So far it has been a hectic week. Not only has the World Cup started but my friends from the veterinary campus were also on their way out of town…so there was some goodbye partying that went down in advance of the opening weekend. Essentially I have been on the party grind for almost a whole week by Day 3 of the World Cup…I’m tired! It is becoming more and more obvious that I am 29 and no longer 19. I have a feeling this is going to only be reinforced more and more as time goes on…eish!
Ramsey (my friend from the USA), Edwin, and I woke up and started a fresh day of soccer. Edwin’s dad was having his 60th birthday party on Sunday and so Edwin had to go celebrate that. Ramsey and I went back to my house to chill out and watch some more games.
We drove around a bit to take care of some things like buying boerewors (SA bratwurst…another “apple pie” of SA) for an SA farmer breakfast and getting Ramsey a bus ticket to his next destination. Had to do a bit of vuvu blowing at people on the street, of course. As we drove through Sunnyside we saw Ghanaian fans lining the streets and turning out for the upcoming Ghana vs. Serbia game in Pretoria. We also passed by the police station and saw them doing maneuvers in preparation for the day of World Cup action. They had the street blocked off in front of the police station in Sunnyside and all the police were lined up in formation. Sunnyside has mounted police and nowadays you really need to look out for horse apples on the sidewalks in my neighborhood. I have seen the mounted police around in Sunnyside before, but now I see them, or fecal evidence of them, just about every day. In fact, I saw one of these police horses bite his rider in the ass the other day…hilarious!
We arrived back to my house to find Helen and Ross preparing to receive guests. Ross and his friend were going to head off to the Serbia vs. Ghana game at the neighboring Loftus Versfeld, so Ross was cooking some pulled pork for a little nosh before the game. We all watched the Slovenia vs. Algeria game on TV. I cheered and waved my new Algerian flag for my new Algerian friends…but they still lost. Ross and his friend headed off to the game and his friend’s daughter stayed behind to watch with us on TV.
Edwin decided that we should have gone with him to his dad’s bday party, so he came back and picked us up after we watched the Algeria game. We gave some bday hugs and Ramsey got to have “jou ma se kos” (your mom’s food…in Afrikaans…kind of like saying home cooked food). Played a little Settlers of Catan and then decided to take Ramsey to the Union Buildings (the White House of SA) to check out the Pretoria skyline at night. I will never get sick of going up to the Union Buildings. I think it is one of the most stunning things about Pretoria. The Union Buildings are up on a hill and there are these beautiful gardens that roll down to a nice park and finally into Arcadia/Sunnyside. In the spring the gardens are super pretty and bursting with horticultural delights. I really like the view from up there and it was really lovely at night. There are a few places in Pretoria where they have spotlights up: the corner of Park and Eastwoods (next to Loftus), Church Square, Bosman Station, and there might be one other place that I can’t think of right now. These spotlight locations are also the locations of these bead and wire sculptures of soccer players and fans. They have cord lights on the inside and at night these are turned on causing the sculptures to glow. They are really cool. I like the bead/wire art form here. You can find a lot of curios made out of wire and beads. I have even seen a sculptor that makes patio furniture and coffee tables out of wire. It’s a pretty ubiquitous art form here in SA, so it’s fitting that these sculptures are done in this style. I say…well done!
And then it was time to say goodbye to Ramsey (for now) and our other new friend, Vama…part of the opening weekend crew. We picked up Vama and took both of them to the bus station. I got the chance to see some more of these sculptures I was just describing (so far I had only seen the ones by Loftus) while we were at the bus station. Very cool!
(Opening weekend crew L-R: Edwin, Ramsey, Vama, me, Surprise)
It was really nice to show Ramsey around. Besides the fact that we got a fun addition to our opening weekend crew…we did our part to make people from overseas know South Africa. Even if I’m not South African ;) It’s good to share a place you know with someone who doesn’t. Plus I am so grateful to be able to help out a fellow traveler as there have been many unexpected people that were there for me on the road.
By now I am even more exhausted so Edwin takes me home and I catch the last game of the evening: Australia vs. Germany. It was the highest scoring game of the Cup so far with the final score being 4-0, Germany. Also want to note that the Australian team is called the “Socceroos.” This is hands down the lamest name of a team to date. Wow. I think the Algerian team name is pretty cool…they are the Desert Foxes and Cameroon is the most ferocious with the Lions of Cameroon. Nice. But Socceroos…dude.
Zzzzzzz…Day 4 to follow soon J
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