In Which I Say Adieu
November 16, 2014
Wednesday was the usual day of heavy classes, and at this point in semester they were all starting to blur together. I practiced piano for a little in the afternoon and attempted to make some slow progress on machine learning. Unfortunately that night I missed having dinner with Dad but I did however get a lot of work done and also manage to keep up my rehearsal attendance. The day was otherwise not notable.
Thursday was a little different. A good physics lecture in the morning followed by an hour of work and then lunch at Hillel. Today I decided to try something a little different and went for the ‘pasta action station’ whereby Kenny from the Hillel dining staff made up a pasta as per my request. It was pretty tasty and made me resolve to try and get to Hillel more often for lunch. I then had a meeting with the Pipers and the House Dean of Harrison to arrange space usage for an upcoming concert with a group from Brown. I struggled to then drag myself back to Engineering so ended up taking a nap first. I made it back to my lab just in time for ‘lattice club’ and, after an hour of that and some work in Moore 100, was ready to have dinner with Dad again.
That night we went to Hamifgash, and both ordered a mixed grill (with felafel for entree). We had another chance to chat for a while and eat some more nutritious food. However at the end of the meal it was time to say goodbye to Dad for five weeks, until I would be returning home for a visit. It was hard to say goodbye, especially given how helpful it had been to have his support over the past week. I returned to my room, a little dulled in mood and tried to get some more work done. After it became clear that wasn’t going to happen I walked in the freezing cold and icy rain to get to the glouse for board game night. And while games started late, and I hadn’t the patience for anything too serious, I had a good time and it helped me to forget about saying goodbye. I went to bed a little later than usual, and set my alarm for the next day, which was to include the big trip up to Connecticut.
In Which Things Progress As Usual
October 30, 2014
Sadly enough, there is little to report on today. Classes were fine, but not inspiring. Everything was moving in the right direction, no drama there.
Late in the afternoon, I spent around an hour and a half with Nadia and Luke starting to plan the next year ahead in terms of coursework, chatting about conferences, and getting a broad view of the path to PhD.
Glee Club rehearsal was fairly empty. Too many people had fallen ill in the post show period. The baritones were still there in full force but the tenor section was a bit meager. Following rehearsal, I took Mack Finkel and Josh Gutzmann to Hillel for dinner, picking up Kendra from Penn Dance along the way. We had a pleasant ‘newman’ interview and dinner though I had to end it a little early when I realized the package room back at my building was closing and I needed to run to pick up a birthday present for a friend.
That evening I went to bed early, in order to get a head start the next day.
Friday/Shabbat – Day 256/257 – Spring Fling
April 19, 2013
Now, I’m probably going to get shouted down for this, but I have to say, Spring Fling was one of my least favourite of my Penn experiences. This was probably compounded by the fact that I was still feeling pretty sick, but needless to say, my weekend wasn’t great.
Worst part of it all, being fling, my apartment was full with people of various shades, which wasn’t exactly idea for my recovery. Substances were downed, and loud music played, all over campus, and it turned out my apartment wasn’t exempt. Friday I spent much of the day working in the engineering building, trying to escape all the noise and fuss. I took plenty of rest during the day prepping for “Fling Feast” in the evening.
Fling Feast is an event arrange by the OCP as an alternative to the Fling concert and comprised of a lovely sit down dinner. Unfortunately Ariella ditched Louis and I over dinner (she had more ‘important’ people to sit next to) but the company was still lively and the food excellent. After the main course, a comedian was brought out who, for over forty-five minutes entertained us with clever jokes revolving around the experiences of Jews in college. It was by all measures a resounding success. For dessert all guests were given ‘magic berries’ and told to coat their tongues in them before eat sour foods with thanks to a little protein magic, suddenly tasted sweet.
Shabbat was awful. I felt pretty sick and my apartment was at times filled with unsavoury types, a number of times without either of my other roommates in the room. Every time I came back to the room during the day was another unpleasant surprise (aside from finding Priyanka Anand sitting on my couch at one point). I left for lunch at Hillel, nothing special. From there I decided to at least visit the Freshman Quad to see what ‘Fling’ actually was. I arrived there just in time for the Penn Glee Club band’s set, which was really fantastic.
The quad otherwise was a little underwhelming. Note so many people around, a decent carnival but nothing unbelievable. I hung around for a while with Glee people before deciding to head back to get some more R&R. On my way back I saw a Jew-crew heading down back towards the quad and they invited me to join them but I decided to decline having already seen what I needed to.
Back at home my room was full of people. So I wrapped myself in my blanket and went to sleep.
After Shabbat, I ate my dinner and then proceeded to hang out with Aviva, Michal and a mutual friend of our Ralph for the rest of the evening. That was a little more adventurous and a little more fun. Ralph has taste for the finer things in life and lived just alongside me in one of the other apartment buildings. We chilled and talked for hours and hours till I was ready for bed and then I headed back and closed my eyes. Thank heavens Fling was over.