I'm not an Algeria fan

It finally arrived - our first World Cup game! YES! We drove about three hours northwest of Joburg to Polokwane, a city that has been officially identified as the geographic middle of nowhere, like Woodward or Krebs. It is in the Limpopo province, which is known for the famous Baobab trees. I was hoping to spot one, but we didn't this time.

Tanya, Leigh and I went to watch Slovenia take on Algeria. We opted to cheer for Slovenia for two key reasons:

1. Slovenia was the underdog.

2. Algeria probably would have lots more fans, especially considering South African fans are supporting all African nations in general.

Once we arrived in Polokwane we stopped at a Pep (kind of like Dollar General) and Checkers (kind of like Walmart) to buy supplies for our Slovenia-supporting shirts. We'd looked all over for the past few days for Slovenia stuff, but oddly enough, there was none to be found. We got white shirts and painted SLOVENIA! on them. Tanya was SLO, Leigh was VEN and I was IA! We made lots of jokes about Tanya being slo/w. After putting on these shirts, we had to stay in order for the rest of the day.

We drove around Polokwane, which didn't take that long, and found the stadium. Police blocked off streets within a pretty large radius around the stadium, so we decided to do the park-and-ride to avoid walking so far.

We parked at the equivalent of the city fairgrounds and got into line for the buses. The line was probably half a mile long and snaked through the rows and rows of cars parked on the grass. Though the line moved quickly, it was pretty clear that we weren't going to get to the game on time. After finally hopping a ride on a bus, we made the quick trip to the stadium. But we were all confused when the bus stopped about a half-mile from the stadium. Wasn't the point of the park-and-ride to AVOID walking? We hiked up the hill to the stadium, and by that time the game was well into the first half. We passed through three security checkpoints.

Then a television reporter stopped us after spotting our shirts. We cheered for Slovenia in front of the camera. She asked us to predict the score. Tanya guessed 2-1, Slovenia. Leigh and I copied her. Then I shouted, "Slovenia's No. 1!" It was pretty cool, even though we probably couldn't find Slovenia on a map.

By this time my leg was really tired out and my knee was bothering me. My physical therapist told me that often the mind tells the body to slow down to prevent injury. You aren't actually tired - your mind just wants you to think that so you stop using your injured limb. My ACL rarely hurts, but I was getting to the end of my walking capacity. I don't think this was a mind game situation.

We found an attendant and asked for an elevator. We rode to the top of the stadium, where our seats were. We bought beer, water and a hot dog and headed around.

Turns out, you can't walk all the way around the top of the stadium. You have to go up a specific elevator (or walkway) to the correct area. The attendant pointed us to the wrong elevator. We had to walk back across the area, go down and walk around to the other side of the stadium. We found the right elevator and waited patiently. A couple of media folks saw that we weren't officials of any sort told us the elevator was only for officials. Tanya stared at them, pointed to my giant leg brace and asked, "Is this OK for you?" The cameraman turned red and said, "Of course it is." Tanya is never afraid to point out the obvious.

We finally got to our right area but our section was no where to be seen. This is when I swore. We decided we'd just sit in open seats, regardless of where the hell we were. We walked into a random section and discovered it was actually ours. All the signs were labeled incorrectly. It was a miracle of God!

The second miracle of God? Halftime had just ended and the score was 0-0. We missed nothing!

Within minutes Slovenia scored! We jumped up, screaming, like we were actually from Slovenia. We couldn't help ourselves! It was so awesome! Other Slovenia fans in the sections near us waved and laughed at our shirts.

The game was absolutely awesome! It was really exciting to see it in real life. Our seats were great. Even though most spectators were dressed in South Africa green and gold, everyone was cheering and going nuts the whole time. The fans were bonkers. One Algeria fan climbed up on top of one of the light towers to wave his flag. Police officers in riot gear convinced him to come down. As he climbed down we realized that there was absolutely nothing behind him. One wrong move and he'd fall all the way to the ground. It was super scary! But he made it down safely and then started giving the police guff. Wrong move, buddy. They pummeled him and then arrested him. Yikes!

The final whistle blew without another goal, so Slovenia won 1-0. The Algeria and South Africa fans left the stadium and we drifted among the big blocks of Slovenia fans. We took photos with them and cheered with them. One of their chants ends with "Hey! Hey! Hey!" So we'd wait for them to say it all and then we'd yell the last three words with them. Everyone knew we weren't Slovenian, but they didn't care. We left the stands and the party continued outside. Tons of people took photos of us with our homemade shirts.

The whole thing was so great! What an experience! I can't even imagine what the U.S. game will be like on Friday.

We hiked back to the buses, rode back to the truck and headed out. The sunset outside Polokwane was absolutely beautiful - one of the best sights of this trip so far.

On the way back to Joburg, we stopped for fuel at a rest stop. (On an unrelated side note, South African rest stops aren't like American ones. They are huge and absolutely beautiful. The restaurants are awesome. The bathrooms are immaculate and usually involve marble counter tops.)

We passed up the first rest stop because it was absolutely packed. Apparently everyone at the game lived in Joburg, not Polokwane. So we drove back to the city at the same rate as everyone else. We had to stop at the second place because we were nearly out of gas. Leigh had to wait in line behind probably 10 other drives just at that one pump.

Tanya and I went inside to buy burgers at Wimpy (the SA version of McDonald's). In the to go area, metal railings allowed for a huge line to form. It was us, a family of locals, another guy from SA and a million Algeria fans.

Oh, Algeria. I'm so glad I didn't cheer for you.

It turns out that Algerians aren't big fans of the following:

1. Manners.

2. Standing in an orderly line.

3. Waiting patiently.

4. Using inside voices.

They do, however, enjoy the following:

1. Cutting.

2. Cutting overtly.

3. Shouting.

I excused all of this - it was a bunch of guys, their team just lost, it was late. But I was finally done in when one Algerian woman cut in front of me, Tanya and a SA guy. She just walked right in front of us like we hadn't been waiting in line together in that order for the past 20 minutes. It was insane. Who does that? Thank god for Tanya. She saw that I was about to lose it. She let me leave and she finished waiting in line. This was safest for all involved.

It took about an hour for Leigh to get through the gas line and for us to get through the burger line. We got the hell out of dodge and headed back to Joburg.

Mia stayed home with Sonja and Bradley, and I was ready to see her by the time we got home shortly before 10 p.m. I was so excited that she was still awake. Sonja looked pretty tired, but I was grateful to get a chance to hold Mia before she fell asleep.