This morning we met back up with Brendan and Linzay and drove out to a Lion Park just outside PE. We saw lots of kudu, zebra, giraffe and elephants in the park and then went to the lion conservation area and spotted the white lions.

After the driving part we stopped to walk through where the younger animals are kept and saw the 13-month old lions and Siberian tigers. You could pay extra to get in the caged area with the lions and tigers to pet them, but they were a little large and before you could go in the guide had to enter to “see if they were feeling too naughty for guests or not.”

Wonder if they're feeling naughty today??

We decided not to chance it and go play with the baby lions instead. They are three months old and as playful and cute as can be!

The adorable baby lions

Playing with Simba

After the morning with the lions we decided we needed an afternoon at the beach! Kyle has been dying to learn how to surf and even though the water is ice-cold, Ryan decided to give him a lesson in the Indian Ocean – which is conveniently just across the street from his flat. The surf lesson went pretty well, but surfing wasn’t as easy as originally thought.  With experience in a wide array of board sports, I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a chore to learn.  Well, there are a few more moving parts to getting up on a surfboard than with the others I’m familiar with (snowboard, wakeboard, skate board).  After a while, and many attempts, there were a few short moments of glory on the tiny rollers of PE.  It was an awesome experience, reading the direction of the waves, and just enjoying the sheer power and beauty the ocean has to offer.  I’m beginning to understand now why people can be so in to the ever-challenging sport.

Kyle surfing

Watching the sunset after surfing

Once the sun began to set, and Kyle and Ryan realized how cold the water they were swimming in actually was, we went back to shower and get ready for the pizza party tonight. We went to Ryan’s other married friends’ house tonight. For those in Aspen, it was their Tim and Rebecca’s, whose wedding Ryan stayed in South Africa for last season because he was the best man. It was great to meet them and to hang out with another married couple for a night. We had a make-your-own-pizza dinner where everyone brought toppings and we each made our own dinner.  Ryan made us all muffins for dessert. We played UFC tournament style on the Xbox while we ate and visited and then headed out to the bar. It was a short trip to the bar since we were all pretty tired and we have an early flight to catch tomorrow. But of course we ended up talking at the flat for most of the night; Ryan and Nathan even stayed up until we left and made us a parting DVD of music so we won’t forget what they’ve introduced us to.  Thanks a million guys! See you in a couple of days in Jozi for the FINAL!

So long, Port Elizabeth!

After our day of rest yesterday we were recharged for the day ahead. We said goodbye to our wonderful hosts, thanks again Keith and Michelle, and flew from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. Ryan had flown back yesterday (the reason we had a chance to rest) and picked us up at the airport just in time for lunch. We went to John Dory’s for their advertised half-price sushi. The waitress heard our accents and tried to hold out on the half-price part, but thanks to Ryan we got it anyway. It always helps to have local friends! Somehow Laura was still tired from the past few days and ended up napping through a lot of the rest of the day while Kyle blogged. At 8pm we got ready for dinner and went to Old Austria, the restaurant where Ryan waits tables. It was delicious! We had a great bottle of wine and tried as much of the menu as we could. For appetizers we had springbok (a kind of local antelope) carpaccio, beef consommé and crumbed camembert cheese, all sharing of course and then for the main course the boys had filets and Laura had the prawns. We met just about everyone that works at the restaurant, including the owner, and shared a few recipes with him as well. He brought us over some Don Pedro’s for dessert which are a local treat that can best be described as grown-up milkshakes. You basically pick the liqueur that gets added into the ice cream. They were great! We then took a tour of the kitchen and talked more with the owner before heading back to the flat for a low-key evening. There was no World Cup game tonight so staying in was a good option to gear up for tomorrow. It’s our last night in PE and we plan on living it up!

We woke up at noon, after staying out so late last night in Cape Town. As exhausted as we were, we had an important errand today. It’s been 2 months since we left home and that means it was time for real life to catch up to with the vacation time. Michelle made us an appointment and we headed off to get haircuts at 1:30pm. We  got a little lost, but made it there in one piece. It’s a little hard to get anywhere when driving on the right side of the road, on the right side of the car and the directions sound something like this, “turn left at the stop street and then go through two red robots, then take the next right at the stop street and …” Yah, their lingo is a little different than we are used to. For those non-Saffers out there, “red robots” are stop-lights and “stop streets” are stop signs. After weeks of hearing it, it is still confusing and hearing them say “robots” is still funny every time.

Well we both got our hair done and both felt a little butchered by the time we got out of there. Laura has some new fringe (bangs) and a shorter do and Kyle’s definitely is shorter as well. We’re not sure how we feel about the new styles yet, but I guess that’s what we get for getting our hair done out of town! Once we were done we realized we hadn’t eaten since the breakfast buffet at the Westin Grand this morning so we stopped over and grabbed some spicy Thai food and biltong to take back to the house. The rest of the night was very mellow for a change. We napped and watched the Germany v Spain game and decided to call it a night relatively early. We definitely have some sleep to catch up on!

Sorry, no pictures today. We are too tired to do anything but sleep!

We slept in a little bit this morning, but waking up to say the words, “Game Day” always provides the spark that we need to get moving.  The nostalgic feelings of those words invoke priceless memories from many OU football game days.  We can’t wait to make a couple of those games this year.

Anyway, after getting around and having a bit of cereal and yogurt, we packed up enough clothes to survive the next couple of days with friends in downtown Cape Town – we learned our lesson last time that we never know when we’ll get to come back to our stuff.  We headed back to the hotel around 11 to meet up with the rest of our crew.  Hungry by the time we got there, Miki’s mother, Roxy invited us up to her hotel for lunch.  We all ordered, and as the food is being delivered, in walks the main man, Danny Jordaan, the Chairman of the Board who brought both The Confederations Cup and the World Cup to South Africa.  The guy is a rock star.  We never expected, or even could have guessed that we would end up in a small audience with Mr. Jordaan, let alone having lunch in his hotel room!  It was yet another pleasant surprise during our World Cup experience in South Africa.  We can’t say thanks enough to our amazing hosts.  Thanks all!

Tonight we met up with another kin of the FIFA family, Jorge, who hooked us up with 2 seats to sit with him for the Netherlands v. Uruguay semi-final game.  With the afternoon quickly chewed up socializing and figuring out logistics, we met up with Jorge and headed for the official Fan Walk that goes from the hotel all the way out to the stadium.  It definitely adds an excitement element to the experience, as the fans are all out in their teams’ respective colors, chanting and blowing their vuvuzelas to show their support.  At the end of the fan walk, we met up with our Oklahoma buddies again to finish up the walk and head into the stadium grounds to enjoy some Budweiser before taking our seats.

The Oklahoma Crew

We made it into the game with about 30 minutes early, giving us time to grab some drinks and get Laura a World Cup hoodie, as it had gotten very cold before game time tonight.

Cheering on Holland

The crowd tonight is very pro-Holland, since it was Uruguay who knocked out the final African team, Ghana, by a very controversial hand-ball that resulted in a red card and a penalty kick that was pinged off of the cross bar.  The Ghana side went on to lose in a shoot out.  Suarez, the hand-ball perpetrator quickly became one of the most hated men in all of Africa, and inspiration for a locally designed hate-tee that will definitely be sported when we get home.

Netherlands v Uruguay

The game was amazing, being decided in the favor of Netherlands 3 to Uruguay’s 2.  With a World Cup Final berth on the line and an anxious crowd feverishly cheering for Netherlands, the excitement level was at a tournament high.  We knew from the energy at the game that tonight would definitely be a great night out; turns out we were right.  Post-game, we headed up to the VIP area in the stadium to meet up with the rest of our crew.  Before going in for drinks, we actually had our own small football kick-around.  How many times will I ever get to play a little small-sided game inside the World Cup, after a semifinal? Most likely, never again.  After exhausting our football skills, we went inside to enjoy a new favorite drink introduced to us by Ryan: double brandy and coke.  The area shut down after about 30 minutes, so we polished off our round and headed out.

Leaving the game, we met back up with Dylan and Thomas and headed out in Cape Town.  While our friends were working some angles at our preferred spot, Fiction, we made our way down with Sean to the Mexican Shabeen.  We head up a walkway, turns out this Mexican Shabeen is basically an empty parking garage.  Inside, we would find a dance floor, some picnic tables, a large wrap around bar, and a mechanical bull to complete the setup.  As we were introduced to one of Sean’s local friends as Americans, he quickly asserted that we must be able to ride that bull.  So, after an obligatory shot of Jagermeister for courage, we both took turns trying our hand at making it 8 seconds.  We actually both made it and Thomas has the video to prove it.

Ride That Bull!

In Cape Town with Dylan and Thomas

Come to find out the reason our friends split away from us was to work the doormen at Fiction and get us all in. Once it was clear, Ryan met us at the Shabeen and we all joined the Fiction party. The whole gang was there along with a few friends we had only heard about, including the infamous “Xpensive Dranks.” Yep, that’s the name he goes by – another DJ alias we assume? We stayed until things closed down at Fiction and said goodnight to our Oklahoma friends, 4am seemed to be a little late for their father-son vacation. We thought about going home as well and then were told had to stay for the super secret underground after party. We hopped in a cab and ended up at the Adidas 3 Stories Private Party.

Adidas Three Stories After Party

Our new friends were taking turns being dj and there was an indoor skate park…which made for a makeshift slide and provided plenty of entertainment. Believe it or not we left in the first cab and made it back to the hotel in time to catch the breakfast buffet at the hotel. As we were finishing breakfast we were joined by Ryan and Nathan and decided the best bet was to get our car and head back to Dubanville for a nap. It turned out to be the best choice because the drive home was hands down the most beautiful sunrise either of us has ever seen. We got home around 7:45am and decided a nap was in order before we started the new day. I think we’ll be relaxing a bit after last night!

They say there's nothing like an African sunset...but we're partial to the sunrises!

Today we woke up (again) in downtown Cape Town at the Westin Grand Hotel, the FIFA headquarters during the World Cup.  It’s been amazing to meet up with our South African friends who happen to have some amazing connections.  We woke up with a set first destination for lunch: Royale on Long Street for burgers and milk shakes.  A short drive from the hotel, we made it for lunch around 12:45 and snatched up one of the last 2 tables inside.  It was only about 2 minutes after making our order that Laura shouted, “Kyle, it’s Dylan!” I turned around to run in to some of Mikey’s good friends from Oklahoma, who coincidentally had wandered into the same restaurant as us on their first day in Cape Town.  We caught up with Dylan and Randy Hogan, as well as Greg, Thomas, and David Love.  We had an interesting conversation at the beginning of our trip, wondering if we would have any “chance” meetings with some people we know from home. Well, it happened in Africa. How amazing!  It was very nice to see some familiar Okie faces and we exchanged South African numbers and made plans to meet up some time before they head out.  After lunch we went to an awesome underground shop, Shelf Life, where we got a couple of T-shirts, since we never know when we’ll get a chance to shower and put on fresh clothes.  It was only a few steps outside of the shop that Laura was wearing her new purchase – she has still been wearing her USA jersey since we haven’t been back to our luggage in Durbanville. We have definitely learned not to take showers, fresh clothes, meals and sleep for granted here in South Africa – somehow the party never seems to stop long enough to catch up on the daily essentials. However, in the process of changing, we almost lost our blue USA jersey (a near tragedy), that was dropped in the shirt swap operation.  We were gone from the corner where the shirt was changed, but miraculously after about 20 minutes later, even after the street sweepers had been by, there, lying on the ground, was the jersey.  Whew! We’re not sure if they just don’t like the jersey so much that they left it there, or were just being nice, thinking that someone would surely come back for it.  Either way, we’re happy to have it back.

Much of the afternoon had been quickly consumed, and with plans to cook dinner tonight for the Pettys and a few others, we made a plan for the evening.  Kyle, Ryan and Laura went towards Durbanville (about a 15 minute drive) grabbed some groceries, dropped Laura off to shower, and then the guys headed to Forries Tavern to have a happy hour drink with Miki, Sean, Nathan and his cousins.  It was a very cool spot, nestled at the foot of a mountain among many old trees.  Inside, they had a nice variety of different beers on tap, but holding true to drinking local everywhere we go, we downed a couple Windhoeks and made our way back to Durbanville to get the cooking started.

We got back around 7:30, to find that Laura had taken care of the mis en place – everything just needed to be cooked.  On the menu tonight was a part of the Hungarian cuisine we learned in Budapest.  We’re a little nervous, and don’t have recipes, but we think we can pull it off.  We cooked a Creamy Paprika Chicken with Spaetzle, with side salads and green beans for our hosts – the meal fed about 10 people in total. Although we had a little tragedy in the kitchen (we’re still sorry, Pettys!) dinner turned out great in the end.

With a big game day ahead tomorrow, we (Kyle, Laura, and Ryan) decided to lay low for the rest of the night.  We watched some surfing DVDs, and for once, called it an early night.

We found Zakumi in the lobby this morning!

We are finally getting used to the lack of sleep, and beginning to realize that there is simply no time to sleep because there is way too much fun to be had here in SA! We woke up in the Westin Grand Hotel and decided not to return our rental car just yet. After extending the rental we headed over to Sean’s house to meet the guys for lunch at a healthy fast food place called Kauii that had the best smoothies. We are all starting to feel a little sick, Ryan and Nathan have already had it and Kyle & Laura are both feeling it coming on, so we tried pumping ourselves full of vitamin C to fight off the cold. We blame the vuvuzelas, or as Nathan calls them “TB Rocket Missiles”…they really are the best way to spread a virus.

Sean, Ryan, Nathan, Miki, Kyle & Laura @ Kalk Bay

Lunch got us back on our feet and afterwards, we were met by Miki’s driver, who was assigned to him for the World Cup time in Cape Town. Thanks, FIFA! He drove us out to Kalk Bay because Miki, Nathan and Sean wanted to experience “how excited Kyle gets when he sees new animals” and there are seals in the bay.

Yes, of course we are wearing our USA jerseys...it is the 4th of July!

We grabbed some famous ice cream (Jamie Oliver has his picture outside) and then wandered around the bay until we found a place that would let us have a drink without ordering food. We ended up staying there way later than planned (surprise, surprise). There were some definite cougars that loved Miki and kept wanting pictures with him because “their daughter loved his hair.”  The commotion of the picture taking convinced the nice people at the next table that one of us must be famous. They started talking to us and decided it must be Kyle. They wereconvinced! It was so funny, they really thought Kyle was in a band and they decided the rest of us were his entourage and we were all supposed to be very boisterous and loud to draw attention away from him so he could be secretly famous among us. The best part was when we realized we needed to meet the driver and they were outside as we got into the car with a driver and chased after us screaming, “I knew it! You wouldn’t have a driver if you weren’t famous! Remember us always!”

Look, a battleship!

We continued our journey and went to meet up with Jorge again. Miki and Jorge separated from us and we went to grab dinner for the crew with the driver. He was a local “colored” person (as they say, which basically means they are not black or white, but mixed) and took us to the most dangerous area in Cape Town – Athlon. We went on a specific mission: to get the best Gatsby sandwiches in town. The Gatsby is an impossibly large sandwich and ours were filled with cheese, French fries, lettuce, fried egg and curried lamb. It was a sketchy process as Laura was even told to lay down in the backseat while they guys got out to get the food and not to answer or acknowledge anyone who may have realized she was in the car. Well, the sandwiches were truly amazing and truly ginormous!! I’d say they were close to 2 feet long, and heavy! 7 of us split 3 gatsbys and didn’t come anywhere close to finishing them. The best part, we hear, is the leftovers. Ryan claims they are like a “time machine” and everything in them stays good and gets better the morning after. We’re hoping he’s right because he swears the fries don’t get mushy and we’re a little worried about leaving the fried egg out in a sandwich overnight…

The World's Greatest Gatsby! That is a 1.5 Liter water bottle: Biggest. Sandwich. Ever.

After the gatsbys began to settle, we met up with Miki’s cousins Nikki and Darren and a DJ friend, Nastie Ed, and headed over to Camp’s Bay to a club called Sapphire. When it closed at 2am we went to the beach across the street and debated what to do next. On a thumbs up/thumbs down secret vote we decided the next place was a pizza joint called Dizzy’s. We walked in and immediately tried to get some food for the group, only to find out that the kitchen was closed. We noticed the brick oven was still lit, and though it was 3:30am we told them if they’d leave it on we would make the pizza ourselves. They said there was no more dough and we opted to roll our own. The pizza guy’s response was “how can I say no?” We told them, “you can’t, so we’re going to make our own pizzas and you just relax.” And they let us! It was like a dream come true. Since Ryan and Laura worked together on the mountain, where we had a pizza station, and Kyle worked at Up 4 Pizza this year in Snowmass, we convinced them we were all totally qualified chefs and they had nothing to worry about. With cocktails in hand, went to work!

Rolling our pizza dough

We made 3 amazing pizzas, and even cut one into the shape of Africa. It was enough to feed all of our friends, plus a straggler that kept trying to place orders with us while we were making our pizzas.

"This is Africa"

Everyone enjoying the finished product...notice the straggler on the front right

When Dizzy’s closed around 4:30, half the crew went back home while Kyle, Laura, Ryan, Miki and Jorge headed to Nastie Ed’s house for some wine and to chill out. His house was unbelievable! Sandwiched right between Table Mountain and Camp’s Bay, sporting a 3 level deck with a mountain view on one side, and the serene sounds of the ocean and amazing view of the surf on the other, the house unbelievable. What a location! On top of it all, Nastie has a great wine cellar and entertained us until we couldn’t stay awake any longer. It was another long night of course and we barely made it home as the sun was rising.

FIFA 2010 World Cup

It was a painfully early morning because our second World Cup game is back in Cape Town this afternoon at 4pm. The afternoon kickoff means we have to leave PE at 5am for the 7 hour drive. Luckily Ryan and Nathan stayed up until we left this morning making us a road-trip goodie bag which included a bag of naartjes, 8 Red Bulls, about 20 CDs from their High School years and 1/2 of a carrot. Thanks, boys! Unfortunately we were up WAY too late for a 5am drive…we really just took a nap and threw some of our stuff in suitcase as we walked out the door. Kyle drove most of the way, minus a highway stint by Laura who is still terrified of the right-side-of-the-car/left-side-of-the-road/stick-shifting rental-car situation. We arrived around noon, showered and got ready for the game. Going with the same theory as last night we opted to cheer on Germany, our pick to win the World Cup once USA got knocked out. We had a great time in Germany, between Munich, Berlin, especially watching the Germany’s first-round game (against Ghana) in Frankfurt, which sent them through to the 2nd round.  Add in the fact that we both have German heritage and you now understand our pick.

Green Point Stadium

We were back on the road by 1:30 and headed downtown grateful to have been left directions and a key card to park in Keith’s work’s parking garage. Thank you again for being such great hosts!! We parked at the Engen parking garage and began the Fan Walk to meet an old Cape Town friend of Ryan’s, Sean. Sean really lucked out because when we bought the tickets a year and a half ago, our friend Matt Thomas was planning to come with us. Well, things came up in 18 months time and Matt didn’t make it to South Africa (loser). So, Sean lucked into a ticket with us. The Germany v Argentina match was great! Germany absolutely dominated the game and we loved every minute of it. The 4-0 drubbing was an appropriate bow out for the classless Maradona.  He was a great player, but lacks a certain class deserving of respect as a manager.

Inside the Game

After the game, we headed to a place called Beluga for dinner, where we met Keith, Michelle, Andre, Margie and Joann (from the potluck dinner), Ryan, Nathan and the mystery roommate Miki with his cousin Darren. At Beluga, they have an amazing, little known deal where you can get a 24-piece sushi platter or 24 prawns for 100ZAR (about $13). So, between every 2 people, we had one of each.  We had a sushi and prawn feast and a lot of wine that was brought in and uncorked by the restaurant. It was a great meal with great company.

The Sushi & Prawn Feast... YUM!

After dinner we went to a place called Mercury Club where we experienced “drum & bass” music. Ryan, Nathan and Miki have a group they call GNL (Gunz n’ Lazers) and they basically throw parties and work with DJs all around the area. We’ve heard a lot about these huge events that GNL puts on and without having any exposure to “drum and bass” or “dubstep” we were keen to check it out.  They were very anxious to share their taste in music with us.

Our First Dub Step Experience

We had an awesome time at Mercury: the club was really fun, and there was also a girly-pop area down below the club where Laura and Joann snuck off to be away from the boys for a while. You forget what it’s like to have girlfriends around when you’re surrounded by boys for a few months! After Mercury closed, we headed to Long Street, a popular area in downtown Cape Town where there are a ton of bars and restaurants. We wandered around trying to decide where to go next and ran into some Americans sporting USA jerseys and all. We realized it was about 4am and that meant it was officially the 4^th of July. We belted the National Anthem in the middle of the street with our fellow Americans in celebration of Independence Day. Then, we realized it was 4am and we were hungry, so we headed back to the Westin Grand Hotel with Joann where we stayed the night and ordered up a little room service. What a night!

Happy 4th of July!!!

The Crew at Addo

Today was a long, eventful day! We woke up at 7am and grabbed breakfast before saying thank you to Brendan’s parents for hosting us and headed out the door to the Addo Elephant Park. We had some great sightings at the park and the South Africans loved how excited we were every time we saw a new animal – especially Kyle. We saw a ton of elephants, kudu, mongoose, buffalo and warthogs. It turns out South Africans are not amused when you sing “Hakuna Matata” and yell “Pumba!” every time you see a warthog…but we did it anyway. We had a great morning and lost track of time which meant we were in a hurry to get back to PE in time for the World Cup game that afternoon.

Elephant & Baby Baby Elephant

The game started at 4pm and we were walking into the stadium at right about that time, just barely missing the opening kickoff. It was Netherlands v Brazil and it was SO fun! We opted to cheer for Netherlands since we had such a great time when we were in the Netherlands a few weeks ago. We also didn’t appreciate the vast number of bandwagon Brazil fans who jumped on board because they thought Brazil might win it all.

Our First World Cup Game!

The Netherlands knocked out Brazil with a 2-1 victory – it was a great game to watch live! Watching a World Cup game is another one of Kyle’s lifetime dreams and it made the experience very special. After the game we met up with the boys, who had sat separately with their other roommate, Miki, who we still haven’t met. Miki’s dad is key to the World Cup organizing committee in South Africa, so he has been flying all over the country watching games while we have been in town. We met Ryan, Nathan and some other friends at a place called Chalees, which was hard to find since we could swear they said to meet at “Charlie’s,” just a little accent confusion!

The Fan Park

Once we were done there we went to the Fan Park to watch the later game: Ghana v Slovenia. Of course all of the South Africans were again cheering for Ghana, the last African nation in the running. The Fan Park atmosphere was amazing because everyone there was so full of pride for the African team, but the game didn’t turn out in their favor. A great game to watch, it ended in a shoot out and you could have heard a pin drop when Ghana missed two shots for the loss. The Fan Park cleared out pretty quickly, but we didn’t let the loss get our friends down and instead began our own little party of vuvuzela-fun in the cricket field. We played like little kids and took turns with the vuvuzelas, trying for the ultimate: 2 at once. We accidentally stayed out late again, we’re all on “Africa time” here and 4 in the morning just seems to find us over and over again!

Vuvuzela Victory!

The number one thing that we forgot about last night was an important lesson for South African living: pre-paid electricity. We’re not sure if they have an option to set up an account like we do in the states, or if it is always pre-paid, but they go to the grocery store and buy electricity and then go home and punch in a voucher code to activate. It is actually a really cool system because you can watch your kilowatt-hours count down and therefore you really can track if certain lifestyle changes are saving energy or not. I’m sure you can see where this story is going. Last night at Barney’s, Nathan and Ryan (roommates), decided they needed electricity and got the money together. At some point in the night, the money was given to Laura, so they wouldn’t accidentally spend it at the bar. Everyone forgot about the need for electricity in the throes of the evening and were only woken up by the sun pouring into the room. The problem: we had a date to meet Brendan when we woke up this morning. We woke up to no electricity, which was not a huge deal, except that staying out until nearly 8am meant everyone’s phones had died and although they were put on a charger, there was actually no electricity.  We finally got everyone up and bought some electricity just in time to meet Brendan and his girlfriend Linzay. Since we were running late, we had little time to plan and pack for our next journey. We quickly threw some clothes in a bag and headed out to Brendan’s family’s farm in Addo, with a quick stop at the butchery to grab some fresh meat for a proper braai as well as some biltong for the road. Biltong is like jerky, sans preservatives.  It’s kind of like Robertson’s, but even better. It comes in a variety of different game genres, kudu, buffalo, beef, ostrich and others.  We seem to buy it daily! We drove out about 45 minutes to Addo and settled in at the farm for the night. First thing when we arrived Brendan took us to his neighbor’s fence to see what was in his backyard. RHINOS! Our first sighting of a Big 5 animal. His neighbor is a conservationist and has a small herd of rhinos in the backyard, just grazing right there next to Brendan’s house. It was a very African experience!

Shhh... Don't wake the rhinos!

Next on the evening agenda: picking naartjies from the orchard. Brendan’s parents have an orchard (as a hobby) and grow oranges, naartjies, and lemons. Naartjies are similar to cuties in America, basically a tangerine or mandarin. A cross between a lemon and an orange, they are easy to peel and amazingly delicious.

Mmmmm, looks like someone peeled an orange!

We spent a long time on somewhat of a mission for Ryan, who claims he needed as many naartjies as possible to live on, and each picked a substantial amount. They ranged in size, and while Ryan was after the biggest, Laura focused on the small ones.

Laura's super small naartjes

Kyle spent the time wandering about, periodically peeling and eating a naartjies.  He was preoccupied eating and laughing from the others picking that about half way through, Brendan and Ryan eventually started filling Kyle’s bag for him (since he had picked about 8 in a field of thousands).

Kyle & Monty (the sheep/dog)

We ended up with A LOT of naartjies, and ate many along the way. After the orchard picking, we finally had time for showers and prepared for our first South African Braai. Since this morning was chaotic, and mostly without electricity, you can imagine the rush to pack for an overnight trip. When we went to shower and unpacked our bags Laura and Ryan both ended up with full outfits, but Kyle ended up with the following:

What Kyle packed for the overnight trip...

It looks like Kyle will be wearing his favorite pants for one more day since a heavy coat, underwear and work gloves dont exactly cut it out here in the countryside. Once we were all clean we headed back to start dinner. The braai is their version of a bbq or cookout, basically cooking meat and rolls over an open flame with a metal grate. We braaied chicken kebabs, lamb chops and of course boorewors, while Lindsay made mini donuts inside.  We met Brendan’s parents and his adorable nieces who were told to “keep quiet so they don’t wake the rhinos up.” They explained that the children respect and are a bit afraid of the huge animals, as opposed to US children who are made to be afraid of ridiculous made-up creatures like the “Boogieman”.  It was definitely an interesting conversation.

We called it an early night by our South African experience’s standards, as we spent the night catching up and reminiscing of old times before catching up on our sleep. We have to wake up early tomorrow so we can go to the elephant park before our first World Cup game!

Today is the first day in a long time there isn’t a World Cup soccer match. It makes for a strange environment since everyone has become so dependent on soccer for entertainment. Ryan took today to show us around Port Elizabeth. We started off at the beach and toured his old stomping grounds, including a stop at the family home where he grew up.

The Indian Ocean

We also went to this area that had been redone for the World Cup so we could see what Ryan swears is “the second largest flag in the world”, though we are pretty sure it’s not really that big at all.

Ryan, Laura & the "2nd largest flag in the world"

At the redone area on the PE coast, we visited a new tourism center that is featuring artwork by local kids. This is a poem one wrote about the soccer ball he decorated. Please read for your own enjoyment. We can’t get enough!

...and my hood because my hood is good.

We drove around town until 2pm and had to pick up a friend of Ryan’s roommate at the airport. We grabbed Jorge and then all went to lunch. It’s amazing how cheap the food here is! We went to this great little restaurant where no one paid more than 32 ZAR for a meal – that’s about $4 for huge plates of food, and it was great.

After lunch we decided to head out for drinks with Nathan and some other friends at Barney’s, a restaurant on the waterfront.  We decided we would have a few drinks with Nathan, since he had just gotten off work, and then we would go home, shower, eat dinner, etc. Well we met more of the PE crew and accidently forgot to go home, shower, eat dinner, etc. We learned this night that Nathan is, in fact, the leading prison architect in PE (he’s designed 2, and we love him for it) and heard a lot about his job. Then, we were joined by some doctor friends and spent the majority of the evening looking at crazy x-rays, watching baby delivery videos (ouch!) and talking about the AIDS epidemic. It turns out that about 50% of babies born in PE today are HIV positive. We discussed the pharmaceutical side of things and got the doctors’ views and it really is a very tragic situation here in South Africa. All of the sudden it was midnight and Barney’s was closing, so instead of going home to shower, change, eat, etc we went with the obvious next step: Castro’s. Then, before we knew it 4am rolled around and Castro’s closed. So we went home to regroup with a really fun group who were belting out Pink songs on the crowded drive home. After Castro’s and making it back to Ryan’s flat, everyone (except Laura, who feel asleep at this time) decided to go to the only place still open: the 24 hour casino down the road. So off they went and begged to play roulette until the sun was up and they finally wound up home around 7:45am. What a night!