Wednesday – Day 226
March 17, 2013
Wednesday was one large trip to the stratosphere. I had a midterm in the morning, for which I studied a sum total of 40 minutes after waking up in the morning. Was a little worried as I thought I only knew the material at the most cursory level. I raced to the lecture hall, just a little worried. Despite all this, when I actually sat down with the paper, I completed it with little difficulty. A few small things here and there I knew I marked incorrectly, however, I left it with the confidence that my performance was at least average. Ok, not a bad start to the day.
Next up was security, and while the class was mostly just repetition of stuff that I had read about during my exploration of cryptography in my gap-year, it was still enjoyable hearing it all again. After the class the professor motioned for me to come talk with him in his office. What came next was a little surprising. I was quite bluntly encouraged to come and do my PhD at Penn, but more than that, he was interested in exploring which other University might be best for me. Cambridge was raised as a strong possibility, along with a few others. Apparently I had attracted enough attention to be seen as a good candidate for research! He also mentioned to me that he had a colleague in Google NYC who would potentially be interested in having me as an intern for summer. How exciting!
Next up was rehearsal for Glee, mostly the same as always, a little dancing on top. However after its conclusion at 7PM we were given an hour to change into Dark Suit and Tie (one of the Glee Uniforms) before a special mandatory event that evening. I have been instructed that unfortunately, for the purposes of ritual, the events of that night must remain secret, however, to my great pride I can say that I am now a ‘Oldman Nouveau ‘ of the Penn Glee Club. A member for life. Additionally I have been granted the club nickname of Croisan++, which this is my name, I am yet to discover.
Friday/Shabbat – Day 159/160
January 7, 2013
Friday and Shabbat were unfortunately more of the same. Singing and dancing without end. As a result this post is going to be kept very short. Unfortunately my Shabbat was mostly without the Shabbat and while everyone else was going out to eat their meals I was eating a supply of fruit and pita that I had purchased beforehand. Suboptimal.
The above photo portrays a fun moment of me being dragged around the rehearsal space, a definite highlight.
After rehearsal on Shabbat everyone walked to Nord’s (our director’s) home for snack and a little time to relax. Amongst the activities was a screening of the ‘newman’ scavenger hunt video which revealed just how poor our singing was that day. Thankfully the oldmen cut us a little slack.
Back we walked through the dangerous neighbourhoods of northwest Philly and late that night I finally made it back to Hamilton Court, my new residence!
Wednesday/Thursday – Day 157/158
January 6, 2013
Today It was back to Penn! I packed my two suitcases and my backpack as efficiently as possible and then it was off to Penn Station NYC, to catch the Bolt Bus ‘home’. On arriving, my first order of business was to get back to campus, which involved schlepping all my luggage down into the subway and then up and out again at the other side. By the time I got out in University City, I was nearly exhausted.
Next, I needed to find somewhere to put my stuff so I headed to the University City Apartments housing office, from whom I would be renting this semester, to arrange to sign the lease and pay my deposit and rent. This turned out to be much more difficult than expected as they didn’t take credit and I was expected to have a very large amount of funds available immediately. This required me to leave my stuff in there care for twenty minutes while I searched for a PNC Bank branch. Getting there I bought a check and returned to the office to fill it out. Next, I schlepped my stuff up about ten blocks to my new apartment, repacked what I needed for a few days into my backpack, and went to rehearsal.
Unfortunately, the next few days of writing there really won’t be much to report. This is due to 10AM to 10PM rehearsals every day for the PGC spring show, so I’ll be keeping it brief.
This rehearsal however I quite enjoyed as it was a good time to see everyone again after break and catch up over a little singing and dancing.
That night I slept on Steph Garace’s couch, as Martin, the individual from whom I was assuming the lease, hadn’t moved out of my apartment yet.
The next day the marathon began, and needless to say it was none to pleasant. Not enough time for meals, frenzied interviews with oldmen and far far too much dancing for my tastes. As most of the songs for the show were as yet unarranged, most of the time was spent staging and learning a few of the big show numbers.
Finally I got to bed around 1AM after getting back to Steph’s at around 11. I could see this was going to be a long process.