The Globetrotting Geek

Friday/Shabbat/Sunday – Day 54/55/56

September 19, 2012

After arriving in on Friday I was forced to begin a mad rush to complete all of my work that was due before my arrival back at Penn. So out of my bag I grabbed my notes, grabbed my laptop and… rifling through my bag I couldn’t find my charger! This was particularly worrisome as my laptop contained all the most recent source code from my programming assignments (they were yet to be uploaded to the cloud).

This necessitated a trip to Best Buy to purchase a charger so that I could complete my urgent work. This turned out not to be a huge issue a Robin, Sarah’s mother, was going to Costco, opposite the tech store, to shop for Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year). I purchased the cheapest universal laptop charger in the store, checking for plug and power compatibility beforehand and returned with Robin back home to Sarah’s. Unfortunately when I plugged in the charger, my laptop still refused to boot! Oy Gevalt!

By this time it was well past midday and thus there was a mandatory stop for lunch before trying to figure out my next move. Luckily, Robin had forgotten to buy meat, so on our way back to Costco I took the non-functional charger with me and went to return it and buy a new HP branded one. However, despite my best efforts, I had left a piece of the packaging back home and thus was required to work out yet another seventy dollars in order to get myself back up and running. A return visit to Best Buy with the extra piece was then put on my ‘to-do’ list.

At that point, Sarah and her brother Zack, returned home from college and after a brief spell chatting, Sarah and I headed to the living room to put in some hours working before Shabbat.

Shabbat dinner was a peaceful family affair and soon after I was fast asleep. The sleep in fact continued till around midday the next, and meant that I woke up just in time for lunch. After that, it was time for a good hour and half walk around the area to get myself acquainted and to enjoy the pleasant weather. A shluf (sleep) in the afternoon rounded off the day. When Shabbat came out Sarah and I drove to see ‘Premium Rush’, a decent film with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, about bicycle messengers in NYC and we both enjoyed it, though it was nothing to rave about. Though I did think Joseph looked an awful lot like the properties manager from the PGC (Penn Glee Club) a lovely well dressed guy by the name of Devin. Returning home, Sarah and I talked till the early hours of the morning, while busily trying to get a little work done. Finally at about 2AM we called it in and headed to sleep.

Sunday was another trip to Best Buy to return the charge. After that, a good hour on the piano to relax a little and then again, a mad rush to try and complete all my work. Unfortunately I didn’t manage it all on time and now needed to talk to professors to try and obtain limited extensions to hand in my work Wednesday on my return to the states.

Rosh Hashana first night dinner was with Sarah’s Mother’s family. I was slightly overwhelming being introduced to so many new people at once, however, the food was delicious and, I had a great time entertaining and being entertained by her younger cousins. To them I exposed the fact that Sarah has an encyclopaedic geographic knowledge that includes every country in the world and their capitals. I also introduced to them a scoring system by which you could earn a point for finding a capital Sarah didn’t know. The sum of all our points by the end of the evening was a measly one. Trinidad and Tobago she had forgotten.

After a delicious dessert, it was time to go, however Sarah’s little cousin wasn’t too happy over the fact and made me promise to come back for Shabbat dinner another time. An evening well spent.

 

 

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.

Shabbat/Sunday – Day 37/38

August 29, 2012

This Shabbat at Yoni and Rivki’s with Sophie and Tziporah, my little cousins, was very peaceful. In the morning I settled down to read another John Grisham novel and following that a nice quiet lunch (except for the few tantrums thrown by the two little girls). The afternoon was a trip to the local park and a walk along the promenade bordering the Hudson River and the borough of Manhattan.

The park was divided up into cute little zones, each for a different type of recreation. The first one we visited was a children’s playground. It featured many different jungle gyms, water fountains with a bathing area in the centre and, park benches surrounding the zone so that parents could keep a close eye on their young. After playing with the girls for a few hours, the sky began to darken and it was time to make a quick visit to the rest of the park before heading back home.

The next zone we visited was the ‘small dog run’ a five by three meter, oval, tiled area on which ran a number of very small, very cute and terribly adorable dogs. My favorite of them being a darling little pug with a ball in his mouth that was larger than one would reasonably assume would fit. He carried it over to many individuals around the sides and would beg them to take it away and throw it so that he could attempt to catch it in midair.

Following that we went to the ‘big dog run’, a larger area on which bounded hounds and dachshunds, among others. After a while of watching those, we walked back, passed the basketball courts and along the river.

After the conclusion of Shabbat I decided to treat myself to something I’d been wanting to do for a while: Batman! Finding an IMAX screening that I could make, I excitedly picked myself up and headed over to AMC Lincoln Square: Loewe’s. After climbing four flights of stairs I arrived at the IMAX screen and candy bar. Deciding to make my American experience complete I purchased the smallest combo of popcorn and drink offered: a three hundred gram massive bag of popcorn with a 1.56L drink. Daniel Serebro had said to me that the movie was not a “batman” movie, and though I thoroughly enjoyed it, I tended to agree. The focus of the movie was more on the events unfolding in Gotham City rather than the exploits of batman himself. For his part, Bruce Wayne spent more time soul-searching than fighting crime with catwoman making only a brief appearance.

Sunday morning marked a trip to Governor’s Island with the girls. Located towards the battery park end of Manhattan, a ten minute ferry ride away, Governor’s Island was a fort, used at one time as a coast guard base and more recently as a military prison.

Today it is converted into a cultural site, with an African festival being held for the duration of our stay. The first order of business was to visit a graphic design museum on the Island, where I realized a long-term love for typography and brand design, oohing and ahhhing at the posters and vector graphics while the girls looked at the pretty pictures.

That was followed by a picnic lunch with Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, another American tradition, I had not experienced in years.

 

Afterwards, a walk to the otherside of the island to listen to the African drummers, to run around with the girls and, take a well-deserved nap on the grass.

 

We returned to the apartment early to prepare for the arrival of my great-aunt and uncle, Alfie and Zahava Slonim, at whose place I had stayed while I was preparing for and sitting my SATs. Also in tow were my second cousins once removed, Louisa and Adam Slonim. Dinner was a delicious platter of Deli foods, most notably some sizzling hot pastrami which with a bit of coleslaw went down most splendidly.

After their departure, I finished my book and headed to sleep.