Thursday/Friday – Day 184/185
February 3, 2013
Thursday I found myself with more time than expected and even had an interesting and productive physics lecture in the morning that delved into the workings behind MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). The afternoon saw more errands (they never seem to end) before a lovely dinner at Hillel, a meeting with the dining philosophers and, a few more ‘shop hours’ building the Glee Club set.
Friday was a little nightmarish. I woke up late after my usual night of intense work and went straight to grading homework for the computer science class. The problems proved more subtle than initially assumed and as a result took us a great many hours. In face as a team of 14 TAs we were grading for more than 4 hours. This left me quite tired after the subsequent TA training and faculty meeting. Shabbat dinner was nice as the company was excellent (Ariella, Aviva, Michal to name a few) and I had a proud moment of remembering a ‘mishna’ that detailed the ‘halacha’ when it came time to decide if we could ‘bench’ separately or not (ignore the sentence if you missed those words). I hung around with the jew-crew for a few hours, then sleep. Peaceful sleep.
Tuesday/Wednesday – Day 182/183
February 1, 2013
The next two days were most notable for the lack of sleep I received for the duration of the period. In this case it was my security homework keeping me up. Tuesday I woke early to write up my physics homework which unfortunately left me exhausted and falling asleep during the lecture that morning. Not good. The afternoon had me taking a nap and then preparing my homework for the next day in security and trying to get a start on the work due the week after. I made very little progress. Hillel ended up sucking away a fair bit of time as well and finally it was rehearsal time again, nine to midnight. I didn’t get to bed till around four AM.
Wednesday was a bit of a disaster too, given the little sleep, however I made more progress on work, even completing the security assignment for the following week. Though this was after much delirium and za’atar wedges. The day was unremarkable, practically fell asleep in my lectures, not stimulating stuff. Just networking protocols. Rehearsal in the evening was decent. A piece we’re singing that I absolutely adore is ‘The Choir Invisible” by Ron Harris (as here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ELK2Bg4XaQ) and I’m looking forward to putting up a recording of us eventually. Another highlight of today was the arrival of my tap shoes! For those reading this from Penn I can’t help but urge you to come see the spring show so that I may have an audience for my *cough* excellent *cough* dancing.
Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday – Day 175/176/177
January 28, 2013
I’m finding a lot of my time now goes towards preparing for my teaching and similar duties. Much of Tuesday was spent working on solving various problems for students, fixing up the homework and holding my office hours. My hours were in fact quite enjoyable and gave me a chance to get to know a few of my fellow TAs a little better (@Dennis, @Harmony, @Pulak). As per usual I had the dreaded physics lecture. Things had ramped up so quickly with me barely noticing that by this time I was flying fast enough that my wings had started smoking. Tuesday night I had barely enough time to eat before heading off to Glee rehearsal where we examined the result of the full club survey. Turns out everyone is pretty happy the way things are.
Wednesday was another chock full day and after staying up so late to work the night before, I only just woke up in time to get ready for my midday class. My classes were not particularly challenging, it was more the workload that was getting to me. The dreaded sleep deprived demon was rising from the Penn purgatorial pits, and was quickly consuming my remaining wits. After class I had a quick chance for a break, before heading back into rehearsal (as always) and then to more office hours!
Thursday challenged me again in terms of time management but I found a little more freedom with only one class in the morning. Most of my afternoon was spent arranging various things, starting to get my room together and running about from place to place. I had a meeting with the graduate chair to discuss future options for study in the field of computer science, particularly looking at Penn as an option. It seems I may have some large decisions in my future. Thursday night I spent in ‘shop hours’, assisting in the construction of the Spring Show set by painting for a few hours and chatting to Jon Ferrari, a Glee oldman who was one of the few I had yet to interview. Finally, my school week came to an end, as Friday I was to have no classes.