World Cup Draw

As an avid soccer/football fan, needless to say, I’m quite excited that my time in South Africa coincides with this country’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Yesterday the World Cup Draw was held in Cape Town, as I’m sure many of you know. Feeling as though this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that simply I could not miss, I donned my South Africa jersey and decided to brave the crowds and chaos and head out to Long Street to take part in the festivities (and thanks to Wenli and Julia for sticking it out with me!), despite not having the greatest confidence in the South African police force and its ability to manage crowds.

So, anyway, after work we headed directly out to Long Street…along with about 30,000 of our best friends. Though a bit crazy at times, it was really fun to get caught up in all of the excitement. To use South African slang, it was quite “vibey.” Long Street is known as the party street of Cape Town, lined with numerous bars, restaurants, and shops. Oh yeah, and it’s long. Though many of the bars have second story open decks, we had no chance of making it inside anywhere by the time we arrived on the scene, so instead we just kept fighting our way towards the top of the street where they had set up a big stage and huge TV screen. We actually managed to get relatively close, at least close enough to have a decent view and hear everything. Yes, despite the annoying Afrikaner woman wearing a giant orange pumpkin hat with a stem coming out the back that kept poking me in the face, it was a relatively pleasant experience considering the number of people present. Before the draw began, bands were playing and everyone was just dancing in the street. I was really happy to see K’naan (a Somali-born musician that I like), and it turns out one of his songs is the official song of WC 2010. Watching the draw was fun too, except for the fact that South Africa received such a disappointing outcome. The U.S. certainly did alright, but it was way more fun to spend the evening showing my support for South Africa than the U.S., as you can imagine! Following the draw, Freshly Ground (my favorite South African band) played as well. After 5 hours on our feet, we finally decided to call it a night. Everything went very smoothly, raising my faith in South African police security just a little bit and making me even more excited for next summer. All in all it was a fantastic evening and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to participate in the revelry! Ayoba!

Starting at the back end of Long Street, we have our work cut out for us to make it closer to the stage



Well, at least the pumpkin hat wasn't this big (yes, that's a hat)

Looking back at everyone behind us - finally, some progress!

Watching ourselves (well, the crowd) on screen

K'naan singing the official song of WC 2010, "Wavin' Flag" - hence all the waving flags

The crowd went absolutely wild when Madiba came on screen

Charlize Theron wasn't actually that exciting as an MC, but the I guess new ball looks cool

Julia and Wenli with Pearl, a coworker we ran into. Oddly enough, amidst that huge crowd, we still saw 4 separate people we knew. Once again, Cape Town can be a very small town.

Freshly Ground on stage

At one point some people on the street started singing the South African national anthem with a bunch of people on the decks above. This picture obviously doesn't convey much, but it was really fun to see everyone get so excited about the upcoming World Cup. Only 6 more months!