Help, I am becoming a local.

I have just come to the realisation that I am starting to integrate in South Africa. I was shocked and disappointed in myself....

The Provincial super rugby team (Stormers) was going to start another match and I was actually looking forward to watching the game.. ME! Watch a rugby match! I am probably in need of some serious medication. I never watched rugby before I moved here. Never liked it, never understood it (well that hasn't changed much) and most certainly never enjoyed watching a game or look forward to it.

And now I catch myself watching the games, yelling at the screen as if I am watching a proper sport, you know football or cricket, instead of a bunch of guys throwing and kicking an egg about that they dare call a ball. I am afraid that this is a serious matter and might be irreversible.

But at least I manage to hold on to my love for football and cricket here. But why the South Africans call football soccer is a mystery to me. The national football organisation is called SAFA: South African FOOTBAL Organisation. Yet in the press and the public at large the term soccer is rife. Soccer! A term invented by Americans because they allready have a sport called football. You know, the one that has absolutely nothing to do with playing a ball (also an egg) with ones feet, except when they kick off or take a penalty.

Now why on earth would any selfrespecting South African use that name for the sport that is the most popular in the country? The most popular league on tv here (besides the local league) is the english Premier League. In England it is called football, why not here? Eish (as they say here), those South Africans are very confusing. What worries me is that on occasion they actually make sense to me. I must be slipping. Another 2 years here and I will understand them even better, this is a worrying curve.

Ah well, as the saying goes: if you can't beat them, join them. TV here I come: STORMERS!!!!!