A little catching up...

So here goes my first blog entry. Not too sure about this whole thing yet, but I have to admit that I am looking forward to having something to do besides play trombone, take naps, read books, and try not to melt in this heat and humidity. Tough life, I know, but somebody's gotta do it!
As you probably already know, Jay and I have been here in Brazil for just about two months now. It was definitely an ordeal getting here, all the work and the endless waiting for our visas, but it all worked out in the end.
We've gone through all possible stages of living since we arrived, starting with crashing at a friend's place. Next, we stayed in a hotel for a month, where we unsuccessfully tried to pass off Jay as just my "friend." Unfortunately, they didn't buy it, despite our very sly efforts (come on, we never held hands in public), so in the end, we were the ones that ended up paying. But we certainly showed them by eating our fair share of fish and steak from room service on the orchestra's tab that month! During our last week at the hotel, after seeing a couple "oh my gosh, I hope we don't have to live here" places, we found a casa of our own down the street from our good friends' apartment. We have officially been living in our house here for a month, and it is definitely starting to feel like home now.
As you can imagine, we had to throw away, donate, or give away tons of our things from NYC to prepare for the move. While it was quite freeing to unload 6 years of accumulated stuff, it is not exactly comforting to move so far away with just a stack of music, a few pots and pans, a computer, and some clothes in your bags. Although I must say that I am happy those bags came accompanied by my amazing husband!
Anyway, when you move into a new place down here, you really only get the walls. Ok, the floors, too. But no stove or oven, no fridge, no air conditioners, no closets even. We were lucky to be able to buy a few things second hand, but almost everything in this place is new. I am still waiting for some sort of thank you card from our local furniture/appliance store for our dedicated spending with them!
One very cool feature of living here is that when you order something from a store that needs to be assembled, like an entertainment unit for example, someone from the store comes to your house to build it for you. Free of charge! How cool is that? If only we had known that before Jay assembled that aforementioned entertainment unit. Only a week after spending a very long and frustrating afternoon putting together that thing (wonder why they don't include any instructions?), the whole thing broke and sent our tv crashing to the floor. We were fortunate enough to have a guy come from the store to fix the entertainment unit, it's actually pretty nice now, but the poor tv had to be replaced.  We all know life just isn't the same without a constant stream of sports at your disposal. And between American football and the baseball playoffs, we just couldn't be any luckier...
So now you know what occupies Jay's time. No, actually when he is not checking the scores or watching a game, he has been staying busy rehearsing with the jazz band here, teaching lessons at the conservatory, and studying portuguese.
My orchestra commitments occupy my time in the mornings mostly, leaving me plenty of time to relax in our lovely hammock with a good book in the afternoons. I could really get used to this life! Although getting used to the heat is a completely different story. I was mistakenly under the impression that the Amazon rainforest would actually have rain all year. Jokes on us- since we arrived, it's only rained a handful of times.  But we certainly have savored those rainy, "cool" 93 degree days!
Well, I promise I will try to make shorter posts in the future, but I think that pretty much updates you all on our happenings in Manaus. Welcome to Our Jungle Journey!