From the Tropics

First one of the Brazil-explorers to post! Although I guess that's not that surprising, since I think I'm the only one back in this country at this point, although I know Jenny's coming back before the general crew as well.

Anyways, Brazil was awesome, although Rio de Janiero significantly more so than Sao Paulo: I repeat an often-mentioned realization when I say that I am so glad we went to Sao Paulo first and then Rio. Sao Paulo is easily the biggest city I have ever visited. NYC? Chumps. Trust me. I forget the stats, but the Brazilians had no limit on the amount of land they could use in building their financial capital (just the amount of forest they could cut. Grumble...) and they liberally made use of all of it. Serioulsy, you can drive for miles and see nothing but high-rises. It's ridiculous.

Equally ridiculous, perhaps, was how well the concert band was received everywhere we went. Our first concert ( in Santos, a coastal city south of S.P.) was in a beautiful hall, sold out, with people waiting outside to get in over an hour before show time. We got several standing ovations from that crowd alone, and three encores. Duffy was talking to a high-school age girl after the show and she got so emotional that she fainted, I kid you not. The other concerts varied in hall and crowd size, especially considering that we played one on a Monday night and charged $10 US for it, but we got standing ovations everywhere we played and multiple encores every night, with a record four. FOUR. Our last concert was in a church in Rio that had people literally packed into the wings and aisles, including jammed all around the percussion section. Brian told me that a guy with a camera actually moved some of his equipment to get a better shot. It was quite the change from New Haven, let me tell you. Not that you guys aren't great about supporting the YCB, but damn.

I could go on longer about how cool Rio was, especially the beach, sunset from Sugarloaf Mountain (and how we bribed our way up it), etc., but this post is ridiculously long enough. Suffice it to say, I'm currently about halfway moved in with Michael in Somerville, MA (right next to C(L)ambridge) and we're headed to Spain for two weeks with his family tomorrow. Here's to the real world!!