Shabbat/Sunday – Day 264/265
April 26, 2013
I slept in pretty late the next day, needing a way to recover from the big night before! Lunch was at Hillel with Sarah, and we chatted in the Rodin lounge for a few hours before going to see my friends from Glee Club and Penn Dance in from their production of Macbeth.
Following that I had only a short while to get changed into a proper suit for the University Choral Society’s performance of Brahm’s Requiem. As a result of having learnt the music well, I was able to more completely enjoy the performance and really threw myself into it. The result as per the recordings later released was pretty glorious.
Sunday was incredibly busy. First thing in the morning it was off to a Glee Gig. A few of the guys and I walked for forty five minutes to get to the historic Pennsylvania Penitentiary where we performed a small set for the benefit of the preservation foundation. After returning home, Sarah spent most of her time with Julia whilst I prepared my final project for security, my final physics problem set and, attempted to study for my Networks midterm the next day.
Friday/Shabbat – Day 159/160
January 7, 2013
Friday and Shabbat were unfortunately more of the same. Singing and dancing without end. As a result this post is going to be kept very short. Unfortunately my Shabbat was mostly without the Shabbat and while everyone else was going out to eat their meals I was eating a supply of fruit and pita that I had purchased beforehand. Suboptimal.
The above photo portrays a fun moment of me being dragged around the rehearsal space, a definite highlight.
After rehearsal on Shabbat everyone walked to Nord’s (our director’s) home for snack and a little time to relax. Amongst the activities was a screening of the ‘newman’ scavenger hunt video which revealed just how poor our singing was that day. Thankfully the oldmen cut us a little slack.
Back we walked through the dangerous neighbourhoods of northwest Philly and late that night I finally made it back to Hamilton Court, my new residence!
Tuesday – Day 67
October 4, 2012
The second day of sukkot I enjoyed far less than the first. Tuesday’s I have electrodynamics, the course that I struggle to catch up in. As a result I decided to attend the lecture and listen in. The lecture was just as difficult as always compounded by the fact that I wasn’t writing any notes! To top it all off, the midterm was announced… one week away. I was suddenly inspired to ‘get my study on’. Other than that lunch in the sukkah was lovely, saw a few people I haven’t in a while, then studied in my room till havdalah.
After sukkot, I worked hard to prepare for my midterm, before PGC rehearsal at 9PM. The rehearsal from 9-11 was pretty much newmen only and as a result worked well for us. I finally feel confident with a good few of the songs and found which ones require more focus from me. The 11-12 rehearsal was not quite so productive. In fact, a number of the oldmen commented that it was their least productive ever. However, a highlight from it was being told who my mentor was. JHo, Jonthan Ho, an awesome tenor, agreed to mentor me for my time at Penn and presented me with a book on the history of the Glee Club and a few of their albums on CD. He, much like I, has a love of barbershop harmony, and is an all round excellent (and musical) guy.