there! There were tons of families out there to see the tree, look at the nativity scene, and eat popcorn and cotton candy under the lights. I get the feeling this is a very big holiday here cause they start putting Christmas decorations in the stores in October here.
As I went inside the theater to warm-up for our concert, I sent Jay on a mission to take pictures of all the decorations.

You can actually walk inside the tree,

and this is angel is hanging there.

The front of the theater is decorated with a beautiful, huge wreath, is all lit up,

and there are two fountains out front adding to the festive mood.

View from the other side.

After his mission was accomplished, Jay came inside the theater to hear us play St. Cecilia Mass with a full chorus written by the Afro-Brazilian composer, José Mauricio Nunes Garcia. He was a contemporary of Mozart, wrote in the Classical style, and was an ordained priest dedicated to the church.

Despite there being various distractions from kids in the audience throughout our performance, we managed to pull-off a good concert. While we do like the fact that the concerts are free and families bring their children of all ages, it can get frustrating when parents allow their kids to cry, talk, or drop things from the boxes while we're playing. On a better note, no pun intended, I am grateful that no one applauded between movements!

Inside the Teatro

My section tuning-up

With the chorus... I was smiling cause I could see Jay!

We made it! Our bows at the end.

This was our last real orchestra concert of the year. The next one we play will be a Christmas concert with pieces we've played this season and various Christmas tunes. I haven't seen the music yet, but I am guessing there won't be any Hanukkah songs!! HA!

Pizza, pizza, and more pizza

The other day, a couple of our good friends here got married! They just did the legal part of getting married in front of a judge, and we will officially be celebrating next week at their reception. But we couldn't let the day go by without a little commemoration!
We all met up at an awesome pizza rodizio in town, and while the wedding party discussed the details of the reception, the rest of us talked and laughed and tried not to eat too much. That is a pretty much impossible feat at a place where the pizza never stops coming. The rodizio is a pretty popular way to run a restaurant here, and we certainly take advantage of the endless supply of food. Basically, it involves paying a flat price (about $18R there, $10US) for all the food and drink you want. At this pizza place, the waiters are constantly going by your table announcing what types of pizza they have to give you, and you stop them when you want some. It's not just limited to pizza places though. There are Italian restaurants with unlimited lasagna, pastas, and breads, churrascarias with unlimited meat, and even a place with 60 varieties of unlimited soup. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon or evening!
The types of pizza are quite different than what we have in the U.S. I think the best ones are the dessert pizzas, which I make sure is my first slice every time. Ah, the joys of being a grown-up!

Mmm mmm mmm...

Pizza covered with melted chocolate (1st of 4)

While it would be good to try everything, I find that it's best to choose wisely since you want to save space for dessert! In case you're curious about what you are missing out on, there is white chocolate with strawberries, fried bananas with cinnamon and chocolate, chocolate with crushed peanuts, chocolate with cookies, and more. Some of the more interesting non-dessert toppings include pizza covered with tuna, catupiry (creamy cheese), tucumã (fruit from a palm tree), hard-boiled eggs, dried beef, chicken stroganoff, and corn.

Corn Pizza and Pizza Margherita

Everyone at our big table had a great time eating, planning, and celebrating with the Newlyweds (sitting beside me). We all can't wait for the "real" party this week! 

Weekend Fun

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of getting out of the city and spending some time in the great outdoors with friends. We went to a sitio, which is kind of like rich people's weekend homes on the river, out here. I had already been there once in August and had an amazing time. We were all pumped to get invited back and get the chance to live the good life for another afternoon! I should amend that to say every one but Jay was pumped, because we went on a precious Sunday, and he could not leave behind his football games to join us. His loss for sure!

After saying goodbye to my love, we drove the hour or so out of town to the sitio. No one was there when we arrived, so we took the chance to explore the "river." It was so shocking. Only a few months ago, we took a speedboat out on the river and went out in kayaks together. Now the river was all dried up, and we walked on the bottom of it, all of us completely stunned how fast it had disappeared and been replaced by beautiful green grass.

There used to be water all the

way up past the trees in the white sand!

Me on the bottom of the river-

all those trees were submerged before

Plenty of space for everyone at the sitio

After some exploring, we went back to the sitio to relax by the pool. The pool is really gorgeous and overlooks the river.

Debora and me livin the good life!

There were more than 20 people there, and lots of them

had cute little doggies. Even they liked swimming :)

The woman who invited us to there is the landlord of a few friends of ours, and her grown children and grandchildren spend every weekend at their sitio. There is a couple that live there during the week, and they prepare food and drinks all day for everyone. While most everyone had caipirinhas and snacks brought to them poolside, we all preferred the do-it-yourself service. But we were more than happy to partake in the feast they made for lunch. We had delicious picanha (meat), fried fish, rice, salad, farofa, and more meat. I definitely went back for seconds...

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool, chatting with the other people about music and our jobs, and checking out the river some more. Definitely an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday in Manaus. We're all looking forward to going back when the river rises again. And luckily that will be after football season, so Jay has no more excuses!

Randomness

Life in Manaus is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you're gonna get...

Last Monday started off like a normal Monday. Wake up, rehearse with the orchestra, take a break. Unlike after a normal break though, we were kept waiting until the President of the Czech Republic arrived. Once he and his entourage were in the theater, we played two movements of Dvorak's New World Symphony for him. I never got to actually see him, but he gave the section leaders a CD of Czech music. After that random show of cross-cultural goodwill, we went back to rehearsing our scheduled repertoire.

In some more randomness from Manaus this week, you never can be *totally* certain that you will have power and water 24/7. It's usually quite reliable, but 2 times last week in the morning, the power went out for about an hour. One of the days, the water went off, too. Since this has happened several times before, we just went about our daily business (minus showering or doing dishes). By 4:30 in the afternoon, Jay went to check if our neighbors had water, which they did, and then he realized that someone had turned our water off in the street. Not sure why, but the lever to turn on and off our water is outside the house in the sidewalk. Even more strange, why did someone turn it off in the first place?!

For the last random rant, when I went to the gym this week to swim, I met another girl from the US! I heard her talking in the locker-room, struck up a conversation with her (in English!!!), and exchanged phone numbers. It turns out that she has lived here teaching English for almost 2 years. We're going to try to hang-out this weekend. Not sure how many Americans actually live here, but it was sure nice to meet a fellow ex-pat in this hot jungle.

Now that I think about it, it is more accurate to say,"Life is like a box of melted chocolate in Manaus..."

Happy Thanksgiving!

When we woke up on our most favorite of holidays this morning, I have to admit, we both felt pretty sad. Being so far from our family and friends is a big change for us. Of course living on the East Coast meant being far from our family in the Southwest for years, but there is just something lonely about being in a different hemisphere. Not being able to pick up the phone and call just doesn't feel right.

After talking to our families on Skype though, we both started to perk up a bit, and once we got the business of cooking underway, we got out of our collective funk. We spent the day getting some things from the grocery stores here- all with no last-minute, crowded rush like at home- and got busy chopping, mixing, boiling, and baking. We found the biggest turkey at the store, a whopping 10.5 pounds, and marveled at the little thing. The turkey was the least of our worries, since we had to make everything from scratch for the first time. No help from Stouffer's or our dear friend Joe who has helped us celebrate in style the last 6 years.  In the end though, mostly thanks to my hard-working hubby, we had our delicious turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, salad, rolls, roasted vegetables, and key lime pie. Not bad for having no measuring cup and only one rack in the oven!

Taking a cooking break... can't take that heat!

Our beautiful bird

Look at that carving concentration

The Bounty of Thanksgiving

Us and the big PIE!

Once our friends showed up, we couldn't help but be happy and grateful for their friendship and presence in our lives. I know I have said it before, but the people here go a long way to make up for the comforts lacking in the city itself. Everyone happily volunteered their pans, plates, and silverware to make sure we could pull this dinner off. And we certainly did. Except for our one American friend, it was their first time celebrating Thanksgiving, and it was a hit!

Let's get the party started!

We had to pour the wine through a funnel

cause the cork was all messed up!

A trilingual conversation of

spanish, portuguese, and english

The adorable engaged couple :)

Que bonita!! My flowers from Noemi

The only downside is that, unlike in the US, we all have to go to work tomorrow, so good night for now... And Happy Thanksgiving!