In Which I Beg For A Break, And Get It
November 30, 2014
The next day I woke up around midday, exhausted from the last finish of the previous night’s movie. There was another rehearsal today, in prep for our upcoming high profile gig. Worked for a while in bed, had a delicious vegan lunch, and just took it fairly easy.
Monday the stress returned. Machine Learning was really interesting, focusing on real world machine learning, much of it ‘big data’. Algorithms was particularly intense and with the exam right around the corner, I was getting really nervous. In the evening was regular glee rehearsal (mainly Christmas music), dinner at Hillel and then choral society. choral society was starting to get far more enjoyable as we started singing the music at speed.
Tuesday was noticeably quieter as people started to leave for the thanksgiving break. I had one last class in the morning, physics, which was starting to wind down a little. I worked on my research project for a little. Didn’t make enough progress.
In the late afternoon I headed over to Luke’s for a pre-thanksgiving potluck dinner with the other first year PhDs. However, I had to leave early due to the 8PM Glee Rehearsal.
Glee rehearsal was sadly quiet, with many people having left for the break. Nord our conductor didn’t take it too poorly however, and we were soon singing many of our favourite holiday songs and perhaps dancing around a little too.
Finally Wednesday arrived. No classes, just work, lunch plans and a winter storm. Unfortunately due to the winter storm, my lunch plans that were already rescheduled to then took another hit and were moved further to the last week of semester. This provided me with the opportunity to lounge lazily in bed and work more from there. Even Nadia admitted that it was a pretty lousy day to be getting up.
I had a guiet bite my myself, packed my bags, and headed to Rodin to meet Ariella in order to head to her place for Thanksgiving break.
In Which I Try On A Derbie
November 28, 2014
Friday was scheduled to be busy. Shabbat was due to come in at around 4.20PM and I had a full day planned before. From class in the morning, to a planned lunch with a friend and then Pipers in the early afternoon, I didn’t know when I’d have time to prep. However, after machine learning I received a text that my friend was in fact ill and couldn’t make it, thus we rescheduled for the next week. So too did I receive a message from the Pipers informing me of a rescheduling of our rehearsal to the next day (which I was not pleased about). I ended up using the free time to work a little more and then take a nap, which extended itself well past the hours it was supposed to. I woke up after services and headed to dinner at Hillel. Post people this week were at external meals and so I sat with a few new people which was lovely.
The next day I woke up late but immediately had to go to rehearsal, missing lunch at Hillel. Luckily I had been prepared for this and had bought challot and some grape juice for myself, which I promptly consumed. Rehearsal was fun, and much needed given our concert later that evening with the Brown Derbies, one of their more entertaining all-male acapella groups.
In the afternoon I attended a theatre show put on by Pearl and a company she was managing. It was really well put together and was enjoyable. I then managed a brief nap and a quick dinner before helping to prepare for our evening’s concert.
A Poster For Our Show
Soon the Derbies arrived and we started our show. First the Pipers performed a set of some mixed light barbershop and a few 70s pop tunes. Then the Derbies performed a very high energy set of more typical modern acapella. Finally, the Pipers closed off with another set of barbershop and close harmony singing.
From Penn Dance, Schmush, Avalon, Lainie and Kendra all came along to support us. Talking to them after the show Avalon mentioned that she was going to see the latest Hunger Games movie, and invited Bhavish and I along. I thought it was a nice opportunity to get to know both of them a little better and was eager to do so.
I rushed home to get changed, stopped off quickly at the Glouse, and then met Avalon at the theater. Unfortunately all the tickets to the 10:30PM screening were sold, and so after ‘umming and ahhing’ for a little, we decide to wait an hour and see the 11:30 screening instead. We purchased our tickets, and had a good hour to kill, so we walked to the Glouse to give Bhavish his ticket. Bhavish unbeknownst to us, had decided to stay in and work, and so when we arrived he wasn’t there. We ended up chilling for an hour, and almost went to a bar, but then realized we were low on time for it and so walked back to the theatre.
This was a great chance to get to know Avalon a bit better as Bhavish didn’t show up until just before the movie started. And so, I got to tell her my favorite story about how I came to be at Penn. Bhavish eventually arrived, and showed us a few of his magic tricks, which were superb as always and impressed both Avalon and I (though I had seen them before). The movie itself was fine, not spectacular but fun and probably worth seeing. We all walked back to Harrison together, and then I had the luxury of a deep sleep.
In Which I Dress Semi Formally
November 27, 2014
Wednesday was a mad rush to get enough homework done. Normal onslaught of classes. Crypto has been good recently in that I’m starting to understand some of the abstract algebra underlying the harder bits. Wednesday night was the usual rehearsal and work combo.
Thursday was back to Physics and an attempt to be productive. My interest in the physics died down a little this week as we were focused mainly on computing some coefficients I didn’t have too much interest in (Clebsch-Gordan). However, Thursday night was a little different. I ended up chatting to Nadia in the lab till quite late, and then pretty much ran back to my room to get dressed. I donned my 70s style shirt, binary tie, pants and jacket and walked to the Radian to accompany Natalie Eisner to drinks before Glee Club and Penn Dance’s annual semi formal.
Teddy, Natalie and I
Drinks were at Jane Dobkin’s place with the Junior class (and the lone grad student!) It was a nice chance to actually get to talk a little more with a number of them with whom until that point I’d had limited interaction.
Following that, I and a few of the PD girls and their dates caught the SEPTA (south eastern pennsylvanian public transit authority) train to Pulse Bar, Center City where our function was being held. For once I actually spent the largest chunk on the dance floor, and though it was not my regular choice of environs I managed to have quite a good time. One further point of note was that there were three Australians present! The other two being the dates of Katrina and Arjun respectively.
At just past midnight Natalie and I cabbed home and then I promptly went to sleep before my 9AM machine learning class.