skool and other thingz

First of all i need to tell you about the title of this blog. Here they spell school "skool" and i think it's one of the funniest things in the world. Like a real life meme. Skool ahhahahhahah

So I think the format of my blog is going change now because if I went through every one of my school days individually it’d basically just look like “today I woke up, ate some eggs, went to class. Went home and napped. Ate some dinner!” and then wayyy less people would read my blog (numbers would prob drop from like 5 whole people to 2, just my parents, lolz). So I’m mostly just going to touch on random thoughts and anecdotes and the important stuff!

This week was the first week of classes and honestly it was kinda tough. I forgot what it felt like to be a freshman who has no clue what’s happening ever or how to get anywhere and tbh I do not love that feeling! I got lost in a fair amount of buildings. My classes are pretty fine. Medical Anthropology seems super cool so I’m pumped for that, Health Psych is like basically public health 1010 so that’s fine, and I honestly could not tell you what Culture and Social Life is but it’s fine enough. All very fine! But good! But mostly fine. But could be a lot worse!

I want to talk about some things that are different between Tulane and UCT. Ok first of all, nobody ever better complain to me about PJs again because UCT literally does not have coffee on campus. I WOULD KILL FOR A CRAPPY PJ’S AMERICANO LET ME TELL YOU. Like ok fine now I won’t spend so much money on coffee but I think I’m still allowed to be upset considering I don’t even have a keurig or anything omg please don’t stop reading I promise I’m not always this bratty. Another difference is that all my lectures are 100+ people and people actually raise their hand and talk. It’s wild. People will raise their hand in a 200 person lecture to not even ask a question but ADD A THOUGHT. Like ??? I’m sorry do u wanna get up and teach instead?? No I’m sorry I’m really being so bratty.

Also I’m getting really good at stairs and hills. If I were coming back to camp to be in Reich or Kaufmann or Macks I would be so set. I’m not tho. Not gonna be in Reich or Kaufmann or Macks I mean. Maybe I’ll just run the Macks stairs when I’m missing UCT. Just kidding I really don’t think I’ll miss those stairs.

I’ve been doing a lot of napping after class because a thing that has been tough is our apartment has 0 common area except for a tiny kitchen so it’s like when I’m home I’m in my bed and if I’m in my bed how can I not take a nap ya feel?? Like I know it’s not super healthy but I also know I’m really bad at NOT taking naps. I think once I get in a better rhythm and have more work I’ll figure it out.

I had a fun day on Thursday. Jen and I went to Zumba at Zone Fitness and WOW it was an EXPERIENCE. When I say Zumba instructor be honest with me you picture a young or middle-aged woman doing some box steps and salsa moves right? WELL. Not at Zone Fitness. The instructor is this fit young dude wearing a shirt that said “the world is our dance floor” who screamed AYYYYYEEEE every 2 minutes and listen that man can GET IT! His dancing was ridiculously good and the whole room got so hype and there were like 35 people and woah I feel like this zumba class is gonna be my personal soul cycle. Like I’m really down to get weird and culty about it. I had sooooo much fun. After Zumba, Maddie and Nicole and I got dinner at this place called Asoka with the coolest mood lighting and sultry vibes. We didn’t even know it when we planned it, but turned out we were celebrating Maddie’s summer job that she got that day!!! Go Maddie that’s my best friend working for the public defender she’s so awesome!! Shoutout to Rachel Goldman giving me the best Cape Town guide that everyone has that told me to get the Soul Happiness cocktail because I did and it was like literally juice which I LUUUUURVE!!! We got tapas so basically a bunch of fried cheese and it was amazing. I love fancy friend dates.

Two things I wanna bring back to the states is the South African use of the words “keen” and “cheers”. Keen is used kinda similar to how it is in the states but so much more often. You say “I’m keen on blah blah” if you want to do something and say “I’m not keen on blah blah” if you don’t want to do something. My professor posted like “I’m working on posting the reading, but if you’re super keen you can read it in the department.” I just think it’s funny. It makes you sound so fancy. And then with “cheers” it’s basically just a nice thing you say whenever and I’m realizing we don’t really have a word for that in the US. Like a word that means hi and bye and thanks and you’re welcome that you can say to friends or strangers and just makes you warm and fuzzy inside and like you’re best friends with everyone you meet.

Saturday after lunch at Chabad, we played this South African board game they have called 30 seconds. It’s just like Taboo except you play in partners and there’s no list of words you can’t say. So you can use any words to describe the word you have, except for the word itself. I told them that they would be sooo tripped up by Taboo because if you think this is hard just try not having to say all the words that are easiest to say to describe it!! Quick sidenote I love taboo and don’t think people my age appreciate it enough. Like enough with cards against humanity I just want a wine night with an intense game of Taboo. Anyway then while Rebecca was talking to the rabbi about real things, I was playing our own version of 30 seconds with their 3-year-old son. He would pick up a card and pretend to read it and asked questions such as “what is a teacher who teaches?” “what is a person who drives a horse?” and “what is a person who plays a saxophone?” He stumped me he really did. Said no to all my guesses and never even told me what the right answers were. He and I are good buds now I think. He told me I wasn’t allowed to leave after. Usually Eva’s the one to make friends with the little-littles while I just stare at them and smile and ask them questions they’re too young to understand. So this was a nice confidence boost.

That night we saw Lady Bird at this OYSOME (ily Julia Laibstain who is definitely not reading this but whom I miss very much) theater called the Labia Theater. Our sweet Uber driver, bless his soul, pulled up and was like “here you are. The Lahbia!” Thanks John! Everything in Cape Town is just 100x cuter. This theater has 4 screens and an outside area with pretty lights and benches where this guy was playing live music and you can buy dinner to eat there and it was hoppin. My ticket was 50 rand which is literally like $4.50 so thank you Rand for having such high purchasing power or something economical like that! I was seeing Lady Bird for the second time and cried all the way through the last 20 minutes once again but it was kinda a good thing bc I was wearing mascara and I can’t find eye makeup remover here so the tears were kinda like a natural makeup remover. Guys I really want Lady Bird to win all the awards. I know it won’t but I really want it to. I love coming of age movies. They get me right in the therapeutic feels. Lady Bird might be one of my favorite movies now I think. I’ve had some conversations recently about what it means for something to be your “favorite movie” and how you have to have different kinds of favorites that can have different answers. Like here’s my tentative list. My favorite movie for like being pretentious and naming a movie that I know is acclaimed and a good “favorite movie” answer is Good Will Hunting. My favorite movie for something I can watch a million times and still not be tired of is Bridesmaids. My favorite wholesome classic movie is Lion King. My favorite WHAT THE HECK THAT BLEW MY MIND movie is Get Out. My new favorite funny but gets me in the feels movie is Lady Bird. I also want to take a minute to talk about my new celebrity crush Timothee Chalamet. He’s in Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name and I keep telling people I think I’ve fallen so hard for him because he’s like an accessible celeb crush. Like yeah Zac Efron and Channing Tatum and whoever are beautiful but they’re not like ACCESSIBLE you know? Like they’re too hot and old and unrealistic. BUT NOT TIMOTHEE!!! Omg also he’s gonna be in a movie coming out in October where he plays Steve Carrel’s son who’s struggling with addiction and get this—Steve Carrel’s wife in it is played by the actress that plays Holly in The Office!!! If you know you know. Anyway go watch his movies and interviews and lemme know if you agree with me. I got Eva to have a crush on him too even though she hasn’t even seen any of his movies. That’s the power of being an older sister. I bet you’re so glad you just read a huge paragraph about a movie that has nothing to do with South Africa or my abroad experience.

Yesterday (Sunday) (I’m writing this now from the library on Monday afternoon) was one of my favorite days in Cape Town so far, and the theme of it was making the best of less than ideal situations. We woke up really early and bought snacks at Pick n Pay and then headed off to hike. We wanted to hike to Woodstock Caves, which is this huge cave on Devil’s Peak that supposedly has a beautiful view, and people go there to chill and picnic but it’s also a decent hike to get there. It was a really nice hike with way more shade than Lion’s Head, and it had really hard parts but also a lot of flat breaks and I looooove flat breaks. Once we got up far enough to see the cave, we followed the sign that said it went to the caves, but I swear we walked for 20 minutes just getting further and further away from it. We turned back because we thought we went the wrong way, but when we got down we saw that we supposedly went the right way but we also saw other people on this different path that looked way closer to the cave so we were really #CONFUTHED. But we had been hiking for like 2.5 hours already and had plans for later in the day so we were like eh whatever let’s just eat and go back. And I was sad for a minute that we didn’t get to our destination but then I was like HEY I got exercise and quality time with some awesome friends and that’s what matters more than some cave! So we sat on some rocks and I ate the best hummus I’ve had since I came here s/o PnP for having surprisingly great hummus wow and some Oreos because I DESERVED them. And we walked down and sang campy songs and enjoyed the beautiful perfectly windy weather and it was lovely.

That afternoon, CIEE took us to an outdoor concert at Kristenbosch Botanical Garden. That’s the place I talked about in my last blog and said it looked like a magical green Disney movie land. They do a lot of events there like movie nights and concerts. I wanna take a minute to say that the showing there of the Lion King has sold out so we can’t go and I haven’t been so disappointed in a while and a half. Anyway CIEE paid for us to go to this concert so we went even though the artist who was performing wasn’t really our cup of tea. And we really really made the best of it and still had so much fun! We brought snacks and towels and wine and sat on the grass talking and playing games. We played that camp game where you name a word that shows up in a fair amount of songs and you have to take turns naming songs that say that word. We were kinda ridiculously bad at it. Then when the artist named Lira came out, we listened for awhile being like ok she’s talented but not our thing, BUT THEN she sang MOANA!!!! She was like “this is for the children here” and I was like YES AND ME!! And I belted the whole thing with her and was surprised I wasn’t asked to leave for acting like it was my own concert instead of hers. Then we sat and listened some more and then things got CRAZY. She was singing this song about loving your body and told everyone to stand up and dance with her and we were so here for it. She would sing phrases like I DON’T CARE IF YOU THINK YOU’RE FAT OR YOU’RE SKINNY, I DON’T CARE IF YOU HAVE THICK THIGHS, I DON’T CARE IF YOU’RE SHORT OR TALL and we were like YAS LIRA!!! And she was like LET US THANK OUR BODIES FOR GIVING US HEALTH!! LET US THANK OUR BODIES FOR LETTING US WAKE UP EVERY DAY AND EXPERIENCE LIFE!! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!! And we were like YYYYAAAAAASSSS LIRA! And then she was like REPEAT AFTER ME!! OOHHH WOAHHH WOAHH WOAHH OOH OOH OOH! And we were like OHHHH WOAHH WOAHH WOAHH OOOH OOOH OOH!!! We hooted around so much and danced like idiots and screamed about loving our bodies and I have rarely in my life had that much fun. Lira grew on me a lot she really did.

Unfortunately that night I got pretty sick with a cold and kept sneezing into my towel that I was sitting on so RIP clean towel that just came out of the laundry.

Today I perfected my order at the coffee place right next to us! Americano with almond milk and one shot of caramel and one packet of sweetener! Ooh yeah! I do feel bad about it though, the people at Vida e Café look at me so sadly when I tell them the complicated order. We’re not at Starbucks anymore.

On Monday night I went to a Hamentaschen bake at Chabad and made one with nutella chocolate chip and sprinkle filling, and one with peanut butter chocolate chip filling. I have a complicated relationship with Hamentaschen. I literally just don’t like them that much, but every time I see one I have to eat it. I had 2 for breakfast the other morning. Idk man.

Tuesday I got sad. Spring break logistics are hard and I was stressed about that and then I was stressed about being stressed over something so privileged and stupid. I always preach for people to not judge their own feelings but then I can’t do it myself! Stupid stupid stupid! To top off an annoying day, the Kids Baking Championship semi finals episode wasn’t being uploaded onto my illegal website and I can’t watch it anywhere else because Food Network isn’t allowed here apparently!!! RUDE!!! Liv rubbed my back a little when I was venting at night cuz she’s an awesome friend.

I’m so happy that I love the library here. I feel really spoiled by Howie T like I really feel at home there; if you’re Snapchat friends with me you know I walk around in there with no shoes like I own the heckin place. So I was nervous to cheat on Howie T with a different library, but UCT’s is kinda awesome. It’s quiet and simple and has a lot of different spaces to do work. I’m on the second level now overlooking the first level through big glass windows.

I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT SOUP FOR A SECOND. I am a huuuuge soup girl and that’s something I’ve been missing here because my mom makes awesome soup. BUT FEAR NOT I JUST MADE THE BEST DISCOVERY EVER AND THAT DISCOVERY IS THAT WOOLWORTHS HAS LIKE 8 VARIETIES OF VEGETARIAN SOUP IN BAGS AND THEY ROCK SO MUCH! Mommy yours is still better though don’t worry.

I got convinced to go out last night on a WEDNESDAY by Alicia and Maddie. I said yes fine I’d go but I just wanted to finish my episode of Kids Baking Championship first, but then Alicia started smacking me with her pillow and wouldn’t stop until I closed my computer and started getting ready. But then when she left the room I finished the episode and MY FAVORITE GIRL BRYNN WENT HOME and it was so sad. I love that show.

But yeah anyway I went out and I was being FUN for a little while and then Maddie came to Stones and gave me a nice greeting by hug-choking me and we were like OMG WE’VE BEEN BEST FRIENDS FOR 10 YEARS AND HAVE NEVER BEEN OUT TOGETHER so then she was trying to get me more drunk and bought me a tequila drink which was nice of her but it was heckin nasty so she drank most of it anyway. Maddie I love you but I don’t understand why you don’t understand I’m just not good at drinking like you are. I’m so glad Maddie’s here she’s the best friend ever and we’re so different but love each other so much and we keep it real with each other but also compliment each other so much and it’s beautiful!! And I think we’re going on trips together soon and spending my 21^st together in Botswana what the hoot is my life even idk!!

I bought tickets for Afrikaburn which I can’t even believe and Allyson was like I’m so proud of you for going out of your comfort zone so much and taking advantage of being abroad and really validated the fact that I am trying hard to challenge myself!! She’s also an awesome friend. Miss you girly.

My medical anthropology class is wild. My awesomely cool professor basically just lectures about how everything’s a construct and that we need to question every single thing we know like 1. How we assume the mind and body are separate 2. How we medicalize everything like birth and ADHD and depression etc 3. Race like doesn’t exist 4. Why do we just know how to do certain things aka embodiment like how do we know to sit down and be quiet in classes and other stuff 5. We can’t just study the “other” like what makes traditional medicine the “other” to be studied like no we also need to study western medicine and what we assume to be the “normal” or “correct” form of medicine etc etc etc wow I could not tell you what this class is even really about but it’s pretty mindblowing.

Today I finally caved and wore a sorority tshirt to class. Also today I had a really gross wrap for lunch. It was “butternut feta” and from the tiny food court on campus. Butternut squash is something that’s very popular in menu items here and they just call it butternut. Another really popular thing is halloumi cheese. Random right?

OK LISTEN UP. I have a lot to say about tonight but it’s gonna be a little PG-13 but that’s ok because I’m legal here I just am!! So tonight I went to UCT Chabad’s Purim boat party. Like a bunch of Jews on a fancy boat on the waterfront dancing and drinking with open bar and lemme tell you it was kinda one of the most epic nights of my life. When we first got there we were like ummm what the HOOT because we wore like nice classy dresses and most of the South African girls were in like black skinny jeans and crop tops and Minnie mouse ears and we just didn’t get the memo that this was like actual frat party vibes so. South African Jews are the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. Really I’ve never felt so unattractive in my life. But we got on the boat and were like shart what now and just sat there like the awkward foreigners we are and we listened to the megillah get read and then the chabad rabbi was like LISTEN THE MITZVAH OF PURIM IS NOT TO GET DRUNK BUT TO GET DRUNK WITH HAPPINESS OK PARTY!!! So I was like shoot I guess I gotta get drunk with happiness! And honestly I sooo did. The DJ was playing STRAIGHT bar mitzvah songs. Like Down by Jay Sean and the Applebottom Jeans song and SHAWTY’S LIKE A MELODY IN MY HEAD Jason derUUUulo song. AND THEN THEY PLAYED JEWISH HORAHY SONGS AND EVERYONE WAS MOSHPITTING AND JUMPING AND SCREAMING AND I WAS LIKE WOAH I FRIGGIN LOVE BEING JEWISH THIS IS SO FUN AND WOW IT WAS SO FUN. And then when we docked we went to the outside of the boat and were jumping on this tarp/trampoline thing we prob weren’t supposed to be jumping on and everyone outside could see us but we didn’t even give a hoot and were just like DOWN LIKE SHE SPPOSED TO BE SHE GETS DOWN LOW FOR ME DOWN LIKE HER TEMPERATURE CUZ TO ME SHE ZERO DEGREES SHE COLDDD and Rebecca and I were partner dancing and it was pure happiness. So long story short I did the mitzvah.

AND THEN STUFF GOT EVEN FUNNER. When we got off the boat we were hooting around so hard like Rebecca and Rachel and I were singing Purim songs like chag purim and the haman hat song where you cut out words one by one and “letzan katan nechmad rokeh em kol echad” which fun fact is a kinda creepy song that means nice little clown won’t you dance with me and we were just running around screaming it because we’re OBNOXIOUS ABROAD STUDENTS!! And then we went to go take pictures with this statue and this older woman and man were trying to get a picture and Rachel heard them speaking Hebrew and immediately bageled them. Ok Rachel teaches me a lot about modern Judaism and something she recently taught me is the term “to bagel” which means when you see Jews in public and subtly try to get them to realize that you’re Jewish too so you can bond over it. But Rachel’s bageling was not so subtle tonight. She screamed REGAH REGAH REGAH MAH HABEAAYA which means WAIT WAIT WAIT WHAT’S THE PROBLEM which I don’t know why she would yell but she did and totally scared off the woman who literally started running away and I was laughing so hard at it like girly we’re just tipsy college students don't worry!! And then the man started talking to Rebecca and Rachel in Hebrew and I felt sad cuz I could understand but not speak quickly like them so I just stood there smiling no I wasn’t actually sad dw. But then Rachel in Hebrew was like “your wife went that way” and the man said “that’s not my wife” and we were like OH WHAT SORRY!! He was just walking alone with this woman who wasn’t his wife! And turns out it was a big Israeli group visiting Cape Town and then we saw him later with his real wife. Anyway, wherever you go there’s always someone Jewish! Funny story about that song, the lyrics at some point go “Amsterdam, Disneyland, Tel Aviv..” and Allyson used to think that it was “Hamsterland” instead of Amsterdam ha.

I’m getting off topic ok so THEN this random dude came over out of literally thin air and was like “there’s a huge party going on did you know?? It’s a jol cmon come on this other boat party!!” and we were like excuse me sir where the heck did you just come from? Rebecca was like please tell your story. And he was being so sketch and wouldn’t tell us his name and we were like WHAT UR NAME and Rachel was like “you look like a Ron” so then naturally Jen Rachel and I started singing the Harry Potter Puppet Pals song and dancing while Amanda and Rebecca were trying to understand what this mans was doing and why he so badly wanted us at his party and then mid HEERRRRRMMIONE they were like ok let’s go. So then we were walking to get an uber and were singing How Far I’ll Go and being public disturbances. HAHHA AND THEN RACHEL RAN THROUGH THE MALL TO GET TO THE UBER AND REBECCA AND I COULND’T BREATHE ABOUT IT. I love Rachel omg she made us all mishloach manot with personalized notes. OK UM I NEED TO GO TO BED CUZ I HAVE A TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENT DUE TOMORROW AND STILL NEED TO WRITE LIKE 50 MUR WORDS AND PRINT IT TOMORROW MORNING SORRY FOR THIS INCREDIBLY SELF INDULGENT POST IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR U A TRU FRAND (or parent or grandparent hi mommy daddy nana)