The World Cup is here

Friday, I dressed in my Dutch orange shirt, German scarf, USA hat, and wore a vuvuzela with a South African flag hanging on it. These are the top teams that I’m rooting for (although Spain and Brazil are kinda up there too… but didn’t quite make the cut). The opening ceremony was beautiful – apparently Mandela was supposed to make a surprise appearance, but tragically, one of his granddaughters died the night before in a car crash. First game: South Africa vs. Mexico. Oh my goodness, did SA play well… for being ranked 189^th in the world, they ended up tying 1-1 with Mexico. Definitely boosted SA’s confidence and is good for the general vibe here. Everyone had tickets to the France-Uruguay game at night, so took the bus to the stadium with them and headed home and hung out with Helena and her friends. We made our way to The Shack – a complete awesome dive bar. Herman and I reigned supreme in all of the foosball challenges (Pete, I’m practicing… be careful), ate the most delicious fries in the world made by Nightingale, and met a guy from Austin who I then called “Austin” the rest of the night (I don’t think he appreciated it).

Saturday, Sean picked me up relatively early at 10 (hey, late night) and drove me all around for some amazing sightseeing. Drove past Houts Bay, made a pit stop in Monkey Valley where we drank some coffee and ate Malva cake in a tree house looking hotel/restaurant (really cool!), and then headed to Simon’s Town. I wanted to go here again because last time I went I didn’t realize this was where one of the PENGUIN colonies was!!! And penguins there were. I squealed pretty much every time I saw

one waddle (I even recorded them waddling).

After I got my penguin fix, we headed to the national reserve where Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point are located (the southwestern most point of South Africa). On our way, we encountered some baboons in the road so we pulled over. Next thing we know, one JUMPS on our car, presses his nose up against the window, then turns around and just chills on the hood. I was snapping away with my camera, but as fate has it, my generic rip off of a memory card gives out right when I need it most… all the pics were gone. Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope are of course more areas of absolute breathtaking views (of which, again, my stupid memory card didn’t save enough of the pictures from). What else did we see? More baboons and an ostrich!!! It was like an inexpensive safari day for me :).

We head over to Tim’s to watch the England-USA game… he wasn’t too happy with the outcome (dirty English supporter), but I was :P. I don’t think the US could have asked for more (well, I guess they could) – really sucks for the English goal keeper though… he must be having some rough nights these days.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. Slept in, watched the first 2 games, and eventually ended back up at Tim’s for the Germany-Australia game at night. He turned it into a drinking game (dangerous) and some more beer pong was played that night.

Today I told Karen at work that I’d like to help out in other areas whenever I have down time on my projects (since I’m not meeting with irrigation people ‘til the 22^nd). She hooked me up with Nicole, who’s working on getting the testimonials from the Mamas (the foster moms from Ikamva) and documenting them. I would love love love to hear their stories and so I will be transcribing their stories into documents. I get to meet them tomorrow at 2, so that’s pretty exciting. At 1ish, I headed out with Eric to meet Maika and some other folks to watch the NETHERLANDS-Denmark game at the Fan Zone. We won. 2-0. Obviously ;) (naw, but kidding aside… I feel like they weren’t playing as well as they could have. Also, one of those goals was an own goal from Denmark.) Ended up at a few other bars and eateries, watched the Cameroon-Japan game (0-1), then started heading home. The others were going to the fan mile to watch the Italy-Paraguay, which is here in Cape Town tonight, but I am absolutely pooped and will be calling it an early night… I need some beauty sleep.