In Which I Consume Mama’s
November 16, 2014
Sunday was another chance to spend more time with dad. After a bit of a sleep in we set out together and headed in to center city. First stop was Macy’s, to find a suit and a few other assorted odds and ends needed for Glee. After that I walked him back up to 17th street for lunch at Mama’s Felafel, which was delicious, filling and as a bonus fairly cheap. Following that, a little more shopping at Marshall’s, another stop back at Macy’s to pick up what we had left behind and then a taxi back to campus. After a very short nap, I convened with the Penn Pipers at the glouse for rehearsal. Once that was through, dinner was with Dad and Luke which was nice, but soon the two of us had to return to our lab to and get some work done. Luke and I were fairly productive together and worked until around 10PM at which point I walked home and went to sleep, trying to regain my health.
Monday was fairly standard, the usual run of classes, nothing spectacular. Rehearsals of preparing for our upcoming Glee tour to Yale continued, as did the choral society’s work on the Handel, Dixit Dominus. I had dinner with Dad and he managed to find a place with good gluten free options (he has coeliac disease) so I was pleased that he wasn’t the only one getting fed!
Tuesday was less productive than I needed it to be. Physics was still interesting (learning about the effects of geometry of the universe of the way rotations work). Security reading group was on a paper that I really enjoyed with a great title: “The geometry of flesh on the bone” by Hovav Shacham, an academic who I admired a lot. Following that I had a meeting, and then an appointment with the dietitian (thankfully gaining a little weight since my last visit). Tuesday night I was again with Dad which was still as wonderful as the first night and we had a delicious dinner together before I raced back to Penn just in time for a late night Glee rehearsal that ran till just after 11. Following rehearsal, I worked alongside Pearl for a time, collapsing when the hour got to lap and dragging myself back to my room.
Sunday – Day 31 – Part A
August 21, 2012
Today’s post is separated into two parts. Not for reasons of length, but to separate the content.
Today I confronted the darker side of Germany’s history, visiting again the Holocaust Memorial but, this time also going into the Holocaust Museum Memorial underneath.
For the entire duration of my trip to Germany there was this shade hanging quietly behind in the back of my mind. No amount of rationalizing that Germany today is different from that of the third Reich is sufficient to create an equivalent barrier in my perception of the country.
Koen mentioned to me that as he was feeling the tendrils of the evil left behind that I must be even more so affected. And, indeed I was.
I won’t go into depth on the details of the memorial, but as I stood silently in front of the following sign, I felt paralyzed by the realization that the horrors were no longer in some far off European city but, carved in barely faded blood onto the stones on which I was walking.
Yehi zichrum baruch.