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Published: March 3rd 2010
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These past couple of weekends have been pretty low key. The next month is about to get hectic with travel though so I guess it was nice to have some stress free time. Friday, February 19th a couple of my roommates and I headed in town to a professional Cricket game. Cricket is a very traditional South African game of bowls, overs, hits, runs, wickets, and outs. I’m not really even sure how to go about explaining it, you really have to watch and be explained the game at the same time. The traditional game lasts for hours. They play for a few hours in the morning, stop for lunch, and then continue play again in the afternoon…crazy. There is also a 5 day game where one game is played from about 10 in the morning until 5ish every day for five days straight. The players eat dinner, go to bed, and get up and go at it again the next morning…crazy. But, in the last few years the 20/20 cricket game has become very popular. In this game each team gets 20 overs a side (just go with me) and the game only lasts about 3 hours. I will admit,
that it is more exciting than a 6 hour cricket game, but overall, it doesn’t do much for me, much like a baseball game, it’s more about the beer and hotdogs than the actual game itself. But it was interesting and there were almost 12,000 people there so it was pretty fun.
Then, that Saturday, Pearson hosted a boy’s water polo tournament and I took up the important post of “cool drinks” for the players. Water polo is a fairly new sport here but is growing in popularity. The all boys school, Grey, of course whooped most teams here but Pearson was a close 2nd, only losing 2-1 to the powerhouse. Grey also has one of the top Rugby teams every year as well, I guess you have quite the advantage when you have all those boys to choose from.
Every Sunday, here in PE, there is a market of sorts along beach road. So, if we are around, we normally walk down along the beach and check out the merchandise. There are lots of figurines, paintings, jewelry, food, etc. You see a lot of the same things among the vendors and of course everyone wants to “give you a
special price”, but some of the stuff is nice.
We also go to the movies most Wednesdays here because it is only R18, which is less than $3. It’s quite the popular night at the movie theatre! But, we normally buy our tickets on the weekends and you have assigned seats in the theatres here so then we don’t have to worry about getting to the theatre early on Wednesdays. It’s really funny too because whenever we’ve gone to buy the tickets we’re always asked if we want the very back row. We always choose the middle of course but it makes us laugh when we’re asked because I guess they are the coveted seats here, but at home it’s normally just for those teenagers who want to make out!
This Friday I helped out with the ECOS Volleyball tournament. There are lots of clubs and societies here at Pearson, ECOS is the ecological club. There is a Penguin rescue center right across the water from us so the students have chosen that as their "charity" this year. They go and help clean the facilities and feed the penguins. They also hold fundraisers to donate money to the place. So
this was a beach volleyball tournament that they hosted for teams of 5 and there was an official winner and then a prize given for best dressed team. They had quite a turnout and you will probably be able to tell which team won best dressed.
Then, this weekend we went to the new stadium in PE and watched a rugby match. I think there are going to be soccer games played there for the World Cup as well and it’s a very nice stadium. One of the PE teams played the Argentinean rugby team and were supposed to get killed but it was actually a good match and ended in a tie.
Saturday we went to the Oceanarium here in PE which is kind of sad since the dolphins have gone. At its prime, the oceanarium had five dolphins and even had a baby in 2000. However, for different reasons, the last two were moved to Hong Kong in 2007 so now the only animal show they have is a small seal performance. I watched the DVD on how the dolphins were moved and it was kind of cool. Their blood was taken and tested for weeks to make
sure they were healthy, they were packed up in trucks and taken on multiple test runs, and weeks of preparation before and getting the dolphins settled in afterward were spent by the staff of both new and old homes for the dolphins. I must say that their new home looked much nicer though, this place was kind of pitiful. In the snake and dinosaur part the dinosaur models “come alive” and even make noises! (which was just a cd player under a rock) There was also a dead snake in one of the cages. Overall it was pretty lame.
I also played in my first soccer game on Saturday afternoon and my roommates came, made signs, and chanted cheers throughout the game! We played the top team in the league and I was impressed by some players, so far I hadn’t seen much talent but this team was tough. We played an awesome game but ended up losing in the last 10 minutes. I played again on Sunday and scored! And I was surprised that I could still walk on Monday but maybe I’m getting in to some sort of shape. The halves here are short though, as well as
the field, so I am sure that’s what saved me.
We were going to go to the Prickly Pear festival on Sunday but the guy who came to pick us up (a friend of one of my roomies) said that he spoke to his father and it was no longer going on. So we were all pretty bummed and sat in our driveway pouting for a little while. Prickly Pears are fruits that grow on the cacti here, although the cacti are actually indigenous to Mexico. Sunday was also the celebration to mark 100 days until the World Cup so we were going to try and go to a soccer game at the new stadium but you could only buy tickets at small grocers which were all closed since it was a Sunday afternoon. Stores and places really don’t stay open here like at home, most everything closes by 5 or 6 during the week and if they’re open at all on Sunday it’s only till noon or 1. So with all of our plans foiled we just went back to the flat, made homemade margaritas, and just chatted on the back porch. The back flat is now full of
2 South African students, and 2 American students, and then there are obviously us 5 Americans in the front flat along with our South African buddy Gideon, so there is never a shortage of people to hang out with or interesting conversations to be had.
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grandma
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Who?
Is Gideon the one leading the group dance and song?