Friday – Day 284
May 14, 2013
Friday I woke up early to drive Dani Levine’s car back to center city with Ariella. Unfortunately our run that day was cancelled as she didn’t want to have to shower before her interview the following hour. However, our walk back was lovely, and I really treasured all that time I had to talk with her, knowing that I would soon find it difficult due to a large time difference.
The rest of the day I spent preparing to leave, packing my bags, clearing my room and taking a short nap.
In the evening I again donned by Glee Club uniform to perform for the first of the big Alumni Weekend gigs. The president’s reception. Alumni weekend is the one weekend a year when all alumni return to celebrate their alma mater, and are treated to all sorts of fancy events while being prodded for donations. The most prestigious of the events was the President’s reception. A function for high level donors. This weekend our repertoire was somewhat limited to traditional songs of Penn. Mostly, a medley of Penn songs, the Red and the Blue (our school song) and the Glee Club anthem; Afterglow.
Following the reception and an hour and a half of rehearsal, I headed to my room, changed for shule and headed to Hillel. Dinner tonight was with Chaim, Jacob Chevitz and Ben Fisch. Dinner was delicious (particularly the cajun brussel sprouts) and was a good chance for me to get to know a few people I didn’t know as well before. Ben Fisch was particularly interesting as he worked on proving an interesting result in computer science for his thesis that was significant enough to need peer reviewing by the scientific community at large, rather than just his individual professors. After dinner I was straight to sleep.
Thursday – Day 283
May 13, 2013
Thursday was an exciting day! Outing time! My family plans for the weekend had unfortunately been cancelled due to Glee commitments however, my trip to NYC to hopefully see them briefly and to say goodbye to other people was still on track.
I woke up exhausted ready to go at nine AM. Hung around waiting for Ariella to get back with the car and then went to Saxby’s for a brief breakfast before heading out on the road. The first while of the trip was a somewhat stressed car, with Ariella at the wheel and Louis backseat safety officer. This caused a little tension, and in my sleep deprived state I lacked the emotional will to deal with it. However soon enough we arrived at Aviva’s place in the suburbs for a brief lunch stop (home made pizza).
Once we picked her up the ride was much more enjoyable. Aviva lightened the mood a fair bit and I went to sleep on a fluffy blue pillow. I awoke as we were pulling in to a parking lot, just outside Manhattan, in order to catch a bus to the Port Authority. Less than twenty minutes later we arrived at 42nd and 7th, right in the heart of the city. Louis was particularly excited as this was his first time every visiting NYC.
The next few hours Ariella and I spent in line at TKTS trying to obtain show tickets to one of the on-broadway musicals, particularly for the benefit of Louis. Louis and Aviva explored Times Square while Ariella and I waited in line for tickets. Everyone had stated their maximum price and unfortunately when Ariella and I arrived at the box office the shows were above our price. Thankfully a little magic happened and we came away with five tickets to “Nice Work, If You Can Get It” with Matthew Broderick. Just as we were purchasing the tickets Yoni —— showed up. I wasn’t quite sure what he was doing there, couldn’t figure out his motive, but was glad to see him nonetheless.
We then all headed to find dinner, getting lost on the way thanks to Ariella’s superior sense of direction. Louis and I then bugged her to call her mum to come meet us as we were only a few blocks away from her work. Though it was getting very close to show-time, we all soon sat down at ‘Kosher Delight’, a few blocks away from the theatre and enjoyed dinner together. It soon came out that Yoni’s dad worked with Ariella’s stepdad and that their parents in fact knew each other, which, was quite a shock to them both!
After that we saw the show from our great seats and all thoroughly enjoyed it. The music was wonderful and though the plot had more holes than the world’s largest golf course, it was lighthearted and funny.
Following the show, we said goodbye to Yoni and then got back on the bus and then drove home. I fell asleep on the bus back, completely exhausted but luckily Ariella was wide awake at the wheel. I was soon back in my bed at Hamco, reading to prep myself for a new day.
Tuesday/Wednesday – 281/282
May 12, 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!