Big Night

Last night was a big night around these parts cause Jay had his first test for Muay Thai and the XIV Festival Amazonas de Opera had its opening night. 

Jay joined a nearby Muay Thai studio almost 2 months ago with a friend, and while that friend has stopped showing up, Jay has gone religiously almost everyday since he started. For those of us that have no idea what Muay Thai is, it's basically a form of self-defense that involves kicking and hitting your opponents while blocking yourself, but there is no rolling around on the ground with other sweaty dudes. That would just be gross, especially here in this already hot and humid city!

Anyway, I am still shocked at how intense the classes are and how many bruises my man comes home with. He's had huge bruises on both sides of his chest from being punched, on his stomach from being hit repeatedly by the teacher, and on the sides of his legs from being kicked repeatedly. Sounds like a good time, right?! Well, he really seems to be liking it and has gotten into incredibly good shape from all the jumping-jacks, running, push-ups, sit-ups, and of course all the hitting/kicking. 

Champions Factory- his whole studio

His professor (tattooed one) talking to the guys

Best pic I could get of him.

I had to leave for my concert before they actually started the test part, but it went well from what Jay said. They had to do some combinations that the judges called out and spar with several partners. Luckily he came home feeling good and has a couple days off to recover before he has to get back to it. 

I, on the other hand, only have today off to recover from our more than 3 hour long opera premiere last night. We have been rehearsing this opera, Yerma by Heitor Villa-Lobos, for a couple months now, but just added in the singers, dancers, and soloists a couple weeks ago. Because it is a difficult opera with hard singing roles and lots of people involved, including dancers and a children's choir, every one was quite relieved that we pulled it off last night. We have another performance tomorrow night of it, and several other operas starting later in April and May. If you are interested in seeing all of the programming for this year's festival, you can check-it out here.... http://www.amazonasfestivalopera.com/programacao.htm

After the concert outside the Teatro Amazonas

A Typical Sunday

A crazy thing happens in downtown Manaus on Sundays. Everyone stays home. The street in front of our house is normally packed with people, thank you very much university on our block, and also has a very steady flow of cars all the time. It's not that it's a bad thing cause without the students there would be no inexpensive food for sale on the street - hello, $2 chocolate cake!!! But it is a very good thing to feel like there really is a day of rest here, and the closure of many stores and restaurants makes you enforce it in your own life. 
Last Sunday we were sitting around watching some movies at home, and our friends called to invite us over for a swim. We got our stuff together, took a cab to Ponta Negra, and spent the afternoon chillin poolside. Our friend's dad has a penthouse condo there, and when we had enough of the sun, we went up and enjoyed the amazing views. Ponta Negra is the more posh area of town with lots of tall condominiums right by the river and a boardwalk with rides and games for the kids.

Balcony view of the Rio Negro

View from the other side of apt. 

Rainforest as far as the eye can see.

After relaxing a while, we decided to continue our lazy Sunday at an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. Yes, Jay and I are huge fans of this place, and I have already written about how much we love them, but this time I had my camera. (Sorry, Jay!) We all ate until we were stuffed, and I think I had about 7 slices of dessert pizza alone, but who's counting?! By the way, this is something totally lacking in the American culture- pizza with chocolate, white chocolate, strawberries, peanuts, doce de leite, bananas and cinnamon, chocolate and coconut. Why are we restricted to just boring cheese, pepperoni, or sausage? I am all about the pizza doce!!!

What a face... not sure what that means.

Heaven on my plate --->

White chocolate, sonho de valso, and choco/coconut

The slice on the right is Hot Dog pizza... not good. 

A kid next to us put ketchup and mayonnaise 

on top of his and seemed to like it just fine. Ewww.

Summer and Luiz in their carb-induced coma!

Since Luiz's car is in the shop, he has been driving around his "tricycle." Of course, it is nothing like the tricycle you are probably imagining and can only be called one because of its three wheels. We had some fun taking pictures on it in the parking lot though and couldn't help laughing the whole time knowing that he really drives that thing around town. Pretty sweet ride, right?!  

Summer and me

That's how we roll....

Is it Sunday yet??

Easter Barbecue

Everyone has a rooftop barbecue for Easter, right? Well, there may not have been a typical ham or Easter egg hunt like in the States, but anytime a grill, meat, and chocolate are together in one place, it's bound to be good.
Since most all of our friends here are far away from their families, we like to spend our holidays (and weekends) hanging out with each other. We celebrated Pascoa on the roof of our friends' building with about 20 people, mais ou menos. Everyone brought something to throw on the grill, and we ended up with lots of steak, chicken, and fish at different times throughout the afternoon. It always starts off as a feeding frenzy when the first plate of meat hits the table cause we're usually all so hungry at that point!

The Chef doing his thing at the grill 

The first mad rush for food :)

I missed EVERYTHING from that plate 

to take this picture... those people are quick!!

In honor of my hubby, I made deviled eggs for the party. The brasileiros had never seen them before, and I have to admit, Jay and I probably ate almost all of them ourselves. It's the thought that counts though, right?! 

One of the cool things about this building is the amazing view of the city from the roof. I mean, it's certainly not NYC, but it's still nice to be able to see Manaus from every direction. We would definitely have had a great spot to see the sunset, but it ended up being too cloudy by that time. 

The Amazon River behind us.

Buildings, buildings, more buildings.

Part of Centro, downtown

One of the different traditions they have here is to give people these huge chocolate eggs for Easter. They are not into the Easter egg hunt or basket full of various small candies or treats. They are all about the big chocolate egg! Starting like a month ago at the grocery stores here, they put up long tunnels of hanging chocolate eggs. We're talking like surrounding you on all sides and above your head of every variety of chocolate available (at least in Brasil). You can choose from dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate with peanuts, with cashews, with Brasil nuts, with puffed rice, with cereal and nuts and raisins, with coconut, and the list goes on. It is really quite impressive!  

Anyway, we were all told to bring an egg with us to trade with our secret friend at the festa. After we drew names to see who our secret friend would be, we got in a big circle facing each other. It was just like our Secret Santa at Xmas, and we had to say some clues about who our person could be. I got lucky and drew Jay's name, so when I described my person as "um homem que é muito gostoso" (a guy that is very hot), everyone guessed right away who that was! 

Our new chocolates

Our stash: 

from the party (2 eggs on the left), 

a gift from my boss, the Secretary of Culture (the box of chocolates),

and a free chocolate egg from the mall for shopping. 

Not bad for a girl that doesn't even celebrate Easter!!!!  ;)