The Globetrotting Geek

Convocation – Tuesday – Day 47

September 9, 2012

Today the various schools (faculties) at Penn hosted their freshman welcome sessions. The event pages on the university website made it sound interesting and worthwhile enough that I decided to attend and pass as a freshman for another few hours.

At the Freshman Engineering Welcome the various Deans, Vice Deans etc spoke. Contrary to other official speakers I’ve heard in the past, the short messages they gave were quite inspiring. A highlight was the beginning of Vice Dean Sun’s talk.

“I would like to get to know you, the class of 2016. If my statements apply to you, please don’t be shy,” he began.

“Who here has saved a life?” – a few in the crowd stood up to roaring applause.

“Who here has played in varsity level sports?” – a larger number stood.

“Who here has performed in front of hundreds? Sit down. Thousands?” – it was my turn to stand and, for a moment I really did feel special.

After a few more of these he ended with one last statement: “who here has failed or flunked a big test, interview, paper or exam?” and everyone stood, bringing the class together. He talked a bit about imposter syndrome for a bit and told everyone that if they were sitting in the auditorium they were meant to be there. Though I knew I wasn’t quite meant to be there, I felt that it was important that I had come. Penn truly was a place that I needed to get to and thanks to hard work and a good bit of luck I had made it.

He talked about the fact that Penn held the rewards for a life thus far well lived, and though it felt strange to me to be receiving awards before having done anything of note, I could understand the sentiment.

The rest of the daylight hours were spent arranging my upcoming trip to Canada, meeting with immigration advisers to figure out how to stay validly on my visa.

However, the night brought a big event, ‘Convocation’, the formal opening of the academic year.

With a grand opening by the band and the formal entrance by the faculty and house deans, the ceremony began in fine style.

Due to the rain, it was moved to a large indoor basketball stadium that unfortunately lacked cooling and so the thousands of students and many professors sweated heavily, fanning themselves with programs. Amy Gutmann, President of Penn, gave a speech that, though well written, fell slightly flat due to the lack of concentration amongst the attendees who were far more concerned with the heat.

A few musical performances could hardly be heard in the ‘echoey’ stadium and everyone quickly tired of them.

Finally, Jonothan Youshaei brought out the class of 2016 flag and the closing ceremony began.

Everyone together sang “The Red and the Blue”, Penn’s school song, replete with heart beating on the words “hurrah for Pennsylvania”.

As soon as she announced the commencement of the academic year and the dignitaries filed out, the freshman swarmed to the exit, desperate to free themselves from the warm gluey mass of bodies, radiating heat all the while.

From there it was to the President’s Dessert Reception, held outside in the humid heat, after grabbing a few desserts I spied a few freshman I had met earlier in NSO  and went to say hi. This was my one really unpleasant interaction thus far. One of the girls in the group who I believed I was getting along well with took me aside to talk. She had become uncomfortable with seeing me so frequently during NSO and additionally I had sent her a few texts etc. to try and begin a friendship. She had taken it as a more dangerous interest from an older guy and asked me to stay away. It was done so for the most part in a polite manner however, there were a few seconds where she slipped up and it became quite cold and direct, rending a little tear in my outer confidence and happiness. Thankfully, we parted on decent terms, if never to really speak again and though it was an unpleasant experience, overall my experiences have been unforgettably brilliant.

With that NSO came to a close and my semester began.

Monday – Day 46

September 7, 2012

Today was pouring with rain and as per usual, I had a bit of a frolic in it getting various things done in the morning and though the student clubs fair was cancelled due to the inclement weather, I made the most of my early hours. I made a mad dash for breakfast was Thea Walton, a fellow aussie, and we munched ferociously outside on the benches during a break in the storm before we were soon overwhelming by battering winds and refreshed rains.

After returning to my room to dry off, I headed out on a trolley tour of the city. The photos that follow are still from my phone but, I am pleased to report that after the end of this day, I soon had my camera charger back!

First up on the tour was a visit to the White House that was established in Philadelphia before the relocation to Washington D.C. It was interesting as at least for our tour guide it represented the forming of ‘a more perfect union’ of the states however, black slaves still toiled under its roof, representing an imperfect freedom.

Just across the road was the line to enter to see the Liberty Bell. Suddenly it began to pour and we made a beeline for the limited shelter provided by the pavilion housing the bell.

After a short wait in the queue and a brief discussion over its significance as a symbol of liberation and freedom, I stood before the bell with its hallmark crack (actually formed during attempted repairs of a hairline split) and had the requisite photo in front of it.

Just opposite the pavilion was the first full court-house of the United States and also stood a building that I recognized; Independence Hall, featured in National Treasure and quite a well known monument, though no longer in use.

After that the rest of the group needed lunch and so they headed to yet another location for a cheesesteak. By this point in my trip I was quite tiring of the whole cheesesteak thing yet, dutifully followed them to wait in the queue at a supposedly famous location ‘Joe’s’ or something of that ilk.

After a good twenty minute wait, it was back on the trolley to see Reading Terminal Market and the railroad station above it. Unfortunately due to labor day, on our arrival we found it closed and so were forced to see the remnants of the train terminal from behind bars up at the Philadelphia Convention Center, a half of the repurposed terminal.

Next was a trip inside a neighboring hotel where atop it we could see a grand view of the city’s skyline.

From there we could also see the large statue of William Penn standing on top of city hall.

Our guide then told to us the story of “The Curse of William Penn”, a tale by now familiar to me. The statues of Penn atop the City Hall stood above every building in the city, watching over the welfare of Philadelphia and the success of its sporting teams. After hundreds of years, in the mid eighties, skyscrapers were built that surpassed Penn’s height. From that moment onwards, no local sports team was able to secure a major title. Loss after loss, year after year, the cities teams were destitute of victory.

Finally, in 2008, a new tallest building in the city was under construction: the Comcast Tower. A disgruntled engineer, upset by the curse hatched a plan. While working on the top of the tower he relieved himself of duty to go down to City Hall to purchase a mini souvenir William Penn statue. Having done that he returned to the top of the tower and welded it on to the top so that once more William Penn and his hat were again above all in the city. That very year ‘The Phillies’, the local baseball team, took out the national title.

A fascinating note about Philly is that all major building projects must contribute 1%  of their budget to public art. Comcast being a media firm running cable TV channels spent over three hundred million dollars building its skyscraper and so we headed over to the building to see how they reinvested into the city.

In typical American fashion, they had spent three million dollars on the installation of the world’s largest LED television with a resolution far surpassing that of any other television in existence. When we walked into the building to see it on display this is what we saw.

A regular wall with not much of interest on it. However, moments later the scene changed abruptly.

The wall darkened to reveal itself as the multi-million dollar screen in question. We stayed to watch for a few minutes, oohing and ahhing at the amazing pictures. However, I still felt that all that money could’ve been better invested.

After returning home to Rodin House, it was a quick change to get ready for the last social event of NSO: A Night At the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Transported on school buses, the entire crowd of exchange, transfer and freshman students, all dressed up in their best and finest headed to the gallery for dinner, a dance and, a chance to view the exhibition privately. Rumours flowed freely as to the cost of the event and none of them were below six figures.

The atmosphere in the gallery was rather odd, as in the main atrium loud dance music was playing between the people dancing next to marble pillars and a sumptuous buffet. I personally took this as a great opportunity to learn from the curators and guides within the museum and was soon exploring all it had to offer.

Inside I met a few Art History majors and also gleaned a little more knowledge from them, albeit laughing at their description of a fauvist painting as ‘pokemon-esque’. Later I met up with a lovely japanese girl Saya and her friend Royston to explore the Asian and Indian sections of the gallery before heading back home.

However, that wasn’t it for the night! The office of alumni programs was hosted a ‘host your own murder mystery’ game and I headed out to that, narrowly missing the first session to start. And so, in typical Shaanan fashion, I had a little play around on the grand piano in the waiting area. Soon a number of people were gathered round and I was fielding song requests. Just before leaving into the next session I was recommended by the head of the office to apply to play in a band and music competition for homecoming, the largest gathering of the year wherein alumni return to join with students in watching the Penn football team play a home game.

After that it was a round of the murder mystery and then quickly to sleep, before dropping from what was a seriously busy day.

 

Friday – Day 43

September 4, 2012

After partying hard Thursday night I deserved a late wake-up on Friday! After a late wakeup I rushed to Hill (a dormitory building) for breakfast, however arrived too late to sit down and have some proper toast, as I had further information sessions for exchange that morning. The lecture was rather useless and inspired me to naught.

Following that, I, a Japanese friend (Kaya Doi) and a Malaysian friend Theng, decided to visit the bookstore and give it a thorough run down. Of greatest interest inside was the large array of Penn merchandise, taking up approximately half the entire store. Particularly catching my eye was a UPenn tie for the tidy sum of $60, well beyond my current tie budget. Though, I did promise myself to at least buy a ‘sweater’ with the logo on it. No doubt by the time I return I will have acquired a full wardrobe of Penn related items.

Immediately after, it was back to an information session on safe living at Penn with the entire freshman class, the class of 2016. I made a few more fresher friends along the way but mostly that session was again, a complete waste of time, albeit with a few amusing moments courtesy of the poorly constructed “Tell It Like It Is” anti-sexual violence campaign.

I walked the freshmen back to their dorms and then was somewhat at a loss as to what to do next so I walked down spruce and eventually came across a food truck ‘Chez Yasmine’ which caught my idea for its different style. As I was looking at the menu, which featured a variety of cuisines from North African to Vietnamese the owner, one Jihed Chehimi accosted me and began talking in depth about the inspiration behind the truck, which followed his life story through the medium of food. Fascinated I decided to order a simple sandwich and listen further. Over the next fifteen minutes (a long but worthwhile wait) my sandwich was prepared by the friendly staff member inside the truck and Jihed told me a great many stories from his life whilst inquiring into mine. At his insistence I was also presented with a delicious quinoa salad and a fresh baguette, to ‘fatten up a skinny boy’. I was then informed that every customer is provided with a fresh piece of fruit and water with every order, however as they were out of fruit I was to receive a can of San Pellegrino instead.

Feeling bad for them I tried to pay more than the requisite six dollars but was forcibly told I would be banned from the food truck were I to manage to pay more than the value of my food. I highly recommend visiting the truck as much for the experience as for the food.

Following that, I prepared for Shabbat in my room and played piano for a few hours before heading out to the library social just as the sun was lowering in the sky. Looking at my watch, I saw I had about thirty minutes at the social before I needed to take my leave and go to synagogue in the Hillel (Jewish Students Building). The library social was really something to see. Over one thousand students packed into a library racing like mad on a scavenger hunt for a free tshirt which I managed to snag as well. Inside the hallowed halls was also a DJ playing typical dance music and the masses gyrated alongside columns and shelves of books.

Leaving just as Shabbat began, I walked briskly to the Hillel where the OCP (Orthodox Community at Penn) minyan (prayer service) was already in full-swing. Strong melodies arose from the room and I took a free seat at the back and enjoyed singing and listening to the powerful voices.

Following that it was dinner with the Jewish freshmen, which was a pleasant experience though nothing special to report. More of note is the sheer size of the Jewish population at Penn, over 25% of the student population. Though, I was delighted to meet one Abby Jablansky, Executive VP of the Hillel with whom I connected on a number of different levels.

After dinner I met a few freshman upstairs to hear a performance by Penn’s Jewish acapella group, the Shabbattones. While most people were severely impressed, I thought that though they were highly entertaining, their pitch could have been better. However, as a first experience of college acapella it was fantastic.

Alexis and her friends, some freshmen that I had met then walked with me to their dorm and as they decided to go out and party, I made a bit of a retreat back to Rodin, climbed up my eight floors of stairs and took a good nights sleep.