Monday/Tuesday – Day 144/145
December 23, 2012
Something I completely forgot about Sunday night that was rather significant was the trip to Marie’s Crisis Bar, a somewhat infamous gay hotspot in the center of the East Village. There Mum and I joined in the loud singing to broadway tunes played by the charismatic pianist, accompanied by a few excellent voices.
Monday was another lazy day, with the morning spent in a cafe with the family as we are known to do on holidays. Following that, it was back home to pack my bag and set off back to Philly in order to clean out my room in preparation for moving out. At 1PM I grabbed by backpack and set off to Penn Station where I caught the Bolt bus back to Philly.
On arriving back in Philly at 4PM I raced around campus, madly trying to get all I needed done before 5PM when things would close. First stop was to the Internation Student Services center where I picked up a new copy of the documentation I would need to obtain a new F1 student visa for the upcoming six months. Then it was off to the engineering buildings to try and meet with Kostas, my professor for algorithms, to discuss taking a job as a teaching assistant in the coming semester despite less than stellar marks on the final exam. He reassured me and also invited me to a end of semester party for some in the computer science faculty which I graciously declined.
After that it was a race back to my room in Rodin to start packing up my stuff. In the process I also changed into my Glee uniform to prepare for the gig that evening, awarding Dr Amy Gutmann a prize on behalf of the city. The gig was fine but took a little longer than expected so when I returned I was in somewhat of a rush. Unfortunately I allowed myself to be caught up for a longer than needed dinner at Hillel followed by a longer than needed chat with Aviva who, was storing some of my stuff over the break. After I made it back to my room for the last time where I spent the next hour in an insane dash to pack everything up before the last bus back to NYC left. Unfortunately I wasn’t quite successful and had to leave a large back under Anil’s care in the room.
When I got back it was unfortunately time to say bye to Dad who was going to North Carolina for work. But before that I was called upon as usual to fix up a piece of technology, in this case his phone that was years behind in software updates.
Tuesday morning was spent at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a wonderful gallery. Though our time there was limited, Mum and I managed to see a number of interesting exhibits including a great Andy Warhol one and another on early photographic manipulation techniques that were employed in the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
Following that we stopped off for lunch, this time at Pret A Manger, which wasn’t too bad. Then we received a call that I was most excited for. Family friends of our, who are close friends with a Mr Andreas Scholl, phoned us to let us know they were in a nearby cafe and that we should come to meet him and his wife.
Andreas Scholl is an opera superstar. A countertenor (the highest male voice) with a purity of tone and a richness of expression unmatched in the world. I had the pleasure of taking a public masterclass directed by him the previous year at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where I study voice at home, however an opportunity to converse one on one with him I had never expected would come to pass. Eating croissants with him and his fiance, and discussing music, food and the good life, was probably one of the recent highlights of my entire trip and is certainly something that I’ll remember for years to come.
Andreas and I
After that we returned home to pack my bags for tomorrows trip to Montreal, where I was to apply for the visa and packing a bag to leave behind at my cousins’ place in NYC so as to eliminate my need to schlep it across continental America.
We were late to dinner with my little cousins but how adorable they were! Tzippy and Sophie were so excited to see me again and to be able to play with me again. Dinner was at the 2nd Avenue Deli; Raph’s NYC favorite. Amongst the things he ordered was Gribines: chicken skin fried in schmaltz (rendered chicken/goose fat). Not something that hugely appeals to me, but Raph (my brother) is the king of fried food.
After that it was back to the apartment to finish packing up my stuff and preparing for the trip!
Shabbat/Sunday – Day 142/143
December 21, 2012
Shabbat I finally received some of the much needed rest I needed. With my family in New York, the day was spent sleeping, eating and reading magazines. After sundown it I arose from my deep slumber as there was not only work to be done but an unexpected journey to take. Of course, as my first act of freedom, I went with the family to see the Hobbit in 48FPS 3D IMAX at Loewe’s 34th.
Personally, I really enjoyed the movie despite a few minor gripes. In my opinion the VFX used on the dwarves or perhaps the makeup, was a little too visible in the format I saw, rendering them fake or almost cartoon like. In addition, it took some time to get used to the higher framerate and I’m still undecided on whether it has a place in cinema of the future.
However, despite these gripes, I felt the film stayed true to the character of ‘The Hobbit’ for better or for worse. Some critics have lambasted the film for its pacing and childlike character but the book itself is structured in such a way. It is a younger, lighter-hearted version of The Lord of The Rings, which, yes, does include lots of downtime between the action!
Overall my favorite elements were the portrayals of Radagast in Dol Goldur and the riddle scene between Bilbo and Gollum. One classic Hobbit and the other a good Peter Jackson addition. The scoring by Howard Shore was fantastic as always with a great theme in the song of the Misty Mountains. The movie was most enjoyable for me, particularly as a Tolkein fan, however I do see where the harsh reviews were coming from.
The late night was reserved for working on my final project for Ruby on Rails for which I had received an extension due to the time I lost trying to recover my visa forms on Friday. Till around 3AM I coded my heart out, and have actually made a decent webpage.
The next morning I needed a bit of a sleep in. It was also the day my brother Raph’s exam marks were due to come out. Thus much of the morning was spent lazily. However the afternoon was not to be my own as I was yanked out of the apartment to go shopping for a new winter wardrobe by my mum. In her eyes my previous clothes were completely unacceptable and so I returned two bags heavier from H&M with new things for the winter.
In the evening we went in search of some food and ended up at Raph’s choice, “Mr Broadway”, a Kosher meat restaurant where we shared a mixed grill as a family and I had some steak for the first time since leaving home.
On returning home I set to finishing my project and by the end I was rather proud. Still not perhaps happy enough to launch it publicly, but confident in my skills as a web developer.
Thursday/Friday – Day 133/134
December 12, 2012
The stress levels keep going up and up and up!
Thursday was the next major assessment in store for me with a ten minute singing test of the music I had learn for choral society. This consisted of about two hundred pages of music; Haydn’s Thereisenmasse and Vivaldi’s Magnificat, both substantial and fairly beautiful works. Thus, I spent much of today with earphones in one ear, the other listening attentively to my own pitching and music in hand, repeating certain passages over and over.
Other than that, I worked on tidbits here and there in prep for submission of a few larger project over the next week.
A highlight of Thursday evening occurred at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where small groups consisting of PGC members went around the wards to bring ‘holiday cheer’ to those who might otherwise be lacking it. And, though our singing may not have been our best and we were carrying our binders with us, people’s faces really did light up and they clamoured to hear us, some even getting out of their beds to sing and dance along.
Following that, from 7PM to 10PM was a dress rehearsal with the full orchestra for the next day’s choral society concert.
Friday was my final lecture in algorithms and final singing lesson. The singing lesson went excellently and I felt that looking over the semester I had made real progress which was a great feeling.
Friday night was shul at Shira Chadasha in Hillel. The minyan was lovely as always but still missing something compared to home. Hineni shout out to all of you. Afterwards I quickly scrambled for dinner with Aviva and Michal and a few others before heading out with Adriel Koschitzky, an orthodox soloist, to the choral society performance.
The performance I believe sounded pretty great, however I was way too nervous and started feeling sick partway through, partially due to the fact that I was struggling to hear anything other than my own voice, which made pitching somewhat difficult. However, it went well and ended well.
After the show finished I walked back with Aviva who had come to see the performance, Stephanie Li, and a friend of hers. Up to my room, I managed only a few steps before collapsing on my bed.