In Which I Rush For the Shana
October 5, 2014
Up early in the morning I caught a cab to the airport. I was a little rushed but thanks to my newly acquired Star Alliance Gold Status, I sped quickly through security and onto the lounge. After an orange juice and the morning paper, I was well refreshed for my flight into Chicago. The flight itself was uneventful and I landed safely at O’Hare airport within two and a half hours of leaving. Getting in at a little after nine, I texted Rocky Neumann (a youth counselor of mine from Hineni when I was in grade four) and asked her for directions as to how to get to her.
At first the instruction was to catch the train and then a bus to her place. Dutifully I hopped on and started on my way. A few minutes into the ride I received another text that things weren’t quite running to schedule and that I should head into the city and meet her at Wellington Station. On arriving there I was redirected yet again! This time to Michigan Avenue. Though I had visited Chicago before it was far more beautiful in the autumn than in the dead of winter. Walking through the streets, gazing at the architecture I ambled along till I reached the road when I called Rocky for more instructions. As it turned out she was running so late that I now needed to navigate a system of underground tunnels to find my own way via express train to the University of Chicago. When I arrived, Rocky was no longer able to meet me, having had to enter an important meeting. With my knapsack on my back, I wandered around till I found the Hillel and then texted Tova, another good friend in Chicago. She immediately offered to take me to her apartment for me to relax. I walked there for a few minutes and met her outside, when she realized that she’d locked us both out and that her roommate was out too and thus couldn’t unlock the door for us.
After a minute or two of pondering, we decided to do the shopping for the chag (festival) and so we walked together to Hyde Park Produce and wheeled back eighty dollars of food in a shopping trolley, enough to feed a good number. After finally getting into the apartment we now found ourselves with not enough time to relax so it was off for more errands; to pick up some challah and then to another supermarket for regular groceries. By the time we were at the checkout counter, I realized I was running late to meet back up with Rocky. Hurriedly I raced back to meet her on the corner and both of us stressed an me fairly exhausted, we caught the bus back up to Lakeview in the north of Chicago.
It was now a race against the sun, we had to make it to the shul (synagogue) in time to pick up tickets for services over the next two days. I was a little uncomfortable with the idea of a synagogue charging people to attend, however it was apparently the norm across the United States. Everything here is so commercialized, even religion! It was at this time that I also started to realize quite how sick and exhausted I was. After acquiring the tickets and a little more shopping, we finally arrived at Rocky’s studio apartment, where I would be staying over the next four nights. Pretty quickly I collapsed on the couch, only to be woken a few hours later, told that it was time to get dressed and was quickly rushed out.
We barely made it to shul on time. Tonight was at Chabad Gold Coast (which amusingly is also a major Chabad in Australia) and the service was conducted by the Rabbi’s son who had one of the most beautiful untrained voices I’d ever heard. A tenor with a naturally pure tone, his songs lifted up the mood in the room. While the Rabbi’s sermon went for quite some time, it was well natured and we were kindly invited back to their place for the meal. The meal itself was highly enjoyable, with people from around the world and of all different ages crammed in. A particular highlight was the Rebbetzin’s (Rabbi’s Wife’s) challah, that was fresh and homemade. The ambiance was warm, much like the people we were with and after the meal we were invited back for another on Friday night. We graciously accepted having had such a nice evening amongst very open people.
The walk home took around forty-five minutes, but it all seemed too fast for me as I was enjoying the time with Rocky. We had years worth to catch up on and being so far away from home, we had a lot to share. When we made it back neither of us had any more stamina to stay awake, so in short order we were both asleep.
In Which I Am A +1
September 23, 2014
This post will be a little rushed as my draft was deleted and I’m already well behind.
The rest of the week was busy in much the same way with a few additions. The evening brought an interview for ISAB, the international student advisory board, a group dedicated to connecting with the administration over issues of international student welfare. My interview went fairly well, though I felt I ranted a little about the state of undergraduate education. My time at Hineni had made me quite a fiery critic of many educational practices within universities.
Following the interview, I had a little time to get back to homework before heading off at 9PM for a Google recruiting event. I was attending as a +1 of Nikki Limtiaco, Rigel’s girlfriend and a former student of mine with whom I was good friends. The event was held at Pod, the fanciest sushi bar around and Google provided generously with much food and an open bar. I eventually gave in and tried one of the nicer whiskeys while chatting to a Google engineer, Michael who had previously worked in my current lab. The event was highly enjoyable with many of the top students from Penn CIS attending. I made a bunch of new friends and additionally swapped details with Michael who had a lot to say about where I would be working for the next few years.
I returned late and got a little more work done before the usual start the next day. Class on Thursday were the same as always but I was incredibly stressed out by my homework load. I did attend the Glee/Penn Dance mixer in the evening, but stayed for a little over half an hour before returning to my room to continue working. Friday was much the same however the evening held a few fun differences. Friday at 3:30PM was my Penn Pipers audition, an acapella subset of the Glee Club, known for their quality of tone and ability to blend. I was excited to audition as not doing so was one of my few regrets from my previous time at Penn. The audition went very well, with me singing a rendition of “Fly Me To the Moon” as popularized by Sinatra.
From there I attended the PennApps opening ceremonies. For those who missed my previous accounts of PennApps, it’s a ‘hackathon’ (read: programming competition) with over six hundred attendees from around the world coming to Penn to compete for tens of thousands of dollars in prizes. Though I wouldn’t be hacking away all of Saturday, it was still an opportunity to see friends, generate new ideas and meet new people.
After the opening ceremony I raced to Hillel, where I met with a few graduate students to head to Rodin for a meal hosted by Sarah. The meal was small and lovely and went late. However my night still wasn’t over as I headed back to PennApps to play board games with the representatives who were there from Facebook.
The next day I woke up just in time for lunch, arriving at Hillel where I was to meet Elan and Naomi Hachen who were hosting me for that meal along with yet more graduate students, including Debby whom I had become friends with the previous week and who had also attended Sarah’s meal. The meal was really lovely, and again went late into the afternoon. At around 8PM I headed back to PennApps, this time with my laptop and was reading to do some coding my self.
I was up way into the late hours of the night coding, reading up on documentation and finally at 4AM, finished my project and walked home to get into bed for a few hours before judging and presentations.