Previous Blogs:
-  Blog No. 1 (June 2, 2010)
-  Blog No. 2 (June 4, 2010)

It's gameday in South Africa as the U.S. gets ready to play England at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Former UP soccer player Greg Rouse is there and he checks in with his latest blog, which he wrote earlier this week as he explored the sights and sounds of a foreign land.

We hope to overcome an email glitch and share some of Greg's photos from South Africa soon.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Well I would have to say that my first weekend in South Africa has been a success. I have met a few of Megan's friends and they are all quite friendly and enjoyable. I knew that coming leaving the country would be a pretty big culture shock, especially as I have never left the US before, and that feeling has definitely been reinforced. I am slowly getting used to commuting on the left hand side of the road, as well as the steering wheel being on the right side of the car. I don't think I will ever get completely used to it, however. There are many small things that keep catching my attention as well. I wake up in the morning to the sounds of it seems like 10 species of birds I have never seen or heard. The people here generally complain about how cold it is since it is their winter, but seeing how it is at least 70 and not a cloud in the sky, Taylor and I are trying to convince people to go swimming! I am also slowly getting use to using the Rand as currency. I feel incredibly rich as the US dollar is just over 7 times as strong as the Rand. The other day I exchanged 250 US for over 1700 Rand... that was a lot of bills. We have been instructed, as would be common sense anyway, to only carry three or four hundred Rand as you no doubt can imagine that wallets are not the safest items in South Africa. We have had no troubles so far, however.

Today was pretty amazing. We took an hour and a half drive to visit the Stercfontein Caverns. These caverns might be better known for the land on which they sit. This land is referred to as the Cradle of Humankind. Stercfontein is Africaans (one of the 11 official languages of South Africa) for strong fountain, and it has good right to be named as such. It is here that the oldest hominid remains have been found, dating back 4 million years. The famous Mrs. Pes was found in these caverns, and they are currently excavating the remains of a fossil known as "little foot". This fossil is thought to be a direct link to our ancient ancestors. It was incredibly interesting wandering through these caves, but unfortunately they had rather high security around the active excavation site and so we were not able to get a look at little foot.

This evening we went to a movie called (I think) Schuck Shebelala: Survival Guide to South Africa. Think of the show Punk'd, but a dry South African, no limit version. I was laughing the entire time and if anyone has the means I would very much suggest you check it out. By the way, the taxi drivers here are nuts, and people love their motorcycles. We have to drive around with the doors locked and windows at least most of the way up. Whenever you stop at a light people run around the cars and try to sell you things like fake DVD's or, since the world cup is here, flags from any nation you can think of. All the decent housing seems to be in gated communities, and every house has walls around it with barbed wire or spikes or electric wires for security. The language is kind of fun however.  Here are some fun words that I have picked up on so far:
robot = traffic light; just now= later; now now= soon; now= now (sometimes); motorway= highway; cheers= good bye; tomato sauce = ketchup; bry= bbq.... and I am sure I can translate some more words as I learn them.

Tomorrow we hit the road to Durban, a town on the east coast of South Africa, where we will be until Friday. I may or may not be able to get another entry in, but until that time I hope you enjoy the pictures I have included as well as some of the journal clippings from my experiences.

Greg

Journal Clippings:

Start jogging down the side of the highway against traffic/ bank's systems were down so we couldn't cash traveler's checks/ had a couple of beers with the family/ a chicken curry with paw paw on the side/ imagined myself on the plains as they might have been 4million years ago/ first taste of their very green cream soda/ South African flags are everywhere