Sports Weekend!!

Emily and Alizma

Our view at lunch

Emily, Alizma, and I

So two weekends ago was a weekend of sports! Friday after school Emily and I joined a group of teachers for drinks at Barney's after school. There were about 10 of us chatting and relaxing out on the ocean front patio.

Baseball uniforms are way better!

The other girls were going to a cricket game so Emily and I decided to ride with a teacher and meet the girls there! I have never been to a cricket match and had heard they can be rather boring and last for DAYS! We only get about four channels on our tv so at night I sometimes watch the sport channel and try to pick up on the sports. Cricket reminds me a lot of baseball.. Except once again a lot more intense! There is a player up to "bat" in the middle of a circle field. The player hits the ball and the "outfielders" must catch it. Instead of running bases the player runs what I would call laps back and forth until the ball he hit is caught. The only player with gloves is the "catcher" so imagine catching a ball smaller and harder than a baseball with your bare hands. The stadium was a lot lower and smaller than a ballpark I had seen, maybe a bit smaller than Florence freedom! We watched the game, bought some biltong, and cheered on the home team (when everyone else cheered).

All of us girls at the Cricket game!

 Saturday we went to the beach all day and got lots of sun! Liz bought a paddle ball game and we played for hours and made lots of friends impressed with our skills. After soaking up the sun for a good 5 hours we went in to start getting ready for our first rugby game ever! Two other girls in the COST program that were staying in Grahmstown had contacted Emily and Katharine wanting to come visit us for the weekend because they saw how much fun we were having on Facebook so they got a ride to Port Elizabeth and came to the Rugby game with us! We called our favorite Cabby and headed to Nelson Mandela Stadium! As we pulled up we realized how crowded it was and how beautiful the stadium was! We walked right in, bought some programs and snapped a group photo. We found our seats and began trying to figure out the game! Wow rugby is so intense and fun to watch! Between the excitement of the fans and the rush you get watching those amazing athletes tackle each other without any padding it's hard not to get excited and into it!

I accidentally wore 2 different shoes..

Team America + Grahmstown girls

Such a beautiful stadium!

 This game was particularly special because it is the first super rugby team for the eastern cape and this was their first game! It was the Southern Kings(Eastern Capes team) vs. Western Force (from Australia). It was crowded and exciting, we got so into it that we were even standing cheering and screaming at the tackles and plays! It only lasted 1hr and 45 minutes and we headed down to Barney's to show the Grahmstown girls a good time! We ran into Murray from the Freewalkers at Barney's there with his boxing team he sponsors and traveled with from Cape town! It was extremely crowded due to people coming into town for the rugby game so we didn't stay too long.

Delicious Sunday Funday meals!

 Sunday was an interesting day for us.. We slept in and went to the beach for a couple hours again, Liz and I playing paddle ball but not as good because our legs were so sore from playing the day before. We were all in by 4pm and starved so we decided to go to The Bridge street brewery for dinner (our favorite spot for Sunday funday). We love the bridge street brewery because they play relaxing live music, the restaurant is open and inviting, not to mention their food is delicious and cheap!

 We were standing up to leave the Brewery when a man at a table behind us must have heard our accents yells to us asking if we were from the states.. We responded yes and he dropped the "are you from Tennessee" pick up line. We all laughed then realized there were about 8 very tall, athletic, and handsome guys sitting at this table. We started talking to them and realized it was the Western Force rugby team from Australia!!! More players from their team came and us girls ended up hanging and talking with them until the Brewery closed! Nicole (5ft tall) was amazed at how tall all of them were and we all talked and joked around about what they would be doing and buying if they had NFL paychecks. Amazing how we go to our first rugby game and end up meeting the Australian team the next evening.