Day 8 - Melissa Zenz
Dear Fans
Today was a travel day for the team. We woke up early and spent our last few hours in Sao Paulo, passing the time with a bus tour and eating (naturally). The bus tour was nice. The past two cities where we have been we've been busy with volleyball and well, volleyball. Being able to get out and actually explore the city we were inhabiting for the past 48 hours was enlightening. Sao Paulo, as we discovered, is filled with historical mansions. Many even dotted the main city streets, scattered between sky scrapers (something we rarely see in the states). However, a tour that should have taken an hour to an hour and a half max, ended up being between three to four hours because of the horrendous traffic. Luckily, our driver could drive our bus (that seems 100 times larger than a U.S. charter bus) through a pinhole if he had to, on top of the fact that I would rather sleep on the bus than in my own bed because it's that comfortable.
After two hours, a memorial park, and countless mansions, we arrived at a destination. The destination was called Torre Banespa- AKA really tall building. The minute we walked into the building to check in, a group of people said, "Hey are you Americans?" This gave us all a really big kick because the goal of the day was to blend in and not draw attention to ourselves (apparently we didn't quite look Brazilian). The people ended up being a group of American boys from Utah here for missionary work. It was kind of a relief to here someone else speak fluent English! We then proceeded to go to the top of the building. The building was so tall that we had to get a helicopter to take us to the top-just kidding! We did take an elevator 32 flights and had to climb the last three, making for a grand total of 35 flights. At the top, there was an outside viewing deck. The view was amazing. Sao Paulo is absolutely enormous and stretched as far as the eye could see. Silhouetted against mountains in the distance, the city looked nothing less than spectacular from above. We spent about a half hour taking videos and pictures from all angles, and for you concerned mothers out there, I promise there was no horsing around near the four foot wall of the 35 story drop.
Once we were all safely back on at ground level, we walked to a small outdoor mall and ate. The lunch was buffet style, but we could only go through once with one plate. If you can imagine what our plates looked like, you would have thought we were collecting food for a long hard winter. Plates were stacked a mile high with everything imaginable, and what's funnier is they were empty when lunch was over. Happy and fed, we migrated to the bus and traveled to the airport. Upon arrival, we were forced to wake up from our food comas and truck through the airport to Gate 3. We waited for an hour before finally realizing that we were actually supposed to be at Gate 1 (this is why we get there two and a half hours early). At the airport, many were huddled around the one computer that could get internet, a few were reading magazines, and Alex was MIA because she realized that she could use her phone card for the pay phones. On the plane, most of us slept but the few who were awake received what they thought were salami sandwiches. Schroeder liked hers (she would), but apparently the people who knew what salami was supposed to taste like were less than pleased.
We arrived in Rio at about 6 p.m. and it was pitch black. It took the team a good 15 minutes to convince Griff (Megan Griffin) that it wasn't 10 at night and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. We loaded our new bus, which seemed even more grandiose than the first, and headed to our hotel. Rio is truly a site to see. The beach stretches for miles and even at night you can see the Redeemer overlooking the city from a distance. It is extremely hilly, so there are many tunnels on the roads going through hillsides. It seems that through every tunnel there is a new view.
We arrived at our hotel, and because of remodeling in the lobby there is very limited space. We could barely fit our luggage and ourselves into one spot, and there is only one elevator. It took about 45 minutes just to get our bags and us to the rooms. Once that feat was accomplished, we loaded the bus. With one elevator, we all arrived in staggered clumps to the bus, me and a few others being the first on.
Dinner was yet another buffet, and none of us were sure if we were allowed to go through more than once. So naturally, we pile the plates high and dig in. However, we found out that we were allowed a second round. One would think that with all the food we got the first time through that we wouldn't need seconds, but most of us went back for thirds plus dessert. Once again, fed and happy, we returned to the hotel. On the way back, we noticed people playing sand volleyball except with their feet! It was really an amazing sight to see how they could cover the court with just two people only using their feet, head, and chest as tools. Back at the hotel, we finally got our clean clothes back from three days ago and we're all exhausted. Another big day ahead of us, we are all trying to go to bed early and squeeze in some sleep before waking up at 7 a.m. So much to do so little time!
Melissa Zenz
