Day 2: Socially Awkward by: Kelsey Aden

After a much needed nights rest in our gigantic beds (as you can see in the picture) the team woke up to eat some toast, cereal with warm milk :s and some fresh fruit! After breakfast we got ready to head to another practice. For this practice we went to a country club that was extremely exclusive! We found out it costs at least $70,000 to be a member, plus monthly fees, plus charges for everything you do! After the practice we got to take a tour of the entire country club and see all the amazing things it had to offer; volleyball, basketball, squash, fencing, badmitten, tennis, clay tennis, soccer field with a track around it, swimming (olympic swimming pool), handball, gymnastics and probably many more! They also had a nice dining area, computer center, pool tables, movie theater. Needless to say this place was amazing!! After the tour we had some lunch near the hotel and got back on the bus to play our first match here in Brazil! We all enjoyed a great laugh at the beginning of the match while the woman coach from Brazil greeted Murley :) Sorry Murls had to do it! Once we started our 9 minute warm up (little shorter than our 1 1/2 warm up we usually have before matches back home) the game got started. It took a little for us to get going but once we figured out the speed of the game and relaxed we played better and better and had a great finish. We played 5 sets to 25 winning the last 2 sets. After the match we enjoyed (or not so much) the bus ride home, lets just say multiple people felt sick from the stop and go traffic here! We headed to the same Italian restaurant as we had for lunch yesterday and enjoyed the great pasta, steak, fish, salad, chocolate :) and the insides of a palm tree (can't remember the name but it tastes delicious!). We are all back in the hotel room once again to get some rest and prepare for our second match tomorrow!

Picture on the left is in the hotel before we left for dinner a the steakhouse.