Sunday/Monday – Day 279/280
May 12, 2013
Sunday I realized that I actually needed to study for my final exam. I spent the entire day in my room attempting to make good on a promise to myself that I actually would put significant effort into it, however many distractions came up and I didn’t get far.
One lovely thing however was dinner that evening. At around six thirty, I received a message from Ariella, letting me know that I should dress up nicely and come downstairs to meet her Mum and Stepdad (Bob). After meeting them Ariella, Aviva, Louis and I piled in to Dani Levine’s (Ariella’s sisters’) car and drove off to the suburbs. As we drove further and further away from the city, the scenery improved dramatically with more greenery and nicer houses. Eventually we reached the center of a smaller town where we stopped in front of a nice looking restaurant named ‘Citron and Rose’.
While we had a bit of a wait before we reached the time of the reservation, once we were seated the service was very good. The wait staff were attentive and knew the menu well. Better than most of the kosher restaurants I’d previously been in. I ended up ordering a carpaccio followed by lamb as recommended by the waiter.
However, far more important than the delicious food was the company. Bringing friends to meet your parents can sometimes be a bit of a nerve wracking experience but at least from my perspective both Ariella and Dani’s friends were all on our best behaviour and the conversation was light hearted and enjoyable. More than anything, this contributed to making the evening wonderful and helpful in many ways.
Getting back I finally started to err.. study… err… read interesting academic papers in the field. Before getting to bed around two AM. Far too late for the night before an exam.
Monday I was up at eight, actually studying this time. I made a little progress, but nothing spectacular. At eleven I headed to Hillel for lunch, my last meal there, making sure to thank all the dining staff (Marti and Dottie specifically) for their efforts in making the dining experience such a communal and wonderful experience.
I raced off to Engineering to sit the exam, and while I felt it was fairly poorly worded, I still managed fine. Perhaps a little worse than I had hoped, but I still managed to leave well before one of the two allotted hours had elapsed. Ended up doing above average as I found out after exams came out. More than sufficient.
The afternoon passed in a bit of a blur, more time at Hillel, more time with Ariella and Yoni and an interesting coffee date with a certain Professor Max Mintz. Max Mintz has the reputation for being a very difficult but fascinating professor. An article in the New York Times mentioned him and his introductory discrete math course, noting that though he ran a difficult course and often took tangential routes to the subject material, he was respected as really knowing both how to teach and how to excite and interest students. After coming out of engineering I ran into Rigel Swavley talking to an older looking man, and so I asked him if he was indeed this legendary professor. He replied to the affirmative and invited me to his ‘office’, a nearby coffee shop. There we spoke for around twenty minutes on whether social media was filling an existing need or creating one. Most fascinating.
The evening was chilled, Ariella, Louis and I went to see Iron Man 3, which while not fantastic in terms of plot, was a fun action film and a good break from semester.
Friday/Shabbat – Day 277/278
May 8, 2013
One positive thing that has started since the end of exams, aside from much cooking on my part, is that I have begun to go running again. I’m not sure quite what motivated me this time, but Ariella is keeping track to make sure it happens every day. Hopefully I can keep it up.
Friday and Shabbat were spent again, trying to enjoy the company of those close to me. Ariel Menche, Aviva’s boyfriend, was again visiting this weekend. At each meal I felt so privileged to be so surrounded by people I cared about. Lunch was predictably a little quieter, but Friday night dinner the table was full of all the most wonderful people I had met during the year. Tonight I truly felt like a Penn student.
Following dinner we surprised Ariel with a birthday cake in his honor, and a little party in Aviva’s room. A friend of Ariel’s from school, a french exchange student came along to and we got along very well (though she didn’t seem to like the USA much). After that I went to a tish upstairs where Louis was complaining that none of the songs were transliterated, however he still seemed to be having a great time. It confused me just a little.
The next day lunch was much the same in terms of people and feelings. However, afterwards I had the opportunity to meet someone new: Eliana Holm, a Ramaz girl with all that entailed. Very sweet, very opinionated. I walked with her and Dovie ‘Barry’ Rosenberg (a bit of a genius too) down to Penn Park and talked about our experiences at Penn. The discussion soon turned to what it was like dating within the Hillel scene and a few interesting articles on the community were discussed (one unfairly attributed to Rivka Holzer). Turns out I still had much to learn but was perhaps happy being in the dark.
After my walk, I chilled on the Hillel porch for a while with Emily Weiss (a student of mine) and Ariella, chatting about CIS and assorted other topics. Then to sleep for a few hours before going out in the evening with the usual crew.
Wednesday/Thursday – Day 275/276
Wednesday and Thursday I spent the whole time enjoying myself. I wasn’t too worried about the security exam and definitely was not about to start studying so far in advance. These days I spent mostly in the company of people from Hillel, particularly Ariella and Louis. As the end approached, I became more and more aware of the importance of spending time with those I cared about.
Amongst other things, I spent time walking and talking with Hannah Dardashti which was very welcome given that she was one of the people I was most disappointed at having spent less time with. She’s a soft spoken girl from the suburbs nearby, who is known for thinking very deeply on all manner of things.
Yoni Wieder, another OCPer was also featured heavily in the weeks events. He wasn’t particularly talented at avoiding distractions in my form and hence was a joy to be around.
Thursday night, I made dinner for Madeleine Brown, Ariella Levine, Hannah Dardashti and Jacob Lincoff. Macaroni Cheese! Mum’s recipe with a crispy corn-flake crumb top. I was so worried about it going wrong as I had never made it before and additionally it was my first time making a white sauce. Thankfully, despite a number of errors on my part, it came out deliciously and I was well satiated for that meal.
Another late night chatting, Skyfall on my laptop, and then sleep.