Work and Soccer

It is currently 3:24 AM in Cape Town.

The United States are playing against the Czech Republic. I am following it on the matchtracker in my hotel lobby. The Hotel internet is cheap, but it is pay-per-data rather than the internet cafe which is across the street, which is pay-per-time. The cafe's internet was broken yesterday, so I will have to wait until it is fixed to upload pictures and fix the ones on the previous post.

Whilst on the topic of soccer, here are two links that are awesome.

The first is more helpful for people who know a bit about soccer to recognize recognizable players:

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/7529137/19953307

The second is designed for unknowns. Try to read the descriptions and guess the team before scrolling down to see. I think Uruguay, New Zealand, and North Korea are my favorite descriptions:

http://theunlikelyfan.blogspot.com/2010/05/disclaimer-im-new-to-this-site-and-im.html

I have finished my second day of work at the Open Democracy Advice Centre. It is a small office inside the 'Democracy Center' building at 6 Spin Street. The building houses several non-profits related to the promotion of a less-corrupt democracy throughout Africa, but in South Africa specifically. That address also exists in a neighborhood on the other side of the mountain. The Rosebank address is one that appears when you Google search. It is also near the Centre for Conflict Resolution and other NGOs that are associated with the University of Cape Town. So it would be quite understandable if one were to take a cab on the first morning one is expected to be there and arrive at the small dwelling on a dodgy road called 6 Spin Street. One would then have the benefit of riding back into Cape Town in bumper-to-bumper traffic sheepishly apologizing to one's cab driver. Not that I did anything of the sort.

I walked to and from work today through the Company Gardens. The original park of Cecil Rhodes and crew is a rectangular public park abutting Parliament. I will be able to walk through these Gardens every day, not unlike my trips to and from school through Buen Retiro when I lived in Madrid.

The people at ODAC are very kind. They are a crew of various ages and ethnic groups. There is lots of laughter. I particularly found the impression of the 'afropessimism' in the international media hilarious. With a perfect BBC impersonation: "Here in Cape Town, where they have built this massive stadium, is little Lucy, a victim of child sex-trafficking. Who has HIV/AIDS. And is addicted to cocaine. And cannot walk." The description by one of them, who had just returned from Kinshasha, of her 'trip to Africa' was particularly funny to me, only because the explanation was not intended to be or received as ironic.

My work is pretty interesting. So far it is like a combination of LegReg and LRW, which I realize sounds like a particularly grotesque part of hell, but with a general purpose, ready access to supervisors, bad guys, and none of the circumstantial misery associated with those two slow-motion train wrecks of 1L. (I apologize to my non-law school readers, who will have no idea what I just said. It can only be understood through experience; don't envy the knowledge).