Sunday/Monday/Tuesday – Day 72/73/74
October 11, 2012
Sunday was a mad rush to try to get a little more work done before the chagim started again. In particular, studying for a difficult physics midterm that was later in the week. At eleven AM I woke up to work with Jonothan on our Operating Systems project and pounded away at that for a good few hours. Anil was away for the weekend and thus lunch was lonely by myself in the apartment (Hillel is closed on Sundays) and then back to pounding out equations.
As the sky darkened I found myself worrying more and more about the physics midterm and I’d later be proven to be right in my fears.
After chag came in, as per usual, I couldn’t be privileged enough to just be able to go to shul and relax. This time it was dance rehearsal with Penn Dance interrupting what otherwise could’ve been a quieter night.
Following that I read a bit of my books and went to bed.
Knowing the difficulty of the midterm ahead of me I decided to walk and listen in on my 9AM and 5PM physics tutorials/recitations/sections. Though I felt I understood the gist of the material being presented, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to repeat it under example conditions.
Other than that my day was spent at the Hillel as to be expected, eating and drinking and of course, kvetching.
At five PM was the normal PGC rehearsal, delightful as always, followed by a trip back to Hillel for Simchat Torah. Simchat Torah (another Jewish festival again!) at Penn was one of the best simchat torahs I have had. The energy and passion were fantastic, especially in the OCP (Orthodox Community at Penn). The hakafot (dance circuits) went for over three hours! Unfortunately I could only stay for one of the three as I had a rehearsal for University Choral Society up at 8:10PM in which I was singing a Requiem Mass. Quite the contrast to dancing around the Torah. By the time I made it back to Hillel at ten, things were still going on and people were sitting down for dinner. I joined them and then got a full nights sleep in prep for the upcoming midterm.
Wednesday/Thursday – Day 57/58
September 24, 2012
Much of Wednesday was taken up by the trip home. I arrived in New York City at 8:15AM, the exact same time my booked bus was leaving for Philly. This meant I had to hang around for another while in order to find another bus to catch. At 9:15 I managed to find a seat and took the ride home, arriving back at 30th and JFK, Philadelphia at about 11:20. My homework for algorithms was due, given my extension, at 12PM, and I was cutting it close! I caught the SEPTA (south-eastern Pennsylvania transit authority) subway and made it to the office, sweating and puffed out, with all my luggage at 11:53. Just made it.
After that I ran quickly to the office of my physics professor to try and catch up on the lecture and work that I had missed as a result of Rosh Hashana! Though he didn’t have time for me then, he arranged to meet with me late in the afternoon. Following that I raced back to my dorm to drop my stuff off, had a quick lunch at the Hillel and then headed off to my Ruby on Rails class.
After that I headed over to DRL (David-Rittenhouse Labs), a maze of a building, with difficult to navigate corridors and poor design in order to meet with the physics professor. Unfortunately, though he knew the subject material back to front, he was not so adept at communicating it and understanding my individual issues. I endeavored from then on to find alternative help for when I become stuck.
By the time I returned to my room that evening, I was feeling pretty drained yet there was still more to come!
Tonight was the first proper PGC (Penn Glee Club) rehearsal that I could attend and, boy was it wonderful. First order of business was to collect a large stack of sheet music to learn and following that I was forced to sight-sing my way through a good number of the pieces. However, the result was pleasing and I came away from rehearsal wishing it had gone longer.
Thursday was a bit of a struggle as I attempted to understand my more difficult lectures after having missed a good few sessions of each. Other than that, nothing blog-worthy occurred till the Penn Singers rehearsal in the evening. The rehearsal was a bit of a shock, very little playing around, we went straight into the work, learning ‘What You Want’ from Legally Blonde. The song contained my only lines in the show and as a result I was quite embarrassed when going through it, I struggled a little with the timing of my part.
After rehearsal I headed back to shower and work till I received an SMS notifying me that Steph of PGC would be baking cookies for the next hour and hosting ‘newmen’. I saw this as an opportunity to get one of my newman interviews done. As part of the newman process, it is required that every newman spends at least twenty minutes interviewing every ‘oldman’ from the PGC in order to become well integrated into the club. The includes filling out an interview form, answering some specific questions. However, when I got to Steph’s that evening, it was far to full for an interview and I ended up just chilling with everyone there.
Back to the room, and my planned early night dissolved under the stress of work. So much for that.