Sunday/Monday – 180/181
January 29, 2013
Sunday I was up bright and early, despite a late night of coding, to go work with Charu Jangid, a friend from my Networking graduate course. We spent a number of hours together, hacking away on some basic socket coding (networking stuff) and when it got to 2PM we decided it was getting late and that we had better stop for some modicum of food. Lunch was nice and we finally got around to chatting about a few things other than computer science. Following that we both when to our respective dorms and I worked inefficiently on both Physics and preparation for my lab the next day. Rehearsal at 5 took a lot of my remaining energy and so I was pretty tired when it came to dinner and learning at Hillel. Read a few nice thoughts on Purim while studying there and then worked till the early hours of the morning to get my Physics done.
Monday morning was another bright and early start, with a Physics tutorial starting at 9AM. After that I went to office hours with a few professors to help get a handle on some work. I planned my lab and worked out how I was going to run it. What was nice was the company as I was surrounded by fellow TAs and this gave me a chance to get to know them at least a little better whilst working. My classes almost put me to sleep this afternoon. Thankfully I had my recitation to wake me up. The snack roster worked as planned and a game of memory at the start helped to engender a sense of community amongst the class. From there we divided up into teams to work on generating accurate solutions to the lab problems with prizes for the best team. In my opinion other than a few breaks in my coherence during the proof sections, the lab went well.
Monday night meant Glee rehearsal, and though I was late, I still managed to gain plenty out of it. Following rehearsal I received some bad news via email, and a few of my summer plans were shot down, however I knew that any disappointment would be short lived. Dinner was a quick stop off at Hillel and then off to learn more of the Brahms requiem. Rehearsal was ok, though I was exhausted at this point and so my sight reading was a little off. The one saving grace for my evening was my time with Steph Li who amusingly and much to my excitement was now roommates with Alba Braso, a wonderful exchange student from Barcelona. So over the next forty minutes I had a chance to feel a little better by chatting to those two before returning to my room to work that late physics night again.
Wednesday/Thursday – Day 118/119
November 26, 2012
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.