Epic

We've renamed ourselves the "Traveling Trio of Love."

"I want to meet a bird that's scared of heights. Like a parrot." - Sean

"I have a Doctorate in String Theory." - Gogo

"I think when I'm drunk, I'm more useful. To me. And, probably less useful to everybody else." - Gogo

Joburg!

- We hired a car and got pulled over by a cop. Apparently, Paul was going 120 in an 80 zone and this is not allowed. Lucky for us, we were able to pay our fine, i.e. bribe him, for only 7 dollars and were on our way after five minutes.

- Tour operators and visitors to Africa are focused particularly on the Big Five: leopard, lion, elephant, cape buffalo and rhino. They carve wood curios of them, they talk about them, they promise you'll see them on their tours, etc... Those are the elusive big creatures that people want to see. So, we caught the Big Five Fever and recently hired a car and did a self drive safari day through the Kruger National Park. The trip was amazing, and one of us was fortunate enough to see the entire Big Five by 8:42am. I will not name names so as to not offend the others in this safari adventure, but suffice to say that the lucky individual has significant training in the art of snorkeling.

- Whilst celebrating the USA qualifying for the second round, I was befriended by two African males, one whom was dancing randomly next to me and one who was an armed special tactics officer at the stadium entrance. Both got my phone number, promised to call and hang out and celebrate with me. Neither did. The burn of rejection stings strong.

- I lost my only sweater. Or, rather, some girl that I lent it to lost it. Stories vary on the details of this incident, but, overall, we all agree that sometimes chivalry sucks.

- We're in Joburg again, paying too much money to stay in a circular room with 20 people. We have the Ghana match tonight, then fly to Cape Town tomorrow for more adventures. I've booked a white shark diving excursion and we are eagerly anticipating this event, except Sean, who's shitting his pants. High five.

- I decided to go local the other day and indulged in some South African delicacies. This included a 500g steak and some local starch thing called pup. Pup is awesome and I finished the steak. It was only the next day when I was feeling lazy that we calculated the steak was about one pound. Being cultural is tough work.

- Paul's nickname, as you know, is now Gogo, meaning Grandma in Zulu. This fits as he is a bit stressed and disproportionately more responsible than either Sean or myself. Whilst standing in line to get on a bus the other day, a local guy told us that a better name would be "Dooas", which he informed us means "jackass" or pack mule. This made us laugh immensely. Still later, someone else told us that this name is slang for "pussy". This made us laugh immensely.

- I bought a scarf and have fallen in love with it. I sleep with her. She keeps me warm. Henceforth, in my life, there shall only be the time before the scarf, and the time after. A new day dawns and hearts are warm.

- Life is good and all is well. We're laughing often, meeting great people, and enjoying our time in South Africa.

Ayoba

Paul and I were given Zulu names yesterday. I am Jabu (pronounced Ja-boo) which means happiness. Paul is Gogo which means Grandma.

The other day a man was offering us tickets to an Argentina match and unintentionally offended Paul by telling him, "You look a little different."

Freezing

This country has taken up a ban against heat for some and I am sad to inform that even Mother Nature has joined in the strike. It has been near freezing in Johannesburg for roughly a week now which is far colder than I planned that it would be. Other than the temperature, things are awesome here and the culture is quite different than in the States: smoking is permitted even where it is not permitted, hot water is generally cold and cold water is generally cold, and they drive on the wrong side. We have now arrived in Johannesburg and surprisingly located in a nice enough area to walk on the streets, sparingly at night. The hostel unfortunately does not mirror its affluent neighborhood and is cold, like everywhere else, and not so clean. We all should go to the clinic after two nights in those beds.

We ventured to the Apartheid Museum yesterday and were overwhelmed with the amount of detailed information that was provided. There was a bonus Mandela exhibit which was approximated at 15mins time to go through. I was there for at least an hour and still didn't read everything available. We then went to the neighboring casino which was like being in Vegas. Paul and Pan decided to donate their R100 each to the house via the Blackjack Foundation, which I thought was very altruistic of them.

Today, USA v Slovenia, is the second match that we will have attended and, like all group games, will have a great impact on how the rest of our trip plays out. So make sure that you are awake at 300pm GMT and cheering the USA on to victory. We'll see how the post-match celebration goes.

The BBC & The World Cup

The purpose of this amazing trip has started out with a bang. Watching Bafana Bafana (the South African National Team) in the opening match was an absolute thrill. The entire country is bursting with excitement and pride. It is truely an amazing thing to behold. Plus in the midst of all of this soccer we managed to make friends with some lovely people from the BBC and they put us on the news. Although as far as I can make out only one household we know actually got to see the interview but regardless we had our couple minutes of fame. Another convienent bonus of meeting this great people is they were kind enough to give us a lift out of the mayhem surrounding the stadium after our first US match vs. England. All in all a great group of folks.

We are now spending a couple days inbeween matches exploring the countryside and trying to get up close and personal with some of the wildlife here. It is a bit of challenge to do all these things as there is a constant stream of matches that we want to watch.

All in all the trip is going great, we are meeting some cool and interesting people and seeing incredible things. We will get some photos up here again as soon as possible.

The Triad Unites

Tomorrow, we're flying from Durban to Joburg to pick up Seannery. From there, we're hiring a car, trying not to die exiting Joburg, and then heading to Rustenburg to prepare for the USA molestation of England on June 12.

South Africa is a tart, ancient country wrapped in smiles, multi-cultural splendor, and razor sharp barbed wire.

Bus Hell

We woke up at 5:15am, got dropped off at dodgy internet cafe at 6am, talked to random dudes drinking beers and smoking cigarettes, was supposed to leave at 8am for 12 hour bus ride, learned that 2 buses broke down before we got picked up at 10:30, hung out in bus depot repair place for an hour, got on our third bus, and finally left Cape Town 4 hours late and arrived at our stop at 11pm that night, feeding only on McDonalds and gas station food all day.

Pt. Elizabeth has welcomed us with open arms and beautiful hospitality though, so we're good.