Sunday/Monday – Day 237/238
March 29, 2013
Things didn’t stop going well over the next few days. Some of my best times at Penn. Sunday was a full day of work. After I woke up that is. Coding till so late the night before, didn’t exactly give rise to a full day of awakedness. Bits of group project work and lots and lots of physics. I didn’t realize that much of the physics on the assignment we hadn’t actually covered yet and so I spent hours trying to figure out what was going on, with much futility.
Had a new ‘chevruta’ (learning partner) in the evening with Shlomo Klapper, that was most fulfilling. Thankfully too, it came with dinner and bagels, the last chametz of the week!
After that I headed to Kiwi with Yoni Weider and Ariella and we had a good chat over some real US style frozen yogurt!
I didn’t sleep much that night, had another minor argument with someone and it just kept replaying in my head. I’m not a fan of conflict.
The next morning I was up early for minyan, siyum and biur chametz (prayers, meal and public burning of bread), in preparation for Pesach (passover). There was a small crowd there but everyone got very into it all. Had a short day, with a midterm that went excellently despite little to no study for it. I then packed by bags, walked with Aviva through the rain to drop off her homework and ran to the car where her dad was waiting for us to take us to her place.
The details of what happened next I’ll leave to further posts, but needless to say my next few hours were exciting.
Wednesday – Day 226
March 17, 2013
Wednesday was one large trip to the stratosphere. I had a midterm in the morning, for which I studied a sum total of 40 minutes after waking up in the morning. Was a little worried as I thought I only knew the material at the most cursory level. I raced to the lecture hall, just a little worried. Despite all this, when I actually sat down with the paper, I completed it with little difficulty. A few small things here and there I knew I marked incorrectly, however, I left it with the confidence that my performance was at least average. Ok, not a bad start to the day.
Next up was security, and while the class was mostly just repetition of stuff that I had read about during my exploration of cryptography in my gap-year, it was still enjoyable hearing it all again. After the class the professor motioned for me to come talk with him in his office. What came next was a little surprising. I was quite bluntly encouraged to come and do my PhD at Penn, but more than that, he was interested in exploring which other University might be best for me. Cambridge was raised as a strong possibility, along with a few others. Apparently I had attracted enough attention to be seen as a good candidate for research! He also mentioned to me that he had a colleague in Google NYC who would potentially be interested in having me as an intern for summer. How exciting!
Next up was rehearsal for Glee, mostly the same as always, a little dancing on top. However after its conclusion at 7PM we were given an hour to change into Dark Suit and Tie (one of the Glee Uniforms) before a special mandatory event that evening. I have been instructed that unfortunately, for the purposes of ritual, the events of that night must remain secret, however, to my great pride I can say that I am now a ‘Oldman Nouveau ‘ of the Penn Glee Club. A member for life. Additionally I have been granted the club nickname of Croisan++, which this is my name, I am yet to discover.
Saturday – Day 78
October 16, 2012
Today can be described very simply. Sleep. I need it fairly badly by this point and sleep I did. After waking up late at around 11AM I read the autobiography of the previous conductor of PGC, Bruce Montgomery’s “Brother’s Sing On” and then headed to Hillel for lunch.
There I met Aviva’s parents and had a lovely conversation with her father over lunch before returning to my room to sleep for the rest of the afternoon.
After Shabbat came out I quickly set to work preparing for my midterm, an interview, and lots of other assorted homework.
At 10PM I decided I had worked hard enough and went upstairs to the Rodin Rooftop Lounge to watch The Avengers with about one hundred others from the college house!
As soon as the movie finished I headed back to my bed and promptly fell asleep.