I Got A Story To Tell Part I

"this is africa jack"
the tag line of the whole trip. and an unforgetable moment if there ever was one. as i mentioned before, one of the coolest most laid back guys in the program, lets call him flordia, just totally lost it on his roommate, oklahoma, but you had to hear the guy tell the story to really appreciate it. a quick version goes like this. now i guess it's not uncommon for people in close quarters not to get along when personalities clash (as extremely evident by some of the girls in the program). we were randomly assigned roommates, and most of us shared rooms. well one night a bunch of people went out, and as expected we got back late. when florida went back to his room, oklahoma must have been sleeping, but anyway the rooms have really massive doors, so it's virtually impossible to close them without making some sort of a noise, but not even a big noise. anyway, florida was as quiet and respectful as he could be. well the next morning at 6 am, florida is awakened by the sounds of christian rock blaring from a lap top by none other than oklahoma. when florida ask what he is doing if can turn it down. oklahoma responded, something along the lines of: "well, last night when you came in, you were banging doors, being all inconsiderate, so it's only right that i be inconsiderate now" now most people in the program were not big fans of oklahoma already, because lets say he can say things that could be considered offensive, and when you're situated in a country such as south africa, with a history as it is, that's probably not a great idea. anyways, florida, clearly upset from all that was going on, decided to just blow it off, and go back to sleep. that is, until he just recollected what had just happened. so in his words, after about 5 minutes of thinking it over, florida jumped out of his bed, went into the main room where oklahoma had gone and proceeded to let it all out, and somewhere what was being said, florida ripped off his shirt hulk hogan style, and let oklahoma know: "if you got a problem, this is africa jack, we can settle it right here"

"that's a cold deal"
table mountain is some 3000 feet high and about 3 km wide. most people go up table mountain on a nice day using the cable car which takes around 20 minutes to see the spectacular view. of course a couple students decided they would do the 3 plus hour (for fit people) hike up the mountain. sure, they were sucessful, but what they didn't realize is that cable cars stop operating around 6pm when it gets dark, and the workers and staff that are up there, take the last cable car back. so by the time these students got to the top, everything was closed and it was getting dark fast. hiking back down the moutain at this time was not an option, one of the students hurt their ankle. cell phones don't work at top, so calling emergency was out of the question. the only solution, one of the students had to hike down the mountain as much as she could, until she could get reception and call for help to get the others down. all this, on the day before our constitutional exam. after hearing about this, me discussing this with my roommate.
me: "hey did you hear about those girls who got stuck on top of cable mountain?"
roommate: "yeah, that's a cold deal"

"would you let me finish, you might learn something"
i've met many characters in my life, but none can compare to the man known as supurb. picture an older cat, already a lawyer, in ny no less, coming as an alumni on a trip with a bunch of mid-twenty year olds, in cape town, surrounded by beautiful women, then compare that to the greaziest person you know, then times that by 10, and that is approximately how supurb is. now supurb is not a bad guy, i actually got a long with him extremely well, but the sh-t talk that can come out of this man's mouth is priceless. and the thing is, it's not like that he doesn't say interesting stuff, but it's like having to use a filter to get through all the nonsense and extra junk before getting to it. supurb to a liking to room 302, because he said we were on his level, what level he meant i have clue. most evenings after class, he would come up to our room uninvited most times, and make himself at home. we would kick it out on the balcony and start talking about whatever, and this is where it would begin. now most times, i would sit back and laugh myself silly, but my roommate he would constantly question some of the things supurb would say, bad move. but not only does supurb talk a lot, he talks loud, like loud as in the neighbours from across the canal complain. and anytime we would ask him to tone it down, just a little bit, before we could even finish, supurb would interupt us by saying: "would you let me finish, you might learn something" classic.

"man that's hateful"
imagine a situation, where your options are as follows: you have just found out that you have been kicked out of your room, and you are now left with a situation where you can either stay in the apartment of people you like and sleep on the couch, or you can room with someone you hate, and would probably argue with everyday. you'd probably select the first option right. not supurb, in his own words, it went something life this.
supurb: "you think i'm going to let that motherf--ker get a room to himself, f--k that!
302: "but supurb, if you stay on the couch, you could still be cool, and yeah so what he'd be good, but if you both stay in the same room, you know you can't stand him..."
supurb: "nah man, i'd rather f--k things up for the both of us, it's the principle behind it"
302: "man that's hateful"

"you lack composure"
a friend of mine from cape town was out for a night on the cape town with lady friend of his, doing it big as many south african's do. when it came time to going home, it's not uncommon for south africans to blaze down the streets in an effort to get home as fast as you can. but on this occasion, the young man, was pulled over by the south african fuzz a few blocks away from his house. the girl, already histerical from the fast driving, urged my friend to be cool. but when the cops approached the car, my overconfident friend proceeded to tell the cops to "f--k off" asking why the pulled him over. the police than asked him to get out of the car, and asked him to hop around on one leg suspecting that maybe he had something to drink. my friend, an excitable young man, started hopping around, and started gaining in confidence, and started hopping in a straight line, just to show he could do it, and continued to yell at the police. the girl in the car by this time, had totally lost it, and by then all you could hear was "what's wrong with you, you lack composure." the cops sensing that this girl was about to lose it, than actually felt sorry for the guy, told him to get back in the car, and drive home safetly right away.

"son, your only job is to call heads or tails"
i went to go watch some of my south african friends play a league soccer game at mitchell's plain in cape town as i mentioned sometime back. when it comes to playing soccer in mitchell's plain, the level of skill is quite high, but so can the level of physical play. on this occasion "mr. referee" was not interested in anything anyone had to say. because here, players were being fly kicked, and he would not even pull out a yellow card, but when one of my friend's teammates swore at the referee for not making a call, "mr. referee" proceeded to give him a red card. my friend, the captain for the game, then went up to the referee and was like:
captain: "mr referee, as captain can i speak to you for a moment"
mr. referee: "son, your only job is to call heads or tails, your job is done"
captain: 'but, they're fly kicking us..."
mr. referee: "i said your job is done...yellow card"