Saturday, August 1, 2009

South African Rugby Experience!

Whew...yesterday was our "endurance session" at UWC as Rich put it: 3 lectures and then a panel discussion with teachers. After all that sitting, we needed to get out on the town, so we bought some tickets to a Western Province vs the Leopards Rugby Match. Rugby is huge in South Africa, and I became really interested after I finished reading "Playing the Enemy" about the 1995 Rugby World Cup which united South Africa when the Springboks (SA National Team) beat the All Blacks (New Zealand). The books a great read if you interested in the end of the Apartheid negotiations between Botha and Mandela, as well as Mandela's presidency and his quest to unite the new South Africa... Speaking of the Springboks, our bus company is the same company that shuttles around the team, so yesterday we got to drive around in this sweet bus. Everywhere we stopped people tried to look through the windows to see if we were ACTUALLY the Springboks...



Prior to heading to the Newlands Stadium (Oldest Rugby Stadium in South Africa!), we went to a local sushi restaurant for all you can eat sushi for about $10...it was great. We took cabs to the stadium and had a great driver who even walked us to the entrance. On the way, we stopped at a stand to pick up some Western Province gear to fit in with the locals. I got a sweet beanie hat that is reminiscent of Where's Waldo?

We got into the stadium to find in practically empty because it was only a small province game, and the Leopards weren't a particularly good team...but it was really fun and cool to say that I've been to a rugby game in SA. The game of Rugby is a little confusing...and holy wow is it rough! I have no idea how these guys play without helmets or without sufficient padding! The constant scrumming and tackling is brutal...but I loved it! I really enjoyed that is a fast paced game: two, 40 minutes halves with no penalties or stopping the clock. We cheered a lot and had a great time.


Here is our group right next to the field: Kori, Heather, Matt, Me, Chris, Jake, and Jason (some of us in our awesome W.P. gear!)

On our way out of the game, we tried to get the big Rugby store to open for us...we played the "We're Americans...with money!" card, but alas, they didn't open. While walking to the taxi que, we ran into the Leopards bus, so we took some pictures with them....what a bunch of cuties...holy wow are they buff!



Things then got interesting when we got in a cab to head home. We didn't have access to a phone to call our favorite cab company, so we ended up hailing a cab on the street. We piled in and took off. Our driver was from Zimbabwe, so we instatly talked about Mugabe, of course. About 5 minutes into our cab ride, our driver looked in the rear view mirror and said "The cops are on me!" At that instant, our cab was pulled over by 3 cop cars. The driver got out and the 4 of us sat there: scared and confused. Then we heard the cops say, "You've been in my area too many times. We're going to search this cab inside and out...do you have any drugs or weapons?" They searched the trunk, and finally the police officer let us out and explained that we got into an illegal cab and that if anything were to happen we would not be insured etc. The driver's car would be impounded and auctioned off because this has happened multiple times. They were more than accomodating and nice and offered to call us another cab...but it was at that point that we were in the middle of an area of Cape Town that we did not know, and didn't want to wait 20 minutes on a random street corner for the cab to show up. The officer found us a registered cab on the street and we jumped in heading back to the Check Inn.

About 5 minutes away from our hotel, we got pulled over AGAIN...I swear, the cops must have been doing a cab sweep last night! We all groaned, "oh no, not again!" Our driver got out, opened his trunk, and then jumped right back in. We were all relieved we didn't have to go through that fiasco again! But hey, it was an interesting expereince, and a great story to tell for time to come!!!

And to end with a laugh...here's me and the boys in our AWESOME Western Province attire. I know you're all jealous! :)
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