Tuesday – Day ???
June 6, 2013
Never Happened.
See Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line #PacificOcean
Final Day – Monday – Day 309
Well I guess this is it… the end of the road. Still not sure if or how much I’ll be updating this blog once I finish coverage of getting home.
I started today with one last great hurrah, a visit to the Google office in NYC with the lovely Samantha Merritt. It was pouring outside in the morning, and so a little damp, I made my way downtown via subway. My tour of the office ran for about an hour and was even more fun than I imagined it would’ve been. From the great workspaces, to the numerous cafes (with delicious fruit smoothies!), it seemed like an awesome place to work. Lining the walls was tech memorabilia and the hallways were filled with Dr Who references and Lego. I was greatly appreciative for the opportunity and it made me wish to work at a similar place at some point in my career.
Following the tour I had a number of errands to run, boxes to post and bags to pack, but soon I was off to the airport. Security was a little more painful than normal, and the flight experienced minor delays but very soon I was off the ground, sitting in a row of three seats all to myself. By the time I woke up from sleeping, we had already landed in LA. The best sort of flight.
Sunday – Day 308
June 3, 2013
Today was my last full day in the USA but it was packed, fun and exciting.
After a late wake-up I raced out to midtown to meet Susan Greenberg, a friend from Penn. After grabbing her, we walked to Milk and Honey, a kosher lunch place in the center of town and ate there with Ariella and Doniel Sherman. After lunch we set off for the NYC Israel Parade, a giant parade of thousands of supporters of the state of Israel, from those of far-left leaning politics to those on the far right, all gathered together in appreciation of the strong relationship between the US and Israel. I myself was marching with a contingent from Penn Hillel which was largely comprised of friends from the OCP. In the sweltering heat we waited over forty minutes before our contingent was called to begin marching and, in less than thirty minutes it was all over. Slightly anti-climactic but fun nonetheless.
After lunch Yoni, Ariella and I walked back downtown to meetup with Rina Krevat and Samantha Merritt, digital media design majors from Penn. In particular I wanted to see Sam as I had never had the chance I wanted to have a proper conversation with her. As we walked and talked I found that she was quite charming and was interested in many of the same things as I. I also found it awesome that she was interning for Google this summer and asked if I could have a tour the next morning, to which she cheerful replied in the affirmative. Yoni, Ariella and I then stopped for smoothies in a frozen yoghurt place, before heading off to the Apple Store to take advantage of their A/C and then FAO Schwartz to take advantage of their giant piano.
By then it was starting to get late and so we dropped Yoni off at a restaurant with his parents, picked up Ariella’s stuff from where her mum had left it in a hotel and set off to Brooklyn, to meet with another ‘Ariella’, a friend of Ariella Levine’s with whom Ariella Levine was to be staying. After a somewhat long trip, we made it to Brooklyn, only to be whisked off to the Five Towns, a very Jewish area of Long Island, for dinner at a ‘chinese’ place. My last good block of time with her. Dinner couldn’t have gone long enough and before I knew it I was on the train back, all by myself. As we pulled into the station closest to where I was staying with my cousins, I heard and then saw a raging thunderstorm outside and so was forced to sprint back to the apartment. I eventually arrived soaking wet, much to the amusement of the doorman, checked into my flight and am now going to sleep.