We had such a great travel party. Along with all our current players, we had our coaches, Shawn along with his wife, Farrah; Emily, and Heather, who also brought along her mother, Trudy. Dan our trainer, also brought his wife Shelley. The amazing couple who is also sponsoring my scholarship, The Jackman's, Brad and Vicki also joined us and we were privileged to have the Earnshaw's, Craig and Colleen, who were former mission presidents in the Brasil South Mission. The Earnshaw's were so helpful as interpreters in Portuguese and great tour guides--they also became very good friends and a new member to our BYU volleyball family.
Traveling to and from these countries was exhausting! They were both about 10 hours to and from Atlanta. The last day in Argentina most of us got food poisoning and woke up with the runs. So we were so happy to be heading home, regardless of a long flight. Tack on the 3 hours to get home from Atlanta, and you can say that we were happy campers to be home! Leaving the USA and experiencing a foreign country makes you appreciate this beautiful and blessed land that we live in! Simple things like running water out of a tap that you can drink, flushing your toilet paper, being able to carry on a conversation with people that you meet in a language that you KNOW, food that you recognize, driving on roads without the chaos, and of course, sleeping in your own soft bed, not a hard box wrapped in cardboard. The good news is that there was little complaining. We knew that we would be missing our loved ones and our homes and our phones, but surprisingly everyone enjoyed the freedom from technology and being on vacation to experience something new!
To tell you about our experience I will do my best with picture--after all a picture is worth a thousand words.
SLC airport card game--I won all 4 rounds!
We landed in Rio de Janiero and got through customs, grabbed our luggage and headed to Saquarema, the location of the Brasilian Volleyball training center. While there we were able to meet members of their Men's Olympic Team, including the renowned, Giba.
The white-topped building is the cafeteria. Best food of my life!
The large building behind is the gym.
the building ahead is the gym and weight rooms. 4 large courts with an upper viewing deck.
When Shawn saw Giba he was like a kid in a candy store. :)
this guys was like 7'2" and coordinated! He was amazing. I think we all liked him. I loved their middles more, i wonder why...
They let us all watch practice, but it was more like gawking at extremely tall (7 feet!) athletic, and tan, Brasilian men. So you can understand why we didn't ever want to leave. Saquarema was paradise for me. You could play volleyball all day, eat AMAZING food provided as a buffet at every meal, and go lay on the beach, which was literally across the street from the compound. It didn't matter that the mosquitos were bad or that the beds were a little hard. I could live there and be so happy!
Did I mention that you get really swollen ankles on international flights? This was my room's attempt to correct it, as we read our books before going to bed.
We went to church about an hour away and were surprised when Elder Hannemann, our setter Heather Hannemann's cousin, was there serving his mission in that ward! It's such a small world! The members in Brasil are very blessed with beautiful chapels and well maintained grounds. I was awed at how beautiful everything was! The Brasilian members made us feel right at home and tried as much as possible to interpret or let us read the scriptures in English.
While playing in Saquerema we met some amazing friends and volleyball players. They are very talented for being so young. Luckily some of them spoke English and we were able to have a good time together and exchange clothes while at it too!.
Some say that "all good things must come to an end" and this holds true since we had to leave to Rio de Janierio. But little did I know that I would be going to one of my favorite cities in the world. Upon arrival, we visited Cristo Redentor, a giant statue of Christ and his arms outstretched that rests on a peak that overlooks the entire city. The view, although somewhat foggy from the clouds (that's how high up we were!) the view was amazing!.
This man is a hang-glider who kept yelling and telling everyone (in Portuguese) how cool his "flight" was and then proceeded to yell out his favorite Brasilian soccer team.
Our hotel in Rio definitely wasn't a 5 star castle, but we enjoyed the experience.
The coaches and travel guide let us loose on the city. We had to go about in pack of 3's and it was so much fun to find good shopping places, walk on the beach, and good places to eat, along with a bakery that wasn't too far from our hotel (wink wink).
In the mornings we went on runs along the boardwalk of Copacabana beach. It was a great place to experience for the fist time men in SPEEDOS! They frequent the beach area and if you are wearing real swim trunks then you might be made fun of. Everyone there wears one! Not like swim speedos, but manly-man speedos.
While in Rio, the world surfing tour was going down at Ipanema Beach. It was so much fun to lay out and watch some professionals at work! We also went swimming in the waves and got tossed about a little, but it was all worth it!
yup, he's naked ;)
While walking along the beach after lots of sun, we found some delicious corn on the cob and bargained for a couple two-person hammocks. I definitely regard myself as an expert bargainer. I truly loved Brasil. It was so much fun and full of life and adventure.
My best memory of the trip was when we were doing a devotional with the young adults in a stake in Rio. They all came and about 10 of them could speak english. We split up into groups and were supposed to each answer the question, "How has the gospel changed your life?" I didn't know that such a small question could have such a big answer. I shared my testimony of the blessings the gospel has afforded me in life and especially my eternal family. It was tedious and cumbersome to translate and pause between phrases and sentences, but the member shared the most beautiful testimonies I have ever heard. They spoke of the joy of the gospel--the everyday happiness that it brings to them even in their hard situations (which are pretty unbelievable to me!) Talk about a testimony builder! I loved that night and feeling the spirit. It was so special and I hope to always take it with me.
When we rode our taxi to the devotional Emillie Toone, Jen Hamson, and Kathryn LeChaminant all somehow got in the backseat and I took the front.
Argentina held many different secrets for us. Our hotel was so much nicer, we were in the dead center of Buenos Aires, and we weren't able to explore anything for 3 days after we arrived. Luckily we soon discovered the Argentinean delicacy of, which may Alfajores seem like a glorified ding-dong at a corner candy store but is actually an unforgettable mouth-watering treat. We quickly transitioned from Reais to Pesos and we on our way.
airport in Uruguay, on our way to Argentina!
view from the front seat of the double decker bus!
did i mention we rode a double-decker bus around!?
We played in some interesting gyms
Fluminense
touring Fluminense on our way to the volleyball court. everyone was out here swimming, even the synchronized swimmers!
Notice in the back there are girls practicing gymnastics. Maybe a little distracting...
We visited Recoletta, a cemetery full of vaults and scary dead coffins. You could actually see the coffins. Cats were roaming everywhere. It would be the scariest at night! A carnival happens every sunday and along with a lot of people on drugs, there were the coolest street-side vendors with the most amazing merchandise! I'm proud to say, I successfully found gifts and souvenirs for everyone in my family, plus friends (i had to bring back a lot of Havaianas sandals!).
We visited a natural history museum and made many animal friends (dead, of course!).
This is the skeleton of a whale. It was enormous!
Giraffe and Kat-- related?
Hedwig
mosquitos big enough to drain an elephant of blood
sea turtle!
10-legged giant spider! Aragog's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather
dinosaur
and Katniss of course!
We also did a little bit of service for the members in Argentina--which turned out be a little more of a public relations promotion for the church. Check out the Liahona--I'm pretty sure we might be featured in it!
Along with our service we were able to go to a ward and interact and play volleyball with some of the young women. They taught us some classic games and we had a lot of fun with them and meeting them. We did a human pyramid that they showed us how to do. We definitely did it better! Getting everyone to stay up was pretty interesting to say the least.
In argentina the dance is the TANGO. It's a very sexy, and sensual dance. The couple moves and glides in unison and their legs are like noodles! They swing them everywhere! It wasn't part of the travel package but some of us made the stop to go see a show!
La Boca is famous for it's artfully colored buildings and of course it's soccer team, BJCA juniors. We were able to shop for souvenirs, art, and more dulce de leche
Best place to eat for STEAK. A cut the full size of a plate plus all the sausage and fries you can imagine. I love being a carnivore!
Life can get kinda dirty after 2 weeks and living out of a suitcase. Our room of seniors were resourceful and did a "load" of laundry in the tub.
One day we visited a huge cathedral called La Plata--the largest of the 20th centurty. Construction began in the 1800's and halted in the 1930's when the didn't have the funds for the spires. It was begun again in 1997 and finished finally in 1999! You can understand now why it's the largest of the 20th century! Oh and below is the best cafe for alfajores, chocolate mousse, and strawberry dessert. The alfajores (until that point in my life) were the best things i have ever tasted!
this places a huge with vaulted ceilings! Forgive me for my nerdiness, but if you imagine the Mines of Moria and look at the pillars of this cathedral you might see a bit of a resemblance. ;)
We ventured to a restaurant for lunch at one time and unfortunately befell bad luck as our double decker bus caught some power lines and pulled them down. Fortunately, I was able to see them shaking and yelled down for the bus driver to stop! The neighbors were very angry, as you can imagine and little was done to satiate them. We merely unhooked ourselves and went on our merry way. I felt so bad...
On our way out of Buenos Aires we visited the temple that was closed for renovation.
Like I said before, all of us were so happy to be leaving for the USA. By this point we were exhausted:
There was so much we had learned and gained from the trip, besides the volleyball playing experiences. We all became great friends and, you guessed it, had learned more about each other, and our tolerances for each other, than we would have liked. But such is life. Life is an adventure.
Life is happiness.
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