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Trip to the Rainbow Nation. 6th June to the 13th of July. Me.
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Trip to the Rainbow Nation • 6th June to the 13th of July
Me • Hi my name is Astrid Van Utoy. I’m from Netherlands but if you see my passport, you’ll notice that I am a citizen of the World. I was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands but I spent most of my childhood and teenage life in Port Harcourt, Nigeria as my dad has been working for sixteen years now as an engineer for Shell Petroleum. Back then, I went to a French School because my father wanted me to speak several languages So I speak Dutch, French, English and Spanish which I Iearned at school
It might not seem really useful in Nigeria or in the Netherlands but it really helps when you’re in the United-States, you have lost your way and there’s just a group of Hispanic people who are like “No comprendo Ingles” when you come to speak to them. • I’m currently studying Anthropology at Michigan State University.
Different Aspirations • . I came here with my two little twin brothers who are still in High School back in Nigeria. They really, really like soccer as we say in America. Their principal motivation to go to the World Cup is first to meet Ruud Vannistelroy THE Star of the Dutch Team and to find tall blonde girlfriends from Sweden. Mine are all different. I would really like to live as average South African people do.
Paris • As my vacation started in May, I decided to go to see my father and my junior brothers in Nigeria which is not the cheapest solution. It’s not everybody who knows that plane tickets to Africa are damn expensive even though it’s not that far and people are generally poorer. It might have something to do with supply and demand. This is why I paid for a 2700 USD ticket from Detroit to Port Harcourt. We transferred in Paris and OF COURSE I went shopping in the Duty free shop which kept me busy during the four hour transfer time.
Port Harcourt Airport • . I arrived in Port Harcourt the day after with huge rings under my eyes. When you fly to Africa, you have not entirely arrived until you’ve been through Customs which is really hell. I brought lots of American food and of course clothes for my brothers and my dad who really needs to ring the alarm in terms of style. So I had to give 2000 Naira, the equivalent of 15 US dollars in order not to spend the night at the airport. My dad and my brothers came to pick us up at the airport.
Dilemma • . As the World Cup starts on the eleventh of June, we decided to leave Port-Harcourt on the 5th of June. The problem is my brothers still have school until the eleventh. My dad said it is no big deal as the teachers are already used to seeing the Van Utoy leave at least three days before the holidays without even telling them so that’s what we did. Since there are no direct flights from Port-Harcourt to Johannesburg, we had to fly to Lagos to get one with a local company. Nigerian air companies do have a bad reputation. There’s a company which caught our eyes called Virgin Nigeria, a subsidiary of the huge corporation so we decided to try it. We paid 10 000 Naira each , sixty five USD. The plane seemed alright and we arrived safely in Lagos.
. We paid for a 1 500 USD ticket from Lagos to Johannesburg. During the flight, we decided which games we were going to see. It seemed obvious that we were going to see the match of the Dutch, the Nigerian and the French teams. So the first thing we did when we arrived was to buy tickets for the game of France versus Uruguay, Nigeria versus Argentina and Netherlands versus Japan. Those would be great games I’m sure.
So we arrived in Jo’burg on the 6th of June. Most Europeans who go to this city are shocked by the high crime rate but after living in Nigeria which I think equals South Africa in terms of crime rate, I’m used to it. • As the first match in our schedule we decided to stay there and go sightseeing n Johannesburg • Nobody needs to be a genuis in economics to know that in this kind of event, prices rocket in hotels, this is why we decided to rent a villa for the time we’ll be in South Africa
So ten months before the event my dad decided to book this villa for forty thousand rands which equals five thousand dollars a month while some people are going to pay this sum for a week in a hotel
Social analysis of Joahnnesburg • During the days in Johannesburg what really shocked me is the gap between rich and poor. Some people in this city can afford a month’s stay in a five-star hotel while others are struggling to have enough to eat. A visit to Soweto permitted me to see that there are still huge inequalities between blacks and whites even though appartheid has been finished for almost twenty years.
Our first game as spectaros, Nigeria versus Argentina took place in Johannesburg at Ellis Park Stadium. Down there, we met three American Girls who seemed to be from Latin America. Oh my gosh they were so stupid. And even though they were wearing designer labels from head to toes they still looked as if they had got their clothes from Wallmart’ They were typically the stereotype of the Nouveau Riche spending 5 000 euros on the ostrich-feathered Muse from Yves-Saint-Laurent and booking their hotels two days before in order to spend more money. I was so happy Nigeria beat Argentina. Though, my junior brothers were interested in them and they tried with minor success to take their numbers. This slightly rose my estime for them as accepting my junior brother’s advances is like the cheapest thing a girl can ever do
A day with the Nature • As my dad is really interested in flaura and fauna. We went to Golden Gate Highlands National park which was really beautiful. We woke up at 5 am in order to avoid the traffic jams. The trip lasted four hours, We had hired a car with a driver and a guide for the day. All those services cost us three thousand Rand. We spent the whole day down there • We saw all kinds of animals. and we left at 6. pm. We were exhausted. Luckily we had the driver otherwise we would have had to stay in Bethlehem overnight.
My Philosophy about travelling • On the 25th of July, we went to Durban to see the Round 16 as the Netherlands is playing. The ticket was not that expensive as my prudent dad had bought them six months ago knowing that the Netherlands would finish on top of the group. He had bought four business class tickets. Even though we can afford it, we HATE travelling first class because first class is always full of eccentric Russian Nouveau Riche. So it cost us 2 000 USD for everybody.
I really liked the city of Durban and the hotel we paid for cost us like 4 000 Rand a night which went up to 20 000 Rand as we stayed there for five days. We went to the beach and visited townships.one more time the occasion to experience the social inequalities. I wanted to stay there overnight but just when the sun went down, a group of three people coming and telling me in pidgin English « Gi mi ma phone » and I was like « what phone » and they grabbed my purse and left. I grabbed a cab and begged him to drive me to the hotel.I was so traumatized. When I got back home I gave him a hundred dollar tip.
The Netherlands was playing against North Korea. North Korea was like the surprise guest in the final phase of the World Cup. I wonder how they managed to leave their country. If I were them, I would not go back to North Korea! Anyway, The Netherlands beat Korea 8-0 which was an ecstatic moment.
Fortunates and Unfortunate reunions • We stayed in Durban until the 1st of June and then we took the train for Cape Town because the Dutch team qualified for the semis and the game will take place there. The fare cost us 1 000 Rand a person We have friends in Cape Town. For historical reasons, there’s a very large Dutch community in Cape Town formerly Kaapstadt which does sound Dutch. They are college friends of my mom who died seven years ago. It’s always good to keep in touch with them. They have this huge villa on top of a hill with a great view over the bay. What I really liked about Cape Town is the demographic diversity. In this city, you can be understood speaking Afrikaans as well as Dutch or English. We played against France and in the stadium, I met a girl I had known from High School. As I don’t want my diary to be vulgar I will spare you the vulgar adjective I want to use to qualify her. Just to let you know that this word starts with a S and ends up with a T.After all, that’s what she is, she stole my boyfriend when we were in 1ère and she still acts like we’re bestfriends… tsss. I am so happy the Netherlands won this game. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to go to the final in Johannesburg because I don’t want too die trampled.
The Victory • On the 12th of July, the day after the Dutch victory all Dutch citizens in South Africa were invited to a reception to the Embassy in Pretoria to celebrate the victory and guess what ? My brothers finally met Van Nistelroy. They were overjoyed and took lots of photographs • The day aferwards, we headed back to Port Harcourt for two weeks and we went to The Hague, the Netherlands for holidays
