Murphy's Law

About halfway through my spring break trip, I overheard someone talking about Murphy's Law. It says "anything that can go wrong will go wrong". The second I heard, I was relieved that I no longer had to think of a next blog title.

Murphy's law is a near perfect way to describe the past 2 weeks. It's almost comical how things can go wrong and go wrong some more and STILL manage to keep going wrong. But as I started to think about my experiences more, I realized that for every thing that went different as planned or didn't work out the way I wanted it to, something good almost always came out of the situation. I think that's another law. Can I just name it after myself? Cuz actually this has been something I've kinda been good at just like in life (finding the good in bad situations). Ok so Hannah's Law is that for every thing that goes wrong, there's at least one good thing that comes from it. So instead of free writing and babbling about my past 2 weeks, I'm going to take you through my experiences through the lenses of Murphy's and Hannah's Laws.

Pre Trip

The Great Computer Tragedy

What went wrong?

I woke up 2 Monday mornings ago, about to start my most hellish week of college here (two 2,000 word essays due Thursday that I hadn't started). Jen and I woke up super early to go work at a coffee shop and I was feeling great and I open my computer and low and behold the screen would not change from black and it was NOT awesome. That day was absurd I ended up losing my charger and going alone to the computer fixing place and not being able to find proof of purchase and crying in my uber back that took like 45 mins bc of traffic and I wish I could make it more funny but it just was not funny ok.

What went right?

Without my laptop, I could focus so much better on writing my essay which I banged out in like 5 hours one night and it was pretty epic. ALSO I was complaining to my friends all day and they were so friggin awesome, while I was working on my essay at like 9 they brought me sushi and ice cream and gave me hugs even though what I was complaining about was so ridiculous in the grand scheme of things. But yeah they're just great friends and I'm gonna be talking about that a lot.

Seder Searchin'

What went wrong?

Spending the Passover seder away from home is majorly #touchysubjecttuesday for me. The first time I ever wasn't home for seder I left it halfway through crying lol so like when it was 2 days away from seder and I was in South Africa with nowhere to go I was mur than a little stressed. I literally mobilized everyone my parents my friends rabbis to find me somewhere oy va voy!

What went right?

Literally the day before the seder a wonderful woman found me a seder to go to and it was really the best seder I could've asked for. Maddie and I went together and had 0 idea what to expect and we walk in and the table is set for like 30 people and we were like oh shit lol but I was so happy cuz that's what I'm used to and I wanted lots of ruach and that's what we got. I think it's really interesting that they have different traditions and tunes in different parts of the world. Was so relieved to see kids at the seder though bc lowkey was nervous I might've been the youngest and had to sing the Mah Nishtana.

Trip

So. Much. Travel. Time.

What went wrong?

So I went on a spring break trip to Botswana and Victoria Falls and literally half of it was spent traveling in a bus with no air conditioning. Also sidenote there's no upside to this really but our bus broke down IN THE MIDDLE OF A NATIONAL PARK IIN BOTSWANA AND WE LEGIT COULD'VE BEEN EATEN BY LIONS. Like I know that sounds ridiculous but it's really not. We were pulling into a dirt road that leads to the lodge we were staying in in Chobe and the bus got stuck and we all had to get out and were stuck on the side of the road for like 20 mins at 11pm. And our guide Moses was like "I don't want to scare you but there are lions here" and we were like cool Moses that's def the way to not scare people! Side note Moses is maybe my new favorite person on earth also he was leading us through Africa on passover and Maddie realized like Moses leading the group through Africa so passover appropriate. But yeah Moses was like our counselor who we were all openly obsessed with and sometimes I love being a camper again. Sorry that tidbit doesn't belong here oh well. Back to travel time.

What went right?

I had so much time to read my NEW FAVORITE BOOK A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini is so heckin good. I don't understand how he's able to write female perspective so well it's almost suspicious. Go read it you will scream and cry and not put it down.

Less Than Ideal Bathrooms

What went wrong?

Omg hahhahahha the bathrooms on this trip were legit nonexistent. We camped a lot and the toilet was a hole in the ground with a pop up toilet seat. Also had to hold in a lot of pee during our bus rides.

What went right?

I am a freakin EXPERT SQUATTER folks. Like by the end I would choose to squat pee over peeing in a real toilet. There was one time when we stopped at the side of the road in rural Botswana and 12 girls got out of the car and squatted together in the brush. Just like a gaggle of girls all next to each other squatting and peeing in the wilderness it was maybe the most special moment of the trip idk.

Compromised Accommodations

What went wrong?

This was not a fancy trip by any friggin means lemme tell you. We camped for 3 out of the 7 nights like really in the wilderness and got bit by lots of mosquitoes and such.

Also, when we got to the safari lodge, Moses informed us that half of the rooms we were supposed to stay in were bee infested! Great! So he was like listen half of you are gonna have to stay in another lodge. And we were all like ugh but then Maddie and I volunteered to do it but GUESS WHAT? Keep reading.

What went right?

OUR REPLACEMENT ACCOMMODATION WAS LEGIT A HONEYMOON SUITE. I have never gone from 0 to 100 that quick. Maddie and I were freaking out plopping on the bed and screaming about the robes in the closet and there was a FANCY OUTDOOR SHOWER AND A BATH. Super embarrassing but I thought the mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling were decorative canopies hahahha. But back to the shower ok I can't even think about it without swooning. Basically you would walk out this door in the bathroom and it led to a fenced in area with a tile backed shower in the middle. And it was just chilly enough outside that the hot water felt amazing but not too chilly that it was uncomfortable and all you could hear was the crickets and animals and nobody could see you and you could look up at the stars and moon ugh. It was hands down the best shower of my life. And then I got out and made tea in the kettle that was in our room cuz BOUJEE AS HELL and had the best sleep ever ever ever.

In regards to the camping, man i never thought I'd say this but I think I love camping?? I seriously slept so well and just love sitting around a campfire talking and looking at the stars I really felt at peace.

Disorganized Food Sitch

What went wrong?

Almost everywhere we went and stayed, the food situation was so bad it was funny. Nobody had any idea what we ordered, things took an hour and a half to come out, one time when Alicia asked for a vegan meal they gave her cheese and an egg. They gave everyone tuna sandwiches for one lunch like that is arguably THE most controversial meal you could give everyone!! Twas a mess guys.

What went right?

I do not even care about any of the food mishaps because it led to maybe the single funniest moment of the trip. On one of the mornings we all ordered omelets and there were like 4 fillings we chose from, so obviously we chose a lot of different combinations. Then when the waiters were bringing out the omelets, they brought out I KID YOU NOT probably every single combination of fillings EXCEPT for the ones we ordered. So we just passed omelets around between us like WHO GOT TOMATO AND CHEESE and then everyone was like no i got mushroom and cheese and then the waiters would come like "mushroom and tomato!!" and we were like no I got mushroom and cheese and then they'd be like oh ok and then come out like "cheese and onion!" and we were like NO and then they took 30 mins to bring out Alicia's and asked her for her order probably 5 separate times. We were like HEY WHERE'S ASHTON which is a joke my camp friends made up cuz get it like punk'd. I know this doesn't sound funny but trust me on 5 hours of sleep it was friggin hilarious. We named it "omelet gate" and it still makes me laugh.

Waiting, (Waitiiiing), Waiting on ANYTHING to Happen

What went wrong?

Let's just say some unforeseen circumstances aka bus breaking trailer breaking money wiring getting messed up etc etc etc caused us to be waiting around for a longggg time at various points of this trip. Like I'm talking 5 straight hours of sitting with nothing to do except go on super super slow wifi.

What went right?

Learning how much I love my friends here that's what! It's really rare that you find people you can spend time with just doing nothing, but I can do that with almost all of my friends who I was on the trip with. We played stupid games like A my name is Annie and I was taught an awesome game called Contact that I'm gonna bring to camp and make the big game of the summer mark my words. No but like truly I am so lucky to have the friends that I do here, I know not everyone is that lucky when they go abroad. And I'm just gonna write here cuz I have nowhere else to write it that they made my birthday so so special and I'm eternally grateful to them for that. It's intimidating to spend your birthday with people you just met 2 months ago but they went above and beyond for me - surprised me with brownies the night before, got/made me sweet thoughtful gifts, reminded me of my birthday all day, took pictures of me every 5 seconds, went around the table saying nice things about me. By far my most special birthday yet and so much of it is due to them.

Safari Mishaps

What went wrong?

We went on a couple "safaris" throughout the trip. The first was on my birthday in the delta, it was a walking safari where we just walked through brush and looked for animals which was def unsafe but oh well. We didn't really see that much and also our guide FREAKIN Karabo was making a bouquet of flowers as we walked and Alicia and Jen were like "Hannah he's making you a birthday bouquet!" and I was like omg so sweet like watched him pick up flowers like yes good choice hunni and watched him tie it together and was so ready to accept it and then HE GAVE IT TO ALYSSA. Like OHHHKAY KARABO way to break a girl's heart on her birthday! I'm happy for them now cuz they're texting and he keeps calling her "bbe girl" and changed his whatsapp pic to a pic of him and her so clearly this was a serious romance but still was a bummer for me.

In the second safari, we got held up like an hour and a half because of weird logistical stuff and the company lied to us and said we'd get the same experience but we just sooo didn't it was cut short like 2 hours and our guide Keen was just not being helpful lemme tell you. Every time i asked him why we weren't driving by animals or why he was speeding he wouldn't answer me and he kept stopping to chat with his buddies on the road WHAT TO HECK KEEN?? My friends all laughed at me a lot cuz like 20 mins in when we had seen nothing i was like SO WHERE ARE THE ANIMALS? and for some reason they think that was very funny but i really just wanted to know where the animals were. We ended up seeing a few things but we like sped by them and we were all being super negative and complaining and Keen didn't give a hoot ugh Keen.

What went right?

Even though we didn't see much on the walking safari, I got some of the best views of my life. I'll post some pics later. Saw probably the best sunset I've ever seen and I can't even describe how serene it was being there in the wilderness with no roads or people or anything, just animals. Oh yeah I didn't talk about the delta basically it's this area in Botswana that the government moved people out of in order to protect the animals so we had to take a 3 hour canoe ride to get there and there's literally nothing there and it's amazing. Sometimes you expect to get one thing out of an experience but you end up getting something even mur beautiful and I kinda feel like that's what happened with the walking safari and the sunset.

As far as the driving safari goes, that situation did suck a lot but it was all the more awesome the next day when we had a relaxed safari and got to have the real experience. Also, we spent the whole day looking for a lion and we FINALLY saw one at the very end! And our very own Keen spotted it himself and he was like a celebrity for the day like yaas keen!! I think a really fun part of safaris is the looking for the animals and the anticipation and we definitely got that and it really proved that good things come to those who wait.

Haha What is Wifi

What went wrong?

Turns out Botswana wifi is even slower than my 2G service in CT which I did not think was even possible. We would get to a hostel and they'd be like here's the wifi password and we'd be like oh yay and log on and everyone would be like "is yours working" and then everyone would be like "no is yours" and theyd be like "no" and that's kinda how it went the whole weekend so I really really was disconnected whether I liked it or not.

What went right?

Turns out I ended up looooooving the disconnection. Especially on my birthday. It's been a few years since I've spent a birthday totally focused on the people I've been with and not worried about checking facebook to see who posted, checking my texts to see who texted, etc. Since I just didn't have access for the whole day, I was really able to take in everything around me and make true memories that I'll keep with me forever. Plus when I finally got wifi and got the texts and posts it felt like my birthday was extended! Btw if you're reading this early enough that I still haven't gotten to responding to the bday posts dont worry I'm gonna do it tomorrow in class cuz i finally have my computer back!! But yeah idk we kinda all ended up hating when we had wifi. Not to be all whatever but like I feel so much happier when I'm disconnected and it's an important thing to keep in mind for the future.

Just Rain No Rainbows

What went wrong?

Not many people really understand this (i sure didn't) but Victoria Falls is so misty all around that you literally get soaked just walking through the lookout thing and to add onto it it was pouring the day we went. We could barely see anything because of all the water and there were no rainbows because the sun wasn't out so it was basically just walking through torrential downpour for 2 hours and I was like damn ok we came here for this well that sucks.

What went right?

We got back to the hotel soaking and I didn't really feel like doing our next activity because I felt so gross, but I forced myself to anyway and I'm so glad I did. I had signed up for a 4 activity combo thing by the falls that included a canopy tour (9 ziplines), the flying fox (like a zipline but on your stomach), a huge zip line and a gorge swing. It ended up getting sunny when we went and I had the time of my life. Maddie and I did the tandem zip line and swing and it was a perfect ending to our honeymoon of a trip ily Maddie I will remember those special moments forever. We had awesome guides named Nacho (!!) and Sebastian and I miss them a lot. Jham was so bad at ziplining that she had to go with Nacho every time and Sebastian was like "tandem is only for children and elderly people" as Jham was getting strapped in with Nacho and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. Point is I think the fact that the morning was so blah made me enjoy the afternoon that much more and when the sun came out I was so appreciative for it and yeah I dunno if I would've enjoyed it as much if everything had gone totally perfect and even though I'm disappointed I didn't get to see the rainbows at least I have the memories of Nacho and Sebastian!

I'm sure there's so much more important and funny stuff that I'm missing but I wasn't able to blog for 2 weeks straight so I feel like I did pretty well with everything from memory! Sorry if this post was disjointed or weird I think the format worked better in my head but you get the point basically life is not gonna go perfectly as planned especially in Africa but it's important to roll with it and find the silver lining because there almost always is one. I really didn't mean to turn my blogs into like a life advice section I am so not qualified for that lol but idk abroad is teaching me a lot #ABROADCHANGEDME no but really ok here are some pics

Pretty views and birthday surprise