Internet Access at last!!!

(5/24)
Ok, so I didn't have internet access until today, so I've been collecting blog posts since I got here, unable to post them. What follows in this post is what I wrote on 5/22 - my first full day at sea. Sorry for the delay - hopefully you didn't think I was dea or anything. :-) Below this post are two more, for yesterday and today. I know its a whole lot of stuff to read - but you don't have to if you don't want to, so I don't feel sorry for you. Ok here we go!!

5/22:
Well, here I am, sailing along the Mediterranean. Its actually happening! We were at sea all day today, and won’t come to our first port (Mykonos, Greece) until tomorrow afternoon.

My flight went very well (no-one gave me a hard time for having three carry-on bags including my horn). Also, our captain was named Andrea, which I took as a good sign. I made it in one piece, and things went pretty smoothly – my contact was waiting for me at the airport (my name on a big sign and everything), and we drove outside of Rome to a harbor town called Chivitavecchia, where I met the ship. After several minutes of men arguing in Italian, they figured out which gangway by which I needed to enter. I had no clue what was going on, but I guess they figured it out, cause here I am! I have my uniform, name badges, and ID card with my picture on it (she didn’t warn me when she was going to take the picture, so I’m not smiling – I think I look funny).

After a few logistical errands, I was met by Atanas, a Russian saxophone player who is my band leader. He showed me to my cabin and told me everything I needed to know, including where to go two hours later for – you guessed it – a rehearsal and a show. I was hoping to crash in my room as I had been up all night flying and then all day, but nope – work began right away and I hit the ground (or the water?) running. The first thing I had to do was perform an improvised solo in the show – two choruses of blues – while I was introduced to the guests. Yikes! They also wanted me to be able to play a couple of tunes by memory that I didn’t know – I’m still trying to learn them. I’m sure that in a couple weeks I’ll have it down as well as the other band members do. Soloing has always scared me, and so doing it on my first night was a little nerve-wracking. It went fairly well, however, and I don’t think they hate me. ☺ They say I’m much better than the last trombonist they had – a six foot two older gentleman named Randy. I took it as a compliment, even though apparently he was pretty bad.

I have a lot of training to do, especially emergency and safety procedures. Those training sessions will occupy my days for the first week or so – I have two more tomorrow. After my first cruise (11 days) I’ll be finished with training and will then have my days to myself – that’s when I’ll start being able to explore the ports of call. For now, I’m just hanging on for dear life – trying to figure out how things work on the ship, doing all kinds of training, and getting over jet lag.

Last night the female sax player Marie took me out (on the ship) for a drink after the show (a welcome aboard ceremony – just a few songs), and I got to relax and talk with her and our keyboardist Patrick. It was really sweet of her to do that – she’s being very helpful to me in the process of figuring all this out.

Tonight was the broadway show – one full run-through and two performances: I got off just after midnight. Preceding both shows were two half an hour jazz combo sets – I had to do two pieces all by myself with the rhythm section, improv choruses included, as people trickled into the theatre, with no rehearsal. Another yikes!! I’ve just gotten thrown right into it. Dad – you can finally stop bugging me about doing a solo. ☺ The show is fun – it’s a compilation of a lot of Broadway hits from different musicals. It’s programmed pretty well, and the singers and dancers are all very talented. I met one of the singers, Michael, who has been really kind to me also. Anyway, after two jazz sets, one full run through and two performances, my chops were pretty much shot. I had to start taking things down an octave near the end of the show – it was quite the workout

Well, I know this posting was really long, but I wanted to kindof catch you up on the whirlwind of the past two days. I’ll end here for now, but I’ll be sure to post again soon. Thank you for your prayers!

Oh, and no, I am not seasick! Ha!