Mexican Americans

Before coming to South Africa, I read a few articles about how Americans bought the most tickets to the World Cup. When I first read this, I assumed I would see American flags and jerseys everywhere I went in South Africa. However, I didn't account for the fact that many Americans weren't coming solely to root for America. Based on nothing but my own observations, I would say that 50% of the Americans who came to the World Cup are rooting for other countries. The most obvious case of this is with Mexican Americans.

There are tons of Mexican Americans here pulling for Mexico. I would say that without a doubt, Mexico has the largest fan base at the tournament. You can't go a block without seeing a Mexican flag, a guy in a wrestler's mask or a sombrero. Our hotel, which is filled with people who bought their tickets from an American travel agent, is packed with Mexican Americans. I've met Mexican Americans ranging from places from Los Angeles to Jackson, Mississippi.

I don't want this blog to sound like the Mexican Americans are being unpatriotic because they're not. Every single Mexican American I've met is also rooting for America to win. Besides the Mexican Americans, I've met Americans rooting for Italy, Argentina and even...Algeria (the team America is playing in our third and final game...which will have already been played by the time this is posted)!

Congratulations to Benjamin August and his Asian Wife!

What's with Benjamin Augusts falling in love with Asian women? Three people sent me this link this week to the New York Times Weddings/Celebrations page:

Penelope Tang, Benjamin August

Published: June 17, 2010

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Penelope Tang, the daughter of Patricia P. Tang and Henry Tang of New York, was married Saturday evening to Benjamin Meyer August, a son of Barbara L. August and William August of Cambridge, Mass. Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit officiated in Sutton Square Park in Manhattan.

The bride and bridegroom, both 28, met at Princeton, from which they both graduated.

Mrs. August is a senior designer in the interior design department of Selldorf Architects in New York. Her father retired as a partner in the New York office of the Houston law firm Baker Botts, and now works in private practice. Her mother is an art dealer for E. V. Thaw & Company in New York and a trustee of the China Institute, also in New York. The bride’s parents are also on the board of the American Friends of the Shanghai Museum.

Mr. August is a bond trader at Susquehanna International Group, an institutional sales, research and brokerage firm; he works in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. Until 2009, the bridegroom’s mother was the director of the Kids of All Learning Abilities Program at the ARC of Greater Boston, a nonprofit organization serving people with disabilities. His father is a partner in the Boston law firm Epstein & August.

Last Sunday, Mr. August had to have an emergency appendectomy. The bride reports he has rallied, noting in an e-mail message: “He is on his feet and in marriageable condition.”

Diving

After the Beijing Olympics, Huyen and I gave a tour of Hanoi to my friend Grahame's friend Jeffrey Marcus who had been covering the Olympics for the New York Times. Jeffrey is a great guy and it was a pleasure showing him around the city (Huyen actually gave him and his now-wife a second tour of the city when I was out of town). Well, Jeffrey is now covering the World Cup for the NY Times and just wrote a great PAGE 1 article on diving at the World Cup:

Here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/sports/soccer/21diving.html

Ole Ole Travel Company

If you read my "Bus Odyssey" blogs last week, you'll know that I'm not a fan of our tour group Ole Ole (www.oleole.com). Frankly, this company is disorganized and just moronic (although many of the people working for them are extremely nice). If you recall, it took us six hours to drive to the USA vs. England game; a drive which should have been 2.5 hours. The straw that broke the camel's back that day was when the tour leader had forgotten to bring the parking permit for the bus. This made us have to wait an additional hour+ to get into the stadium. That tour leader has since quit or been fired but that hasn't stopped the constant mistakes by Ole Ole.

For the USA vs. Slovenia game, we were scheduled to leave our hotel at 12:30 for the 4PM game. As soon as we got on the bus, I said to the tour leader, "Do we have a parking permit?" The guy said, "I don't know" and turned to the bus driver and asked him if he had a permit. The bus driver said that the other Ole Ole worker had it. Well, the other Ole Ole worker didn't have it. Nobody had it. Once again, our tour company didn't collect the permit from wherever they were supposed to get it. This meant that our bus wasn't allowed through the road block set up near the stadium. This wouldn't be a problem if they let everyone off at the road block. It was only a fifteen minute walk from there to the stadium. However, the tour leader instead tried over and over to find an alternate way into the stadium which meant aimless driving for thirty or more minutes down roads which are not meant for big buses. Finally we convinced the guy to drop us off on the street and we walked. The point is though, they had four years to prepare for this event and continually are making idiotic mistakes. They say that insanity is when you try to do the same thing over and over and expect different results. That is exactly what Ole Ole is doing; this company is insane. So if you stroll on to my blog looking to book World Cup tickets for 2014, I highly suggest you find a different tour company.

South African Taxi Cabs

In Johannesburg, the locals usually take taxi cabs that look like this:

On our first day, our travel company told us not to trust these taxis. We took that advice and have since been taking "metered" cabs. I put metered in quotes because I have yet to actually see a meter in a cab. Every taxi driver has offered us a different price to go from the same location to the same location. We have been told that some cabs are government registered cabs and need to charge a certain price based on distance traveled. It seems to me crazy that the World Cup organizers didn't do a better job of legitimizing the taxi industry here in J'burg (in Cape Town the taxis were perfectly legit).

To sum up how ridiculous the taxi situation is, let me tell you a little story. After the USA vs. Slovenia game we decided not to take the Ole Ole Group bus back (see tomorrow's blog). At the stadium were signs for "metered taxis". We followed the signs, asked the volunteers at the stadium, and still ended up on a street with no taxis. There were a few police working the street and we approached two of them. We asked one of the cops where we could find a taxi and he replied, "Where do you want to go?" We told him we wanted to go to Melrose Arch, one of the fan zones near where we're staying. He told us that he would take us. We all looked at each other wondering just how far this guy took his public service duties. He gave his fellow policewoman a nod and told us to follow him. We walked a few blocks with this cop and then go into his personal car. As soon as we sat down inside he said, "How much you gonna pay me?" Devin, Chris, Dave and I all looked at each other as if to say, "Here we go again." The cop wanted 450 Rand, almost $70. We all told him there was no chance. The cop was willing to go down to 350 which was still absurd. We all got out of his cab, and luckily found another cab who charged us just 120 Rand.

The beauty of this is that the cop left his duty to try and extort us. I'm not sure if this makes me question the police as a whole here or whether people just think as taxi drivers they need to rip off tourists.

Happy Father's Day!!!

(PICTURE: My favorite picture of me and my Dad.)

Big Guy!!!!

Happy Father's Day! I'm having a great time in South Africa but every day I've wished that you could be here with me, especially when I was on safari. You're the greatest Dad in the world and not a day goes by that I don't realize that. I love you and miss you!!!

To all the other father's out there (i.e. my brother and the lion I saw on safari): Happy Father's Day to you too!


(PICTURE: My favorite photo of Zev and Lilah.)



(PICTURE: The King of Animals looking after his little cub.)

USA vs. Slovenia

(PICTURE: I took this off of ESPN.com. If you look at the top right of the American flag you can see Devin, Chris and Dave. I'm to the left of Devin, underneath the flag!)

(PICTURE: See, I'm under the flag!)

Wow! What a game last night. After playing horribly in the first half, the US managed to come back from two goals down to tie Slovenia. In fact, we scored a third goal that was controversially disallowed by the referee. When the ball went in on the third goal our half of the stadium erupted. I was in the middle of a group hug with Chris and a few strangers when someone said, "They called offsides!!!" This was literally the definition of a buzz kill. I've never been on such a euphoric high and brought back down so quickly. What made it worse was that I was absolutely drenched in beer that someone had spilled on a bunch of people in celebration.

That's my quick update on the game. Now, I'd like to directly address the guy who was sitting a row in front of me: Hey, Asshole! DO NOT THROW YOUR BEER BOTTLE INTO THE CROWD YOU FUCKING MORON. It's one thing to spray people with beer, it's another to launch a bottle into the air. Sure, the Bud bottles are plastic but that doesn't mean it can't hurt someone. It's people like you that can turn something fun into something scary. You could have hit a kid -- which there were plenty of -- or broken someone's nose/teeth/face with your stupidity.

If anyone at the World Cup is reading this, please continue to have fun but don't act like a total neanderthal.