Second part of the Safari

The Safari was cold, even when the sun came out. That did not change the awesomeness of the experience. It was not quite this, but we did see lots of great stuff. We encountered an entire herd of Water Buffalo.

This is not zoomed in.

Hippo

We stopped and had some coffee at a little observatory where a hippo had staked out his claim. We say him squaring up against another hippo encroaching on his space, but the small one backed down before there was a fight. Interestingly, in Afirkaans the Hippopotamus is 'seacow.' Sea Cow for us means manatee- and of course in latin, hippopotamus is literally 'river horse.'

The crew and the truck.

We were SO cold, so we were four deep for warmth.

At some point, someone hid an ICE in the truck. I found it and had to chug.

You can NOT get Malaria at Kruger in June (Day 8)

We got up at 5AM, well before the sun, and loaded up into a big open-air truck. There were 10 of us, and it was FREEZING. I went pretty out of the way to get some anti-malarial. I took it before I went, but I can promise you, in the winter there are NO mosquitoes in the Limpopo province. This is the sun rising over Kruger park.



The first thing we saw was elephants. They were my favorite.



Giraffes are weird.



This picture of water buffaloes illustrates the difference between safari and zoo.

We felt like it was Jurassic park. You are very much a visitor in their turf at Kruger. The guy guiding us had a ton of great info, mainly when to switch off the car and sit as opposed to book it out of there. If we had taken the Prius in there- which runs in stealth mode anyway- we may not have had as safe or enjoyable (though much warmer) experience.

On to Kruger (Day 7)

June 24. We spent the whole next day driving up to Kruger. It marked one month since I had started working at ODAC. The National park is in the Limpopo province to the Northeast of the country. With Cape Town and the Joburg metroplex, I had spent the entire time in urban parts of South Africa. It took us about 5 hours, and we got to Marloth park around sunset. Marloth is a reserve where people live that is just next to Kruger. This photo is of Kruger Inn backpackers. It was like when you go to Disney World and they attempt to make things look rustic, except this was the real version of that. Right when we drove in, there was a warthog crossing the road.

On the drive we listened to the broadcast of the third Group D games, which was done by switching from one park to the other. It was actual very well done, and the accents required some concentration.

There was one bar/restaurant, where everyone in the area went to eat and watched Slovakia-Italy (SUCK IT AZZURI) and New Zealand-Paraguay. I Iced Tyler by swapping his white wine with ICE.
If you look into the center of the photo you can see Zebras, which were in our way as we were driving to the backpackers.

At the backpackers, they informed us that there were animals around, so walking at night was not safe. They also told us to ignore the lion if it starts roaring and sounds close. Yeah, like THAT was possible.

The Afterglow

It is a bit hard to describe the events after we left the stadium. The Algerians were shaking our hands and congratulating us. There was drumming and singing just outside of the gates. We stopped and scarfed some pizza then went to a bar that had outdoor viewing of both of the late games. The bar was populated by people in ridiculous USA stuff and pairs of cute promoters in costumes selling drinks. We were so exhausted mentally and physically but bouyed by our pride and happiness that we kept on partying like patriotic zombies. None of this seemed strange. This picture is of Andy and Captain America hitting on the girls selling shots.
When for 12 hours you only see people in variations of the same costumes it actually becomes normal.
And I iced Scott right before we headed home.
Tyler had stopped drinking during the game, so he drove back.

We had a nightcap at the Thatchery, but the Argentines and Mexicans at the bar could not understand why we were not more rowdy. I pride myself on my festivity endurance, but I maxed out on that day.


Oh and here is another awesome US Soccer video by Weezer.

The Celebration

Many Americans were packed into bars around the world. It was early in the states. They responded in a very rational honest way: By going absolutely insane. If you were not one of these people you may ask yourself 'Why would people react like this?' The correct answer is that it was absolutely f*cking incredible. It is much clearer in retrospect, of course, as this video demonstrates.

However I was not in one of those places. I was at the stadium in Pretoria about 30 rows back. There were 34,000 people there. There was no replay or good camera angles. The following is a rough approximation of my stream-of-thought from the beginning of stoppage time to the end:

[You have to be f'ing kidding me...our defense is so bad...how can they be strik---GREAT SAVE Timmy--Bunch of whiners laying down complaining--whoah Timmy thats a quick toss dont rush it too....Landon! holy crap counter this is awesome pass off class act jozy control you have to finish better than youve been- beautiful- DAMMIT- Wa-GOOALL!!! AAAHHHHAHHAHHA. Allowed? YES! WE WON WE WON WE WON {30 seconds} yeah thats right get sent off Algerian dude suck it end in shame {...} oh man a corner kick, boys keep your head in the game...GREAT CLEARANCE...BLOW THE F-ING WHISTLE ITS BEEN 6 HOURS OF INJURY TIME...GAME OVER!!!]
The celebration of the goal is certainly awesome. The goal is nominated for an espy for the moment of the year {vote for it}. We were crying and cheering when Landon scored. We were singing and dancing at the end of the game. Then they showed that England had beated Slovenia by one goal to nil. And we celebrated again. We won the group. Literally 5 minutes earlier we had been teetering on the edge.
This was 5 minutes or so after the game.
We stayed in the stadium for quite some time. The Fifa officials were not hurrying us out. This is from the celebration. Pictures 18, 19, and 21 are me, Andy, and Tyler. Andy's 'We have no exit strategy' sign was quite popular.

I could have boarded a homebound plane immediately after this and been totally satisfied with every penny and every moment I have spent on this trip.

For all those of you jealous of me being at the stadium: You should be. It was the best thing that I have ever been a part of in my entire life. Sure I will get married and have a kid or two some day. Until then, June 23d, 2010 will take it.

The Game

I have no pictures suitable for the actual game. I was too busy being terrified. I was so angry after a blown offsides call disallowed Clint Dempsey's goal. There was a fair amount of profanity from Andy and I on behalf of our fellow Texan. Close attempts at both ends and some brilliant saves by Timmy.

However some context is necessary for those of you not following at home. Slovenia beat Algeria in the first round. The English tied the Algerians second round in a goalless draw. So Slovenia was at the top of the table with 4 points. We were ahead of the Crumpet-eaters on goals scored, since they had scored one and we had scored three. The Algerians were last. We needed to win to advance. We wanted the English to win to displace the Slovenes- guaranteed first with a win, but had to hope that the English did not score more goals than us (because their goal differential would be considered as the first tie-breaker).

We did not concede an early goal, so at least we had that going for us. But as halftime ended we were nervous. Then the second half started fast, but slowed down. at 75 minutes, we were on our feet (in SA, they yell at you if you stand. We didn't care). Without a miracle happening, we were going home after the group stage for the second world cup in a row. After a public had begun to take notice of our team and we had built a narrative to entice the nation, we were headed home after a dismal performance against a team that most Americans couldn't point out on a map (a low standard, granted). The 4 came up indicating extra time after 90 played. We put our arms around each other. 4 minutes for a miracle.

Then this happened. (It is better in Spanish).

Tim Howard distributed the ball with an incredibly accurate throw. We say Jozy Landon and Clint all sprint down the right. Donovan controlled the bounce and distributed it to Jozy. A hard cross that Clint redirected goalward caused the ball to break free from the otherwise incredible Algerian keeper. The ball rolled back and with a clinical finish Landon Donovan scored the most important goal in US Soccer history.

This photo album actually tells the story well.

The Stadium

With elevated spirit and BAC, we entered the stadium. We took our obligatory shot in front of the stadium. You can see the cape that I purchased for the USA Trinidad and Tobago qualifier I attended in Nashville. It is actually a flag like the ones people fly for holidays such as easter or thanksgiving, except obviously this is for patriotic ones. I found it hilarious since, of course, we already have a flag to fly on patriotic holidays. The American flag.
US fans sought us out to take pictures.
I edited this picture too. Vuvuzelas, Mohawks, it was a good group. However, the Algerian main fan section was right in front of us. They were passionate but respectful fans. More on that later.
And this picture just before the national anthem is one of my favorites. Landon is on the far left and Timmy right next to him. Somewhere there is a picture from the South Africans just in front of us of the four of us with our hands over our hearts singing the national anthem as loudly as possible. South Africans are fairly interested in that, since their 5 language anthem is a particular point of pride. There are no vuvuzelas used during any anthem.

Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.