Thursday night, the night before the opening ceremonies and first day of the World Cup, we dressed up in America gear (see photos) and just generally attacked Cape Town. I thoroughly enjoyed wearing Jim’s American flag as a cape. The whole city was going crazy, and we actually pushed through security’s halfhearted attempts to stop us to join a large flag parade, where we ran and screamed USA chants with the official paraders who happened to be charged with the task of carrying the US flag. The streets were just totally crazy and the excitement was palpable. We bonded with any and every American we saw.
Eventually we went into this Irish pub, and I “Iced” Jim. This is a recent college/fraternity-ish phenomenon involing one “bro” creatively presenting another “bro” with a Smirnoff Ice (a disgusting sugary, frothy lemon-flavored malt beverage). Upon presentation, the iced bro has to go down on one knee and chug the Smirnoff Ice in one gulp. Jim thinks this is hilarious and talks about it all the time, so I thought it would be appropriate to ask the bartender if they had any. Somehow they did, so I hid it underneath the flag I was wearing and went over to Jim and said “I think there’s something wrong with your flag.” Jim, all concerned, immediately started investigating his flag, and then I swooped it back to reveal the glistening Smirnoff Ice behind it. He promptly got down on one knee and chugged the whole disgusting drink, with the entire bar cheering (more people know about “icing” than I originally thought). There's also a great NYTimes article on the social phenomenon of "icing": http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/business/media/09adco.html?ex=1291780800&en=dca0da42d82ecb0c&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=BU-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M153-ROS-0610-PH
We had a great night hanging out with random people from all over the world (highlight: Australian guy using the pick-up line on me, “do you know I used to wrestle wild animals when I was five years old?”).
Friday morning Jim and I had to go into work for a 9:00 meeting (which on South African time was more like 9:30 meeting) and then everyone got the afternoon off to go watch/celebrate the opening ceremonies. I made the mistake of trying to take the Long Street route home- it was completey crowded with hundreds of people decked out in bufana (what people call the South African soccer team- I guess it means “the boys”) gear. I made the second mistake of carrying my recently purchased red white and blue vuvezela with me, and at every corner someone would yell SHOW ME and I’d have to blow it for them.
Note: I really like the names of the stores in our area (definitely the shopping district of Cape Town). Some of my favorites: “a store,” “Nap” (makes me sleepy everytime I walk by), “the infinite search for fashion,” “Mr. Pickwicks Eat Your House” (no apostrophe after Pickwick), and “Plastic Sandwich” (I actually have no idea what they sell in there).
Around 3:00 Jim, Hirsh, Dave, Nick and I (David is in Joburg for the opening game) went to this SUPER crowded, loud, smoky, sweaty bar called the Purple Turtle where everyone was dancing to techno music (and had been since about noon, I think). When the South Africa v. Mexico game finally started, everyone just kind of plopped down where they had been dancing. We ended up plopping down on the stage right in front of a giant projector screen where the game was being projected. Everyone was sort of chummy all of the sudden, and there was a South African guy on my left who was lying down sort of on me a little bit (who very soon after lying down completely passed out) and then this girl on my right who kind of casually had her hand on my shoe for a while. It was really cool watching the first part of the game with everyone, but it was SO loud with all the yelling and the vuvuzelas, and SO smoky and hot that I eventually ducked out and went home. The score of that game was eventually 1-1.
Saturday morning, the day of the U.S. v. England game, we dressed up in America gear yet again and walked around a bit before having brunch in Greenmarket square. I bought a USA scarf and ridiculous red Kanye West glasses (see picture). I also finaly took a picture of this car parked on Long Street that these people apparently drove from Finland to Cape Town for the world cup. Then I went to the gym, and met up with the boys around 5:00 at the Fan Fest (they had been out celebrating America-ness all day) for the game at 8:30. On my walk to go meet them, this younger woman came up to me and was sort of crying and told me this story about how she had come to Cape Town to stay with her boyfriend of 3 months and then that morning he had gotten physical with her, so she was trying to get back to her family 2 and a half hours away. I was skeptical at first but she was so sincere and walked with me for a while so she didn’t have to be alone, and she called her phone from my phone so we had each other’s numbers, and I eventually gave her money for a train home. Even though it might have been a lie, it seemed pretty legitimate and if there was even a chance she was telling the truth I felt like I had to help her out. I hope she got home ok and doesn’t go back to that guy!
Fanfest is basically this huge kind of carnival with all sorts of food tents and beer tents and a huge stage and screen where the game is broadcasted for all the fans to watch. There were so many Americans there dressed in crazy USA themed stuff- Dave was wearing this hat/helmet he made out of a USA soccer ball and these American flag pants that were absolutely amazing. Everyone had face paint and flag-capes and all sorts of other gear. Basically since I’ve been here it has felt like an endless USA theme party. We were all dancing and doing USA chants and going crazy until the game started. Oddly, I ran into a friend from home, Dillon, who played soccer and was really good friends with my high school boyfriend. It took us both like 5 minutes to actually process that we had just ran into each other in South Africa. I also met up with a friend of the Lynns, Ryan, who is a law student at Miami and who is also working in Cape Town this summer. The boys had already met him and his friends during the day.
The game (which was very stressful, I might add) ended up a tie (1-1), because they don’t go into overtime in this first phase of the World Cup. Even though we didn’t win, apparently this was a pretty big upset because England is considered a much better team than the US team. After the game, we all went to this bar (hilariously called “Ivy League”) on Long Street. Right as we were walking in, I realized that my camera was no longer in my purse. I guess it’s pretty common for your stuff to get stolen right out of your pocket or purse at any big, crowded event, and that’s apparently what happened to me, although I have no idea how because I always zip my purse. I tried to get over it, figuring I can take pictures with my phone until I get a new camera, and we ended up having a really great time dancing at Ivy League. Later on into the night, Jim realized his cellphone had been stolen out of his pocket. Great. To top things off, when I went to get my jacket and brand new USA scarf from behind the bar where the bartender had stored it for me, we realized my scarf was nowhere in sight. Sigh.
Today I woke up, went to the gym, had a delicious breakfast at the “Wellness Café” in the Lifestyle Center across the street (which would be considered extremely crunchy even for the States), and then did some solo sight seeing all day. I went up into Bo-Kaap, the Muslim part of town that’s set on a hill overlooking Cape Town. The houses are all painted really bright colors and the effect is incredible.
Then I went to the waterfront, which was really beautiful today. I passed by the huge ferris wheel, which is called the “Wheel of Excellence” (I find this a hysterical name for a ferris wheel).
Then I checked out the Aquarium that the boys had already visited before I got here.
I think my favorite part was the shark section, not just because I love sharks but because there were all these save the shark posters, one of which had a picture of a chair sort of popping out of the ocean and it said “Last year, 652 people were killed be chairs. 4 people by sharks.” I thought that was kind of hilarious and I want to know more about how all these people are dying from run-ins with chairs. The Spider crabs were huge and completely terrifying and I think I’m going to have nightmares about them.
I also learned about the existence of the “Dwarf Minke Whale,” which I think is a really good name for a whale. Then I went to the shops at Victoria Wharf to pick up a few things, and was completely overwhelmed by the experience (that place is HUGE) and now am happy to be back home taking it easy for the rest of the day!
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