Feel it! It is here!

Today's Leigh's birthday and in keeping with Jacobs family tradition, Alfie served Leigh breakfast in bed. I also got to enjoy the fruits of that labor, even though it wasn't my birthday. Hooray!

Aside from Leigh turning 29, it's World Cup time.

The city has gone insane. Today is the day.

The vuvuzelas are playing nonstop. We heard them when we woke up with Mia this morning about 7. People are congregating on corners and blowing the horns as loudly as possible. Leigh, Mia, Tanya, Gianna and I went to the mall today to have breakfast and visit some of the local shops. The mall - the mall! - was too loud for a baby. Everyone was shopping at Big Blue, one of the best shops around, and I decided to take Mia out into the mall so she could crawl around on the floor. I left the store and the sound of vuvuzelas was too loud for her. Since when is a mall too loud on a Friday morning for a baby? Crazy.

We met Alfie at home and headed out to watch South Africa take on Mexico somewhere out in public. Leigh and I asked Sonja to babysit in case it would be too loud for Mia. Thankfully we left her home because everywhere - everywhere! - we went was too loud for a small child. We settled on a seafood restaurant in a large shopping center in Joburg. The vuvuzelas didn't stop in the hours before the game and during the entire match.

Watching Bafana Bafana play in the opening match made me realize why Americans don't do soccer. It's 45 minutes of concentration before halftime. Other sports have, like, 10 seconds of focus before a break. It was so intense! Everyone in every restaurant cheered the whole time. It was unlike any watch party I've ever been to. It was exhausting and awesome. South Africa drew with Mexico, 1-1. I can't wait to go to the games in person. It's going to be nuts.

We went out to dinner for Leigh's birthday at a fancy-pants Italian restaurant inside Monte Casino, a massive, Vegas-style casino in Joburg. The food was absolutely outstanding. I ate every single bite of my chicken and pasta and made a move on my creme brulee. I was too full, though, and Carin told me, "It's OK to give up, Carrie." I did. For those of you who know how much I love sweets, you understand how truly full I was if I couldn't finish desert.

While eating at this restaurant, the vuvuzelas didn't stop. Everyone walking around the casino played them continuously. I have a feeling that we'll be hearing vuvuzelas until we get on the plane.

After that Tanya, Gianna, Leigh and I went for a drink in Melville, which is kind of like a big Paseo district in Joburg. The streets were packed with the young and trendy. The district is full of hip bars, fancy bakeries, hole-in-the-wall dives and local shops. It's the cool place to be, especially on weekends. Leigh was so pumped to go out here for his birthday.

We went to a great club called Six and met four college girls who taught us how to dance. Well, to be honest, they danced, we mimicked them and they laughed at how white we are. Leigh just drank his beer and watched us make fools of ourselves. We had such a great time! We also learned that, in addition to the thumbs-up sign, spirit fingers are universal. A couple of guys from Durban hit on us and bought us drinks, which was nice. No need to worry: I mentioned that I was married about a thousand times. We also met Roy, a Duke college student from North Carolina, who was traveling alone. What a great age - when you're old enough to do stupid stuff and not old enough to know it's stupid.

After Six we moved on to a bar called Ratz. We met some cool folks from Texas. As the bar closed down Gianna and I left to find a cab while Leigh and Tanya paid our tab. We found a cab about a block down and turned to make our way back to the bar. Then we saw a fight - so scary. One guy slammed another into a parked car, and the injured guy's friend smashed a beer bottle over the attacker's head. It was pretty scary. The two friends tried to get away and the attacker pulled a 2-by-4 out of a trash barrel, snapped it in half and charged. He smashed the other guy silly while the friend could only watch. Within moments a private security force, carrying guns longer than Mia, pulled up. The police arrived shortly after.

The fight only lasted a few minutes, but it seemed like forever. Gianna and I stood frozen, trapped on the corner. The fight was between us and the bar where Leigh and Tanya were. We couldn't decide whether to stay or try to slip past the chaos and back into the bar. We decided to stay put. A local guy standing next to us told us it was just drunk idiots acting stupid. Melville was packed with locals and foreign visitors, and I think he was trying to tell us that drunk people are stupid everywhere - not just South Africa. It was sort of comforting. He was right. I've seen bar fights in the United States. I guess it just was more frightening because we were so far from home.

The police were still sorting things out when Tanya spotted a cab - someone took the one we originally found! - and we left Melville. I was so bummed that Tanya and Gianna had that experience in Melville. It's really a fantastic place. But stupid drunk people tend to ruin things worldwide. It's as universal as the thumbs-up sign and spirit fingers.