Ze Awea Eez Secure.

First off, thank you everyone who gave me nice feedback about my last blog! It was very unexpected but very appreciated and I’m glad I have such great people in my life who care enough to keep up with this!

So Friday I woke up and was very tired and my first class on Fridays is really really really dumb so far so I was like hmmm I think I’m gonna skip and then I was like yeah I’m def gonna skip because I’m a DELINQUENT jk no I don’t usually skip but this class is really so dumb. And THEN get this so I went back to sleep and when I woke up a couple hours later, we had gotten an email from the professor of that class I skipped telling us that class was cancelled. But she sent it 3 mins before the class started so everyone showed up to class which they walked 25 mins uphill for and were then like UHH WHAT THE HOOT but guess where I was??? SLEEPING IN MY BED HA!! Skipping class pays off folks. It was Hashem’s plan. I’m really into saying things are Hashem’s plan cuz we talked about that at Chabad which I’m getting to in one sec and I think it’s a cool mindset and fun thing to say.

A bunch of us walked to Chabad that night for Shabbat dinner. I had been there a few times for Shabbat lunch, but never dinner. I have so many good things to say about it. The wonderful Chabad couple has events out of their beautiful house, so right off the bat it feels very homie and intimate, which is very Shabbat for me. We did Kabbalat Shabbat before we ate, and it was absolutely the most beautiful service I have experienced in my life. All of the guys were harmonizing with each other somehow, projecting so loudly and so beautifully, and they all had incredible voices. I looked at Alicia and was like ummm do they like practice this?? Are they secretly a men’s choir?? Ugh guys we sang lecha dodi to the tune of Hallelujah which sidenote I wanna bring to camp this summer, someone pls hold me accountable to that ok? It was just something that was really meaningful to me because I know all of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayers from my time at Schechter, but I feel like besides camp (and there we don’t do nearly all of the prayers) I haven’t actually gotten to do them in a context where I feel connected. So I was saying all of these words that have been engrained in me since elementary school, but doing it with meaning for the first time in a very long while.

After services we ate dinner, which obviously was perfect (had maybe 5 helpings of cabbage salad oops). Also I held a baby for a while. I’m always that annoying person asking and trying to find ways to hold people’s babies. I’m not even sorry—it was amazing. Everything was so relaxed, which was a really nice change from what I’m used to from Tulane Shabbats. There’s just a different experience to sitting and shmooozing for hours with an intimate crowd and knowing that everyone who was there genuinely cared about their Judaism. We were there until 11! Ash and Nissen (the Chabad couple) are so awesome and cool for having college kids in their house till 11 when they have 2 young kids of their own. They’re really the best.

OH YEAH on this day in New Orleans time I was gaining a GRANDDAUGHTER!!! Aka a sorority grandlittle. You know those tweets making fun of sorority girls that were like "me: i'm a little hungry- sorority girl: OMG MY LITTLE IS MY BEST FRIEND ON THE PLANET I LOVE HER MORE THAN LIFE NOBODY HAS A BETTER LITTLE FAM 4EVER" anyone? no? ok well that's lowkey shamelessly me I reaaalllly heckin love my family and am so happy to welcome Emily who I knew before because of Lily Berkow SHOUTOUT LILY IK U A LOYAL BLOG FOLLOWER LUH YOU GIRL now Emily and I are gonna hang all the time and exchange silly stories about you!! Anyway Hannah (my perfect wonderful big who I LOVE NOBODY HAS A BETTER BIG PCE LUV BIGGIE FAM haha jk not jk) brought a cutout of my face and held it up in pictures and I really love her for that.

On Saturday, we had a floor event going to a contemporary art museum called the Zeitz in the morning. I did enjoy it a lot, but I have mixed feelings about art museums. It’s a really peaceful experience for me to be able to just walk around by myself and form my own thoughts. How often do we get to do an activity that really just involves looking and then quietly being in your own head? But at the same time, I get frustrated when I can’t find meaning in the art and know I’m supposed to. I wish this museum had more descriptions of the art so I could know what I’m looking at or what to think about when looking at it. Cuz sometimes I’m like oh yes this really depicts the struggle of women during apartheid and then it would be like no Hannah it’s actually about consumerism in the beauty industry and I’m like uhhhYEAHOBVIOUSLYIKNEWTHAT but I so didn’t. That actually did happen. There was this cool sculpture of snakes made out of acrylic nails and it was supposed to be a commentary on the beauty industry. Luckily that piece had a little blurb written next to it but many exhibits didn’t. There was one exhibit that was just like a bunch of dresses made out of cow hide and there was no explanation behind it so I was just like mmm cow hide okie dokie and like an exhibit with bricks hanging from the ceiling and I looked at it for awhile and tried to come up with meaning but really just couldn’t. Anyway here are some cool pictures from the museum and exhibits I liked. Even if I didn’t love every minute of it, I’m glad I went.

Then we drove a looooong time to this market in Hout’s Bay and it was COOOOOL!!! I got this yummmmy big jalapeño popper thing which I said Alicia you need to get it (bc she’s Mexican and loves spicy) and she was like no dairy gives me stomach issues and I was like ALICIA I’M LETTING YOU KNOW YOU NEED TO GET IT and she was like I’m not going to but thank you for your input! BIG MISTAKE ALICIA BIG MISTAKE. Then I turned to my left and saw the most beautiful combination of 4 letters—POKE!!!!! Oh boy. I have never been so excited. I went over to the stand and told the man working it my whole life story of loving poke and being from the states and having a brutal poke-less month since I’ve been here and his mouth said haha cool but his eyes said girl just order your damn poke and get outta here. So I did and I loved it. And then we ate outside but then Amanda and Jen got this boujee pesto sundried tomato mozzarella mac n cheese and I get really bad food envy so I was like ugh I should’ve gotten that. And then I was like NO HANNAH NO BE CONFIDENT IN YOUR CHOICES. And then I went to go check out the mac n cheese stand “just to see it” and my friends were like stay strong Hannah and I was like ok no promises but I did stay strong and didn’t buy a second lunch so I really patted myself on the back for that. Then we walked around some and I got a candle FINALLY!!!! And it was no ordinary candle. This candle has not too hot wax that you can pick up with a wooden spoon and rub on your hands like lotion and it makes them smell like calmmmming lavender. That was such a happy purchase. Then we got ice cream which I have really been lacking in my life here and then Liv got bad food envy even though she tried literally 6 flavors LIV COME ON GIRL GET IT TOGETHER!!!

What did we do after that uhhhhh oh yeah we got Italian for dinner and we played mind melt which is a fun camp game you play with campers when it’s taking an hour to do lice checks on the first day.

Liv and Alicia and I watched a little bit of The Pink Panther before we went to sleep that night. We laughed a lot. What a quality film. 22% fresh my BUTT @RottenTomatoes!!!!

I need to take a quick minute to shout out my wonderful roommate Alicia (pronounced ah-lee-see-ya, not aleesha—I felt that was an important clarification for full transparency of this blog). And I’m not shouting her out because she was like hey my only shoutout in your last blog was me hitting you with a pillow, but because I’ve genuinely been thinking a lot about how lucky I am to have met her. Every once in awhile, someone comes into your life and makes you a better person. And I’m not talking about like “they bring out the best in me”; I’m talking about someone who challenges your current views and makes you think critically about the world in a way that makes you a kinder, more mindful and considerate person. A little shoutout within my shoutout—Sara Migler and Rachel Casper are two of those people for me. In addition to them just being good friends, every time I’m with them I feel like I come out with new perspectives, having had meaningful and productive conversations. Alicia is one of those people too. She is one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met and has taught me so much, not by being condescending but by leading by example. She had a 10 minute back and forth with the owner of the Indian food place about the fact that they use Styrofoam containers, and she wouldn’t get food from there unless they put her food in plastic instead (still bad I know, but not as bad as Styrofoam). I used to get plastic bags every time I went grocery shopping, but now after watching her, I will carry everything in my hands uncomfortably before I get a bag. She gives to people on the street whenever she can, and when she can’t, she’ll look them in the eye and apologize. She’s constantly calling her friends back home and leaving them voice notes telling them that she loves them, she does her own thing and is always honest with everyone, and she engages us in important conversations about things that are sometimes hard to talk about. So thank you Alicia for making my abroad experience better by teaching me how to be better. I appreciate you!!!

Today (Sunday) was truuuuuly a Hashem’s-plan kind of day. Ok I need you to understand something. I have a mild addiction and this addiction is to cream cheese and lox. And SDT every Friday gives out yummy bagels with lox cream cheese and at home I eat lox and cream cheese all the time and I’ve been SO SAD WITHOUT MY LOX!! So I found out that there’s this good bagel place here called New York Bagels and I really couldn’t get it out of my mind. I was like ok guys we’re getting bagels Sunday and then our plans kept changing and I kept being like ok wait so when are we gonna get the bagels can we still wake up and get them and everyone was like Hannah you’ll get bagels eventually please chill and I was like YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND I WISH I COULD GET THEM OUT OF MY HEAD BUT I CAN’T. So long story short I won and Alicia Rachel Jen and I went to get bagels this morning. BUT THEN!!! IT WAS!!! CLOOOOOSED!!!!! UGHHHH!!!! So then my roommates were like Hannah what the hoot and I was like ok no don’t worry there’s this other really good breakfast place a 15 min walk from here. So we walked. AND THEN!! IT WAS!!! CLOOOOOOOSED!!!! So then they were reaaaally like Hannah what the hoot and I was like I LOOKED IT UP IT WAS OPEN I PROMISE so Jarryd’s I’m letting you know I have a bone to pick with you. But luckily on the way there we had passed this yummy looking place called Clarke’s so we went in and then they were like sorry we don’t have a table for 4 and at this point we were hangry af. But then the sweet man was like “but the place right next to us does have room!” I think they have the same owners. So we went there. AND WE HAD LIKE THE BEST MEAL EVER!!! AAAAAND I GOT TOAST WITH CREAM CHEESE AND LOX AND I WASN’T EXPECTING IT EVEN BECAUSE ON THE MENU THEY CALLED LOX “TROUT” SO I WAS EXPECTING TROUT AND THEN IT CAME AND I WAS LIKE YESSS SUNDAY FUNDAY!!! 

We were supposed to go to Kirstenbosch to explore after breakfast but then we were like eh let’s just walk around here instead. We came across this awesome chocolate shop called Honest Chocolate and got some stuff and mmmm that’s all I have to say is mmmm. And then we walked through these beautiful gardens with cool hanging swinging chairs and THENNNNN we happened upon a really nice chill market that we loved!!! It was so peaceful and in the trees and nice music and not pushing through people all the time and so many free samples and it was so happy. Except I really wanted to buy these big wooden earrings that I fell in love with but none of us had cash. I’ll be back for you guys another week pls wait for me!!! I found a really sweet dog and started playing with him and then a sweet boy came over and starting petting the dog too and lemme tell you I was in my ZONE. Pic below. After we walked around for a while, we sat on a bench right outside of the market and just took in the scene. Somehow we ended up singing the Phineas and Ferb theme song and then somehow we got to writing our own version of the song about our abroad experience. We did this for like 25 minutes. It was intense. The song is great. I was gonna write it here but I think that’s something I’d like to keep to myself. Maybe one of my proudest accomplishments after Gold team song from first session this year and CIT 2014 second session sing.

I decided to stay in when we got back to take some time for myself aka nap omg I’m so bad no but I also wanted to call my mom which I finally got to do so no ragrets. Then wow Alicia and I had a NIGHT. Somehow we ended up having a singalong from like 10pm-11pm with late 2000s songs that we know every word to but don’t realize we know every word to you know? Like Big Girls Don’t Cry and 7 Things and Since U Been Gone. It was pretty epic not gonna lie. Also got a great video of Alicia passionately singing We Are the World out of it. I think Alicia is the star of this blog installment. And then Liv came in and we were talking about how pretty someone we know is and then we started getting down on ourselves and I was joking like hahhaha we’re personality girls right Alicia and then Liv was like HEY YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL I COULD TELL YOU RIGHT NOW SO MANY FEATURES YOU HAVE THAT ARE AMAZING. And then we basically just started doing this deep compliment circle and Liv was like Hannah you have an amazing smile and so much spunk and Alicia you have beautiful eyes and just do your own thing which is so cool and we were like Liv you have great freckles and are so kind. Alicia I know you wanted to do an apartment roast but I think these opposite-of-roasts are so much better ok!!!

The most eventful thing about Monday was I made nachos with Liv and they were surprisingly fine. Also we did a core workout class together and it was great in the most uncomfortable horrible way ever.

I’m really sad Lady Bird didn’t win any Oscars. I just had to say it. You know I love that movie. Oscars are BS!!! Jk I haven’t seen Shape of Water so I can’t really judge yet. I think I’m gonna see it later this week so I’ll keep ya posted.

This morning I got coffee and it took a really long time so I basically ran to class and was sweating even more than usual and my legs hurt so much especially from the workout the day before and I was like dying and then I get to class and am like YES ONE MINUTE TO SPARE and then found out class was cancelled wtf!!! They emailed us literally 20 mins before class was supposed to start and this is like the 3^rd time this has happened to me at this university and I just don’t understand how anyone thinks that’s ok!! R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me well what it means to me is cancelling class more than 20 minutes in advance!!! Yesterday Rachel posted something in her snapchat story about that song and was like “I always think of this Alicia Keys song” and I was like RACHEL IT’S ARETHA FRANKLIN and she was like omg ripriprip. Cuz Rachel takes her Snapchat very seriously. I think it’s her favorite form of social media after Venmo. She loves stalking people’s monetary exchanges on Venmo.

Yeah ok I know I said I love my Medical Anthropology class but I gotta tell you I kinda changed my mind I literally have no idea what this class is about 3 weeks in and right now I’m sitting in it and so many people are sleeping and I think a lot of the classes at UCT are like hey I’m gonna throw all these big words and radical ideas at you in a way that has 0 organization whatsoever and sometimes I drink the juice and am like yessss what even is humanity what is gender what is medicine except then I have to write an essay and am like wait what to heck have I learned sooooo I’m struggling.

Last night we were studying at Cocoa Wah Wah and 2 important things happened. 1) Liv spelled hamentaschen “humantachin” in the whatsapp group and we didn’t stop laughing for 20 minutes. 2) We spontaneously decided to hike Lion’s Head for sunrise the next morning. I love abroad me!

So Jen, Rachel, Alicia and I got up at 4am this morning, ate a “humantachin” for breakfast, and got on our way. It was magical. The stars were so clear and there was something so peaceful about hiking in the dark. It was 100x easier than the first time we hiked it because it was cooler outside AND because we knew where to get dropped off so we didn’t do an hour and a half extra hike before the actual mountain hike. It only took us about an hour and wasn’t too strenuous. So pleasant. At some point when we were walking up Alicia was like “let’s take a minute to just stop and be silent”. We stopped and just looked out and after literally 3 seconds Rachel goes “wow” because I do not think Rachel can be silent for more than 3 seconds. Sorry Alicia! Watching the sunrise from the top was obviously beautiful but something really cool was that Table Mountain was covered in clouds that looked like a moving fluffy blanket right in front of us. If I counted the amount of times we said “look at the clouds!” the result would’ve been ridiculous. We met a woman on the way up who said that she does this every week and it inspired us to do it more. There’s really no better way to start your day, and no better reason to wake up at 4am.

We went for brunch afterward. I was like BAGELS BAGELS BAGELS cuz you know I can’t stop thinking about them and then Alicia was like “bread and dairy is gonna hurt my stomach but like it’s fine we can go” and I was like “ok no so we’ll go somewhere else” and she was like “no no let’s go to bagels you wanna go” and I was like “no it’s fine we can go to Jarryd’s!” and she was like “Hannah you’re annoying me we’re going to bagels” and I was like “Alicia what kind of awful person would I be if I was like yes we’ll go and Alicia just won’t eat anything” and this is the story of having a roommate who is too nice. If it were Jen she’d just be like no I don’t wanna go there and then it’d be done. Shoutout Jen you are so stubborn and opinionated but also a cool HBIC and you know what you want and I should aspire to be more like that too. So anyway we went to Jarryd’s (cue Rachel’s bad “he went to Jarryd!” joke get it like the jewelry commercial) and yum it was just really yum. Guess what I got? If you guessed lox toast and truffle mushroom toast you’d be correct mmmmmmmm. Also on the way to Jarryd’s we blasted All Star by Smash Mouth in the Uber and I’m gonna take this moment to shout out Allyson Mindi Silver because last year when we were roommates there was a solid month where ALL we ever listened to and laughed about was this edit to All Star where every single word was “Somebody” and I will link the video here. You can thank me later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlYys58hsCU

I gotta talk about our Uber driver on the way back. Sometimes we have life changing conversations with our Uber drivers and this was one of those times. He told us his whole life story of how he’s from Durban and used to be a gangster there (his words) and was in and out of prison a lot. And then his brother who was a cop was like I never want to see you again, so at age 14 he hiked to Cape Town with no money and built himself up from there. He became a pastor and turned his life around and talks to young people to help get them on the right path. He dropped some crazy wise quotes like “you can serve time without being in prison” and “love of money is the root of all evil” and we all got out of the ar and were like WOAH and Alicia even got his number to maybe interview him for a radio documentary thing. Sometimes it’s the small things like this that put into perspective how crazy and wonderful this abroad experience is.

Alicia and I saw The Shape of Water this afternoon and I don’t have much to say about it besides a big fat EHHHH. The Oscars just do not value movies that aren’t 100% drama and pretentiousness I’m sorry maybe I’m just unsophisticated but both of us were shifting in our seats just waiting for it to be over the whole time ugh like props Guillermo for a probably objectively good movie but that is 2 hours of my life I’ll never get back. Lady Bird for the win wait did you know I love that movie?? Omg I DO have something to say about my theater experience though. I got popcorn and go to sit in this seat next to an older woman and she LITERALLY looks me straight in the eye and goes “do NOT sit next to me with popcorn.” I almost cried it was so aggressive I ran back to my seat and was like wtfwtfwtf I have never felt so victimized by an elderly woman I can’t believe it even! Then we went and sat next to a different elderly woman in the row behind the mean woman and the new woman looked at me and laughed for literally a full minute and at first I was confused and then we chatted a little and I realized she was laughing because she heard the other woman yell at me. I really appreciate new woman for validating the ridiculousness of that situation. But I went home and was like idk like do old people earn the right to be rude just because they’ve lived for so long? Reply blog lemme know your thoughts. Omg my roommates are singing harry potter puppet pals in the other room and are SO LOUD guys what gives I’m trying to write my blog cmon.

Oh I really like figs now but I’m kinda allergic to them but I don’t care! There’s a lot of raw fruits and vegetables I’m kinda allergic to aka my mouth and throat itch when I eat them but sometimes you gotta suck it up and deal unless they’re vegetables you don’t like and can use the mild allergy as an excuse not to eat them.

Speaking of food today Jham and I went to a suuuuuuuuper cute restaurant coffeehouse beautiful garden amazing magicland thing can u tell I liked it??? It was so pretty I’ll attach some pics. But anyway I got this tuna sandwich thing and it came with green olives mixed in and I don’t like olives but I was a big girl and ate them anyway and you know what I didn’t hate them so maybe I actually do like olives!

I had quite a day with Jham cuz also later that night Capital Camps released its March Madness camp bracket and I was like hey please come do this with me and she was like what I’m watching Shameless and I was like ok I’ll come to you so I went and made her fill out the bracket with me. I’m such a dorky loser when it comes to doing camp stuff really quickly like I’m 99% sure I was the first person to even view the Facebook post announcement video thing. Fun fact I was the first human to apply for staff for summer 2016 and Adam Sprinkles Broms called me when I was in an eye doctor’s appointment to congratulate me on being the first person to apply. Clearly I am not good at playing hard to get.

On Friday night, I went to Hout Bay Market with Maddie and her housemates. Twas nice! I got that mac n cheese that I got food envy about last time. And I got a brownie after a conversation with the man working the stand where I was like “how are your brownies” and he was like “I’m biased but they’re amazing” and I was like “is it more cakey or gooey?” and he was like “if you don’t like it I’ll give you your money back—that’s how confident I am in them”. And at that point I felt bad cuz this mans was so nice so I just got it and tbh it was mediocre at best but I was glad I supported the nice good salesman. This really talented band was playing nice acoustic songs and it was great vibes overall. Really crowded though. We shmied around for awhile and Maddie turned me on to how cool some of the artwork being sold was (I usually only look at clothes and jewelry) and I bought this thing made out of a pipe that you put a lit candle in and it lights up this sun pattern. Here’s a mediocre quality pic of it. Ugh my candle obsession is really coming back.

When I got back from the market, we had a movie night in Liv and Jen’s room where we finally watched the Pink Panther all the way through. I stand by my opinion that it is an objectively wonderful and unappreciated movie. EET EEZ LOVELY WEHZA WE ARE HAVEEENG. I OPE ZE WEHZA CONTEENUES….ze awea eez secure. 

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Saturday we started at Old Biscuit Mill and then went to get PIERCINGS!!! WOAH!! I really hadn’t thought about doing a second piercing very much but the minute someone brought it up I was like HEY YEAH I’LL DO THAT! If I’m being totally honest it hurt a lot more than I thought it would. Like I got my first and only piercing when I was in first grade and remember afterward being like hey that didn’t really even hurt! So either my pain tolerance has decreased since first grade or I forgot how much it hurt or it hurt a lot more this time. But whatever it’s over and now I have a cool person second piercing!

Also we went to the mall and it was quite the time. I FINALLY got real towels GOD BLESS and also it took me like 2 hours to find the place where Maddie said she got a Yankee Candle but I finally found it and was in candle heaven and smelled all of them for so long. And the finally I was like ok I’m deciding on Fluffy Towels scent and confidently picked it up and then promptly dropped it on the floor and glass shattered everywhere. Not my best moment. And the employee was like I’m gonna have to charge you for that and I was like I know I know but THEN she charged me like $8 less than I would’ve had to pay for it not broken so WHO’S THE REAL WINNER HERE?? Cuz I can still burn it I just have to put it on foil. Anyway I’m very much enjoying my fluffy towel jarless candle. Also that whole ordeal reminded me a lot of when my lovely friend and ex roommate Jamie Milstein dropped a bottle of blue vodka on the ground of The Boot Store the literal first night of freshman year. There’s no shot Jamie is reading this so I’m gonna text her and tell her she has a shoutout in my blog and make her search the whole thing for it. Love you Jam miss you PROST! Jamie got a lip tattoo last night that says prost. She’s a lot crazier than me and I disapprove of many of her decisions but that’s why we’re fun friends who keep each other on our feet!

Oh yeah also Nicole’s dad took us to dinner last night and BOY I missed Nicole!!! Her dad has been here for like 2 weeks so she’s been super MIA when I first saw her I was like NICOLE I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU IN 50 YEARS but we get her back tomorrow so yay! Her dad is really awesome. We ate yummy pizza and this unreal mushroom risotto. I eat sooo much mushroom here but I’m not mad about it at all.

Today I took the day to do absolutely nothing and I’m also not mad about that! Sometimes it’s ok to take a nothing day and just catch up on Jane the Virgin and SNL and do work. I gotta say, as someone who usually gets a ton of fomo and is jealous of other people’s experiences and always thinks she’s not doing things right, I think I’ve been remarkably satisfied with my time here and un-jealous of others. I genuinely never see another abroad Instagram and wish I went somewhere else, I’ve rarely been upset about a decision to stay in, and I’ve been very happy about what I’ve accomplished in the month I’ve been here. I think coming here was the perfect choice for me and I’m grateful to be here every day, whether I’m hiking or laying in bed or sitting in a coffee shop or dropping a Yankee candle on the ground of a store.