Tuesday – Day 95
November 12, 2012
Dad was meant to leave today but judging from the look of things outside, no one was moving anywhere fast. As much as the hurricane overnight had left much of Philly safe and sound, the streets were still empty and much of the city was closed. Thankfully, including Penn. I spent the majority of the day again indoors working on the physics problem set due the following week.
After a good number of hours of hard work I received an email, rehearsal was back on in the evening from 4PM all the way past midnight. As much as I enjoy rehearsing with the PGC, so many hours is a bit much, especially on such short notice. However, the long hours did provide a good chance for me to get to know some of the people in Penn Dance a bit better. Of particular note for his awesomeness is Jon Diamond, a linguistics major of great intellect, matched only by his sleek movement and agile frame. His performance of ‘O Death’ wowed us every time and his friendly demeanor made him a pleasure to be around. Of note from the Penn Dance girl side is Jaynie Anguiano, a biology major, who was probably most comfortable with PGC, out of the entire dance crew. She too, is incredibly friendly and a pleasure to work with.
During the course of the evening I did take a larger than usual break for dinner with dad, and though he didn’t have so much time this evening, I was grateful for every minute.
After finally getting home around 1AM, it was hard at work for another hour before finally some sweet sleep.
Thursday/Friday/Saturday – Day 90/91/92
October 30, 2012
Thursday was an intense day of work with lots due and lots to do!
Physics in the morning was painful as always, and operating systems in the afternoon was daunting. They discussed with us the major project due on the 30th of November and we all got into group to try and tackle it. I have no idea how I will ever find time to complete it.
In the evening I toiled hard at work on an algorithms project and successfully completed the first few parts of a long and annoying assignment. After looking out into the corridor next to where I was working, I saw a huge queue extending down the hallway. I inquired as to what people were waiting for and found out that free tshirts with Penn Engineering on them were to be found at the front. Thus, I joined the queue and waited next to Juanjo, a fellow Penn Singer and CIS380 student. After about thirty-five minutes I received my tshirt, a photo of which I will post shortly.
The evening took me to Molly’s for a drink before Dad arrived in the evening and I had a great time talking to her about the various elements of my experience in comparison to Australia and other assorted topics.
I was really excited for my dad to arrive as I hadn’t seen family in well over three months. When I received the call I ran to his hotel and gave him a good hug, and sat down to spend all the time I had with him. Dinner was nice but much better was the chance to talk to someone close from home, particularly one of my parents.
As he was a bit tired and jet-lagged our evening ended relatively early and I went back to the room to get some work done before the weekend of gigs and the upcoming ‘hell week’ (production week for the PGC fall show).
Friday was lovely. The morning I had my usual class but after that I picked up dad and took him on a tour of most of Penn! From Franklin Field and the Palestra, all the way up to the high-rises.
After the tour we went out for a sushi and miso lunch that wasn’t half bad, before I returned to my afternoon classes and rehearsals. In the late afternoon Dad made it to my Glee Club Rehearsal and Gig for the Alumni award of merit event, a black-tie reception for dignitaries and alums including Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Eagan. Dad was again tired after dinner so he went back to his room to sleep and I did the same.
Shabbat was full of more performances, though thankfully a little schluf too! In the morning we were performing at the installation of the class officers for the Alumni association of Penn. The reason so many alum events were occurring this weekend was because of ‘homecoming’, an event at which a college’s sport teams play a number of matches to which alumni return to view. This meant thousands of people milling about, multiple fancy events and of course flowing alcohol and food. Our performance was lovely and the alums really enjoyed it.
It was then outside to check out homecoming before heading back to Rodin for a few hours before lunch at Hillel with dad. Unfortunately Hillel was pretty much deserted today as an event called ‘mix-em ups’ was occurring with most people set up with random Jews for lunch. However, I’m pleased to say he did get to meet Aviva who will hopefully be coming to stay for a while next year.
The afternoon was my glorious nap followed by yet more PGC performances! The first of which was a book launch for a book that had actually been delayed. The book was a compilation of music by Bruce ‘Monty’ Montgomery, the previous conductor of the PGC and as a result all the people knew the songs and we had a lovely time singing with them.
Following that it was quickly to the Hilton on campus, ‘The Inn at Penn’ to sing for the rowing coach’s eightieth birthday. That gig was a little less spectacular as no one really paid us much attention and we could hardly hear ourselves sing.
After that I raced of to dad’s hotel where I was late for calling him as I didn’t have my phone on me due to Shabbat, though it was now out. For dinner Dad and I went to a fantastic restaurant called ‘Alma de Cuba’ in Center City where the food was as follows:
First up was a delicious bread with cheese and chimichurri sauce
Appetizers:
Striped Bass
aji amarillo, pineapple, vanilla, tomatillo
Lenguado ‘Al Fuego’ – Flounder
habanero, kumquat and sugarcane ‘al carbon’, sweet potato puree, smoked sea salt
Main:
Cilantro Honey Mustard Glazed Salmon
banana, lentil salad, fresh horseradish cream
Sugarcane Tuna
coconut hearts of palm rice, pickled chayote, sugarcane-sesame vinaigrette
The food was fantastically delicious and perfectly balanced. In addition the service was superb and the staff knew their stuff and were highly attentive to our needs. Wholeheartedly recommended.
Returning home I worked hard on my algorithms assignment, finally completing it before heading off to sleep around 2AM.
Tuesday/Wednesday – Day 88/89
October 26, 2012
I woke up today to my final beautiful morning of holidays, again quite late. The order of play for the morning was to get another good bulk of work out of the way before enjoying my afternoon. I opened up my Ruby project and got so caught up in working I hardly noticed lunch time pass me by until, I received an SMS from Paul G. of the Penn Glee Club, wanting to know if I was free for a late lunch. Off to Sitar again we went!
In my interview with Paul I much enjoyed our discussion on mathematics, as with his talents in the area he had many interesting thoughts to share. Additionally, as a long standing oldman of the group he had a better insight into some of the people in it than did many of the others I had interviewed.
Following lunch I met up with Melody Cooke (of skateboarding goat fame) and went to go find an appropriate grand piano for her to teach me how to play and me to teach her how to sing. Unfortunately I was running a little low on time as I’d promised Alexis, a close friend from Hillel, that I would have dinner with her and Arianna. Dinner at Hillel was not nearly so exciting but, it was my last chance to chill before getting back into the routine as at 9PM there was the regular scheduled PGC rehearsal till 12.
One particularly exciting thing that came out of this rehearsal was the presentation of a new piece for our fall show. However, it was a piece that I know well by the name of ‘Baba Yetu’, an arrangement of the swahili text to the Lord’s Prayer, composed for the opening title of ‘Civilization IV’, a computer strategy game.
Wednesday the stress ramped right back up again as I received a number of major assignments to be completed within the next cycle of work. Of particular note was the release of the specification for PennOS, the operating system that I will be building for one of my classes. It is expected to take the remainder of semester and must be completed in group of four. It seemed very daunting. Additionally I received another physics problem set and another programming assignment for algorithms.
The evening was not nearly so exciting as I had another regular PGC rehearsal and what was meant to be a gig but without my dry cleaning that was a few hours late, I couldn’t perform. Following rehearsal I had an interview with Baker Beers, a lovely Texan guy who was really down to earth. Had a great and unfortunately too short meal before getting lost on my way to the Performing Arts Workshop where I had hours of work to fulfill for the Penn Signers.
I arrived half and hour late, sweaty and tired from running around looking for it but soon got to work with putty and a knife filling cracks in various items. Over the course of my two hours there I also had a lovely time chatting to Suzie from Korea who came to the US with a passion for performing arts, something she couldn’t satiate at home. After most of the time had elapsed I switched onto painting a door and was finally set free to go back to Rodin and work for as many hours as I could.
At 1AM I skyped a close friend from home and we talked for around an hour, making me quite happy, but very tired and before I knew it, I was back in bed and fast asleep.