Eloquent ranting

So I got really bad at updating my blog daily as things happen and now I’m trying to recall what the heck I’ve done over the past week so I’m sorry if this one is more rambly and disjointed than usual! But who am I kidding that’s what my past few blogs have been like and yall read it anyway!

I think I left off last time at our Chapman’s Peak drive last Tuesday. I don’t think I did anything Wednesday. I wrote an essay about smoking in the restaurant industry. It’s boring. I wrote another essay that I turned in today. It was less boring. It was about transnational surrogacy in India and that is MESSED UP stuff, talk to me about it!

I’ve been thinking a lot about my academic experience here and my final takeaways from it. I know I’ve been super down on UCT and haven’t exactly raved about my classes (and I’ll stand by my non-raving), but I think I can take some good out of it. I’ve gotten very used to a certain type of scientific writing in my majors at Tulane. Like everything is methods, results, discussion, etc and it’s not a lot about putting my own opinions in my writing. Here, I’ve been challenged to do a different kind of writing that’s more similar what I did in high school, synthesizing other authors’ work to develop my own argument about a subject. And even though it’s been hard for me to start writing that way again, I think it’s helped me grow as a student. And it’s really rewarding. It’s refreshing to do this kind of writing that I really enjoyed in my ~younger days~. Most things I’ve written about are actually really interesting to me too, and they include Public Health and Psych elements but allow me to put my own voice in more than I usually can at Tulane. Anyway, am I constantly annoyed by the vagueness of assignments here? Yeah! Does it suck that I spend so much of my time here writing papers? Yeah! But is it kinda weirdly refreshing to get to be happy about a 78? Also yeah! Am I gonna go back to Tulane as a better writer? I do think so.

Last Thursday we went to this thing called First Thursdays. Or at least part of it. On the first Thursday of every month, galleries in city center open up late and people walk around and do happy hour and dinner and go out idk like fun adult stuff. I went just for the dinner part obviously lol but it was great vibes! The place had this super cute courtyard with string lights and live music. The musician played Wanna Be Like You from the Jungle Book lol wild!!

Then on Friday it was a beauuutiful day so I went to Kirstenbosch Gardens with Rachel. Sidenote people keep asking me if I’m freezing when I wear leggings and a tshirt on a 75 degree day like ??? It is not winter it’s just not!! Anyway we went to Kirstenbosch and walked around the tree canopy which was beaut and then set out a blanket and read. I’m trying to read It by Stephen King rn but idk if it’s my thing. Which is really unfortunate because it’s a physically giant 1,000 page book that takes up a lot of friggin space in my bags. But we got bored of our books real quickly and then resorted to watching little boys being cute and running up and down a hill in front of us. Child watching is one of my favorite activities. In a totally non-creepy way. It’s just so crazy seeing the things that entertain them. Like they were straight up doing a workout routine but having sooo much fun doing it. I really wish I felt that happy while running up hills.

We did Kabbalat Shabbat on the balcony per ushe. Rachel is the sweetest friend and printed me out a copy of Kabbalat Shabbat so that I can keep up with her and Rebecca. Because usually it’s them singing and me mumbling pretending to know the words when I have no hootin clue.

Somehow on Friday nights we never don’t talk about camp. Friday night is camp discussion night and I love it. Shabbat shalom!

The next morning, I headed out to do work at a Mango Ginger Cafe with Nicole and Alicia. Leaving Rachel and Rebecca was legit hilarious bc they were laying in bed with nothing to do (bc Shabbat) entertaining themselves by playing I Spy and when I went in their room they looked like the grandparents from Willy Wonka. Like bickering bedridden old grandparents.

I wasn’t productive doing work at Mango Ginger, but I WAS productive in my second goal of finding a denim jacket in a thrift shop! I kept borrowing alllll of my flatmates’ jackets because I didn’t have any, so thank goodness now I won’t have to mooch anymore! I got Ethiopian food that night and it was good but not my thing. My group of friends here is the FUNNIEST group to eat out with. We spend all the time before we get our food complaining about how hungry we are. Then once we get our food, we eat it in MAX 20 minutes. Like I forget what it’s like to not eat as fast as you can when you get your food. And then we’re immediately like hey could you bring the check when you get a chance? And then we get impatient about the check. We finished an entire 5 person serving on Ethiopian food in 14 minutes. CHAM! PI! ONS! Obviously then we went to Unframed and get THIS we found out that ALL THIS TIME they had a REWARDS CARD!!! I literally would have already earned a free cone but NO they friggin HELD OUT ON US not the way to treat your most loyal customer nuh uh. Also that night I found out that they post their flavors on Instagram every day which was a huge gamechanger. I found this out because I suggested it to them as if it was some groundbreaking idea and they were like bish we already do that! They didn’t say bish but I bet they were thinking it.

When we got home, Rachel and I tried to finish watching the Sound of Music but Alicia decided to be legit EVIL and mess up the computer loading process I don’t wanna get into it but what to HECK Alicia jk I know you feel bad about it so I won’t shame you.

On Sunday we went to the Waterfront market and I had the best pastry I’ve ever had. Then we went to Robbens Island, the Island where Nelson Mandela and lots of other black and colored people went to prison during apartheid. Ugh I wish I had more to say about it I really do but I really just didn’t connect with our tour guides. Like had a really time following what they were saying. It was pretty underwhelming for me. But I’m still glad I saw it and got to hear their perspectives. Something awesome is the people giving the tours of the actual prison are former prisoners, so it’s super authentic. Yeah idk everyone should know about South Africa’s history it’s important stuff. Also, prison islands freak me the HECK out. I think partially because of the movie Shutter Island.



Haha I don’t remember anything about the rest of the day except that I was super grouchy after. I think that’s when I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which is a trippy af movie that I can’t say I fully understood but I think I did enjoy it!

On Tuesday I went to Baphumalele and the girls played with my hair so much that it got so gross I needed to fully wash my hair through twice to make it clean again thanks girlies! And this one adorable 9 year old named Olwetu was trying to teach me Xhosa and got so frustrated when I couldn’t make the clicks with my mouth like could NOT understand why I couldn't do it. She’d say “NOOOO SILLY GOOSE!” Isn’t it funny and crazy that they say “silly goose” in Africa too? Where did that phrase even come from? Why are geese so silly out of all animals?

These kids are sassy as heck lemme tell you. Something I’ve learned about myself and my style with kids that I think I learned from my parent’s parenting style is I’m pretty no BS. Like I’ll be nice about it but if you’re doing something bad I’m gonna let you know it’s not ok. So a lot of times these kids will try to all climb on me at the same time or all flip while holding my hands, and when I’m tired of it I just say nope we’re done with that now! And sometimes they’ll keep doing it and I’ll have to say again sorry no more that hurts me we’re done. And like 50% of the time the kid will then cross their arms and make a frowny face and walk like 5 feet away from me and lean on the wall and be all mad at me. And I’ll try to hold their hand and they’ll take it away and continue their display of dramatic anger. And I’m just like ok well I’m gonna go play over here now! And obviously they don’t stay “mad” but I think it’s hilarious that they do that. But yeah that’s the difference between me and Eva as caretakers. Eva would distract the kid with some other activity and be so gentle and I’m just like nope sorry! I think it’s because Eva was an easy kid and my parents never really had to be firm with her whereas I was a terror. Once when I was 2 I had an hour long temper tantrum in Nordstrom and my mom just made me sit in the lounge area for that hour until I was calm because she’s a great mom and didn’t give in. And now every time we pass that lounge area she says “once you had an hour long temper tantrum there”. Happy late Mother’s Day to my wonderfully tolerant mom!

On Wednesday I was gonna stay home to cook dinner but then Alicia LITERALLY dragged me out of my bed like physically dragged me and put my shoes on for me and made me come with her to dinner. She is the most effective peer pressurer I have ever met it’s really dangerous.

Today was as fun day! Obviously it was a great day because we started it with bagels (Me Alicia and Maddie) and then I got some good coffee and then we went to this fun retro clothing store and I got a super fun pair of heart sunglasses! I keep making these bold purchases that I think I can pull off but I keep forgetting that after abroad and after camp I will never have anywhere to wear them oH FRIGGIN WELL!

Tonight we went paragliding! We launched from signal hill and people were taking pictures of me as I was launching so hello @dozens of people whose cameras I’m now on. It was really fun! I was very scared about it, not because I thought it’d be scary but because I thought something would go wrong. I was up very late the night before googling “paragliding death statistics”. And then I didn’t like the statistics so I got confirmation bias af and kept looking for statistics I liked better but didn’t find them. But here’s the thing, the statistics are just high because unlike bungee or skydiving, people paraglide on their own and can do very stupid things and make very stupid decisions. So anyway I was scared but it ended up being super relaxing and I felt very safe with my guy! Apparently it’s really rare that people get to go at sunset so I felt special about that. It was a nice experience, dunno if it was worth the money for like 4 mins in the air but hey NO RAGRETS!








Sidenote why the heck are people acting like I’m some lamo grandmother who never leaves my house??? Like yeah I don’t like to go out but I’ve always been into doing other wild stuff! Like cmon folks I’ve always loved roller coasters!!! I’ve always wanted to go on the King Da Ka I did a whole report on roller coasters in 4th grade ok???? It’s not soooo out of character for me to do stuff like paragliding I CANNN be mildly fun sometimes. Let’s just get that straight!

SPEAKING of fun, last night Jen and Alicia and I spent a good hour watching viral youtube videos of cute kids doing cute things. I think my all time favorite is the blond girl singing Moana at her graduation, with “You Poked My Heart” in close second.

We went to Chabad tonight and I’m happy about it cuz it had been too long since I’d gone for Shabbat dinner! I just love the service there it’s seriously unbelievably beautiful. Something I was thinking about during the amidah was how cool it is that we all feel religiously connected in different moments and that’s ok and really cool and important to acknowledge! It’s just crazy because I never expected religion to be a significant part of my experience here abroad, but I find myself feeling so connected at random times, and it’s sad but also kind of beautiful that a lot of the moments are things I’ll never experience again. Like hearing the beautiful singing at Chabad services, having kabbalat shabbat on the balcony, being on top of a mountain, looking up at the stars in Botswana...it’s just nice because I sometimes think, is it weird that I went to study abroad in this place that’s so random in the context of my life? I had no previous connection to South Africa and I’m very much someone who values personal connection, like it would’ve made a lot more sense in theory for me to study in Israel for example. But I’ve been able to find a true spiritual connection here in a way that I wasn’t expecting and I’m so grateful for that.

At dinner I was talking about my finsta, and Jen said that I’m an “eloquent ranter” and I think that’s the most accurate description I’ve ever heard of myself, and definitely reflects in my blogs. So that’s where the title comes from.

Alicia asked the Rabbi if we could do an ice breaker. Rachel suggested that we do her favorite ice breaker - what biblical figure would you want to get drunk with? But he rejected that one and instead used one that I really like that I can’t believe I had never heard before! If money didn’t exist, what would you do with your life? Like day to day or an overall goal, what would you do if you didn’t have to worry about earning and spending money? It’s a really good question to get to know people but also kinda super depressing because it’s like yes let’s hear everyone’s dreams that are realistically never going to happen. I had never thought about this question before, but my answer came surprisingly easy to me. I said I would open up a Jewish summer camp for kids with disabilities and I was confident as heck about that answer. And now I’m sad that that’s not actually what I’m going to do with my life in all likelihood but hey who knows??

Omg I just had my favorite uber driver in history. First he turns to me (I was sitting in the front seat) and asked why my window was fogged and his wasn’t. I said I don’t know and then he said “maybe it’s because you talk too much”. Then when we dropped Nicole off, Jen and I were like “bye Nicole I’ll text you about tomorrow!” And he mockingly was like “bye Nicole see you next time!!” THEN I asked him how his day was and what he did, and he was like “I woke up...got my toothbrush...brushed my teeth...then I watched that movie Ratatouille” and omg I lost it he also told us we were the first people he told that because he was ashamed. Wow I really regret not getting this driver’s number to keep in touch. What a guy.

I had a big paper to write this weekend about the Rwandan Genocide oof so I spent most of Saturday doing work. That night we saw the movie Tully which I highhhhly recommend. It’s funny but heartbreaking and honest and thought-provoking and we all loved it! God bless the Labia theater where we can see movies for $3, I’ll miss you the most.

On Sunday, Liv Nicole Rachel and I hiked Devil’s Peak. That’s the hardest hike of the 3 big Cape Town mountains, so we had organized a group of non-athletic slow gals to do it together. Except Liv is pretty athletic, she was very patient with us. It was an ok hike, I always enjoy doing it for the feeling of accomplishment afterward and the quality time spent with friends disconnecting. But it was pretty cloudy so we missed out on the good views on the peak. Also it was friggin FREEZING up there and we had to shovel some food in our mouths and leave, so I have no picture proof that I made it but I promise I did. I’m kinda pissed I didn’t take one at the top tho cuz I wanted to instagram and caption it “life’s a climb but the view’s mediocre” because like clouds ha ha oh well.











It took us 5 hours to get up and down lmao that’s a lot. But I’m gonna say it’s fine because we had some injuries along the way that required stopping. I wore my new heart sunglasses and got lots of compliments. Saw a few cute dogs. Fell on my tush more than once.

When we got back I was legit dead physically and mentally but GOOD NEWS I still had to write my 2,000 word essay on Rwandan Genocide!! Writing that was not a cute time for me.

I never know how to end these things, but I think I’m gonna end this one in the spirit of Mother’s Day by shouting out the most important woman in my life whom I miss very much! Leaving here soon is bittersweet, but it’s been definitively too long since I’ve done a double snuggle with my mom and my dog. Here’s a picture of the sweetness that I miss dearly. I love you!