PIRATES

Ahoy mateys!! I’ve found my true calling as a pirates fan this weekend. After a good week of work Nick and I rented a car and drove to Joburg to spend the weekend with friends and watch the Soweto derby. The Soweto derby is an awesome soccer rivalry between the Kaiser Cheifs and the Orlando Pirates, both professional teams that hail from the mighty city of Joburg. The weekend was INSANE. Lets start off from the beginning….

The Drive

From Kimberley to Joburg it’s about a 5 hour trip, a total cruiser with just staying on the same highway all the way there. A few hours before leaving we had a coworker ask if he could hitch a ride with us to Joburg. Of course we happily accepted. Little did we know…that he has the smallest bladder in the world. Within a 5 hour trip we had to stop 5 times. It felt like we had a 9 month pregnant woman in the back seat. But even with a 7 lb fetus compressing a bladder the pregnant woman probably would have peed less. So the 5 hour trip quickly turned into 6 hours, with us not arriving in Joburg until 1 am.

FOOD

The next day we all got ready to go to the soccer game. Many of us still did not know which team we would pledge our allegiance to. Kickoff was set to be at 3 but we were told to show up at the stadium no later than 12 because it filled up so quickly. We were incredibly punctual and arrived exactly when told. However, people showed up that early to tailgate, not go straight into the stadium, which we did. The stadium is incredible, its one that was used during the 2010 world cup matches and is a thing of beauty. I was swooning over the perfect grass pitch. After some exploring we bought drinks and food. Brittany and I decided to go big or go home and got these massive pieces of chicken along with a bunch of sides. I was finally healthy again and after a full week of the BRAT diet I was ready to chow.

Half-time Chaos

The first half flew by with the Pirates going 1 up over the Chiefs on a free-kick right outside of the box. By half I knew I had to go pirates. They worked hard on defense, tried to play out of the back, oh and they also danced out of the tunnel onto the field just like the Titans need I say more.  During the game I had spotted people with bucket hats and knew it was investment that needed to be made. During the half we all left to get our team gear to show our support. Loving our new hats Brit and I along with Sarah went over to get more drinks and that’s when went bonkers. When walking up to the line an overly-enthusiastic pirates fan picked up Brit shaking her around and yelling ‘GO PIRATES’. I’m thinking this guy is about to give Brit shaken baby syndrome when all of sudden she turns to me with her camera in her hand and says, “That guy just pickpocketed me.” It was all so fast I couldn’t even believe it. I guess while the guy picked her up his friend took her camera out of her pocket. Luckily Brit felt the camera slip out of her pocket and told the guy to give it back which they surprisingly did before disappearing into the crowd. Freaky but disaster was averted.

Afterwards we get back in line for drinks and see that Sri is near the front. Brit starts trying to get his attention to get him to order drinks for us too. Sri whips around and tells us, “no f***#$% way”. Now since knowing Sri I would describe him as cool as a pickle so this outburst was strange to say the least. Its then that we notice there’s pushing going on with it centering around Sri and a chiefs fan. People quickly break it up but Sri is pushed to the back. Apparently this guy just cut everyone and Sri stood up to him, but there’s really no way to reason with a pushy drunk, so unless he wanted to start an actual fight he had to let the jerk pass. I decide to head back to the seats not willing to brave the beer line. Once reaching the seats I see that during half time people had swiped a few of them. This has happened to me before and its really no biggy because people usually move once the actual seat holder gets back. So I talk to the couple and tell them that these are my friends seats and that they will need to move once they get back. The guy nods his head and I think to myself, ‘nice we’re all good’.

So the other 4 interns get back and I tell him that he needs to move now and he says, “There are two seats in front of us they can sit in.” Wow, now this is not what we agreed upon. I start to argue with him and then his girlfriend starts to give me ‘tude about how they also lost their seats to other people. For some reason I snap and tell her that it’s not my problem and that I’ll go and get someone to make them move. This doesn’t go over well and if anything it causes their butt cheeks to grip tighter to the plastic seats. I yell a little more and finally one person moves and we’re all able to squish together. It wasn’t till everyone was sitting that I realized I’m still wearing my bucket hat and my giant bug sunglasses. So just imagine this….

yelling at you to move your ass. Last I checked asian tourists weren’t that intimidating.

The rest of the game/weekend went swimmingly with the pirates getting the win over the chiefs. It was an awesome time and thanks so much to the Joburg interns for showing us around and letting us crash at their place. Can’t wait to have them visit us in Kim!!