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.
Monday/Tuesday – Day 102/103
November 14, 2012
Most unfortunately, today I woke up relatively early to make it to work-light hours at 9AM. These are hours I had to contribute to help build the Legally Blonde set, like all other cast members, and involved painting and building. To my dismay, while painting a few wooden planks black, I accidentally split a full paint can all over the floor and, over my shoes, pair of which I have not many. Now, after a run through the wash I still have one black runner (sneaker) and one white runner.
By this point in time my life was far more intense than I needed it to be, and I was receiving too little sleep, resulting in a hoarse voice and intense exhaustion. I slept right through algorithms and in fact, most of the day. I awoke just in time for the 5PM rehearsal call.
Rehearsal today involved ‘teching’ (planning out lights and sound) for Act I, with continuous starting and stopping to ensure the transition from rehearsal to stage worked effectively. For me this meant learning the 16 transitions that I was scheduled to assist with, moving props and set pieces on and off stage. I was thoroughly occupied, less by performing and more by running about left right and center trying to make sure I didn’t miss any of the cues.
On getting back to my room it was time to work for a good few hours and, till 2:30AM I was still pounding out formulae and solving equations. At that point my focus wavered and I spent the next thirty minutes before bed taking advantage of the fact that I was awake at a reasonable hour to call Australia and spoke to a few close friends at home.
Tuesday was similar, just with even more work to be done. I had an Algorithms assigment due (write an AI to play connect-4 based on the negamax algorithm) and was struggling to find a few bugs that prevented mine from playing properly. Every free second of my day was spent on this code and I still didn’t mange to track the errors down.
Tonight’s rehearsal followed on from Monday’s, trying to tech the remainder of Act I and get stuck into teching Act II. In my opinion it was left rather late. However tonight’s rehearsal had two highlights. The first was the presence of Brutus and Rusty, the two dogs performing in the show and, more importantly, the discovery of a new friend. Anaïs Ortiz, working backstage in costumes had caught my eye the night before with her beautiful smiles and tonight we exchanged a few words. We had a decent amount in common and bonded over our love of languages and good (european) food, cheese in particular. Her constant presence backstage between my transitions made rehearsal all the more bearable and gave me someone to keep an eye out for.
After the show as per usual, there was a production meeting running for a fair amount of time and then back to my room to try and spot those pesky bugs. However, by the end of the night they were unfortunately still obfuscated my by mounds of code.
Saturday/Shabbat – Day 100
November 13, 2012
I have now been away from home one hundred days. It’s a big number and home has never seemed further away.
The morning was all rehearsal for our matinee show, with a call at 10AM to get into costume. Today’s show was fantastic despite a less than packed audience, they were almost as lively as we were, with a number of alumni and Penn students coming out to support us.
Of note in our performances were guest showings from the Penn Glee Club Band, now it’s own separate entity. Teddy, above and below, is the lead singer for most of their numbers. Also see the scene below with some of my token Australian lines and a brief appearance by Jon Diamond (apparently he looks like Jack from Will and Grace).
The afternoon only left us one hour free before another Glee event, the GCGC (Glee Club Graduate Glub) formal reception. This was open again, to the many glee alumni who had come to see our show and, their families. In this reception rosettes (badges for the blazer) were presented to three individuals who had served the Glee Club for many years and in various means. Thomas amongst them (his parents were very proud). In addition we sung a few number in full force, current members and alumni together and this in my opinion, was the best I’ve ever heard the chorus.
Our evening performance was completely sold out! It was also incredibly high energy and gave us all the greatest feeling on it’s completion.
Some of our big numbers included a modern setting of the Dies Irae text from the Requiem. This is a new favorite of the members.
However my personal favorite number was an Aaron Dale (of OC Times arranging fame) arrangement of Go The Distance from Disney’s Hercules. A beautiful upbeat barbershop song with an incredible tag.
My personal moment to shine was in Baba Yetu, seen in the second half of the below video. And though I’m out of frame, I am proudly singing the swahili verse along with a small select group of others who managed the text and notes to audition standard. The first song is the Glee Club Anthem, “Afterglow” which all Glee Alumni in the audience are invited to sing with us.
The crowd favorite of the evening would have to have been “Run Freedom Run”, the PGC choreographed number, which as seen below had us literally on the edge of our seats.
It would also be remiss of me not to include a sampling of the offerings that Penn Dance brought to our show. However, Thomas’ dad who recorded these videos, neglected to film them as his son didn’t appear in non Glee numbers. My apologies to PD. Thus instead I have posted the finale in which they appear.
After all that, there was the cast party with PD and PGC combined. It wasn’t bad, however PD and PGC as per usual had some troubles integrating, and in my opinion PD was a little cliquey and brought a few too many outsiders to the party, which left a number of clubbers disappointed (aside from those who were just looking PD up and down).
I managed to get to bed at around 3AM, which was problematic as Sunday I was to be up early…