Shabbat/Sunday – Day 135/136
December 13, 2012
Shabbat was another day of sleep mixed in with Glee gigs, including the Winter Holiday Concert featuring such numbers as O Magnum Mysterium, a Christian religion piece, and Maoz Tzur, a traditional Chanukah piece. Unfortunately, whilst it was all recorded, the videos aren’t available to the public and thus I can’t post them here! Motzei Shabbat after the concert I started working for what was bound to be a super stressful week. Exams and my two final projects!
Sunday was spent almost entirely on my Ruby on Rails project which is now almost ready to go live. The basic idea is that people at Penn aren’t always so open to meeting new people and so my website is designed to encourage interaction. It does so through a simple interface by which people sign up for coffee dates with each other using their UPenn email and when to meet.
The evening however was something that I had been looking forward to for a great period of time; the Glee Penn/Dance semi formal. My date was the lovely Stephanie Li of choral society fame and though I had to wait a little past time for her to prepare herself, it was certainly worth the extra few minutes as she and I had such an enjoyable time that evening. First was dinner with the newmen and some of the sophomore’s. It was a BYO which left a certain PGC member unable to behave responsibly and so Steph, I and his date set to helping him out.
Steph and I
Following that PGC and PD had booked a bar for the rest of the evening and for once, I felt really comfortable in a social situation, given that I was close friends with the vast majority of people there. Steph I believe had an excellent time too, and when it finished at around 1AM I was somewhat disappointed, despite knowing I needed the sleep before my exams week!
Thursday/Friday – Day 133/134
December 12, 2012
The stress levels keep going up and up and up!
Thursday was the next major assessment in store for me with a ten minute singing test of the music I had learn for choral society. This consisted of about two hundred pages of music; Haydn’s Thereisenmasse and Vivaldi’s Magnificat, both substantial and fairly beautiful works. Thus, I spent much of today with earphones in one ear, the other listening attentively to my own pitching and music in hand, repeating certain passages over and over.
Other than that, I worked on tidbits here and there in prep for submission of a few larger project over the next week.
A highlight of Thursday evening occurred at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where small groups consisting of PGC members went around the wards to bring ‘holiday cheer’ to those who might otherwise be lacking it. And, though our singing may not have been our best and we were carrying our binders with us, people’s faces really did light up and they clamoured to hear us, some even getting out of their beds to sing and dance along.
Following that, from 7PM to 10PM was a dress rehearsal with the full orchestra for the next day’s choral society concert.
Friday was my final lecture in algorithms and final singing lesson. The singing lesson went excellently and I felt that looking over the semester I had made real progress which was a great feeling.
Friday night was shul at Shira Chadasha in Hillel. The minyan was lovely as always but still missing something compared to home. Hineni shout out to all of you. Afterwards I quickly scrambled for dinner with Aviva and Michal and a few others before heading out with Adriel Koschitzky, an orthodox soloist, to the choral society performance.
The performance I believe sounded pretty great, however I was way too nervous and started feeling sick partway through, partially due to the fact that I was struggling to hear anything other than my own voice, which made pitching somewhat difficult. However, it went well and ended well.
After the show finished I walked back with Aviva who had come to see the performance, Stephanie Li, and a friend of hers. Up to my room, I managed only a few steps before collapsing on my bed.
Tuesday/Wednesday – Day 131/132
December 7, 2012
Finals period is fast approaching. Though, for some reason it seems like it’s already here. I have so many tests and assignments due that I feel as if the exams crept up on me and then even passed by without a chance for me to jump on the horse. Tuesday saw the submission of my last Operating Systems homework, along with a final lecture that was a combination of revision and just fun presentations, to mark the end of semester. However now that that was over it was a bug in my algorithms code that was driving me to distraction!
The Glee Club rehearsal in the evening was quite enjoyable with more directors being trialled and more theatre sports and games played. Also, final prep for our concert on Shabbat, that though the music is perhaps not my favorite, I’m still looking forward to.
Wednesday saw me in two almost empty classes. Apparently everyone but me had already realized that midterms placed in the last week are in fact, exams by another name.
At this point in semester, every spare moment was spent working on something or other, jumping between the various things that needed completing.
Tonight after Glee Rehearsal I interviewed one of my favorite baritone personalities, Mr Mychajlo Kosyk, of a definite notoriety. It was a fantastic opportunity to get to know him a bit better and I was sorely disappointed when our time ran low and we both returned to our respective workloads. In my case this meant preparing for both the final physics assignment and, the OS final exam the next day. Needless to say, as much procrastination as work followed and I didn’t get all I wished done.