High Performance JUNIOR TEAM Blog: July 24th

Hey guys! It’s Ashley again from the Junior team. Today we had a different schedule than the Youth, but it was still equally as awesome! We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, and then walked on the beach for about twenty minutes. We then got ready for our match early, so that we could head to the USA Men’s National match. We only got to stay for two matches, but it was still so worth it to go! The men can hit so hard, and it was fun to see some boys play volleyball for once! We left for our match which was a half hour drive, and played at this club for kids and teens. It was really fun, especially because all of these little kids that were in their early elementary years had come to watch and cheer for us. Right when we walked in they were cheering Los Estados Unidos!!! It was so cute. They cheered for us so hard, and even asked our names and chanted them. We won our match in four. After our match, we exchanged our uniforms, and danced with the other team for about fifteen minutes. We tried to teach them some of ours, and they taught us some of theirs. It was a lot of fun. For dinner, we went to this amazing grill, with all kinds of meat to eat. The food was amazing. The bathroom was pretty sweet too, with floss and automatic garbage cans!! A lot of the girls and I had chicken heart as well. It wasn’t very good, but now we can brag about it! All in all another great day in Brazil. -Ciao-

Hey everybody its Janae! Today we all went to the U.S.A vs Poland match. It was so much fun but the junior team had to leave halfway through the match to go to their game. The youth got to stay and watch the whole thing. The junior team won their match in four games it was awesome! Then we all went to dinner and came back to the hotel to go to bed! I hope to see more of Brazil and have fun!

Obrigado!!!!!

High Performance YOUTH TEAM Blog: July 24th

Hey everyone! It’s the 24th of July and today we had an awesome day! It’s Hannah talking by the way. We woke up pretty early this morning so that we could go play on the beach, we worked a lot on ball control and passing and hitting. Beach is pretty hard, a lot different than volleyball indoors.

After playing beach and going to the ocean for awhile we got ready for one of the most amazing experiences ever, the USA men’s team playing the Poland in the semi-finals of the World League! I don’t think I have ever seen such amazing volleyball in person in my whole life. The men could hit so hard, just by watching them I felt as if I got better. It was so fun to see what they could do with the ball and by watching their arms, hands and movements I knew what I could do to improve. The game was so so exciting, it went to five games ending with USA winning 16 to 14. Our team was even on international tv in the stadium! After the match we got to meet some of the men from the team. We met Priddy and Stanley, the hardest server in the world. They were really appreciative of our support and our extremely loud cheering, which they could only somewhat hear over all the booing we got, but we didn’t care it just made us cheer louder!

Returning from the men’s game we had about a three hour break where we could just hang out, I took a little nap, I was pretty exhausted. For dinner we went to this Brazilian barbeque restaurant where they cut the meat onto your plate. I ate so much meat and so many different kinds I thought I would pop, some of them were a little interesting. I ate beef, pork, turkey heart, chicken heart (this was not an experience I would like to remember), cow neck, lamb, cheese wontons, egg salad and fried bananas. Most of the meat was amazing, it was so juicy and tender, they also had sushi, I had tried it at the pizza place last night so I decided not to eat that again! Today was an awesome day filled with so much fun stuff, and I can’t wait till tomorrow! Talk to you later! Adios! P.S. Mom and Dad and Ethan I love you

Oi! Hey everyone, it’s Ciara. Today, was an awesome day. We started off the morning with a wonderful breakfast, full of fruit, rolls, and eggs, than the youth team headed down to the Copacabana beach for a training session. After we were done playing some intense volleyball, we went back to our rooms to shower, so that we could go and watch our men’s national team play Poland in the World League semi finals. When we got there, everybody was excited to see us, all the fans and working staff, etc. After we got our seats, they played all different types of music, where everybody was standing and clapping, just having a good time. As soon as both the teams came onto the court, the energy level rose 1,000 degrees, as well as the intensity level. It was shocking to see how many Polish fans Brazil had… ha. Soon, the game started, and we had developed our own cheering section, full of many Brazilian children. When we would start a cheer, the whole rest of the stadium would boo, and whistle, which in a way was really intimidating. The first four games flew by in a flash, but the last of the set was the most intense. The U.S. team barely won 16-14.

After the game was over, we got to go down onto the court and meet the entire U.S. National team. It was amazing, and a wonderful opportunity. Getting to shake their hands sent chills up my spine. When that was over, we headed back to the hotel for a nice nap. For dinner, we hit a Brazilian Barbeque, where we ate turkey heart, chicken heart, beef, pork, cow neck, and lamb. It was really different, but I enjoyed it. Well, I love all my family, and I miss you all very much!!

Love you Camden and Crash
Hasta la vista

High Performance JUNIOR TEAM Blog: July 23rd

Hey this is Alisha and Cherish reporting from Rio and it is day 7 here in Brazil. We are chillin in our sweet hotel. Today was very interesting… We started out pretty early this morning in Buzios, we loaded our stuff up and had a yummy breakfast. Oh by the way, the food here is phenomenal! After breakfast we all jumped on the bus for a long dreary ride to Rio, haha not really, it wasn’t that bad. We got to our new hotel and they weren’t ready for us so we all threw our stuff into a couple of rooms and went to lunch. Then we took off for our game. We won!!! We left for our hotel again and got ready for an amazing pizza dinner. They had every imaginable flavor of pizza. Even all of the dessert kinds you would ever think of. Everyone ate so much… we could hardly move after. All in all it was an amazing day… Over and out! Alisha and Cherish.

High Performance JUNIOR TEAM Blog: July 22th

Oi!! This is Michele and April speaking! We were suppose to write the blog about our day yesterday but our adventure kept getting better! So I am writing it this morning!
Yesterday it was awesome because it was one of the first days that we got to sleep in! Once we all met in the lobby after eating breakfast, we all walked to the beach in Buzio. When we arrived it was just so beautiful! The scenery and everything was just amazing! There were people everywhere selling dresses and jewelry where some of us went shopping crazy! We were two of them. Also a sight to see was the men in speedos. How many guys do you see wearing speedos in the United States!? Also we went running on the beach as a team, and I have always wanted to do that! It really felt good after eating so much food and gaining some pounds from it.
When we were through at the beach we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool and hot tub. What was really fun was Bruno, Augusto, Parker, Alydia and us playing UNO cards in the hot tub! Our goal for not getting the cards wet didn’t last very long….
After having that experience we then found out that Ricardo had invited us to go hiking with him and his wife. He took us to this beautiful place where the view was just amazing! We had so much fun and we’re so glad that he invited us to go with him.
We traveled back to the hotel after we were done with the hike and grabbed our money to go shopping at the market. Our Junior team decided that we would all eat together as a team, so we went and ate at a crepe restaurant. Everyone said that theirs was delicious! After we had dinner we split up and went and did what we wanted. After a while it got boring shopping so we all sat and talked while eating ice cream. We like hearing Augusto and Bruno say big words so we taught them how to say antidisestablishmentarianism…. We don’t even know if that’s how you spell it. It was so funny.
While we were sitting there eating for some odd reason Bruno and Augusto started telling us what animals we all looked like. Immediately they told Michele that she was a macaca… which is monkey in Portuguese. They told April that she was a piriquito… which is a parakeet. It was really fun.
By the end of the night we were all pooped and went to bed. It was a fun but tiring day. We’re excited to go to Rio tomorrow. It should be a fun, exciting, new adventure.

We miss you all! Love Michele and April! Xau!! (chao)

High Performance YOUTH TEAM Blog: July 23rd

Ola from Rio de janero!

WE drove here very very early this morning on a bus which was about a 2 hour drive from Buzios. We are staying at a hotel that is seriously right across from the beach, Copacabana. It is very pretty here and there are amazing views. We ate lunch at a restaurant right on the beach. After lunch we headed for our games against The Flamengos which is a club that is said to be one of the best in Brazil at volleyball. The Youth team lost their match in 3 the juniors lost their game in 4.

After the games we went to a pizza place that served every kind of pizza you could think of it. Kenzie’s favorite was the Mango one and chocolate one. Kallie’s was the beef stroganoffs one and the white chocolate with a close third by the icecream with chocolate sauce slice. We are pretty sure we can speak for everyone when we say we all ate way way too much. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a goodnight’s sleep. So good night everyone back in the U.S.!

High Performance YOUTH TEAM Blog: July 22st

Journal entry
Oi, it’s Clotile again. We had a great day. We played at the beach and got sweet tans (except for me though cause I already have a sweet tan), and also played some volleyball with new people that we meet. Then some of us took a nice jog along the beach. Most of the girls decided to go back to the hotel, but me, Ashley and Cherish stayed and swam a bit longer.
When we got back to the hotel and got ready for our hike with Ricardo. The hike was long and steep and tiring!!! But it was totally worth it because when we got to the top the view of the ocean was AMAZING. There were so many mountains and even cacti. We also took lots of pictures. Then we went back to the hotel again to get ready to go shopping.

The night on the town was awesome. I went with my team and we all had some sort of pizza. Kenzie and I shared this really good banana pizza. Later on that night I meet up with some of the junior players and walked around with them. As we were walking we saw this silver robotic man who danced for us when we gave him money. Then we saw some dancing and some guy jump over a rope (a really high rope). We also meet cute boys and got ice cream.

We got back to the hotel around 10:45 and I went up to Cherish and Kortnie’s room and played “America’s Next Top Model”. The photographer was Cherish and the director was Kortnie and I was the top model. I stayed over there for about 20 minutes and went and got my stuff packed. That’s my wonderful day. Love, Clotile Moananu-Harris #12

Bonjia!! Hey it’s Alydia currently I am riding on a bus to Rio where there is the most beautiful beach on earth, that’s what Bruno said. But I’m not supposed to talk about today, so I will talk about yesterday.
Yesterday was great we got to sleep in and go to the beach and relax in the sun. It was a beach full of wonderful views, and I’m not just talking about the landscape, there were many beautiful men in many little Speedos. One in particular was named Iván; he definitely had a little Speedo. Iván played volleyball with us on the beach and he helped us with our ice cream, money problem.

After the beach we went back to the posada and Bruno, Augusto, Parker, Michele, and I played Uno in the hot tub. Lets just say that’s the last time we will be able to play Uno… After that I took a shower and got ready to go hiking.

The next thing we did was get on the bus and drive to the trail head, which was a road that lead up the mountain. It was a very short hike but the views were unbelievable! It was so beautiful on top of the mountain you could see so far.

After the hike we went back to the hotel and got our money to go shopping at the market. Once we got to the market we ate dinner as a team at a pizza place, they had really strange types of pizza, like banana and cinnamon, but they all turned out to be delicious! Then we split up into two groups Augusto came with Kallie, Hannah, Ciara and me. We had so much fun! At first we shopping for our families but then we saw a place called Laser Shot! It was like Laser Quest and our team took 2nd! Lots of little boys beat us. It was really fun though. Then we had ice cream with everyone on our team and went back to the posada. We packed and went to bed. We love you guys!!

High Performance YOUTH TEAM Blog: July 21st

HEEEEYYYY everyone!!! It’s Danica today. :] Everything was freakin kick butt! At about ten-ish we went sailing for a good couple of hours! Really it was one of the best things ever. Haha every so often they would stop the boat and we could jump off and swim in the water. I would jump off a so many times, that was the best part! And when you would be I there you could use floaties, pretty much everyone went in. Even the ones who couldn’t seem to well :] We also had a DANCE PAAAARTY! They were teaching us some pretty sick dance moves… I’m even more pro now! :P You would fall all over the place as the boat would rock and just try and grab a hold of whatever you could! After the boat ride we went back to where we went shopping yesterday and had lunch. Because us “youth” girls are so AWESOME… we decided to have lunch together. We went to this place called David’s and the food was amazing. After we went to the beach to play in the water (again)! Like I said before, because the youth girls are awesome, we all went together! Some junior girls, my family, Bruno, Augsto, tari, and alaina also came along. We were playing keep away with the football… boys against girls. Girls rocked ‘em! We then just played in the ocean. The tide was pulling us really bad, but it was fun! After we came back to the hotel to swim some more… I think we have some problems and can’t stay out of water!!! The pool was too cold and the hot tub was filled, so the youth girls, April, Bruno, and Augsto went into the sauna. You couldn’t even breathe in there! It was so hot, and you were breathing in fumes or something. We were telling stories though so it was fun! After that we just kinda chilled in our rooms and waited for dinner. After that we made plans to have a bon fire on the beach. I was stoked! Haha we found wood on the streets on our way down there to build it. We just told stories and had a good time! The water looked so pretty!

PEACE OUT EVERYONE! I hope you enjoyed my entry :]

Okay this little part is for Larry now (if he reads it haha) but that is what we did today! And I miss you! I really hope your camp is going well…. I want to know how you do as soon as you know! :] I better be the first person. Haha you were the first person I told… but that’s cause I love you muchly. Okay any who I’m getting darker! I might look like you now ^-^ not really… oh but I’m wearing your jersey! Awesome I know. Okay… I don’t know what else to say… I wrote it all above about my day. I’m pretty sure my chin is good now. My shoulder is feeling better also. We saw a PEGUIN! AH…. Okay well love you bye!

Oi Amigos. This is Courtney here. This trip has been one of the best experiences of my life. On day 4 we had a blast. ;) Today we started off the day by going sailing. We got on this huge sail boat with a bunch of different Brazilian people. We got to see the ways of how they react to different things. It was super fun to see those kinds of things. They would occasionally stop the boat so that we could get off the boat and jump in the water. The water was FREEZING!!! I thought that my legs were going to freeze off of me. Then Wade wanted Kallie and I to swim to shore. That wasn’t to fun. Everyone kept yelling “SHARK” and I thought that my legs were going to get bitten off. It was scary. I didn’t enjoy that part. After we got back on the boat Kallie and I felt much better. We sailed for a little bit longer then finally got back to shore. After that we went to lunch as a team. We went to this restaurant called David’s. It was really good. We got a little bit of everything and the food was great. After enjoying our great lunch we went to the beach. The girls played a game with the football against the boys. I just got to watch due to a pulled groin. . . .(we think). It was great fun to see how competitive the boys and the girls were against each other. We got done on the beach and as a team (the youth) we sat in the sauna and the jacuzi and told stories. Lots of funny things came up. It was great. After that we enjoyed a great Brazilian dinner at our cute little resort hotel. The food here has been amazing!!! It has been great to enjoy all the different kinds of foods. After dinner we went back to the beach and built a fire. It was quite big to start off and slowly died down. We did skits and told stories to end off the night. We then came back to the hotel to jump in our nice warm beds and enjoy a good night’s sleep to have a fun fifth day.

I love you all and miss you tons. :) love court.