Monday and Tuesday 6/14 and 6/15

Monday was the Denmark vs. Holland game. We checked in with the American Outlaws desk in the lobby and they said they were putting together a shuttle to the stadium. We were going to leave at 10:30 am. We had about 45 minutes and Rey and his cousin Antonio who met up with needed cash...so we tried to make a quick trip to the mall for an exchange place. Had some trouble at the mall and got back to the hotel right at 10:30...but the shuttle was a bit late. Once we were on the shuttle we had a bit of a trek to Soccer Stadium. Lots of traffic going into the area around the stadium and then once we got to the stadium we walked about a mile to the entrance. We went through security, etc and everything was smooth. We had some time before the start of the game, so we went to the FIFA fan store. I have been VERY disappointed in the merch selection at FIFA fan stores and other stores in JoBurg. The carry VERY little USA stuff. I am sure there would be plenty of people buying that stuff, so I am pretty baffled by that. There is a lot of stuff I would like to buy, but they don't have any USA stuff.

So we got into the stadium using the turnstiles/entrances stated to use on our tickets. However, once we got in, getting to our section was not easy. They had a whole section gated off for media but there were non media sections in between the gates they had set up. While trying to figure out where we were going Kevin spotted Sunil Gulatti. He asked me if I wanted a pic....I hesitated but then handed him my camera and ran and asked Mr. Gulatti for a pic. He kindly obliged. After that we continued the struggle to get to our seats. It was a mess and we weren't the only people frustrated by this. We finally got to our seats and settled down and watched the game. Great experience in Soccer City Stadium. The way out was crazy. After a few beers I made sure to use the bathroom for leaving the stadium as I knew the trip home would probably take a while. We slowly made the way out and back to where our shuttle was supposed to pic us up. While waiting for the shuttle I again had to make a bathroom run, however there were none in site. There was a parking lot of about 10 FIFA charter buses. I decided to walk up to a bus and see if they had bathrooms...they did and the few people on the bus were very nice and let me use their bathroom. After that we caught our shuttle for the ride home.

Holland vs. Denmark pics here!!

That evening I went with some other AO members to the Fan Fest in Nelson Madella Square. There was an ESPN broadcast booth and we actually found a table in the restaurant next to the broadcast booth. We had a fun time at dinner then headed home. Pics from this weren't saved to the memory card...and couldn't get them onto my computer, so they'll come later.

Today was our tour of Soweto. A lot of the tour was very depressing. We took a tour of a slum type "neighborhood" and actually went into a house there. Very depressing. The hardest part for me was seeing the kids that were around and introducing themselves, etc. I wish I could have brought something for them or given them something but I had nothing. One person in our group gave one kid some money and the tour guide scolded both of them a bit. The guy in our group for giving him money. His explanation was if the kids were regularly getting money like that...they wouldn't go to school. The kids at this point were on a break for World Cup. He scolded the boy for taking the money, etc.

We went to a lot of different places and the whole tour was very humbling and made me very appreciative for what we have in America. Tomorrow, June 16th is the anniversary of the student uprising in Soweto. More info about that uprising here. Our tour guide for the day was actually apart of the protest and gav a few of us some really cool insight.

We ate lunch down the street from Nelson Mandela's house then headed back to the hotel with a pass by the Orlando Pirates stadium and Soccer Stadium. We got back to the hotel near the end of the New Zealand game. I stayed in the hotel to download pics, etc then we went to neighborhood bar and watched the Ivory Coast vs. Portugal game. After the game we went to the neighborhood beer star and then to the Chicken Lickin place. We are now in the hotel room. We ate our fried chicken and are drinking some beer. Rey and Antonio showed up a bit ago. We are about to head to the hotel lobby to watch the Brasil game. That's it for today!!