World Cup Fever

Killing a few hours in the Johannesburg airport this morning, where World Cup 2010 excitement has reached near-fever pitch.  Some examples:
- The one radio station we could listen to on the way from Mbabane (radio in the car receives frequencies from 60.something to 89.0, and the frequencies in SA are the same as in the US) played the K'naan world cup song 5 times in the 4-hour drive.
- Several South African Airways planes are painted with soccer balls and the World Cup Logo.
- Dozens of people are walking around the airport with Vuvuzelas painted with South African colors -- side note, if you haven't heard a vuvuzela, check out here why FIFA almost tried to ban them from this year's event.
-Oversized soccer balls hanging from the ceiling in dozens of places.
-Billboards, signs, ads, etc. from Visa, telling us "Go Fans" whatever that means.  They have purchased ad space on the entire terminal, I think.  The most prominent flag next to the South African flag is the American flag.  


Still have to get some tickets, though the current plan is to watch the US play Slovenia and then catch another game or two in Nelspruit, which is only about 2 hours from Mbabane.  New Zealand plays Italy there, which seems like it would be fun. The Nelspruit stadium is painted like a Zebra, since it's the closest stadium to Kruger National Park.  Funny stuff.


For those of you who haven't seen/heard the K'Naan video, it's pretty catchy: