Briana Sutton is traveling to Brazil for a 10-day tour along with the USA Division III All-Star Volleyball Team. She has been kind enough to document some of her experiences in a blog for CNUsports.com. Below is her first entry following the team's orientation in Orlando, Florida on Sunday:

DAILY ITINERARY:

SUNDAY, JUNE 7th, 2015
4:00 p.m. - Team arrives Orlando, checks in
5:00 p.m. - Team Dinner
6:30 p.m. - Orientation
7:30 p.m. - Team departs for practice
8:00-10:00 p.m. - Practice
10:30 p.m. - Team Meeting

BLOG:

The USA Brazil Tour volleyball team is comprised of 10 individuals ranging in hometowns across the United States from the west coast to the east. As of now, I have learned two of those individuals' names, and they are both Olivia L. They play the same position, they have the same hair color, and they are of similar height - thankfully I don't have to differentiate between the two for the time being. The others I'm sure I will figure out in the next few days, seeing as we will be spending all of our time together. I look forward to the process.

My flight arrived in Orlando at 10 a.m., so I had a significant amount of time to introduce myself to my new coaches. Mika Robinson and Caitlyn Jansen are both currently coaches at Berry College and show a huge amount of enthusiasm for this team. After our team dinner, they brought us back to our hotel for the Team Orientation, in which I learned many new (and important) things about Brazil. The following is a short excerpt of the information given to us by our Tour Coordinator:

1. Overview of Brazil - Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world, is geographically the size of the US, and the population runs around 200 million people.
2. Nothing starts on time
3. Portuguese is not Spanish - do not speak Spanish, it is offensive to Brazilians
4. Do not use the American "okay" sign - it is considered obscene.

If not for this information, I could have gone to Brazil, spoken in Spanish, received the "okay" sign from a Brazilian, returned the sign, and gone off on my merry way thinking that I had just made a brand new friend in another country. THIS is why you should always pay attention in orientation. The information is imperative to your social survival. You should always listen in class on the first day of school.

After the information session, the team was scheduled for our first official practice, so our group of girls was sardined into a van, as sports teams generally are, and we took off for our practice site. As first practices go, it went as well - if not better than - predicted.  Maybe it was the sharing of all of the food at dinner (to our vegetarian's dismay) or maybe it was the team-building session in the car in our attempt to find the most innovative way to spread the wealth of the air conditioning in our Sardine Can Van. Regardless, the team has some chemistry, and it showed in our practice.

We depart for Brazil tomorrow evening, but for tonight, I must say "Boa Noite," which means "Good Night" in English and "Buenas Noches" in Spanish (which, while very similar in pronunciation, is NOT THE SAME, and should not be used interchangeably in Brazil).

If you would like to (figuratively) join me on this journey, there will be visual aids located on social media at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/USA-Sports-Tours-Brazil-2015/1129594060400050