June 10th arrived, the last day of the program and the excitement of the Bing Farewell dinner at Addis in Cape is in the air. Everyone is looking forward to the Ethiopian food and ambiance, a super end to the 11 weeks in Cape Town for the Stanford Spring Quarter students. Some lovely photos tell the story of the evening.
The whole of South Africa has been awash with flags; on cars, windows, walls, wherever. All the different countries, on sale at traffic lights from street vendors and at most shops - it's the rage. I bought one US and one SA flag and drove to Welcome Glen to visit Nan and Daniel feeling proudly SA and US. On my way home, the US flag flew off it's holder - not even an hour old!
I'm not all that impressed with vuvuzelas, but it seems I'm in the minority on that score. As their populararity increases, we're bombarded with ear splitting eruptions at all times of the day and night, whether there's a soccer game on or not!
But, if that's what makes Bafana Bafana (ranked 80) play like they did against Mexico (ranked 16) in their 1-1 draw, roll on vuvuzelas! What an exciting game - the opening South African goal such a winner from Siphiwe Tshabalala, later named man of the match. How terrific to be the first to score, and how nearly that was the one and only. But Mexico, deservedly, retaliated, 11 minutes from the end, with their own excellent shot straight past Bafana's keeper.
That was Friday. Saturday saw us meeting up with an old Kent school friend of Tim's, John Watkins, and his partner and son to watch the US play England. Disappointingly, England scored in the fourth minute and we thought the US was in for a drilling. How jubilant we felt in this tightly marked game when the US scored the equaliser. We watched on a huge screen in a bar/restaurant called Arnolds in Kloof Street.
I'm hooked on soccer and can't wait to follow the matches.
No comments:
Post a Comment