Previous Blogs:
- Blog No. 1 (June 2, 2010)
Former Portland men’s soccer player Greg Rouse has landed in South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He’ll be checking in from time-to-time with a blog, and here is his second entry.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Touchdown at last! We might have just spent almost two days on planes or in airports, but we finally arrive in Jo-burg (what I have found out is the nick name for Johannesburg). Unfortunately we had a 9 hour delay in Washington DC due to a leak in the gas tank. I can't say that it was all bad, however, as we were given a free room at the Hilton Hotel and free dinner tickets. I would like to say I made full use of it with my $17 dollar steak marinated in a blue cheese sauce that I will not hesitate to say was one of the best steaks I have had in my life. So we went on from there and finally ended up in Jo-burg at 3 am on Saturday morning.
It is an amazing feeling to be traveling with an entire group of people that you know are going to your same destination for the same reason. World Cup fever was already spreading through the airport terminals as we talked and realized what games we would all be attending and where we would all be staying. I already feel like I am part of something enormous and I have only been in the country a couple hours. The amazing amount of diversity of people that I have met also just seems to put me in a state of awe. From a junior at Arizona State to a missionary in charge of all the churches (I assume Christian) in the southern half of South Africa, to a 24 year old that works in Senegal but is going to visit family in SA, it truly seems to be preparing me for the melting pot that is to be the World Cup.
My next entry should be soon and I hope to have some great pictures to share as well!
Greg
Journal clippings:
Does this still even count as a vacation? or something more? / 8 hour delay.... / Jarron graduated with a biology degree from Lewis and Clark 3 yrs ago / finally boarded our plane around 2 am / he seems like a good enough fellow except you can barely understand him and his dentures have a funny way of falling out of place / wish he could have stayed on the flight all the way to Jo-burg but he had to depart at Dakar/ met a kid from Kgakala which means "too far" in English
