I arrived this morning in Johannesburg or Jo’Burg or JOZI as the locals say a day later than intended. As I was getting off the plane, I came to two realizations: 1. I am in South Africa! I’m in a foreign country and the excitement of that moment consumed me. 2. It was cold as shit in South Africa…so the excitement that consumed me, could very well have been the cool breeze that hit me as I was getting off the plane.
As soon as I got off the plane, you could feel the World Cup excitement, as it was everywhere in the airport signs, “South Africa is Ready for FIFA World Cup 2010” and people getting excited in the airport, fans from all over the world converging to the beautiful country in hopes of World glory…it was exactly what I came to experience.
I found my cousin, who sneaked up from behind as if was getting ready to rob me…but the good news was he found me. We got some lunch at the airport food court. We were sitting down and met this American guy named Jake. His story was that he graduated in December from University of Colorado, Boulder with a Architecture degree and worked for the last six months as a bartender in California (Where he is from) and saved up money to come to South Africa. His adventure was starting in South Africa, but he was planning to go north and explore Africa after the World Cup is over. It was funny because his situation was very similar to mine…except he was a bit younger and I quit my job. Jake was pretty cool, my cousin recommended Jake to stay at the University of Johannesburg residence halls because that is where he stayed the night before.
My cousin and I rented a car to start our trek to Polokwane (Pronounced Polo-kwan-ee), which is in the Limpopo Province, three hours north of Johannesburg for our first match – France vs. Mexico. As we were leaving the airport, you could see more signage that South Africa was SOOOOOO excited and ready for the World Cup. There were flags of the respective participants all along the highways; there was an area that showcased the World Cup Soccer Balls from the last eight or so World Cup tournaments. South Africa was definitely in the spirit of things.
I slept for a good part of the drive, but it was definitely cool to see some of the Country side. So, we got to Polokwane, picked up a couple of Vuvuzelas (which are a must for a game in South Africa apparently) and went to drop off our luggage at the place we were staying for the night. It’s funny because cities like Polokwane were not large enough to house all the fans coming in for the World Cup, so the city arranged for people to be able to stay at people’s homes or “Home Stays.”
So, when we arrived at our “Home Stay” house, the mom greeted us at the door saying “Howzit? Where is yo jacket?” talking to me. They were really great; unfortunately, the room we were staying in was the kid’s room, so the kids were playing Playstation when we arrived, and so unfortunately they got booted! It was an expensive place to stay I thought, at R500 ($66/Night), but they were sweet. We spent our first night in South Africa with the family…they were really sweet and the oldest boy, walked us out and showed us the way to the stadium.
We started making our way to the stadium and came across the “Fan Fest,” which FIFA set up at all stadium locations and throughout South Africa, where people could party and watch the game. When we got there it was just a huge dance party…not a lot of people left, but it was still jamming. We checked it out for a bit and made our way into the stadium.
We walked into our section to realize that one, we are in the French Section, and two, we had AWESOME seats at the corner of the field. We walked to our seats and the guy next to us asked if we were French fans, and we replied, “We are today!” So he asked if we wanted to paint up and so sure enough, he hooked us up with some paint and “Allez Les Bleus!!”
The French fans were awesome, but the Mexican fans were louder. It was a pretty close game, but when the Mexicans scored in the 2nd half, all the Mexican fans started showering one another with beer…glad we were in the French section!! It couldn’t have been a better game to enjoy because the seats were ridiculously close to the field and we had a great view of the game…but all the goals were scored at the opposite end. It was an awesome atmosphere and for our first game, it was pretty memorable…it was awesome to see my cousin painted up too.
I was excited to see the 2010 FIFA World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, who is not a very tall man, but don’t ‘Messi’ with him because he is a bad ass. Polokwane was great again, we got there two hours before the start of the match, so we walked around went to the 7-Eleven (yeah, crazy!) and there was this family that were selling these delicious hotdogs. They smelled and looked so good, that it reminded me of the Sausage Dogs at the Coca Cola 600 Race (Sorry about this year Josh Bartho)...So I had to get one! I was waiting in line and when it was my turn to order, I ordered “One Hotdog, Please” and this lady behind me corrected me saying that they are not called Hotdogs, they are “BOEREWORS DOG,” either way it was deliciousness in my hands! 
So I ate me dog and drank some beer on the way to the game. The game was awesome! Both teams played well and every time I looked at a Greek player’s Jersey, it reminded me of Mike Plagianakos or Maria Stathakis…the only two real Greek people I know. Everyone’s last name had a bunch of O’s, U’s, and S’s…put them all together and you probably get a common Greek name... So the game was awesome, both teams had great representation from their fans, with HUGE Argentina flags and Geek flags waving or bannered from the stadium BUT, the best part of this game were the fans from Argentina. They would not leave after the game was over. They kept hanging out singing songs in glory of Argentina and I got in the middle of the group and started jumping up and down, chanting and singing with them…it wasn’t a hard song to pick up… They seemed like they would match up well against Brazil! 
