Friday/Shabbat – Day 120/121
November 28, 2012
I was intent on not letting any of today go to waste. Thus it was up as early as possible, despite the late night, in order to go into the city of Detroit and see all it had to offer.
First up was the ‘Black Friday’ sales at the local mall. Even arriving at 10AM people were still going a little mad and the place was packed. Every store was full of people queuing up for bargains that weren’t all the great and sometimes not even there. For me, this reflected one of my less favored sides of the US. The rampant and needless consumerism. Everything everywhere on the streets implies and impulse to ‘buy, buy, buy’ without bound.
However, despite all that, there was one product I couldn’t help but find mildly adorable: Lord of the Rings Lego!
Following that we drove to the Heidelberg project, an outdoor art installation designed to highlight the challenges that Detroit is facing, poverty and dilapidation amongst them. The project encompassed a number of houses, adorned tastefully in castaway items.
Someone’s house!
In between the houses, on the ‘sidewalk’ and on nature strips in the center, objects were nailed to trees and signs posted, with religious and eschatological themes.
We walked in the cold for a few minutes however the chill was soon too much for us and after finishing the length of the street we raced back to the car.
Next stop was the newly reopened Detroit History museum that chronicled the life and times of the city. As today was its grand reopening, entry was free and we spent a good few hours in the many exhibits! Grace and her boyfriend met us there after lunch and I was glad to see them both after having gotten along so well with them the night before.
A genuine Detroit car
Amongst the things I learnt in the museum was that Detroit was once the capital of stoves, with a large stove manufacturing industry through the mid to late eighteen-hundreds.
Who would’ve thought?
Amongst the things I already knew was that Detroit was famous for its auto industry with a number of the world largest manufactures calling the city home. In fact, I was later privileged enough to visit the Ford Rouge manufacturing plant that takes raw materials and processes them, eventually producing a car. All at a single plant.
Museum Exhibit – Lowering the body onto the chassis
The tour of the Rouge factory that we later went to was fascinating but at the same time scared me a little.
The rest of the evening was a quiet night at home with Tammy and family.
Password
November 26, 2012
The password for future posts I need to protect will be on facebook on my wall posts of the blog posts!
Wednesday/Thursday – Day 118/119
I wish today could’ve been a little slower, but with the final submission of operating systems due to rear its ugly head, today was not quiet. Due to the start of thanksgiving break tomorrow, algorithms was almost desert, with a mere fourteen out of one hundred and five people bothering to show up. After that it was straight to work on PennOS for a solid eight hours with Charu Jangid, one of my team members, in tow. We managed to eke out a little progress however the other two group members were still conspicuously missing.
At around 5PM Charu left and I packed my bags and headed off to the Philly Greyhound terminal with my backpack to catch the 6PM bus to Pittsburgh, another city in Pennsylvania. The greyhound terminal was ridiculously packed with folks trying to get home for thanksgiving. No real lines were forming and people were mobbing the doors to try and get seats on the earlier busses out. I myself managed to sneak on relatively early and moved all the way to the back seat that was notable for its extra legroom. I hauled out my laptop and began to work on project for the next six hours.
At around one AM I arrived in Pittsburgh and transferred to a bus going to Cleveland OH. The bus ride was again spent on my laptop trying to get a little internet signal and debugging my code. Finally I made my last transfer at four and slept for a couple of hours before reaching Detroit, MI (Michigan) at ten to eight. After a short wait during which I shaved quickly (so as to make a fine impression on her parents) Tammy Hsia, my host for the next half week, arrived with in her car. I jumped in and we drove around for a while taking stock of what was open on this national holiday, before heading to the suburb of Troy where she lived, for a quick shower and change.
After that it was off to see the natural beauty in the region and, despite the chilly weather and the gloomy skies I had a wonderful time exploring one of the nearby trails.
Our walked finished relatively quickly due to the conditions outside and so, with everything else closed, Tammy and I decided to go to the movie theatre to see “Wreck it Ralph” in 3D.
After waiting around for forty-five minutes for the feature to start, we settled in for what was a fantastic movie. With a great score, clever plotline (with a twist), and both adorable and strong characters I highly recommend seeing it. So much so that it was almost worth seeing it a second time. We both smiling, even after my shock earlier in the day of having received two sets of very bad marks from Algorithms, what I had considered to be one of my stronger courses.
We returned to Tammy’s place where after attempting to work for about five minutes, I fell fast asleep on my bed. Waking up, it was dark outside and I took a bit of a better look at the room I was in. Beautifully furnished with fresh toiletries bought for me, the Hsia’s were amazing hosts. They took such good care of me and I was quite grateful to feel so at home. I then went downstairs to help prepare for our vegetarian thanksgiving dinner, a little different from tradition. This was due to both Mike (Tammy’s sister Grace’s boyfriend) and I both having dietary restrictions.
Grace and Mike arrived rather late from Ann Arbor, where they lived, however, as soon as we sat down to the meal things were wonderful. I became instantly friends with Grace and Mike and I shared much in common too. I was a little disappointed that they would be going away the next day and so I would have little more time to spend with them. Thus, after they told us that they were going to see Wreck it ralph that evening, Tammy and I decided that though we’d seen it earlier in the day we could go see it again, just to spend time with the two. It was pretty much as good the second time as the first, though this time I paid even closer attention to the great score. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the soundtrack somewhere in the near future.
Getting home at one AM, I remained up for a little while talking to Tammy and her parents, before collapsing from a non-stop 48hrs into the beautiful bed.