Beat Texas

There are a lot of of things that I miss about the USA living in South Africa.  And right after my friends and family, the thing I miss most is OU football.  This week is one of the most important, most legendary, most fun, most historic games not only in OU football history, but in collegiate football history in general.  This Saturday at the State Fair of Texas, The University of Oklahoma and the university of texas will meet again (they've only been doing this since 1900...)

The OU/TX game has much significance for my family.  According to Birkett family lore OU/TX was finally when Tom B. wore Mary down enough to convince her to go on a date with him.  Consequently, Tom and Mary made many trips to Dallas during my childhood to watch football, and would leave Laura and me at home with some rando so they could indulge in funnel cakes and football while reminiscing on the days of old. Eventually  Laura and I got to go with them (Mom always told me that people made out under the bleachers and the toilets overflowed everywhere 'it's no place for children')  I can safely say after my first trip to Fair Park, I was sold on the thrill of this weekend.

A stadium split at the 50 yard line.  A neutral site every year.  An entire weeekend dedicated to football and your favorite team.  A Friday of cancelled classes.  It's football time.

I am so sad to say  I won't be there this year.  In fact, I haven't been since 2009.  You can be for sure that I will be at Fair Park in the Cotton Bowl in 2013--after all, my husband has yet to experience the majesty of OU/TX weekend.

Since I'm not going to be there, here are some of my favorite pics from years gone by.  (sadly, only photos of my college years and beyond...the childhood OU/TX pictures are in shoeboxes in Bartlesville, I'm sure)

 sophomore year--2006

The first trip to OU/TX without being chaperoned by the 'rents

Imagine a whole bunch of your best friends, all staying in the same hotel, in a town four hours away from where you usually party...all followed by an amaaazzinnng football game.

oh, and these are my wonderful friends Annie, Christie, Randis and Kayla, Amber, and me

 junior year

Annie, me, Randis, D, Christie, Emily, and Sarah

another hotel party

 junior year, in the Cotton Bowl

Rachel, Emily, me

 senior year--2008

no more hotels for us--we finally smartened up and started staying at D's house, where her parents fed us well, and drove us to the bars.  Wonderful people!

D, me and Rach with all of our DU boys after a delicious BBQ meal

and I have no idea why Mike put that bunny on my shoulders

 Lacey, the best frisbee catching dog in the world

also, I wish I still had those flip flops

in the Cotton Bowl

amazing seats for our senior year

RAA, with our friend Alicia

post grad--2009

RAA is reunited on the greatest weekend of the year

also, I miss those sunglasses

I'll miss you State Fair of Texas.  and happy 60th birthday to Big Tex.  I promise, I'll be there to celebrate your 61st.

Hotel Room Tour #1

Well if this isn't a delayed post, I don't know what is.

A couple months ago, Alex was asked to attend a recruiting event for work in Cape Town.  It was on a Thursday, so we decided that I should fly down Friday morning and we could have a weekend in Cape Town for the cost of one plane ticket!  It was quite the last minute decision, but Alex managed to find a fabulous, cool, trendy, fun hotel for us to stay in.

Enter the Grand Daddy Hotel on Long Street in Cape Town.  It is situated in the City Bowl area of CPT, so not near the beach, but it is still close to a couple fun areas and nice restaurants.  The Grand Daddy is a renovated historic boutique hotel that to make it even more boutique-ier (not a word, I know) has an Airstream Trailer Park on their roof.  No joke.  There are a collection of Airstreams that were imported from the States, plopped on the top of this hotel, and then renovated and decorated by various South African artists.

Alex managed to snag a really good deal on staying in them, and we got to stay in two different ones!  I didn't take photos of the first trailer we called home, AfroFunk, but I will tell you that it was strongly South African and awesome.  It was done in warm browns and oranges with hints of aqua, and they had pillows and curtains constructed with Nelson Mandela fabric.  And Alex and I looove Madiba, so we thought it was just the cat's pajamas.

photo from granddaddy.co.za  I couldn't resist not showing you guys.  :)

The exterior of Afrofrunkd, and the mailbox.  All of the trailers had their own mailbox with the name stenciled on.  So cute!









The second night I was in my Barbie, girlie heaven.  And Alex was a great sport. :)  The trailer for our second night was called For the Love of Lace, and it was the ultimate in bubblegum pink, princess-y decor.  I will let the photos speak for themselves.

 The nest, complete with chandelier above

 TV and coffee area

and a closer up view of the nest

There isn't much else to say about the weekend we spent in Cape Town, except that we will have to go back.  The weather was cloudy and cold, and Alex ended up sick and slept most of the trip.  :(  Buuut our hotel was so fun it made up for it!

Watching the Olympics in a Foreign Country

Alex and I are both huge fans of the Olympics.  I vividly remember watching them with my grandma and grandpa when I would go visit them in the summers.  And Alex loves them because it is the only time track cycling (his sport of choice) is ever televised.  We have been watching them faithfully and we have a whole stash recorded on our DVR, so we can continue to watch once they are over.

It has been very interesting watching the Olympics in a country other than the good ol' US of A.  Here are a few reasons why....

1)     You learn there are more countries than the US, Great Britain, and China competing in the games.  Sometimes it was hard to remember in the States, as those seemed to be the focus of the majority of the commentators remarks when we were watching across the pond.

2)     As a matter of fact, you rarely hear about the US unless it is to say they are leading.  I have learned very few fun facts about our US Olympians.  :(

3)     When Michael Phelps loses, especially to a South African, it's an exciting thing, not a sad one.  And you will get to watch the race approximately 82 times, as well has hear from both of the winner's parents (Chad le Klos was the winner, for those of you that missed it or didn't get to see it on replay as much as I did).

4)      The "Races to Watch" or "Events to Tune In" feature don't choose suggestions based on the excitement of the race, or the uniqueness or popularity of the event, but rather the events that represent as many African nations as possible.

5)     The medal count is divided between "Total Medal Count" and "African Medal Count"

6)     You never know who the commentators actually are...they never tell you, nor do they troll their names across the bottom of the screen as they do on NBC.  After faithfully watching all the men's and women's gymnastics events, wondering who the female commentator was, I learned on the LAST DAY that it was none other than former gold medalist from Edmond, Oklahoma, Shannon Miller!

7)    One of the most awesome things...I have two countries to root for....the USA and the RSA.  woot!

8)     Being in South Africa means I am almost watching the games in real time.  There is only an hour time difference between London and Johannesburg, so we watch almost everything live!

9)     There are three channels devoted to Olympics.  We don't miss anything.

We love the Olympics.  We are already looking forward to Rio 2016, and we hope to maybe see them in person!

Pomp and Circumstance

Two weekends ago, our little Jozi graduated from puppy school.  She attended six weeks of training (with perfect attendance!), made lots of friends, and managed to learn quite a bit.

Alex and I were convinced the whole time she was the best puppy in class. (boastful, much?) Well, at the graduation ceremony it was confirmed.  Jozi received the award of 'Class Nerd'--which meant that during the graduation contests/exams, she won every single event.  These events included fastest recall (Alex and I stood at the opposite end of the yard, called her, and she had to come to us before the puppy she was racing against ran to their owner.  Sorry, Enzo, Jozi is a quick girl!), quickest sit in the West (she had to sit before the dog she was competing against did), and she was on the winning relay team.

Alex and I are pretty proud of her--she's a good dog!

here are some pics from her puppy school and graduation ceremony.

Jozi playing with her friends Becky, Legend, Rio, and Enzo

The first week of class, Jozi hated the tunnel and was petrified when her teacher would pull it out.  By graduation, it was her favorite part of school!

Anne leading Jozi through the puppy confidence course!  Jozi had to walk through weave poles, tires, crawl in a baby pool of balls, and stand a board with a base of springs that wiggled.  She was a champ!

Jozi and her graduation ribbon!!

I hope to post again soon about Alex and I's quick weekend jaunt to Cape Town.  Taa-taa!

Big Kitties..and other Neat Animals

This Saturday I had an opportunity that very few people will ever have!  Alex and I went to the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve where we both got the once in a lifetime chance to pet an eight year old cheetah, three eight month old white lions, and two 5 month old brown lion cubs.  Sadly, none of them were as soft as we were expecting, but it was such a cool experience.

 Eddie purred so sweetly anytime you touched him!

                                                                    Eddie the Cheetah

 It's a little frightening when the sleeping lion cub wakes up unexpectedly.

Alex holding the paw of an eight month old lion cub.

This sweet little lady looooved belly scratches.

We also saw a variety of other animals as we drove throughout the park.  Zebras, cape buffalo, impalas, gemsbok, and ostriches just to name a few.

                                                                         Gemsbok

                                                                      Cape buffalo

                                                                    Female Gemsbok

                                              Warthog (and ostrich and zebra in background)

8 Cheetah Crescent

Here is a little peek at our home in South Africa, 8 Cheetah Crescent.  We live in a gated complex (with a guard at night) in one of the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.  There are 11 other units in our complex, and the neighbors we have met are great!  (I have another post that details just how great some of our neighbors are...)  This is the front door of our little abode.

So this is a front view of our unit.  The garage is ours, and on the left is a carport where I park my Jeep!  There are no windows in the front of any of the units, so from the outside it is quite boring to see with all the red brick.  I am assuming the no windows in the front is a safety thing.

The complex pool and barbecue area.  (Our braii area as they call it here in South Africa).  Our unit is right next to the pool, so the brick wall on the right is actually our garden and master bedroom.  Even though it is winter here, it's been warm enough to put on a swimsuit a couple times and lay by the pool and read, but the water is cold.  So I am looking forward to when it warms up and I can go bask in the South African heat poolside!

Our house has two lovely gardens--they are easily my favorite feature of the place.  The top two photos are of the gardens off of the kitchen/den area.  I spend most of my time in this garden as it has the large table where I eat lunch, and a lot of seating.  The sound of the fountain is also quite relaxing, and it is usually warmer outside than inside so I read, eat, etc out there during the day.  The last two pictures are of the gardens that have entrances off the bedrooms.

And what grows in our garden, you may be wondering?  We have roses, lilies, tomato plants, rosemary, basil, and some pretty purple flowers I believe to be zinnias.

The best part of the garden is that our complex gardener, Davey, comes once a week and tends to it.  I am not really sure what he does besides mow and edge, but that is mowing and edging we don't have to do!

As they say, the kitchen is the heart of the home, so here is our HEART.  I really like our kitchen, much more since the dishwasher came back from repairs about a month after we moved in.  It is one of the more spacious kitchens for a house this size, and it has finishes and updates that a lot of houses in South Africa don't have.  The oven is not in fahrenheit (duh!) but I have a glass cutting board that converts it for me so that makes recipes much easier.  Not the clothes washer in the last picture; we also have a dryer (most homes in JoBurg don't) but it's tucked away in a hall closet and I have to use an extension cord when I need to dry clothes.  I try to use the line that is kind of visible through the window.

Here is our lovely hallway...haha.  This is where we play fetch with Jozi when it is dark outside.  And since we weren't able to bring picture frames, I concocted a clothesline to hang photos on.  Also, last weekend I realized that the plant was (once) alive house plant.  I am now in the process of trying to revive it.

Guest bedroom and bathroom!  COME VISIT!

I realized I don't have any photos of the master bedroom or bathroom.  (they probably weren't clean the day I took all these pictures) They are very similar, just slightly larger, and then master bath has a shower while the guest bath has a tub.  The closets are small here, so Alex and I use the closets in all three of the bedrooms.  I guess it was a good thing that I didn't bring all my clothes as the ones I have barely fit.

There is a little peek of 8 Cheetah Crescent....I guess if you want to see the den, living room, and master suite, you need to book a ticket into O.R. Tambo Airport.  :)

South Africa vs England

Rugby!!  I had the opportunity to attend my first rugby match a couple of weekends ago, and it was so fun.  A group of Alex's colleagues planned an outing to watch England take on South Africa at Ellis Park Stadium and we went!

We kicked off the day picking up our friend Jonathon and heading to meet up with the group to get Italian food for lunch.  Alex and I were bundled up, representing in our Springbok green and yellow, as we both know how to watch American football in the winter--and since it is winter here, and rugby slightly resembles American football, we stayed nice and warm.  (Several of our friends were not as forward thinking as we were.)  After lunch, we piled in cabs as our cabbie braved the traffic to get us to the stadium.

We were dropped off a short walk from the venue, and as we walked through the raucous crowd I couldn't help but think that 1) they needed a lesson in tailgating and 2) they needed a better method of funneling thousands of people through the gates to the stadium.  We did get free samples of face paint in the colors of the South African flag, although neither of us decked ourselves out.

We got to our seats, and Alex immediately delved in to teach me the rules of rugby.  Here are the rules that really struck me, and I still remember two weeks later.

1) play/the clock stops for nothing.  Literally.  A player was injured on the field, and when the John Deere Gator-esque car was being loaded with said injured player, THEY KEPT PLAYING.  I was appalled.

2) it's make it, take it.  So, you score, you get the ball back.  

3)  you can only throw the ball backward.  To move the ball forward, you must run with it or kick it to a teammate.  

4)  once you are tackled, you can just toss the ball backward to one of your teammates and play on.

5) to get a 'try', you must literally touch the ball down in the goal area (essentially the end zone).  Hence where the word 'touchdown' comes from in the glorious game of American football.

South Africa won, handily, and the mom of the two British boys I watch in the afternoons said it was because South Africa never loses at Ellis Stadium due to the altitude....I don't know whether this is true, but it was interesting none the less.

After the game, we hung out with our friends at KFC for a bit (yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken is wildly popular in this country.  Alex and I did not consume any, however.)

Here are a couple photos from the game.  Until next time, my friends.

 The view from our seats...we couldn't have gotten much higher!  Similar to the Birkett family seats at Owen Field.  :)

             Steffan, Alex, Anne, and Jonathon outside the stadium.  Camilla was taking the photo.  :(