Doin' some things in Africa

Conversations with the friendliest Uber drivers you will ever meet, and the fact that they would always offer up their aux cords. WOOLWOORTH'S BAGGED SOUP! I AM SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THEIR BAGGED SOUP! Seeing movies every weekend for $3 at the Labia. Physical activity consisting of views like this, rather than views of exercise machines.  That moment when you're walking to UCT and you come out of the tunnel, right before the stairs, and you can see all of Devil's Peak behind campus. Almost makes that uphill hike to school everyday worth it. The guys who work at Vida e Café messing with me and putting on a whole comedy routine when I order my morning coffee. The man who would always bring his entire desktop computer to Vida e Café. The fact that I could have a hankering for a certain food and literally only have to walk down a couple flights of stairs to get it at Pick n Pay or Woolworth's. Remembering how I was often too lazy to even do that makes me ...

So. I really hate when people write hackneyed articles like this because I’m like “who are you to give me this advice that you think is so groundbreaking” like we’re all just people and nobody is really more qualified than anyone else to tell other people how to live their lives. It doesn’t help that this is a piece about study abroad and gives off very #abroadchangedme vibes. BUT as I said in my very first post, I started this blog for myself, and I’m going to end it for myself too. I know I may look back at this in a few years and laugh at myself, but all of the growth and happiness that I feel in this moment is real in this moment. So make fun of me all you want, but without further ado, I present to you a cliché-as-heck list of 5 personal lessons that I learned from my semester in Cape Town. Everyone has a different idea of what is “meaningful”, and that’s really beautiful. I already talked about this a bit in other blogs, but I’ve been so fascinated here by how I’ve ...

As my time here is winding down, I've been thinking about how beautiful it is that most of my favorite times here were spent doing totally ordinary things with people I adore. As much as I loved Botswana, as enlightening as Reforest Fest was, as unique as Afrikaburn was, as beautiful as the mountain views are, I think I'm going to look back most nostalgically at the times I had a blast doing the most mundane, nerdy, fundamentally "normal" activities with the great friends I've made. Not to say that I could've made these same memories anywhere in the world; only the perfect combination of factors here could've added up to make these memories happen. Sometimes life just comes together in an authentic and special way that words can't do justice. Life is about finding the beauty in ordinary things, and that has been the essence of my time here, especially this week. Oy, I'm gonna have a hard time not being gushy and gross for my next couple of blogs....