Friday/Saturday – Day 10/11
January 9, 2014
Friday I was off to a new state: Connecticut. After an elongated breakfast with Ben and Dan (fantastic as always), I took off to Grand Central Station to catch the ‘Metro North Line’ to Westport. After an hour long train ride, I stepped off to see Susan Greenberg and Eric O’ Brian waiting for me. Both were close friends from Penn, and Eric, a real computer whiz, had been in the Glee Club with me. After my adventures from the past number of days I was pretty exhausted and, given the snowstorm raging, we decided that it would be a weekend in.
Lunch was just a bit of nutella and pumpkin bread over a long catch up. The sky soon darkened outside and before I knew it, dinner time had arrived. Fish tacos were the local specialty and I gladly partook. There really wasn’t much to report from the entire Shabbat, other than some much needed rest. When it was once again late, Susan and Eric drove me back to the train station for my train back to NYC.
NYC this time was a bit of a schlep. First off I had to retrieve my bags from Dan’s place. Then it was off to Simon’s in Brooklyn, three trains away and a twenty minute walk through the icy sludge. Unfortunately the directions he had given me were also only valid for weekends, so about two hours later I arrived totally worn out at his place. However I didn’t have time to stay and chat for long as Laura wanted a chance to say bye, so back I headed into Manhattan. This time the trip was only forty minutes, but I kept a close eye on the time as I needed to be back before Simon headed to sleep.
A last chance to sing with the crew was much appreciated, but before I knew it, it was past eleven and time to head back. After a somewhat shorter trip home, Simon and I chatted for a few hours, before I crashed on the couch with my bags resting against my head.
Sunday – Day 308
June 3, 2013
Today was my last full day in the USA but it was packed, fun and exciting.
After a late wake-up I raced out to midtown to meet Susan Greenberg, a friend from Penn. After grabbing her, we walked to Milk and Honey, a kosher lunch place in the center of town and ate there with Ariella and Doniel Sherman. After lunch we set off for the NYC Israel Parade, a giant parade of thousands of supporters of the state of Israel, from those of far-left leaning politics to those on the far right, all gathered together in appreciation of the strong relationship between the US and Israel. I myself was marching with a contingent from Penn Hillel which was largely comprised of friends from the OCP. In the sweltering heat we waited over forty minutes before our contingent was called to begin marching and, in less than thirty minutes it was all over. Slightly anti-climactic but fun nonetheless.
After lunch Yoni, Ariella and I walked back downtown to meetup with Rina Krevat and Samantha Merritt, digital media design majors from Penn. In particular I wanted to see Sam as I had never had the chance I wanted to have a proper conversation with her. As we walked and talked I found that she was quite charming and was interested in many of the same things as I. I also found it awesome that she was interning for Google this summer and asked if I could have a tour the next morning, to which she cheerful replied in the affirmative. Yoni, Ariella and I then stopped for smoothies in a frozen yoghurt place, before heading off to the Apple Store to take advantage of their A/C and then FAO Schwartz to take advantage of their giant piano.
By then it was starting to get late and so we dropped Yoni off at a restaurant with his parents, picked up Ariella’s stuff from where her mum had left it in a hotel and set off to Brooklyn, to meet with another ‘Ariella’, a friend of Ariella Levine’s with whom Ariella Levine was to be staying. After a somewhat long trip, we made it to Brooklyn, only to be whisked off to the Five Towns, a very Jewish area of Long Island, for dinner at a ‘chinese’ place. My last good block of time with her. Dinner couldn’t have gone long enough and before I knew it I was on the train back, all by myself. As we pulled into the station closest to where I was staying with my cousins, I heard and then saw a raging thunderstorm outside and so was forced to sprint back to the apartment. I eventually arrived soaking wet, much to the amusement of the doorman, checked into my flight and am now going to sleep.
Thursday/Friday – Day 262/263
April 25, 2013
The next two days were pretty pleasant overall, despite high levels of stress. Thursday was another physics lecture on radiation, not easy but not overly difficult. Then was a group demo for networking. This unfortunately was a complete failure. Our code didn’t compile and even when we submitted a compiling version, it failed all the tests. We received a zero on our project and were sent depressed back to the drawing board, told to redo our project in hopes of at least some partial credit.
Coming away from that a little depressed, it was to Susan Greenberg, a good, Jewish, CIS friend to cheer me up. She did a superb job and I felt I finally got to know her well enough. Despite not spending inordinate amounts of time together, I was glad to have a certain closeness to her, and felt a little disappointed to know I’d be leaving her behind soon. My salad too was almost as enjoyable as the conversation.
I was still in recovery, so I napped a little in the afternoon before a major stuff up: I had accidentally mischeduled a Time to Shine rehearsal clashing with the Brahms Requiem dress rehearsal. I emailed the professor to tell him I’d have to miss it and he let me know that if I did so my grade would be less than acceptable. Thus I was forced to miss a vital part of the Time to Shine rehearsal in which we were filmed for the world tour of the video production.
The Brahms rehearsal was actually quite enjoyable as by now I knew the music well and could both sing and enjoy it at the same time.
Friday was intense. Today was our ‘Time to Shine’ and it began with an early run at 10AM with the full set before our run of it for the largest donors at eleven. The University President Amy Gutmann announced us before we burst onto the stage in our red and blue outfits, singing for Penn. The song itself, Time To Shine, was an upbeat pop number composed by the eminent Sean Altman, of Rockapella fame. I had also previously enjoyed his work on the jewish musical comedy scene and so it was quite an honor to work with him. Additionally, he shared a love of barbershop and so in the backstage rooms he and the members of Glee ran a few numbers together with decent success. The audience greeted us with thunderous applause and through our performance, the stage of the Zellerbach theatre twisted and turned with lights, sounds and graphics projected onto giant screens, glorifying the University.
Getting changed into regular clothes and heading outside, the heat hit fairly hard, so I headed to Hillel for lunch, before a short nap and then off to Penn Park for an on-stage rehearsal for the evenings performance before seventeen-thousand people. It was at this time that dear Sarah Silverberg decided to make an appearance on Penn’s campus, to stay with Julia Poslun’s, another friend of hers, and spend time with the both of us over the weekend.
Following that, back to my room briefly for a change into Khaki Blaze for the PGC performance and then to Penn Park again for the Glee Club Set. Unfortunately I don’t have my own photos of the whole day as I was too busy being part of it by I’ve included some shots taken by Penn photographers.
Following that Train and John Legend performed, and then the Time to Shine chorus that I was a part of. Unfortunately we weren’t exactly well received given the two opening acts and so despite the awesome feeling of being in front of so many people, it could’ve gone a little better. I’ve included below a Penn Communications snapshot of some of the crowd later in the night!
Penn had really pulled out all the stops for this party. Some of my friends in Wharton, the business school at Penn put together an estimate for spendings of around five million dollars on the event. Free food, alcohol, and entertainment for that many people doesn’t come cheap.
From there it was back to Hillel for Shabbat and dinner. Spent some good time chatting to Sarah and Julia, despite being soaking wet from an umbrellaless walk back from Time To Shine in my Shabbat clothes!
I was glad that evening to finally get back to bed and curl up in the warmth.