The World Cup is Over! And Now it's Time to do other things! Huzzah!!!

Look, don't get me wrong. I really loved the World Cup. If any of you have a chance to get to the World Cup or the Olympics (summer or winter), please do. It is a once in a lifetime experience. Or if you're my friend Molly a 5-times in a life experience and adding! With that said, I am now applying for Brazil in 2014. Doesn't matter what company I'm working for (Nielsen, of course, Scott), I am heading there. Man I'm addicted to soccer now. Such a wonderful game.

Ok, updates:
1. It's been way too long. Yes, yes, I know. You know when you get involved with work and all, it's tough to update a blog. Unless that's your fulltime job. Hmmm, thoughts for Brazil already. I started writing this posting on Monday. And now, here we are - Thursday. Time flies, Mary.
2. They want me to stay here for a little bit longer. So, indeed I will - 6 months is turning into 12. Woo, more South Africa! More pictures! No seriously, work has been going well and so I'm going to stay for a bit longer.
3. I'm heading to Tahiti. That's right - Tahiti. When, you ask? Next week in fact. Of course, we have to travel to see Max's new product. So here's my crazy schedule for the flight over to Tahiti (because i know you want to know)
- Johannesburg to Perth leaving Tuesday, arriving Wednesday.
- Perth to Auckland leaving Wednesday, arriving Thursday.
- Auckland to Papeete leaving Thursday, arriving Wednesday. Bwah? That's right. Crazy, eh?!
Oh and? I've been wanting to go to New Zealand for years. Decades even. And now, I'm going - for all of 5 hours. Whoopee! Max, to let you know, we're heading to Auckland and New Zealand again, come hell or high water (Texas saying for all you non-Texans).

Ok you want pictures? We'll give you pictures. And a free bumper. Oh wait, that's Steve Jobs. By the way, has a company screwed up so much as Apple has done this year? Contest time!!!!! Give me a company that has screwed up more than Apple this year. Difficulty - Nielsen doesn't count. Neither does Blockbuster.

So yes, I went with Annie to the Rhino and Lion park last week. Was freaking awesome. Just wonderful. OMG, all sorts of wild animals. Here's some pictures. I'm going to hold out the better ones for later because it forces me to write more and you, dear reader (Mary), to read more.

USA - Ghana

Ok, I told you more pics would be coming today. So the USA - Ghana game. our last game in South Africa. It was a hard fought game and I'm proud of our boys. I didn't like the fact that the Ghana players were diving and flopping at the end, going down with fake injuries. I really didn't like the fact that the England fans (and there were many because they foolishly thought they were going to be seeded at the game we were at instead) all rooted for Ghana. I was very delighted that England lost the next day. Sorry Dan, but it's true.

So there is one cool thing about the vuvuzelas. The crowd can get into it when they're all blowing at the same time. Not continuous, but it sounds like short blasts, like a train going through the stadium. It sounds actually pretty cool, much better than the random vuvus going off in the crowd. Again, you really get used to them, I just hope you won't see them at football games in America this fall (you will, I guarantee it)

Anyway picture time. Again as with the USA - Algeria game, i won't include pictures of the game because you've seen them in previous postings. If you do want to see them, I have some - nothing exciting like a goal. Prior to the game, we went to Sun City, an old casino that had been around since Apartheid. Well before the end of it in fact. There was an international ban at one time for artists not to play there, but Queen did in 1982 and that caused quite a stir. The place was starting to show it's age, although Lost City looked pretty neat. We couldn't get to it though because we didn't have a reservation at the hotel.

Afterwards, we went to the stadium and met up at this butchery / braai / bar in the middle of a dusty town called Phokeng. Way off the beaten path, yet half a mile from the stadium (tells you where exactly Rustenberg is). Pictures this time with commentary, enjoy!!


Here is Molly and Theresa waiting for the Sun City Tram to take us to the main center.

Ok, halftime? Uruguay just scored an equalizer against Holland. You know I do wish well for the Netherlands, I just wish they didn't karate chop everyone. That's all. Also? The German coach needs to quit picking his nose on TV. Leave that to the locker room.


So here's the mountains surrounding Sun City. Not sure what they're called. Hang on. Pilanesburg Mountain Range. Hey there's a reserve there. So close to elephants! Damn. Ok, I am really going to push for going to a game reserve on Saturday.

And here's the Sun City Sky Train! Now it looks all modern and all (I guess) but it's actually this train pulled by a rope they reel in underground. No seriously - a rope is pulling it back and forth.

This is the inside of Sun City. Not too shabby.


And the oustide of Sun City. The bridge you see people on moves and shakes. I'd say it's about a 2.6 on the Richter scale.

That's Lost City. It looked much better than Sun City. Next time I'll find a way to stay there.


Back into Sun City we go! Not too shabby of carvings.


And now we're in Phokeng! Both of these ladies were fabulous. If you're ever in Dar-es-Salaam, the lady on the right has a bar. Molly I think has the address or the name of it at least.


This is the outside of the butchery where you could purchase fresh meat.


More pictures of the outside. See all the England fans? I didn't wind up going to Bloemfontein - we got back from Rustenburg at 3:30 in the morning and I knew I wasn't going to make it. At least I was able to sell my ticket to England - Germany for face value. Had I had a little more energy, I would have liked to have seen it. Molly, Teresa, and I did wind up going to a viewing area in Joburg the next day and watched it. It was glorious seeing all of the England fans cry; it actually made me feel better about our loss.


So this is a braai. It's a barbecue. Yes, I realize that. But they say it's so much better - not sure how, but oooookay. What was great was that you purchased your meats and then cooked it yourself. Nobody else cooked it for you. So that was fun.



And here's the meat! Mmmmmmmmm, meat.

More pictures of the outside area. Pretty cool, eh?



Here's the view down the street. We had to sneak past the police to get in, telling them we were meeting "friends". They bought it, didn't even have to bust out the bribe! Oh that's another conversation - how corrupt are the police and how I have broken many, many traffic rules so far.
Ever run a red light? Ever run it on purpose? How about multiple red lights? Wheeeee!


We're just about ready to go.

A full moon over Phokeng heading to the stadium.

These guys were all ready to go!

USA - Algeria! Finally, I know!

Ok, I know the game was two weeks ago. But while this was happening and this was happening and oh yes this was happening, this was the reaction at the game.

In essence, it was sheer pandemonium. I've been to quite a few sporting events in my life, but never have I seen such a crowd go into mass chaos after a winning goal. So exuberant! I hugged and hi-fived so many people, it was crazy. Random strangers, but here we were sitting in our little section with throngs of Algerian fans around us and we went absolutely batshit insane.

I didn't take pictures of the second half - too tense! The pictures of the first half came out well, but it's more of the same below. So I will show you pictures from the pregame festivities.

But before we get to that, I have to say, I really am falling in love with soccer. Sure I can do without the fake injuries (see the Ghana player and that atrocious I'm so hurt I need a stretcher, oh wait I'm ready to play again injury), I can do without the vuvuzelas (they're ok, I just hope they're a fad), and I can definitely do without the crappy Budweiser at the games (seriously FIFA, you couldn't get Windhoek to be the official beer?), but it really is a beautiful sport. And yes, I'm going to play on what Bill Simmons said in his "20 Questions about the World Cup article", but how could you not like a sport that plays 2 45-minute halves, with a 10 minute halftime, that doesn't stop the clock. 2 hours and your out of there. How simple is that?! Part of the reason I don't get much into college football anymore is because the games are 4 hours! Even an American League game can run up 3+ hours easily. In today's society when we are so ADD all the time now, a simple 2 hour game seems wonderful.

That and the fanfare - the people, the crowds from all countries rooting on one team, it's amazing. I say in 2014, we head to Brazil. I know I want to!

Ok here's the pics. Oh yes, apparently Deadspin was at the same event I was.