The planes had landed. The bags had been claimed. Another 2 hour bus ride had been completed. We arrived at the college campus (Tswane University in Pretoria) we were set to stay in during our long awaited international trip. There was only one problem. There was a bit of miscommunication on their part that made them think our reservation was for a day later. So, after our fearless leader, Delegation Leader Curt Hamakawa, kindly negotiated with the good people at "Simple Bedzzz," we were shown to our accomodations.
There may have not been televsion, heat, or towels (none of which were promised in the brouchure), but after traveling on planes and busses for over 30 hours it was home. We were split into two side by side dormatories featuring 6 bedrooms (3 doubles, 3 singles each) and two bathrooms on each side. Rooms were selected and it was time to eat.
Everyone we met was extremely friendly. Throughout all the confusions in the accomodations, almost everyone greeted us with a smile when faced with our inability to understand accents and cultural differences. Our first real encounter was at "dinner" in the cafateria at approximately 10pm in our time zone. The ordering communications were rough, but the food was pretty Americanized (Pasta, Meat Sauce, Salad, Brocoli, Rice, Juice, and a desert in the deluxe meal). Everyone ate and with that sign I sign off to play some setback and bed.
(Real Time notice, More tommorow, I'll have a ton more time to catch up).
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Glad everything is going well so far...nice to hear the "food" report, Tim! What a terrific adventure and you must be psyched for today's match.
ReplyDeleteJust thought you might want to share this with everyone....From the Sports City newsletter released yesterday..."FIFA has announced it made a profit of $196 million in 2009 and has equity of over $1 billion thanks to growing income from the sale of television rights.
The vast majority of revenue was brought in by television which netted FIFA $650 million, while marketing accounted for $277 million to leave the governing body with a equity basis of $1,061 million.
"While equity of over a billion dollars seems high, it is necessary as the financial risks exceed it many times over," said Franco Carraro, chairman of the internal audit committee.
"The figure is only enough to cover the next year and a half."
FIFA also revealed that revenue for the period 2007-10 was 12 times greater than for the period 1995-98, an increase from $257 million to $3,200 million.
In addition, FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced that spending on the development programmes across the globe had grown from $14m for 1995-98 to $691 million for 2007-10.""
The lesson for us all...sports is truly BIG BUSINESS and international in scope! Thanks for the update, Tim and company. Can't wait for the next....my greetings to all.
Dr. Walker - "The 14th Delegate"