Sunday/Monday – 166/167
January 15, 2013
Sunday was another day of attempted recovery. Thankfully I was slowly getting better. I wrote a bit of a lesson plan for my lab the next day. Tried getting some more work done but I was sadly very unsuccessful. The afternoon brought dance rehearsal and unfortunately I was excluded from the vast majority of it due to my small role in the show. Sat on the sidelines most of the time. For dinner I got sushi by myself which, was most relaxing and something I appreciate doing as it gives me a little time out! Afterwards I baked cookies for my lab the next day and invited Charlie to come try them out. Success!
Monday (finally back up to date), I was consistently happy. I’m not 100% sure why the day was quite so incredible, but I was happy throughout. My lab went really well, classes were fine (though I almost well asleep in one) and dinner and glee rehearsal suited my tastes. I sung the first movement of the Brahms requiem (beautiful as expected) and got a hot chocolate with Steph Li. All in all a wonderful day.
Thursday/Friday – Day 164/165
January 14, 2013
The second I entered the classroom a sinking feeling filled my stomach and my intestines dropped a good foot. PHYS362. Electromagnetism II. Though I understood the class decently, I realized that it was going to be another semester of struggles for me. Hopefully it will be worth it in the end. I love physics, but electromagnetism doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea.
The rest of the afternoon I spent chilling with friends before going to see Zero Dark Thirty in the evening with a few Glee clubbers. When I exited the cinema and checked my email however, I received quite a shock! Phi Kappa Psi had invited me back for ‘closed’ rush. A process whereby prospective brothers were selected out of the pool of open rush for closer examination.
Some of the activities I involved myself in with Phi Psi included late night laser tag, with alcoholic beverages and pizza provided and, as expected from any self respecting frat, giant raucous parties. My behaviour was limited to the less raucous side and it was nice to see that respected by the brothers. At one party I went to in the evening, they had stations with ‘bombs’; high strength spirits, that one would drop into a cup of beer and scull. However, there was one brother that was promoting an alcohol free version at eat station, that was gladly accepted by one of the Muslim ‘rushers”.
Friday was a day without classes. My first ever in my University career. Now that was a change. I spent much of the day recovering from the previous evenings antics however in the afternoon I did have TA training and a faculty meeting (for the algorithms course I was to be teaching this semester). The meetings weren’t super productive however it was well worth the pay (far below Australian standards though!) plus I’m super excited about actually teaching a class (as of 13/Jan/2013 I’ve baked cookies for them).
Friday night was finally a chance to get back to the OCP community and to eat dinner and chill with a few close friends. Then a good dose of sleep.
Tuesday/Wednesday – Day 162/163
January 11, 2013
Tuesday was a run around and get stuff done day. Though there was no rehearsal, there was also no shortage of things that needed to get done. First order of the day was my attempt to obtain a SSN (social security number), needed to legally work in the USA. However in order to get one I had to complete over nine forms ranging from personal details, to employer details and even a survey on my ethnic and religious background.
From there I had to head to three separate offices on the University campus and then re-secure immigration status. This took another few hours and by the time lunch came around I was tired out and ready to head back to my apartment. However, it was only at this point where I was finally eligible to present the final application for an SSN to the social security administration in Center City. A few hours later I was back on campus for lunch//dinner and then had a quiet night in after what was certainly a most busy day.
Wednesday was the first day of classes and boy was I excited.Firstly I got to sleep in and have a banana and banana tea breakfast with Molly. Next with everyone back, I was meeting people I knew left. right and centre. Next up was my first class, Networking with Boon Thau Loo, a favourite professor. Additionally there were a number of friends in the class, significantly Charu Jangid, from Operating Systems the semester prior, with whom I worked well.
Next up was computer security, which though as an undergraduate student I was in a minority, I still enjoyed the class as I was passionate about the subject matter.
Five to seven was Glee Rehearsal. It was so good to get back to proper singing and even the few dances we did didn’t bother me so much. Plus it was good to hang out with the clubbers.
This week also marked the start of ‘rush’; the process by which fraternities decide whom they want to accept as pledges (potential members). Thus, the newmen and I decided to shop around and just see what it was like. I treated it all as a bit of a joke but met a few nice people in the process and had one excellent chat about music, cognitive science and its links to computer science.
Finally, I got back to the apartment and chilled with Molly, McLean of Glee and our last roommate Christina. An evening well spent.