KE NAKO AFRICA

Where do I even start? The world cup was beyond incredible. In the days leading up to it there was so much excitement and pride in Cape Town, you could feel at the pride overflowing when talking to cab drivers, bar tenders or just about any South African for the matter. Posters, jerseys and flags were everywhere, and those vuvuzelas, well they never stopped ringing. My friends and I couldn’t walk anywhere downtown without being greeted by a random person who would yell “WELCOME TO SOUTH AFRICA!” and we’d giggle because after 5 months months we still stuck out in this country.

On Thursday, June 10th, my friends and I went down town, we had a girls day at the spa (thank you for a great currency exchange) and then got some excellent mojitos at Che bar for happy hour. We met up with our friends at neighborhood for more cocktails and then took to the street to watch the opening parade in Cape Town. The parade was cool, totally random though, and after we stayed in the streets to watch the opening concert in Johannesburg, which was playing on Jumbo screens. The boys were excited because the bars were allowing people to take their drinks out in the street so we all danced and sang crazily to the music on the jumbo screens and started celebrating. After a little while we got tired of the concert and decided we should just wander back to Long Street and check out the action there…and boy was it packed.

We bar-hopped the rest of the night, but spent most of our time in Joburg, our favorite bar. When we weren’t dancing inside we were out running in the streets, it was absolute madness. People were going crazy, running around in jersey cheering and singing, and of course blowing vuvuzelas. We started lots of chants and met plenty of people simply because they were either wearing American jerseys or they were locals who liked our bafana gear and wanted to cheer with us. There were lots of people "making the circle bigger" who were dancing in the streets, it was perfect, thank you south africa for being yourself. It was so much fun, I didn’t want the night to end, it was pure revelry.

I came home that night to some very unfortunate news, which I guess is just an example of how life works…sometimes you’re soaring high and then you easily trip and hit rock bottom. My parents reluctantly told me that a family member had passed away unexpectedly so I spent the rest walking around LBG trying to calm down and luckily, had an amazing roommate who helped me mourn while I was so far from home and my family.

The next morning I woke up exhausted, still crying and pretty much unable to even keep my eyes open, but I had to get up it was OPENING DAY. I put on all my south African gear…a bafana bafana tee, south African earrings, a bright pattern head-band and wore a South African flag as a cape, I was ready for the day. My friends and I took a minibus downtown (there were maybe 20 of us crammed into one van, all decked out in bafana bafana stuff it was awesome). We went straight to the fan park, where we hung out all day waiting to watch the opening match in Joburg (South Africa v. Mexico) on the jumbo screen. The fan park was so cool, it was packed with lots of die-hard fans, everyone was wearing gear for the rainbow nation and they were so excited. We sang Shosoloza and other south African songs, made lots of friends and played our vuvuzelas throughout the afternoon, and when the game started every person in the park was watching. Although the game ended in a 1-1 tie everyone was ecstatic, South Africa scored the first goal of the game (and tournament!) and had played a pretty great game, especially since they were the underdogs of the tournament, ranked 83rd in the world, they were only playing because they were the host country.

After the game we walked to the Eastern Bazaar, filled up on Indian food and then walked to Green Point Stadium to watch the opening game in Cape Town. The game was Uruguay v. France, and although the game was pretty boring, the atmosphere in the stadium was so cool. We were all still in our south African jerseys and a lot of the fans at the game were too so it was a lot of fun. There were people wearing Ireland jerseys too (because of the controversy in the French game) and lots of random costumes, if you will being displayed. There were even two people in cow suites, which I still don’t understand? After the game we went home, it was almost midnight and had another long day tomorrow.

Saturday, we woke up kind of early to go to Old Biscuit Mill for one last time. We got the best iced coffee in the world, and some breakfast then caught a minibus to Newlands to see the SPRINGBOKS (national rugby team) play France. The game was so much fun, we stood in the stands along one of the “end lines” and cheered BOKKA along with everyone else. It wasn’t even a close game but still it was so exciting, I think I’m actually starting to understand the sport…too bad when I go home no one will want to watch it. After the game we rushed home to throw on anything and everything that was red, white and blue and then headed down town to the fan park to watch the USA/UK game.

Now, this was the first time since studying abroad that I fully embraced my “americanness”, until this point we usually tired to hide the fact that we were tourists but when we got to the park I coulnd’t help but feel so proud. There was red, white and blue everywhere, and I was so excited to meet and cheer with all these Americans. The game was so much fun. I was wearing a navy skirt with a white tee, red headband and had an American flag (cape-style of course) and it was maybe 45 degrees out? So I had a few beers to keep me warm and Farley and I wandered around the stadium painting people’s faces and making friends until the game started. Of course it was another tie, but the game was still so exciting. We sang patriotic songs and made friends with international tourists who decided to cheer for America and then went to Long Street afterwards. Long Street wasn’t really that fun though and it was almost my birthday so after celebrating my 21st with a tequila shot at Fiction, we decided to ditch the bars and head to Tin Roof to celebrate.

Tin Roof is my favorite bar (besides Joburg and Stones) in Cape Town. It’s cheap, the music is so bad its great and there’s never a lot of Americans there…So my roommate and I met up with two of her friends there and we celebrated my 21st dancing like crazy and of course trying lots of different drinks. Farley told everyone it was birthday so we made lots of new friends for the night and just had a really great time. We went home super late as always but it was a great birthday.

Sunday morning, we woke up and got one last breakfast at Coco wahwah and then rounded everyone up to go to Mzoli’s for the last time : ( Mzolis was a lot of fun, although it changed a little for the world cup but still it was really cool. We sat at the restaurant drinking black label and cider and watched soccer games all afternoon. Everyone ate lots of meat (except not me, that’s what the coco wahwah was for…) and finally we went home once it was started to get dark out. I went back to my room to pack because I was leaving the next day, then went over to Suzanne’s room to help with dinner.

I walked in the door and Suzanne and the rest of the girls surprised me with a birthday cake (chocolate of course) and presents and we toasted with some good wine and then ate dinner. It was great, have I mentioned how much I love these girls? We hungout and ate more cake and played cards until the rest of my friends made their way to Suzanne’s room so we could go out and all celebrate my birthday and one last night together on Long Street, (the rest of my friends had been in Rustenburg the night before for the UK/US game so were reunited and ready to go!) Long street was lots of fun, even for a Sunday, I guess with the world cup it was bound to be crowded.

We bounced around from bar to bar, and then finally ended up at Joburg. My friends were determined to make sure I celebrated my 21st well, so that was really fun, around 2am we stopped raging and stood around the bar at Joburg to watch the Celtics/Laker’s game and then finally around 5:30 AM, when the game was over, we went home beyond exhausted.

The next day I got brunch with my girlfriends in Obz, we went to the fabric store (which I’ve wanted to do all semester) I waved a last goodbye to stones and then went home to finish packing. I said my goodbyes, and started crying when I took one last view at table mountain and then got in the car to get to the airport.

At the airport I ran around like mad buying last-minute world cup tees and snacks for my 14 hour plane ride and then finally boarded my plane in complete denial of coming home…

if you still don't know these songs please listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTJSt4wP2ME&feature=avmsc2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0