In Which I Thought Things Were Under Control
October 27, 2014
Sunday was a little more relaxed. Especially not having stayed late the previous night at the party. I finally had the energy to start writing again. Lunch was with Bhavish and Pearl, which was nice, and a good chance to catch up with them post show. Pearl was also enthused by her ability to consume multiple persons worth of food after not having eaten solids in a week (I blame the green smoothies). In the afternoon I read some of my birthday present from Abigail, “The Rosie Effect”. The book was delightful but I was a little disappointed that the setting had moved from Melbourne to New York and I missed home.
In the evening I noted that UberX was free, so Susan and I decided to take a jaunt into centre city for dinner (which was delicious). It was also a great chance to relax a little, get things of my chest and reflect on the start of semester with a good friend.
The next day was classes as per usual. Not much to report other than the fact that I was completely taken by surprise when Sudipto in algorithms announced that the midtern was scheduled for Monday a week later. Later that evening was rehearsal for choral society and then finally bed.
Thursday/Friday – Day 140/141
December 19, 2012
Today was the first of my two exams, algorithms. Up at 7:30 to practice I felt decently good going in. The exam felt fine and though there were lots of tricky questions, it seemed alright overall. How naive I was.
The rest of the day was spent in crisis mode going mad over the physics exam which, till this point I’d barely had any time to study. I was so stressed that I decided to take a ‘short’ nap and get back to studying after. This name however, ended up running overtime to a good four hours. No good. The rest of the evening I was even worse than I was before, going completely nuts over the practice exams. At around eight PM I received my grades for the algorithms exam. Not good. I was quite upset by this and so I decided to take a run and clear my head a little. At 9PM I finally started working consistently and though I made some progress, I was sure it wasn’t enough.
Tomorrow I woke up at six thirty, before my nine AM exam feeling absolutely terrible and my nerves were completely wracked. I entered the exam in a state of near panic and with good reason, I was unable to wholly answer a single one of the exam questions! After exiting the exam room in near tears I was also forced to confront another unpleasant event from the last day, the burglary of my carry bag containing my forms to obtain a new visa. Quite distraught I left the exam building to find Kostas, my algorithms professor who always had a way of putting things in perspective however, he was busy with a skype call and couldn’t meet with me. I ran back to my room to try and prepare for my weekend in New York with Mum, Dad, and Raph. I distressed slightly during a goodbye with Steph, who gave me a little comfort from the awful day and then I raced to the 1PM bus to New York.
Long story short, it took absolutely forever. I only just made it there in time for Shabbat. 4:11 I made it to the building. 4:11 Shabbat started. Phew. From there it was breakdown then sleep.
New York – Thursday – Day 35
August 27, 2012
Thursday morning and it was time to make my way off again, this time from Cos Cob, CT to New York, New York! After packing my bags again, Gus drove me to the center of town. There I bought a prepaid AT&T sim card after being told that without a social security number I was ineligible for a plan. Following that a quick jaunt to the train station and I was on my way again, catching an MTA local line from Greenwich station to Grand Central.
I arrived at Grand Central Station with all my bags and was thoroughly not in the mood for dragging them around for the entire day till my cousins arrived home.
Grand Central Station
Thus, I dragged them a few blocks down to Schwartz Travel Services, where they provided a baggage watch service for 5$ a day. With my bags gone I headed a walking down. The first major landmark to catch my eye was the New York public library.
New York Public Library
By this time the blisters on my feet were starting to play up, but I was not about to let that stop me from exploring the city on foot. Another few blocks and I was at Times Square, taking the mandatory tourist photo.
Times Square
From there I walked to the PNC bank at Penn Station, in order to open up an account for the time in the states. There I met Jessica, a bank officer from the Dominican Republic who seemed about ten years older than me and was most friendly. We chatted for a while as she opened the account and I left with a feeling of satisfaction. Following that it was off to AMC Empire Cinemas on 42nd Street, right next to times square. I wished to go see Batman but the next screening was an hour away. So, to kill time I went into the AT&T store to see if someone there would be able to put me on contract rather than prepaid. After a good 25 minute wait I was helped by a lovely guy by the name of Ulysses, who informed me that though I had no SSN, if I put down a large deposit they could arrange a contract. It was thus that I received a brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII phone in return for my commitment to the firm.
At this point I decided to walk to the Eugene O’Neil theatre where the book of Mormon was playing to try and enter a lottery for cheap seats and failing that to join the standing room line. When I arrived I was informed I had just missed the lottery however, the standing room line wasn’t too large so I joined it, having been informed there were between twenty and twenty eight tickets available every day.
After two hours of standing, the queue began moving and I eagerly awaited my turn in line. Finally, I reached the front of the line but was then informed that the last ticket had just been sold. Desperate for a ticket I entered the cancellations line, a last bet where the house manager could sell tickets reserved for celebrities if they didn’t show. Sixth in line, I was hopeful that I might get in, however one hour later, again at the front of the line, the music started and the box office closed.
I then returned to Schwartz’s travel to pick up my bags and caught the subway to get to 55 South End St where my cousins lived. Guided by my phone however, I unfortunately hadn’t noticed that their address was in fact 55 EAST End St and found myself at the opposite end of the city. With all my bags, and the sky dark at 9PM I decided to catch my first cab of the entire trip and soon was safely at Yoni and Rivki Slonim’s. After a quick goodnight to the girls and a slice of pizza, I too was fast asleep.