Doin' some things in Africa

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....

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, ...

Hello again!! Here I am in the library writing this because I got bored of trying to take a nap. People always nap in the library here it’s honestly inspiring. That may be the ONE thing UCT has going for it. Hmm I can’t really think of anything to write about from this week nothing weird or out of the ordinary happened...JK GOTCHYA I sure do have stuff to talk about because Afrikaburn. I think Afrikaburn wiped out my memory because I kinda can’t remember anything before it. I think I went for ice cream a couple times. Oh yeah I got a DANK bagel with Jen and Jham on Wednesday. Like we decided it’s definitely the best bagel in Cape Town. For all my CT people reading this it’s called Max’s Bagels and it’s on Bree St and it’s a game changer. OMG DUH how could I forget we had an incredibly eventful night on Wednesday! I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to write about it but basically for Elena’s birthday we went to this place called Beefcakes that’s kinda like a re...