Friday/Shabbat – Day 4/5
December 31, 2013
First thing today Molly and I commuted back to NYC to meet up with Paul Marret and Steph Garace for tea and lunch. We spent quite a while at David’s Tea as the two girls perused the many items on offer. Lunch almost as long. For me, a bagel and lox was first pick and I was grateful for the way it was presented with all the ingredients separate from the bagel. This allowed me to remove about two-thirds of the cream cheese before eating it.
Immediately following lunch I raced off to Penn Station to get to Ariella Levine’s in time for Shabbat. When I arrived I unpacked a little before scurrying into the kitchen to help out with the preparations. When the table was set and all was ready I had a little tinkle on their grand piano. Old and quite out of tune but a beautiful instrument nonetheless.
Dinner that night was with Sarah and Bob (Ariella’s parents), Dani (Ariella’s lovely sister), Ariella and some family friends of theirs. The food was good, especially a squash kugle that Ariella made, and the conversation was quite interesting. American Jews have a very different perspective on things to what I’m used to and seem to experience very different cultural pressures as a result of high intermarriage rates. Both families also seemed fascinated by Australia, from the animals to the societal structures. After a few hours I felt the weight of the jetlag pulling me down and so excused myself and fell fast asleep, glaring light in my face be damned.
Shabbat was a quiet affair, another few meals, some quality time with Ariella. Over lunch I discovered that someone at the table was working on a legal case that I was quite familiar with, as it was within the realm of my scientific interest and this led to quite a long discussion on the matter with a number of documents produced that I had a good familiarity with. This was entertaining to most present as the case was highly domain specific.
After Shabbat Ariella and I caught the first train back into the city to meet with Rina Krevat, a Penn friend from the Digital Media Design course. Our intention was to go see The Hobbit, however by the time we reached AMC 42nd, tickets were all sold out! Knowing Rina, I suggested that Frozen might be a good option as the screening across the road was also yet to begin. Additionally, I was disappointed that I hadn’t been able to see it with Joyce back home, whose dream it had been for months. Thus we caught the 9.40 screening and very much enjoyed ourselves. I thought the film was excellent, particularly the animation, however some of the songs I felt paralleled just a bit too closely to Wicked and Idina Menzel’s presence didn’t quite help dispel that.
After the movie I headed to Dan’s apartment where I would be house sitting and promptly sat down at his gorgeous piano, not remembering that apartment life was a little different from living at home…
Wednesday/Thursday – Day 157/158
January 6, 2013
Today It was back to Penn! I packed my two suitcases and my backpack as efficiently as possible and then it was off to Penn Station NYC, to catch the Bolt Bus ‘home’. On arriving, my first order of business was to get back to campus, which involved schlepping all my luggage down into the subway and then up and out again at the other side. By the time I got out in University City, I was nearly exhausted.
Next, I needed to find somewhere to put my stuff so I headed to the University City Apartments housing office, from whom I would be renting this semester, to arrange to sign the lease and pay my deposit and rent. This turned out to be much more difficult than expected as they didn’t take credit and I was expected to have a very large amount of funds available immediately. This required me to leave my stuff in there care for twenty minutes while I searched for a PNC Bank branch. Getting there I bought a check and returned to the office to fill it out. Next, I schlepped my stuff up about ten blocks to my new apartment, repacked what I needed for a few days into my backpack, and went to rehearsal.
Unfortunately, the next few days of writing there really won’t be much to report. This is due to 10AM to 10PM rehearsals every day for the PGC spring show, so I’ll be keeping it brief.
This rehearsal however I quite enjoyed as it was a good time to see everyone again after break and catch up over a little singing and dancing.
That night I slept on Steph Garace’s couch, as Martin, the individual from whom I was assuming the lease, hadn’t moved out of my apartment yet.
The next day the marathon began, and needless to say it was none to pleasant. Not enough time for meals, frenzied interviews with oldmen and far far too much dancing for my tastes. As most of the songs for the show were as yet unarranged, most of the time was spent staging and learning a few of the big show numbers.
Finally I got to bed around 1AM after getting back to Steph’s at around 11. I could see this was going to be a long process.