Monday/Tuesday – Day 116/117
November 26, 2012
Monday was meant to be preparation for my big Physics midterm on Tuesday morning! Unfortunately despite my best efforts, I failed to get in all the study time that I deemed necessary, spending too much of the day picking at my other work in an attempt to avoid the more difficult subject. My main consolation was that at least my other work was completed!
Something that I previously forgot to mention was the Glee Club/Penn Dance Semi-Formal that had been announced which required me to source a date from the numerous people at Penn. The rules were a free-for-all, any date was acceptable, man, woman (or sheep in the case of Thomas Nance). As a result I was running through the list of my friends at Penn for someone who would most appreciate coming. My first thought was to Caitlyn Garcia, one of the girls living in Rodin who often worked at the front desk. Many a time I had been given the opportunity to chat with her on my way in and, after many hours spent together discussing the wonderful place that is Australia, she decided to apply for exchange to the University of Melbourne! So hopefully some of you will get to meet her next semester 2. Anyway, after spotting her at the desk in the morning as I was coming in from shopping, I decided to see if she’d be interested. She responded that she’d be very eager to come but that it was pending checking her calendar. Unfortunately for the both of us, it turned out that the very same evening was her sorority’s formal and thus after securing another evening for us to go out, I searched for someone else to go with. The next female friend I came across was Stephanie Li, of choral society, as I made my way there and this time I had a little more success. I greatly look forward to attending the semi-formal with her.
Choir this evening combined with glee rehearsal nearly killed me but I managed to learn a good amount of music and had another good walk with Steph following the end of it. Then it was back to my room to cram for the physics.
Tuesday was defined by the exam. I woke up earlier than usual, 7AM, to get in some early morning prep, eat a full breakfast and, get my mind working. I really made some progress in the hours before 10AM and felt nervous but somewhat under control as I headed into the exam. I sat down, looked at the paper and, panicked. I had no clue how to do two out of the three questions on the paper. Thus, I tried by best on the first and sat without a pen in hand for another few minutes while I tried to figure out how to approach the other two. Thankfully, after a few tense minutes, the insight came to me. Now pen in hand I attacked the other two problems and though I wasn’t confident I managed to carry through with it properly, I was relatively sure that I had at least given enough to get a decent mark.
The rest of the day was a celebration, despite the remaining work for me to do! Immediately after I finished classes at 5 I went to Mad Mex a Mexican bar with Molly to slurp down a margharita (in my case a mini one, in her case a good half litre). We ended up staying there until rehearsal time and were joined by Justin and Steven from PGC!
After rehearsal I managed to convince myself to work a little more but ended up taking a well deserved early night. Success tastes sweet. Even B grade success.
Friday/Shabbat – Day 58/59
September 25, 2012
Friday morning algorithms was relatively standard, nothing exciting there, recursion relations. However, following that I had a good number of meetings to attend.
My first stop was the office of ‘Liberal Professional Studies’ to investigate further study at Penn at some point in the future where, the bottom line seemed to be, well, all about the bottom line. At five thousand dollars a course unit, study at Penn does not come cheap! Following that it was off to ‘International Student Services’ to investigate visa options and to look into required course loads, nothing exciting there.
Early afternoon was my singing lesson with Brian Carter, and while his approach was far different from my past experiences with singing teachers, it was well worthwhile and really opened my eyes to some new things. I am looking forward to a productive semester with him.
My afternoon however was much more exciting as I packed my bags, a little kosher food and headed to the train station with the PGC for a weekend retreat. After an hour an a half on the Amtrak (US regional train system) to Doylestown, we placed our bags in the room and chilled for a while before coming together as a group later in the evening for an ice-cream dessert.
After dessert, there were a few speeches by the board members and then a few games, notably among them, ‘Never Have I Ever’ (sans-alcohol) that was played for a good few hours in order to help the newmen and oldmen integrate.
Shabbat morning there wasn’t nearly enough of a sleep-in as we were up at eight o’clock for breakfast followed by team building activities. For some of you at home these will all be incredibly familiar, but they involved ‘trust-falls’, standing up in pairs back-to-back, sitting on each others laps in a circle and marching etc.. All up, the activities ran for around five hours before we settled in for lunch.
After lunch it was time for the ‘newman’ talent show, in which every newman was obligated to display a talent of theirs (non-singing), from stand-up comedy, to poetry or even card tricks, the show had it all. My talent that I presented was in fact my decent aussie accent, coupled with a translation of Waltzing Matilda, much to the bemusement of the crowd.
The late afternoon was reserved for the PGC to do homework, which for me meant reading a little of my textbooks and explaining physics and maths to Joseph, one of the other newmen.
After Shabbat came out, a bonfire was raised a little into the woods and with a ‘smore kit’ under my arm, I headed out there. For those of you who have never come across them, a smore is a toasted marshmallow, with chocolate melted underneath, sandwiched by two Graham crackers. I think they’re my favorite US food right now. Around the campfire, I ate multiple smores and listened and tried to join in with the glee club as they sang some of their repetoire.
We moved onto Disney songs, and a few other arrangements that I knew from prior experiences, including ‘For the Longest Time’ in which I was given the privilege of the solo.
After a good while of this we quietened down for a bit and Erik Nordgren , our director arranged for us to go around in the circle and discuss where we imagined ourselves in ten years time. This was a wonderful opportunity to contemplate a little, and was one of the times I felt most comfortable and tranquil since leaving home.
The peace couldn’t last for very long however, as we soon started ‘Viva La Company’, a song/game wherein the company sings a chorus after which a member of the company improvises a two-line comedic verse making reference to in jokes. This game was played by us for approximate two hours and resulted in much mirth, though by the time it ended at 2AM I was well ready for sleep.