So the boys have been pretty silent on the email front. Who can blame them? I've received spurts of texts from Jason and Geoff, and it sounds like they're having a blast. From the random texts I've received, I do know that the fellas have been wine tasting, have partied with South Africans on a train, Geoff's "experienced" the fruits of the local "agriculture industry," and Jason had some "fun" with a local. Their random texts definitely leave room for the imagination to run wild. FrankenKaras did send a few photos yesterday, which give us all a peek into what they've been up to.

Here they are:

England vs. USA, Rustenburg - View from the guys' seats, and from what I can tell, they were on the opposite end of where Dempsey's goal was scored.

FIFA Fan Fest in Rustenbug. These were awesome in Germany, so it's really cool to see they've done them again in South Africa.

An view of the ocean taken by Jason from Cape Town (top). You can see that it was perfectly captured in the USA Mural from the AM I Collective (bottom).

FIFA Fan Fest in Cape Town

FIFA Fan Fest Cape Town - Table Mountain in the background.

Korb in prime form. As you can see, little has changed since 2006 (top). Once again in South Africa, Geoff catches some sleep wherever he can (bottom).

El Americano

I'm sorry it has taken so long to post here and I'm even more sorry that I won't be able to add photos right now (no way to get them from mobile device to internet cafe computer), but I just want to report a little on our adventures so far.

Many of you already know that I was delayed in arriving in Rustenburg. I didn't know it, but I needed a blank page in my passport (which I found out I don't have).

The gate agent in Atlanta turned me away from my flight and sent me to a company in the main terminal, called Denied Boarding. They charge $660 for a one business day turnaround (adding passport pages). The guy told me I wouldn't be able to fly until Friday, which would put me inJohannesburg on Saturday evening and likely cause me to miss the England match. So, I told them no and called Jorge.

He guided me to a national passport hotline and I was able to find a passport office with an open appointment tomorrow morning (in Detroit). So, flew to Detroit (without my luggage) and stayed in the airport Westin. While at the Westin I filled out and printed the passport forms I needed and made a few copies of my driver's license (at about 2am). At 5:30am I woke up to blow dry my clothes, which I had washed in the sink the night before. I got my shit together and headed to Hertz and then to the passport office. I got all of that sorted out by 11:30am and, after a breakfast at American Coney Island, I headed back to the airport. Once there I was able to get on an earlier flight to Amsterdam (4:05pm, instead of 7:25pm), which would give me several hours of layover instead of only 75 minutes. Everything went pretty smoothly from then until I landed in Johannesburg.

I got through immigration and customs in OR Tambo airport with little problem and I even found my driver without much issue, but he was holding up two signs. One said "Geoffrey Korb" and the other one said "Geofloss E Korb". My driver was convinced that there was another guy on my flight with almost the same name and that we should wait for him. He wouldn't listen to me at all and I made phone calls for an hour before he decided to just leave Geoffloss E for dead. I arrived at the camp and the tent to find it empty, so I scanned the environment for some light and noise. Sure enough, I found Karas drinking beers with a few Americans and an Englishman at the camp's bar. I had a few with them, went to bed, and woke up on my first morning in South Africa.

Anyway, that's enough news for now...more to follow.