In Which The House Remains Quiet
December 7, 2014
The next morning everyone woke up really late. I came downstairs at around eleven for breakfast with Sarah, Moe and Ariella while everyone else remained asleep. Breakfast was delicious bagels with lox and cream cheese. Eventually (almost) everyone in the house woke up, including Ben, who wanted to make a decent start on getting hope. Unfortunately for him Lily was still asleep.
After a while of chilling in the lounge, a bedraggled Lily came down the stairs. The majority of the words out of her mouth seemed to involve the word ‘coffee’. However, her collapsed state on the couch prevented her from making moves to rectify her caffeine deficiency. Eventually she recovered, and Ben inquired as to when they would be leaving. Lily and I caught each others eyes for a moment, from which I understood that the leaving wouldn’t be happening any time soon. Lily played on ‘Carlotta’, her ukuleke for a while, while Dani, Ben and I sat on the couch. Soon Dani left for coffee with a friend and wasn’t seen till much later.
The rest of the afternoon was spent between my algorithms textbook and in conversation with Moe and Lily alternately. As the day wore on, Ben became increasingly impatient to get home and do important things, and Lily gave us more and more exasperated looks as her strategies to delay him started to wear out. Just before Shabbat came out, Ben gave one final push and despite her efforts to stay longer, Lily was defeated.
With the two Gamse’s gone, the house was notably quieter. After Shabbat came out, we ordered Chinese take-away food (or ‘take-out’ as they call it here) and then afterwards I sat down to work again. The break was fairly productive but in my mind, should’ve been much longer.
The next day was the last of the break, and I woke up late for the final time. Ate breakfast, read some more, and soon it was time to leave. I thanked Sarah and Bob for their hospitality and hopped in the back for our ride back to Philly. Thankfully there was no rehearsal that evening, so after a bit more work and some food, I tucked myself into bed, attempting to get ready for what would be a really intense week.
In Which I Have A Really Wonderful Evening
December 4, 2014
I slept in late the next day after working hard the previous night. When I woke up I tackled another chapter of my algorithms textbook but was soon fast asleep again. Around lunchtime I woke up, had a bite to eat, and then started helping Sarah prepare for the evening’s meal. My primary task was to plate up dessert. I actually had quite an enjoyable time doing so and managed to set out the food in a most acceptable manner. Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures, but you can imagine cookies of different colours fanned out on a multi-layered platter. A little later in the afternoon Moe and Ariella arrived back from a black Friday shopping trip. Ariella had been successful in the purchase of a cut price pair of headphone, but the two of them were otherwise unencumbered.
After another hour or so of prep, it was time to get ready, so I showered and cleaned up my mess a little. Just before I had time to get into nicer clothes, the doorbell rang. Ben and Lily Gamse, Ariella’s step-cousins had arrived. I was soon introduced to them by Dani, and instantly struck it off with the two of them. Lily immediately came off as very jovial and on the bouncier side of things, very talkative and keen to meet people. Her brother Ben was slightly more reserved and a little older, but still an absolute pleasure to talk to. Seeing the two of them together and being so close made me miss my brothers Adi and Raph a lot, and caused me to look forward to a few weeks time when I would be home with them again for a few weeks. Shabbat came in soon, along with a slew of other guests, notably another young adult cousin Sarah, who was studying political science up in Vermont and Bob’s son Connor who I didn’t have the chance to get to know so well.
Dinner was really fantastic. Delicious food. Probably amongst the top two meals I had eaten since leaving home. Not only that, but having a crowd of friendly twenty-somethings up my end of the table meant I had a really great time talking to them. ‘King’ David, Ariella’s brother was in a great mood too, and all in all it seemed like we were having a better time than most of the adults. After a few hours, dinner died down a little and a few of us when over to the couches to chat for a while. Once most of the guests had left, Lily and Ben (who were staying the night), and Dani, decided to go to a bar to meet with a friend of hers. Predictably Moe, Ariella and I stayed home. For the next hour and a half, I tried to read more of my textbook, actually getting through a chunk.
At around midnight, Dani, Ben and Lily returned home. Every came downstairs again for a snack and noticed Sarah asleep next to Felafel and Peppers, their two Beagles. Apparently the temptation of a nap with the beloved dogs was a little too much! Similarly, Bob was asleep on a nearby couch. After most everyone headed to bed, Lily and I stayed up to chat for another hour and a bit, before both of us finally retired. I was enthused to have had such a wonderful evening and met so many people. I also really appreciated I had somewhere to go for thanksgiving with people who treated me as part of the family.
Friday/Shabbat – Day 4/5
December 31, 2013
First thing today Molly and I commuted back to NYC to meet up with Paul Marret and Steph Garace for tea and lunch. We spent quite a while at David’s Tea as the two girls perused the many items on offer. Lunch almost as long. For me, a bagel and lox was first pick and I was grateful for the way it was presented with all the ingredients separate from the bagel. This allowed me to remove about two-thirds of the cream cheese before eating it.
Immediately following lunch I raced off to Penn Station to get to Ariella Levine’s in time for Shabbat. When I arrived I unpacked a little before scurrying into the kitchen to help out with the preparations. When the table was set and all was ready I had a little tinkle on their grand piano. Old and quite out of tune but a beautiful instrument nonetheless.
Dinner that night was with Sarah and Bob (Ariella’s parents), Dani (Ariella’s lovely sister), Ariella and some family friends of theirs. The food was good, especially a squash kugle that Ariella made, and the conversation was quite interesting. American Jews have a very different perspective on things to what I’m used to and seem to experience very different cultural pressures as a result of high intermarriage rates. Both families also seemed fascinated by Australia, from the animals to the societal structures. After a few hours I felt the weight of the jetlag pulling me down and so excused myself and fell fast asleep, glaring light in my face be damned.
Shabbat was a quiet affair, another few meals, some quality time with Ariella. Over lunch I discovered that someone at the table was working on a legal case that I was quite familiar with, as it was within the realm of my scientific interest and this led to quite a long discussion on the matter with a number of documents produced that I had a good familiarity with. This was entertaining to most present as the case was highly domain specific.
After Shabbat Ariella and I caught the first train back into the city to meet with Rina Krevat, a Penn friend from the Digital Media Design course. Our intention was to go see The Hobbit, however by the time we reached AMC 42nd, tickets were all sold out! Knowing Rina, I suggested that Frozen might be a good option as the screening across the road was also yet to begin. Additionally, I was disappointed that I hadn’t been able to see it with Joyce back home, whose dream it had been for months. Thus we caught the 9.40 screening and very much enjoyed ourselves. I thought the film was excellent, particularly the animation, however some of the songs I felt paralleled just a bit too closely to Wicked and Idina Menzel’s presence didn’t quite help dispel that.
After the movie I headed to Dan’s apartment where I would be house sitting and promptly sat down at his gorgeous piano, not remembering that apartment life was a little different from living at home…