Day 7

Today the team woke up bright and early for a delicious hotel breakfast. Once again, we found ourselves amoung an assortment of breads, cereal, fruit, cheese, ham, and juices.
We ate quickly and headed to our rooms to get ready for a day of shopping down town. The weather was really nice today, so we made the short walk downtown where we were able to
shop at different street venders. A few people in our group bought Soccer jerseys for the Brazil vs. Chile world cup game today.

After a few hours of shopping, we made our way back to the hotel to change into our "game day" outfits. Annie and Jeff went all out by wearing "Brasil" hats, shirts, and the
Brazilian flag as a cape. The rest of the team sported "Brasil" shirts and, of course, a lot of green and yellow. When we finished getting ready, we loaded up the bus and
headed to a restaurant where we would be eating lunch and watching the game together. The restaurant was buffet-style and we were able to choose from an assortment of any
type of meat imaginable, along with whatever we wanted from the salad bar. I am still amazed at how common sushi is here - I've seen it available at every lunch and dinner
buffet so far.

When we finished eating our lunch and our plates were cleared from the table, the group moved to an outdoor part of the restaurant where we gathered around a TV to watch the
3:30 Brazil vs. Chile game. The energy was very high and everywhere we looked there were people wearing jerseys and getting pumped up for the game. The game began and it was
extremely intense from the start. It was so exciting to be a part of the celebration everytime Brazil scored. Brazil ended up defeating Chile 3-0, and the celebration continued.
When we left the restaurant and headed for the bus, we saw cars riding by with people hanging out the windows yelling, playing loud music, and holding the flag of Brazil.

We headed to the facility where we would be playing our match. When we arrived, we had to wait outside for the doors to be unlocked because the gym was closed for the soccer
game. We finally got in, changed into OUR jerseys, and started warming up for the match. Our opponets were a club team called "Sesi," and we played very up and down throughout
the match. We Lost the first, won the second, lost the third, won the fourth, and wound up pulling together and playing really well to win the fifth set 15-4. After the match,
we shook hands and took pictures with the other team in the same way we did after the other matches we've played, but this time, we were caught off guard by hugs and kisses on
the cheek from the other team to say "goodbye."

Once we got changed out of our dirty clothes, the group got back on the bus and headed to a late night dinner. We went to another restaurant where an assortment of pizza was
brought to our table side, and we were able to pick and choose which kinds and which slices we wanted to eat. The restaurant also had live entertainment by a man that played
guitar and sang portugese songs while we ate our food. When we finished eating, we got onto the bus and headed back to the hotel to get a good nights rest before another long
day of shopping, sight-seeing, eating, and playing volleyball!
-Megan Turner