Highline College Brazil Tour Day 9

Day 9 Rio...

Today is our trip to Corcovado, one of the wonders of the world.

We had an early breakfast today because we had to leave the hotel at 9am for our reservation to go up on the train to Corcovado.

We departed the hotel and arrived to the train station in about 30 minutes.  It really wasn’t a train but more like a ride at Disneyland.  There were only 2 cars to the train and at 10:20 am we were on our way up the steep hillside through the forest / jungle to the top or so we though.  Once we got off the train we still had about 100 steep steps to get the base of the statue.  We all thought we were in good shape until we started doing the stairs...

Finally at the top of the mountain we could see why this is considered so special.  Aside from the size of the statue... the views high above RIO were AMAZING.... We could see about a 270 degree view of RIO.... and where some of the Olympic venues will be.

 

We were not alone at the top and almost had to fight to get a space to take our team photo.... but we managed to do it.   Once the team photo was done we had about another 30 minutes to take individual photos of ourselves and of the city.

We took the train back down the mountain during the trip several of us fell asleep during the 20 minute trip.

Once we were back to the bottom of the mountain we took taxis over to Ipanema Beach to meet our Brazil friend Wellington.  

He had set up a beach volleyball court and a beach tennis court for us.  None of us had played beach tennis before so Wellington gave us a few lessons.  While it looks easy it is a very difficult game.

We switched back and forth between beach tennis and beach volleyball for most of the afternoon.  A few of us went into the water but because the surf was so rough we only went in up to our knees.... which was too far for coach Russ as he toppled over and had a difficult time getting his feet under himself.  It was a good reminder of why... we were only going in knee deep water.

After our long day at the beach we took taxis back to the hotel to get ready for our Brazilian BBQ.

The restaurant was only about 4  blocks away from our hotel so we walked there.

Once inside we saw waiters bringing skewers of meat out from the kitchen and delivering it to the tables.... the cutting pieces of it off right onto your plate... Different types of meat and different cuts of meat all with different flavors... but all were good....  There was also a variety of salads and sushi which we all took advantage of.  About 1 hour later we were ready for our WADDLE home...

Tomorrow is our last day in Rio ... we are going to play volleyball and go shopping.

Highline College Brazil Tour Day 8

Day 8 ... Our first day in RIO

We had a great night’s sleep and awoke to have breakfast at the hotel at about 8am.  There were tons of good things to eat some of the fruit we were not even sure what it was... But everything was good.

Soon after breakfast we walked from our hotel to the Sugar Loaf Mountain... which really isn’t a mountain at all but rather a LARGE ROCK... no make that 2 LARGE TALL ROCKS.

It took us about 25 minutes to walk to the Sugar Loaf  from the hotel. We got our tickets and soon were on our first gondola to the first rock.  For those who did not like heights nor the slight bounce of the gondola they stood in the middle of the gondola.  For the more adventurous they stood next to the edge of the glass for the best view. 

it only took 3-4 minutes to arrive to the first rock.  As we gazed out over the ocean and the sprawling city of RIO... we almost forgot that we were only on the "SMALL ROCK" and still had one more to go....

We walked to the other side of the LITTLE ROCK and were amazed at the size of the BIG ROCK it was twice as high and the gondola was twice as long.

As we neared the top of the BIG ROCK the temperature was a little cooler and the air seemed fresher.  Once on top we took our team photo and then we had about 1 hour to take individual photos and get a bite to eat.

 

Soon it was time to return to earth... and down we went back to ground level.  The walk back to the hotel seemed to take a little longer ... but soon we were back to the hotel and it was time to go eat.

We walked out to Copacabana and walked down the beach to one of the beach cafes.  The views and the atmosphere were better than the food ... but most everyone was happy to be there.  Coach gave everyone some free time for shopping and gave them rules for where they could and could not go and what time to return to the hotel

At about 7pm we went to dinner just around the corner from the hotel to a restaurant facing the beach.  The food was GREAT compared to the lunch.  

About 9pm we went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Tomorrow is our visit to Corcovado.

Hgihline College Volleybal Brazil Tour Day 7

Today is our final day at the Brazil Training Center;  

We had breakfast at 8am and went directly to practice at 9am.

Our practice was a review of all that we have worked on during our stay here.  We played a lot of mini games where one team would start with more points than the other team making the team to concentrate more on getting points.

At 11:30 we ended our practice and went to get cleaned up for our trip to RIO.

At Noon we had our final meal at the training center but more importantly we were excited to have our photo taken with the Brazil Men’s Olympic team

At 1pm our motor coach arrived to take us to RIO.   Most everyone slept for much of the trip to RIO.  

We arrive to our hotel (one block off of Copacabana Beach) and got checked into our hotel rooms.  Everyone was eager to get out to see the beach.... We met in the lobby at 4pm to go to the beach and go to diner..

The beach was amazing... beautiful sand clear water and warm weather....

We only walked about 3-4 blocks and decided that we were ready for dinner.  

We stopped at a beach side restaurant for pizza.  We all ordered different pizzas but all were surprisingly good....

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and after a long day of practice and travel we were ready for bed.

We are excited to go to Sugar Loaf tomorrow.

Highline College Womens Volleyball Rio Tour Day 6

The boys are back! Or should I say men? Well I'm sure you can tell how excited we all were that they were back (only to watch them play volleyball of course). =) There was a dog that was just roaming around that seemed to make all of our mornings better.
We started off out first practice a bit slow and it seemed that our warm-up made us all exhausted. On a positive note, we got to watch some intense volleyball played by the Brazilian men. This seemed to inspire everyone.
After eating a hearty lunch, the whole team headed down to the beach to take an adorable team picture.
For our last evening practice we got to play a lot. Which everyone seemed to enjoy. Since we were down a player, coach Chris stepped in to play for one team and coach Jeff for the other. We all got to experience their competitive nature first hand. And found out just how much they hate losing.
Being our last dinner here, the cooks seemed to put out all of their best food. We filled up our plates full of food and just like every other day, went back for seconds.
As this day comes to a close, we all are a little sad and excited for what tomorrow brings.
Susan Timofeyev

Highline College Volleyball Rio Tour Day 5

August 17th Day 5 

This morning started off bright and early at 8am with a delicious breakfast that have some great mangos. We were getting ready for practice and coach decided to give us a break. A well deserved one after all the hard work we’ve been putting in, most of the girls went back to sleep and others just kicked back and relaxed. It was fantastic!

For the second part of our day we had some lunch. After lunch we sat by the pool and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and used the excellent WiFi in that area to brush-up on our Portuguese, “Oi”.. Which means hi! Our first practice of the day went by fairly fast although it was a semi long practice. We worked on serve receive passing a lot today. Our passing as a team has gotten a lot better. We have learned to stay low and use simple angles to get the ball to where it needs to be.

Snack time went by fast and our second practice came even faster. Our second practice we started off with some exciting queens court. The coaches played with us, its super fun to try and pass coaches crazy down balls and Coach Russ’s super hard serves..We had some teammates go down, “Man down, Man down”.. Everything ended up to be good so we went into some passing lane drills for serve receive. To end practice we played some 5 on 5, and RAN to dinner because the food is always so fantastic!!! Now we are headed off to bed and ready to wake up and do it again!

Highline College Volleyball RIO day 4

Day four in Brazil, we had a nutritious breakfast. After eating, we headed straight to practice. Coach saw that we were physically exhausted, so he decided to push us mentally. We ended up going back to basics which improved our skill immensely. After improving our basic playing, we began working on running plays from a serve receive pass. Lunch is a time, that our team as a whole, looks forward to. The workers always make delicious meals for us. Some of the team decided to be adventurous and try pudding and Brazilian cookies. Suffice to say we fell in love and even took some back to our rooms to snack on later.

Going into our afternoon practice we were excited about what coach had in store for us. Our team didn't have the best focus, but coach got us back on track real quick. Not wanting to disappoint him again, we turned our attitude around and started giving it 100%.

Even with as much as we have been playing, we still have a little off time to enjoy Brazil! During our break several players and our coaches went across the road the the beach. The girls went and enjoyed the waves, and even coach Alex was having some fun and body surfing! Dinner was delicious, as usual, and afterwards entertainment was provided in the form of and intense game of pool. Coach Chris and coach Russ were battling to win, unfortunately both struggled, even on seemingly simple shots, to score. The game eventually ended, after much drama, suspense, and humor, with a win for coach Chris.

Needless to say our team is getting a little tired after all the practices (3 each day), but we are still looking forward to the next few days!

Lehua Keka

Highline College in Rio Day 3

Day 3 in Brazil- 

We had some delicious breakfast this morning to start our day before our first practice. Once we finished eating, we headed over to the gym to start our first practice. We worked a lot on out of system setting and ball control. Once we finished our three hour practice we went to lunch

After lunch during our break, a few of us sunbathed by the pool. Some of us went to the beach across the street to enjoy the Atlantic Ocean. And the rest took a power nap to rest up for the intense practices ahead. 

In our last practice of the day, we put everything we have learned within our last practices together. We worked on different game like situations along with team chemistry. After everything came together, we had a lot of fun while working hard and ended on a high note before heading to dinner. So now we get to relax and prepare for our intense practices tomorrow here in BRAZIL!

 

Katelynn Fullmer

Pumehana Nedlic

Taylor Alicuben