Tuesday/Wednesday – Day 168/169
January 18, 2013
Tuesday I was invited to the Phi Psi date night and went urgently looking for a date. To my luck I ran into a good friend from Penn Singers, Lauren Nagy, whom I asked and who agreed to accompany me. Physics in the morning was difficult again. I’ll be most glad when I’m done with electromagnetism but I think I may need to retake the course when I get home in order to be sure I’ve learnt the material well enough. After physics was my first singing lesson of the semester which was enjoyable as always. It provides me with an opportunity to have my improvement measured and the chance to improve further.
Following the singing lesson I attended the visit of the Australian Consul General to the University of Pennsylvania and heard him speak on how best to ‘bat for team Australia’. This inspired me to start a plan for an Australia student network across the Ivy League schools.
Then it was dinner and a quick change into a suit before Glee rehearsal. Unfortunately I could only linger for twenty minutes before dashing outside to run through the rain to the Phi Psi chapter house, where I met Lauren. There we socialized pleasantly with the other brothers, potential pledges and their dates before heading off in taxis to the venue. When we arrived at the venue, the first thing that struck us was the volume. The music was cranked way up high and it was difficult to talk to one another amidst the booming beats. Unfortunately this detracted from the experience as a whole and resulted in Lauren and I leaving a little earlier than we might otherwise have intended. As it turned out, this was my last event with the brothers. I was dropped from the process, which was completely understandable, and returned to life as before.
Wednesday I resumed compsci classes and unfortunately this meant returning to a very large workload. I was gifted by Professors Boon and Smith with two assignments, due the following week. With much else to do besides, the familiar stress levels from fall semester were returning. In the afternoon I set about completing various logistical tasks I had left, before Glee rehearsal at 5. After rehearsal I had a meeting with two of the other TAs for CIS121 in which we planned and wrote the homework for the week. Finally getting back to my room late I began work on the assignments and passed out somewhere around 2AM.
Tuesday/Wednesday – Day 131/132
December 7, 2012
Finals period is fast approaching. Though, for some reason it seems like it’s already here. I have so many tests and assignments due that I feel as if the exams crept up on me and then even passed by without a chance for me to jump on the horse. Tuesday saw the submission of my last Operating Systems homework, along with a final lecture that was a combination of revision and just fun presentations, to mark the end of semester. However now that that was over it was a bug in my algorithms code that was driving me to distraction!
The Glee Club rehearsal in the evening was quite enjoyable with more directors being trialled and more theatre sports and games played. Also, final prep for our concert on Shabbat, that though the music is perhaps not my favorite, I’m still looking forward to.
Wednesday saw me in two almost empty classes. Apparently everyone but me had already realized that midterms placed in the last week are in fact, exams by another name.
At this point in semester, every spare moment was spent working on something or other, jumping between the various things that needed completing.
Tonight after Glee Rehearsal I interviewed one of my favorite baritone personalities, Mr Mychajlo Kosyk, of a definite notoriety. It was a fantastic opportunity to get to know him a bit better and I was sorely disappointed when our time ran low and we both returned to our respective workloads. In my case this meant preparing for both the final physics assignment and, the OS final exam the next day. Needless to say, as much procrastination as work followed and I didn’t get all I wished done.
Friday/Shabbat – Day 49 / Day 50
September 12, 2012
Nothing significant about my morning course today, algorithms, except for a few new friends. However, and for this I’m sorry I didn’t bring my camera, was the student society fair. This was my opportunity to sign up to EVERYTHING. The groups were ordered by type eg; religious, sports etc. and this gave me the opportunity to join as many conflicting groups as possible. It was also in plain sight of their competitors and also led to a few interesting conversations. I joined the more right wing ‘Friends of Israel’ group whose table was directly next to the ‘Friends of Palestine’ group who I joined as well. I’m now a proud member of pretty much everything but the Pro-life coalition. I collected thirty-eight flyers and signed up to over thirty groups (I didn’t have the time to write my name down on everyone’s forms!)
The afternoon was all work, finishing up my coding assignment and getting ready for Shabbat with Penn Hillel, what will probably be a regular occurrence.
After the service and dinner it was off to the Rabbi’s roof, a fifteen minute walk away, for a bit of a party. Climbing through the maze of corridors, up three separates flights of stairs we passed a somewhat confused security guard we came to the roof. Surrounded there by air conditioning vents and with a view of construction sites, it was hardly picturesque.
However, turning the corner we came to a little ‘rooftop oasis’ filled with plants, deck chairs, a cooler full of Budweiser beer, and a good forty plus Orthodox Jews. After meeting the crew and chatting for a good while, our party was finally shut down by the Rabbi’s doorman, who closed the roof at 12PM, sending us down and back home to sleep.
Shabbat was a relaxed affair again with an accidental sleep in till past midday. At that point I went down to Rodin Jew (Rodin Two), the second floor of the building, home to the Jewish Engagement Program for lunch with Ariella and her friends. After a good few hours of schmoozing over a delicious shabbos lunch, it was time for a short shluf.
Shluf complete, I walked in the rain to F/Penn – Freshman Performing Arts Night, to which I had previously arranged a ticket for myself. There I spent a good four hours listening to oodles of acapella music and discovered that yes, there is in fact such a thing as too much acapella. Alongside that there were performances from numerous dance groups and a fine selection of theatre and comedy as well. Inspired by the performances to audition, I hurriedly wrote down the names of a good many of them in order to audition in later days.