Sunday, January 25, 2009

First Night Out in Jo'burg

Having made it through my first work week in Jo'burg, it was time to go out. A group of people from work, some expats and some locals, thankfully led by the locals, was headed to a club called Crazy 88. I was warned ahead of time that it would be "filled with black people... with LOUD black people music." I was pumped.


I headed over after dinner with 4 other white folks. As we pulled up to the front, we saw someone literally scream and jump on someone's car rather menacingly. He might have been joking around, but it was enough to spook us. I really didn't want to get jumped on my first night out. So, we headed back to the apartment and a couple people went home. I ended up going back out, but this time with a handful of locals and Brazilians - much more credible.

The place ended up being a lot of fun - crowded, but manageable. It did live up to the 'warning' I was given, which was great. The music was pretty typical hip-hop you'd hear in a club anywhere, with a few exceptions. It was definitely cool to hear Dead Prez in a club in South Africa, though I felt a little weird singing along with parts of Hip-Hop.



There was a little bit of violence inside - two girls got into a fight... and then another... and then another. In the second round, one took off a high-heeled shoe and attempted to use that as a weapon. It seemed more Jerry Springer than COPS, so I wasn't too worried. The third time though, one of them broke a bottle over a table and brandished it but didn't manage to do any stabbing. Each time they fought, the (1) bouncer stepped in and broke things up, and the girls were restrained by their respective gentlemen. We avoided the two of them the rest of the night.

It was a little alarming, but really, I've been seeing that kind of thing since high school. Well, without the broken beer bottles. I mean, really, I've seen worse girl fights at lunch there - hair extensions and bits of fake nails on the ground, scratch marks from said fake nails, security guard intervention, etc etc. So, yet one more situation I can thank Blair High School for preparing me for!

1 comment:

  1. "It seemed more Jerry Springer than COPS" yeah, you do use cultural references to communicate... definetely knowing English is not at all enough to understand you!!

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