Tuesday/Wednesday – 281/282
Posted on 12th May 2013
The past few days I’ve been starting a plan to get into shape. This involved going running consistently every morning and pushing myself (and Ariella who has been coming with me) harder every day. Over the past few days our pace has been slow and the distance we cover not too far, however I am confident that this will improve over time. If only I wasn’t leaving so soon!
Following shacharit, our morning run, and a long Saxby’s (coffee) break, I headed off to the Distributed Systems Research Lab (security lab) to meet with Mr Bill Cheswick, a visiting expert in the field. As I was walking I received an email “when are you coming? there are people here waiting for you – ches”. This somewhat surprised me as I was under the impression that I was just meeting with him, in order to hear his thoughts on PhD programs. When I arrived I was quickly corralled into a chair and introduced to all the members of the security group. They were all very distinct personalities, from Sandy, the mature age student to a man mysteriously known only as Q. Ches and Matt Blaze (the head of the group) were both there as well.
As a group they then sat me down in an attempt to convince me to come on board as a PhD student. They told stories of the things I could be doing and showed me much gadgetry I’d have access to. They explained why this was the ‘right’ path to be taking at this point in my life and why I was an appropriate fit for the position. After a time, Matt disappeared and Sandy handed me a set of lockpicks and a few practice locks and introduced me to the start of what would be an interesting few days practicing security.
In the evening I made pasta for Madeleine again, went for my run with Ariella and, afterwards went to my room to continue packing. After a few hours, on the return of Hannah from her home, I went to drag her to play piano with me. She was a bit out of practice on the keys but sang wonderfully! Had a great time for the hour before Glee Club rehearsal. Yup, it started again.
Wednesday began back in the security lab, playing with a magnetic strip reader and trying to improve my lockpicking. Progress came, but it was achingly slow. Muscle memory takes a while. The afternoon was taken up by Glee Club again, rehearsal and a full club meeting for the yearly post-mortem. I had to keep popping in and out though, as I was lending my room key to Ariel Jacobi, a female friend from Hillel who need a place to temporarily store her bags.
Following rehearsal, Ariella and I ordered food in to my place and settled down to finish watching Toy Story 3 (I must admit there were definitely a few tears at the end). We talked for a few more hours, and I walked her home to Alyse Schongold’s (another good friend) at whose place she was staying. Alyse is almost like a sister to me, providing words of wisdom and a real grounding. As a side point she also makes delicious sesame noodles, that were to make an appearance later in the week.
An hour after arriving back in my room (one am by this point), Ariel and a friend of hers stopped by to wait before their flight in the early morning. I stayed awake with them till 4AM and as a result was was too tired the next day!