Shavuot – Tuesday/Wednesday – Day 288/289
May 20, 2013
Today was the start of tour! At 5AM I woke up, showered, grabbed by bags and headed to Platt for the last time. There waiting was the entire Glee Club, ready for our flight. From there, we walked to the station to catch a train to the airport, which we made just in time. Check in wasn’t so much of a pain, especially having flown so many times before, I just went with it. Security was a breeze, and soon I was on the plan, furiously texting my few friends left in Philly and saying more goodbyes.
I slept all the way to Chicago, O’Hare airport, and there for a two hour layover, decided to head to the American Airlines Lounge with a few friends and 24 hour guest passes we had. After a glass of wine, and some snacks, we chilled and napped briefly, before catching our final flight to Seattle.
The flight there was barely long enough to be uncomfortable and, the issue was more dealing with large amounts of luggage and the fact that I had no real place for Shavuot, a Jewish festival starting that evening. Regarding that matter, I was complaint to my close friend Tova Reiter. Since her last visit, we had become much closer and given the time difference between Seattle and Chicago, she was a convenient friend with whom to voice my annoyance. However she wasn’t standing for it one bit. A few minutes later I received a text from her with a number to call for someone in the Seattle community. I was also instructed in no uncertain terms that it was my responsibility to call the number. I tried it a few times to no avail and had almost given up when on a fourth try a very direct lady answered asking me what my situation was. The connection was shaky and dropped a few times, however within the half hour I had a family to stay with and a list of places where I would be eating over the next two days.
My next task was to make it from the centre of Seattle to the Seward Park neighborhood where the Jewish community was located. This was more of a task than I initially would’ve assumed. I started asking around and no-one seemed to know either where it was or how to get there. Eventually I found a lady who directed me to a certain bus and told me to switch to the ‘fifty’ at some later point. After about half an hour on the bus I started to get nervous and started asking others on the bus where I should disembark. Given a piece of incorrect information I disembarked early, ending up in some foreign suburb with all my bags, waiting for the next bus. Twenty minutes later I was on the road again, this time for only five minutes, before being unceremoniously dumped once more on the side of the road. By this point the sun was starting to drop in the sky and I started to get a little on edge.
I waited ten minutes for the next bus, then twenty, forty, fifty and then, finally, at the one hour mark, the bus trundled down the near empty road and picked me up. From there my next task was to figure out how to get from the Seward Park neighbourhood to the address I had been given. I asked the bus driver and she was a little uncertain but very warm and friendly and let me know that she would ensure my safe arrival. Though she couldn’t take me direct to my destination she dropped me off on the side of a major intersection and told me to run to catch another bus fast approaching that would take me to the final stop. Very worn out by this point, I raced to the other bus, just catching it in time.
Barely three minutes later, the bus arrived at the intersection I needed. As I got off, I gazed at the path ahead. My head tilted up and up, till I could finally see the top of the incline that was mine to climb. With time fast passing me by, I knew the task needed to be completed swiftly and thus, I gathered my efforts and twenty five minutes later made it to the top of the hill to the house of Ezra and Eliza Genauer.
The took me in with great warmth and no hesitation, and introduced me to their charming children, Levi, Donny and Tova (a different Tova this time). Ezra took me with him to Synagogue where he introduced me to a man named Moshe who would be hosting me for dinner. My meal that evening was fair, though the company was well above my age range, the youngest at the table being a good fifteen years by senior. I made it back to the house just after midnight and fell fast asleep.
Ezra woke me early the next morning for synagogue the next day, chatting to me on the way about his interests in community organizing which piqued my own interest due to my work in such things back home. Lunch at his place afterwards was slightly more exciting than the night before due to the company of a Microsoft Security officer who worked in the community. The evening meal was similar, although this time the host was an Amazon employee and an ex-Microsoft staffer from the Windows department. It was most exciting to be surrounded by so many technical types as my previous environments had limited talent in the area. Back a bit earlier, I chatted to Ezra and Eliza in the evening before bed.
Monday – Day 287
May 17, 2013
My last day on Penn’s campus. Wow. It’s been a heck of a year. However, I couldn’t go without a bit of a bang: singing for the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden!
Again up early in the morning, this time however, to get past security and the secret service in order to be allowed into Franklin Field where we would soon by joined by the Vice President. However, before he even arrived, we performed a twenty minute set for the audience that was slowly filing in, in order to keep them entertained while security was doing its work. Once the ceremony finally began, it was everything I imagined it to be. First, a formal procession of students, followed by the deans, the honorary degree recipients and of course, Joseph Biden Jr. (and his phalanx of secret service members).
The speeches were nothing particularly notable, however they made for decent listening. Biden offered little advice but his stories were interesting. Amy Gutmann tried to be inspiring and as a result sounded as her usual self. I guess we love her for things other than her speech-writing talents.
Following all of that was our big moment, or our little moment as it was: the singing of the Penn school song, “The Red and The Blue” for the VP.
As much as I don’t think Biden was paying very much attention, it was still a cool feeling.
After ‘commencement’ we took a brief lunch break, that I used to complete some errands (mailing stuff back home), before another gig that was much the same; the private engineering graduation ceremony. I hung around for a while longer after the gig was over to see some of my friends receive their diplomas, but then raced off to get a hair cut before the salon closed. From then, it was a matter of finishing of the job of packing, which took me a good while, and settling in for my last night in the apartment.
Unfortunately however, I was kept away by a certain technical challenge (that I won’t reveal here for the time being). At around 2AM I completed the interesting work and headed to sleep, excited to test it in the morning.
Shabbat/Sunday – Day 285/286
Today I had the pleasure of a late wakeup, followed by a lovely lunch with much of the same crowd as before, plus Alyse. To my delight, Alyse had prepared her sesame noodles, of which I was most fond of, and that helped make my lunch experience a most delicious one.
Following the lovely, long lunch, I walked down to college green, where the Penn Glee Club was performing for all the alumni. Aside from our main performance of the PGC Marching Song, I engaged in a few performances with a smaller group of guys, running through some of our barbershop repetoire.The PGC Alumni Reception was in the afternoon and my service to the club was recognized along with the graduating seniors. Caused a little heartache as our director said a few words about my past year.
After the reception I went back to my room for the usual nap, waking up decently late before spending more time packing up my stuff.
Sunday was a good deal more packed than I was expecting. I woke up earlier than I had most days at Penn, seven AM, and quickly changed into my Khaki Blazer PGC uniform and raced off to ‘The Compass’ to sing at a memorial service for Penn alums. At the end of that gig and with no time to spare, we raced off to sing at a brunch for alumni. After two more rounds of our Penn songs, they were starting to get a little old. A quick lunch break later, we were again at another gig, the traditional and somewhat religious Baccalaureate ceremony. This was one of the less fun gigs of the entire semester. The ceremony was repeated in exactitude twice. Once for each half of the graduating class. We sat through the hour and a half ceremony two times for a sum total for fifteen minutes of singing between them. Thoroughly exhausted by all of this, when I got back to my room I had barely the energy to make my self dinner, let alone finish off more of my packing.
My room was now starting to look a little bare, but onward I ploughed through my belongings, sorting those I could keep from those that would be left behind. Finally, at around one AM I made it to sleep, surrounded by piles of items pulled from my drawers.