Well, it's that time of year again. Except that this is my final course-enroll process, and, well, this really is my last time enrolling for undergraduate classes at Cornell University.
Here's a list of the courses for which I've enrolled:
http://www.schedulizer.com/p9ym
Intro Hebrew II: A continuation of last semester. Especially if I end up tutoring English in Israel, I need all the help that I can get! I really need to brush up on the Hebrew that I learned last semester.
Honors Thesis Class: Mandatory, if I want to write that thesis. And, really, I do. I'm writing about France in the era of World War II; but you remember that, don't you?
The Jewish Question in Nineteenth - Twentieth Century Europe: Taught by the eminent Professor Holly Case, probably the #1 History professor among those whose classes I haven't already taken. Prof. Case is the East European specialist, and can read all of those wild Slavic and Finno-Ugric languages (the languages are wild, not the Slavs and Hungarians). Moreover, I'm hoping that this class will give me more background on the events that I'm describing in Chapter III of my thesis, which concerns the marginalized populations in Vichy France, especially the Jewish population (I'll be incorporating my summer research on the wartime Jewish community in Indre-et-Loire in this section).
Medieval Philosophy: To quote the course roster, "Topics include the problem of universals, the theory of knowledge and
truth, the nature of free choice and practical reasoning, and
philosophical theology. Readings (in translation) include Augustine,
Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham." I can't wait: other than Augustine, and a tiny bit o Aquinas, I haven't read the original of any of the above philosophers in their original primary sources. I'm going to continue my current practice of turning all of my classes outside of the History department into historical investigations, and add this to the growing constellation of intellectual history in my head. I wonder if they'll let me do anything with Maimonides...
Kosher and Hallal: Starring the awesome Prof. Joe Regenstein! Unfortunately, this class meets at exactly the same time as my Thesis class. So, I'll be taking it as an independent study, and following on with the class online. Not optimal, but still acceptable. Only possible because Prof. Regenstein is great! Note that this does not appear on my Schedulizer schedule.
I'm excited! This semester is going to be awesome!
~JD
Monday, January 21, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
New Year's in New Jersey
Due to backlogging, I'm over two weeks late posting the rest of my trip to the tri-state area.
December 31st, I was still staying with the Feldmans. Having visited the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum on the 30th (my Mother's birthday), Peninah and I decided to visit the Liberty Science Center on Monday the 31st. Although the exhibits there are aimed towards a much younger audience than the two of us, we still had a good time together. Peninah, as usual, ended up revealing that she knew more about everything than I did, about astronomy, physics, pathology, and, of course, agriculture. As for the museum, I was semi-impressed. It's three to four times as large as the Ithaca Science Center, but, doesn't have the amazing George Rhoads ball machine that I know and love so much. It does, however, have a good room of interesting physics puzzles, a nice exhibit on infection and disease, a decent aquarium, and some excellent videos on current events in environmental preservation in the New York City area. It also has one of the Da Vinci surgical machines (for long-distance surgery): I've always wondered how those things worked. In the evening, Peninah and I awaited 2013 with some of her friends from high school, and promptly returned back to her home right after midnight, and hit the sack.
The next morning, Peninah drove me to Five Towns. The drive, which normally lasts over an hour, took only about forty minutes, because everyone else was sleeping in or hung over. Eli has a big beautiful house, full of sunshine even at this time of year. His Israeli mother and all three of his sisters were home -- we two were the only males in the house. Whereas I grew up the youngest of three boys, Eli is both the oldest and the only boy (that must be hard). We watched the end of Star Wars Episode VI, beginning just before the ewoks appear. Eli pointed out that I... resemble CP3O in certain ways. I'm afraid to say how correct I think that he is. We took a long walk through Five Towns: compared to what I know, it's both very wealthy and very Jewish. I'm just not used to seeing a restaurant full of black hats. Eli is wonderful, and makes such good conversation because he's so knowledgeable (he's a philosophy major, after all). We ended up wandering fairly far from his house, and didn't make it back until after dark: Eli showed me where the restaurant that his father owned used to be. I got into bed a little bit later than I had planned, and, the next morning, didn't get out of bed until about 6:50 am. I caught the train to New York City at around 8:00, and took the subway from there to my appointment. Again, I had a lot of reading time, but luckily, I had my Kindle with me. I made it a few minutes late, but I think that everything went well: I took the subway a few more stops, and ran the remaining blocks to the Cornell Club, where I caught the 12:30 pm bus back to Ithaca. I hadn't seen much snow since I had left upstate New York, and it was comforting to pass through the pall of snow in the air, about two hours' journey south of Ithaca. I made it home -- and just in time to leave, just a few days later, for my wonderful trip to Boston, which I described in the last post.
Before I close this post, I'd like to mention that, among the pile of mail I received today, I received a letter from one of the teaching programs to which I've applied -- soliciting me for money. A tad ironic, don't you think, especially considering the fact that, as of yet, I'm still unemployed? The situation reminds me of a quote from Moby-Dick: "And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But BEING PAID,--what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!"
~JD
December 31st, I was still staying with the Feldmans. Having visited the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum on the 30th (my Mother's birthday), Peninah and I decided to visit the Liberty Science Center on Monday the 31st. Although the exhibits there are aimed towards a much younger audience than the two of us, we still had a good time together. Peninah, as usual, ended up revealing that she knew more about everything than I did, about astronomy, physics, pathology, and, of course, agriculture. As for the museum, I was semi-impressed. It's three to four times as large as the Ithaca Science Center, but, doesn't have the amazing George Rhoads ball machine that I know and love so much. It does, however, have a good room of interesting physics puzzles, a nice exhibit on infection and disease, a decent aquarium, and some excellent videos on current events in environmental preservation in the New York City area. It also has one of the Da Vinci surgical machines (for long-distance surgery): I've always wondered how those things worked. In the evening, Peninah and I awaited 2013 with some of her friends from high school, and promptly returned back to her home right after midnight, and hit the sack.
The next morning, Peninah drove me to Five Towns. The drive, which normally lasts over an hour, took only about forty minutes, because everyone else was sleeping in or hung over. Eli has a big beautiful house, full of sunshine even at this time of year. His Israeli mother and all three of his sisters were home -- we two were the only males in the house. Whereas I grew up the youngest of three boys, Eli is both the oldest and the only boy (that must be hard). We watched the end of Star Wars Episode VI, beginning just before the ewoks appear. Eli pointed out that I... resemble CP3O in certain ways. I'm afraid to say how correct I think that he is. We took a long walk through Five Towns: compared to what I know, it's both very wealthy and very Jewish. I'm just not used to seeing a restaurant full of black hats. Eli is wonderful, and makes such good conversation because he's so knowledgeable (he's a philosophy major, after all). We ended up wandering fairly far from his house, and didn't make it back until after dark: Eli showed me where the restaurant that his father owned used to be. I got into bed a little bit later than I had planned, and, the next morning, didn't get out of bed until about 6:50 am. I caught the train to New York City at around 8:00, and took the subway from there to my appointment. Again, I had a lot of reading time, but luckily, I had my Kindle with me. I made it a few minutes late, but I think that everything went well: I took the subway a few more stops, and ran the remaining blocks to the Cornell Club, where I caught the 12:30 pm bus back to Ithaca. I hadn't seen much snow since I had left upstate New York, and it was comforting to pass through the pall of snow in the air, about two hours' journey south of Ithaca. I made it home -- and just in time to leave, just a few days later, for my wonderful trip to Boston, which I described in the last post.
Before I close this post, I'd like to mention that, among the pile of mail I received today, I received a letter from one of the teaching programs to which I've applied -- soliciting me for money. A tad ironic, don't you think, especially considering the fact that, as of yet, I'm still unemployed? The situation reminds me of a quote from Moby-Dick: "And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But BEING PAID,--what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!"
~JD
Friday, January 18, 2013
Visit to Boston, January 2013
I've been very lazy about posting, recently. Let's see if I can catch up, OK?
Last Friday, I boarded the 1:30 am Shortline bus from Ithaca, New York to New York City, slept most of the way, and slept a good part of the way on the 8:10 am Megabus bound for Boston. I arrived at about 12:45 pm, took the T red line to Charles MGH, and was at my brother Sam's apartment by early afternoon. He's a grad student now, and wasn't feeling well. I picked up some groceries (I hadn't eaten anything all day long, having been in transit), read a little bit, and made preparations for Shabbat.
I left for my walk to Cambridge, and arrived at the Harvard Chabad House at around 5:00 pm, and, miraculously, found my way without trouble. If you know where to cross the Charles, and can find your way to Massachusetts Avenue, it's not too difficult: I could, and though it was lightly raining, I made it to Chabad about twenty minutes early, and sat and read the parsha until Kabbalat Shabbat. A few moments in, Sam Weiss walked in and sits down to my left! This really, really excited me, and, to further improve matters, Orion, Michael Weiner's former roommate whom I met the last time I was in Cambridge, sat down on my right a few moments later! After Ma'ariv, I went upstairs with the rest of the students who were staying for dinner. Marissa and Sarah (who was staying with Marissa) had been on the other side of the Mechitza, and, after some chair shuffling, we all managed to sit down at the same table, along with Marissa's roommate Chana, Chana's boyfriend David, Marissa's friend Kenny, and a couple more people on the far side of the table from me. Kenny made the second most frequent pun on my name, on account of his being a law student; he was a lot of fun, though as was everyone else at the table. It was wonderful to see Marissa and Sarah again, even after what had only been under a month. Chabad was hospitable and friendly, as usual, and the Rabbis even remembered me from my last visit (nice, isn't it?). I left with the others, but took a right on Mount Auburn, and made it back to Sam's apartment. I accidentally walked to the two legs of the right triangle to Beacon hill rather than the hypotenuse. I talked with Sam until I went to bed.
I got up late Saturday morning at 8:15 am, and made it as fast as I could to Harvard Hillel on Mount Auburn Avenue. Again, I ended up sitting next to Orin, and was honored with Gelilah for the first Sefer Torah (it was Shabbat Rosh Chodesh). During Shacharit, I noticed my friend Morris Alper from Palo Alto, and I spoke to him afterwards: Ilan Rasooly also walked in having coordinated to visit his sister Tali the same weekend that Sarah was visiting Marissa. I saw Sam Weiss again, and, much to my excitement, so was Nate Schorr! Marissa also introduced me to her friends Danny and Melanie. We walked to Tali and Yoni's house after kiddush, along with Sam Weiss's roommate Avi, and one of his friends. Tali and Yoni are an incredibly friendly young couple with a very comfortable apartment, and are full of interesting things to talk about, and have a good library of books. Sam Weiss suggested that I look up one of the books they were discussing, Gödel, Escher, Bach (I was one of the less technologically-oriented people in the room). Lunch was wonderful, and I think that Ilan's was the best vegetarian cholent I've ever had -- I was especially happy because they had clearly thought about me. Around 3:30 pm, everyone decided to leave together except Tali, Yoni, and Ilan, and I asked to follow Marissa and Sarah far enough for me to be able to recognize their apartment, before I returned to Harvard Hillel for 4:10 pm Minchah. A few minutes after leaving Marissa and Sarah, I must have become lost -- I had been looking for a street called Kirkland, but ended up crossing a bridge onto Adelaide, and never made it. Eventually, I made it back to Sam's apartment around 7:00 pm, where I changed, and left again for Marissa's apartment, picking up a bottle of wine on my way. Marissa had wanted us all to be there by 8:00 pm, and I had hoped to be there by 7:45, but because of my stupidity in getting lost, I had lost too much time to make it back in time, even though I ran at every opportunity. I arrived at 8:30, expecting to find a full house (people show up early to spend extra time with Marissa -- for good reason), but was the first guest to arrive. I helped to toss a salad, and we had begun on the fruit (which, among other good things, had candied kumquats from Marissa's mother). We Skyped in the two older Zwillenbergs, who had just returned to Philadelphia from Israel, to tell them how much we missed them both. Soon afterwards, the others arrived -- Sam Weiss, Ilan, Chana and David, and, much to my excitement and pleasure, Ben Chartock and Eli Shaubi! I literally jumped on Ben, I was so happy to see him (and, yes, I'll blog about my earlier adventures with Eli presently -- backlogged). Eventually, Nate and Danny showed up. After a gamut of subjects including Marissa's tri-Angell trip to Switzerland and her one-week workshop on how landscape architecture can be of use in the pursuit of peace in the Israeli-Palestinian situation, we began to speak about my Monday interview. Everyone agreed that, yes, I should go ahead and try to dress well, because it will be a real travesty if I were to fail to be employed for coming to the interview in sneakers. I was becoming worried that Sam was waiting up late for me to return, and would only make himself sicker in this way. So I wished everyone a good night, and Marissa walked me out at around 12:15 am. When I reached the T, it was chained shut, so I called Sam, and he suggested that I take a cab, so I did, and was back in Sam's apartment in about ten minutes. I met his roommate Anthony's brother Sean, and Sean's French girlfriend before going to sleep.
Last Friday, I boarded the 1:30 am Shortline bus from Ithaca, New York to New York City, slept most of the way, and slept a good part of the way on the 8:10 am Megabus bound for Boston. I arrived at about 12:45 pm, took the T red line to Charles MGH, and was at my brother Sam's apartment by early afternoon. He's a grad student now, and wasn't feeling well. I picked up some groceries (I hadn't eaten anything all day long, having been in transit), read a little bit, and made preparations for Shabbat.
I left for my walk to Cambridge, and arrived at the Harvard Chabad House at around 5:00 pm, and, miraculously, found my way without trouble. If you know where to cross the Charles, and can find your way to Massachusetts Avenue, it's not too difficult: I could, and though it was lightly raining, I made it to Chabad about twenty minutes early, and sat and read the parsha until Kabbalat Shabbat. A few moments in, Sam Weiss walked in and sits down to my left! This really, really excited me, and, to further improve matters, Orion, Michael Weiner's former roommate whom I met the last time I was in Cambridge, sat down on my right a few moments later! After Ma'ariv, I went upstairs with the rest of the students who were staying for dinner. Marissa and Sarah (who was staying with Marissa) had been on the other side of the Mechitza, and, after some chair shuffling, we all managed to sit down at the same table, along with Marissa's roommate Chana, Chana's boyfriend David, Marissa's friend Kenny, and a couple more people on the far side of the table from me. Kenny made the second most frequent pun on my name, on account of his being a law student; he was a lot of fun, though as was everyone else at the table. It was wonderful to see Marissa and Sarah again, even after what had only been under a month. Chabad was hospitable and friendly, as usual, and the Rabbis even remembered me from my last visit (nice, isn't it?). I left with the others, but took a right on Mount Auburn, and made it back to Sam's apartment. I accidentally walked to the two legs of the right triangle to Beacon hill rather than the hypotenuse. I talked with Sam until I went to bed.
I got up late Saturday morning at 8:15 am, and made it as fast as I could to Harvard Hillel on Mount Auburn Avenue. Again, I ended up sitting next to Orin, and was honored with Gelilah for the first Sefer Torah (it was Shabbat Rosh Chodesh). During Shacharit, I noticed my friend Morris Alper from Palo Alto, and I spoke to him afterwards: Ilan Rasooly also walked in having coordinated to visit his sister Tali the same weekend that Sarah was visiting Marissa. I saw Sam Weiss again, and, much to my excitement, so was Nate Schorr! Marissa also introduced me to her friends Danny and Melanie. We walked to Tali and Yoni's house after kiddush, along with Sam Weiss's roommate Avi, and one of his friends. Tali and Yoni are an incredibly friendly young couple with a very comfortable apartment, and are full of interesting things to talk about, and have a good library of books. Sam Weiss suggested that I look up one of the books they were discussing, Gödel, Escher, Bach (I was one of the less technologically-oriented people in the room). Lunch was wonderful, and I think that Ilan's was the best vegetarian cholent I've ever had -- I was especially happy because they had clearly thought about me. Around 3:30 pm, everyone decided to leave together except Tali, Yoni, and Ilan, and I asked to follow Marissa and Sarah far enough for me to be able to recognize their apartment, before I returned to Harvard Hillel for 4:10 pm Minchah. A few minutes after leaving Marissa and Sarah, I must have become lost -- I had been looking for a street called Kirkland, but ended up crossing a bridge onto Adelaide, and never made it. Eventually, I made it back to Sam's apartment around 7:00 pm, where I changed, and left again for Marissa's apartment, picking up a bottle of wine on my way. Marissa had wanted us all to be there by 8:00 pm, and I had hoped to be there by 7:45, but because of my stupidity in getting lost, I had lost too much time to make it back in time, even though I ran at every opportunity. I arrived at 8:30, expecting to find a full house (people show up early to spend extra time with Marissa -- for good reason), but was the first guest to arrive. I helped to toss a salad, and we had begun on the fruit (which, among other good things, had candied kumquats from Marissa's mother). We Skyped in the two older Zwillenbergs, who had just returned to Philadelphia from Israel, to tell them how much we missed them both. Soon afterwards, the others arrived -- Sam Weiss, Ilan, Chana and David, and, much to my excitement and pleasure, Ben Chartock and Eli Shaubi! I literally jumped on Ben, I was so happy to see him (and, yes, I'll blog about my earlier adventures with Eli presently -- backlogged). Eventually, Nate and Danny showed up. After a gamut of subjects including Marissa's tri-Angell trip to Switzerland and her one-week workshop on how landscape architecture can be of use in the pursuit of peace in the Israeli-Palestinian situation, we began to speak about my Monday interview. Everyone agreed that, yes, I should go ahead and try to dress well, because it will be a real travesty if I were to fail to be employed for coming to the interview in sneakers. I was becoming worried that Sam was waiting up late for me to return, and would only make himself sicker in this way. So I wished everyone a good night, and Marissa walked me out at around 12:15 am. When I reached the T, it was chained shut, so I called Sam, and he suggested that I take a cab, so I did, and was back in Sam's apartment in about ten minutes. I met his roommate Anthony's brother Sean, and Sean's French girlfriend before going to sleep.
Sunday morning, I got up around 8:20 am. Around 11:45 am, Sam and I left for the day. For the first time, I explored Boston proper -- not Cambridge. Our main mission was to buy me clothes for my Monday interview. Sam was incredibly patient throughout, and we ended up visiting several stores before I had the clothes I needed to look acceptable. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant, and returned to Sam's apartment, where I tried on the new clothes, Sam and Anthony had a tie-off and tried to explain football to Sean's French girlfriend, and I went to bed early. I was up at 6:00 am on Monday morning, so that I would have enough time to make it to the interview on time. Taking my suitcase and backpack with me, I left for my interview. I had studied the T map the night before, and arrived at Match High School, 1001 Commonwealth Avenue, at 7:35 am. The doors were still unopened, but a few students were outside, and told me that the staff would let me in: they knocked on the glass, caught a teacher's attention, and I was inside. I signed in, took out my book, and tried to calm my mind down with something that I knew that I would find comforting. Another candidate arrived, a student from Madison, Wisconsin, who, unlike me, has training specifically in teaching. Jasmine Mark, the Recruitment Manager with whom I had been in contact, arrived to show us around the school, just as students were filtering in. Before entering, students pass through a dress code check administered by one of the staff members (the result is that every member of the administration knows almost every student), and, in response to the question "What do you need to succeed?" respond "courage, discipline, and perseverance." There is a lot of discipline at Match. I am amazed by how little heckling there is in the halls, compared to IHS, my own High School. I'm used to fairly aggressive bullying (having known some prime victims), explosive food fights, f-bombs, ragging, petty cruelty, blatant racism, subliminal but present class antagonism, etc. I noticed none of this at Match, where the student body is mostly from the inner city, and didn't notice a single security guard (of which there are several at IHS). The interview lasted from 8:00 am until 2:00 pm, and comprised two quasi-observed tutoring sessions with students (one in Algebra and one in English), and three one-on-one interviews. We had time to prepare our tutoring sessions in the third-floor teachers' lounge, where we had an opportunity to meet the faculty and staff. I felt extremely comfortable around them all, and found a lot of common ground (I also got a chance to give my classic Kindle infomercial). The interviews were with the director of Match Corps, the Match Recruitment Manager, and the director of athletics and after-school activities. I think that I did a good job of conveying my very real enthusiasm for teaching, and for Match's social mission. The two tutoring sessions likewise went extremely well. Both of the students needed just a little bit of nudging, and a few reminders, in order to complete the work that we had set aside for them. I am extremely thankful to all of the people who taught me how to take apart and simplify math problems -- mostly Sam and my Mother. I'm not a "math person" -- however, I do love the simplicity of geometry and algebra. Although I didn't need to remember any trigonometry, take a single derivative, or even whip out the old quadratic equation (x=-b±√(b2 – 4ac)/2a, for your information. And you thought I needed to look that up? Hah!), I did need to be able to understand complementary and supplementary angles, solve equations with two variables, and calculate midpoints well enough to explain them all to a student. The student was very sweet, and incredibly motivated. The only thing that she had truly forgotten were the formulas for calculating the area and circumference of a circle (Πr2 and 2Πr, respectively). Likewise, she miscalculated one midpoint with the midpoint equation, and I needed to show her a simpler method of calculation. However, she really was an angel, and went above and beyond our expectations. The student to whom I tutored English was very quite and reserved. He had just read Macbeth, and had not only understood it, but had seemed to have enjoyed it. He had a great difficulty with English, and I needed to simply define certain terms for him -- "balk" and "visceral," for instance. However, he understood irony, and, when I once explained how to spell "noble," he never misspelled that same word again. I had never read more than an first few chapters of The Things They Carried, the other book his class had been reading, but I did my best to conceal this, and to give as much help as possible. Just like in the first student, I saw in this second student lots of dedication and discipline, despite difficulties. Both students evaluated me -- I have no idea how well I scored.
The interview ended at 2:00 pm, and there were really no major problems, although Jasmine Mark felt very upset that I hadn't been able to eat lunch on account of there not having been a kosher option. I was not upset (I'm almost glad that I didn't have the option to stop to eat -- it meant that I could concentrate more fully on the tasks at hand). I took the T back to South Station, caught the 3:00 pm Megabus back to New York by a margin of only a few minutes, and caught the 8:30 pm Shortline bus back to Ithaca. It was a very productive afternoon of reading, and I was delighted that my friend Ahmed was on the same bus back to Ithaca. We sat together, and spoke about our respective families for the beginning of the drive.
I arrived back at North Campus Ithaca around 1:30 am, where Victor picked me up. I fell asleep at just past 2:00 pm.
Thanks to the following people, in alphabetical order, for making this a great weekend: Marissa Angell, Anthony and Sean Breece, Chabad House of Harvard, Ben Chartock, Chana, Chloe, Dad (who drove me to the bus stop), Danny, David, Sam Davis, Ahmed Elsamadisi, Victor Haas, Gelilah-assisting guy, Doug Lemov, Kenny, Jasmine Mark, Nedra Massenberg, Mom, Morris, Orion, Sara Parr, Avi Prince, Ilan Rasooly, Nate Schorr, Eli Shaubi, Sarah Sonenberg, Jonathan and Tali Speiser, Gray Visco, Sam Weiss, and Judy and Michael Zwillenberg (Apologies if I've forgotten you).
~JD
I arrived back at North Campus Ithaca around 1:30 am, where Victor picked me up. I fell asleep at just past 2:00 pm.
Thanks to the following people, in alphabetical order, for making this a great weekend: Marissa Angell, Anthony and Sean Breece, Chabad House of Harvard, Ben Chartock, Chana, Chloe, Dad (who drove me to the bus stop), Danny, David, Sam Davis, Ahmed Elsamadisi, Victor Haas, Gelilah-assisting guy, Doug Lemov, Kenny, Jasmine Mark, Nedra Massenberg, Mom, Morris, Orion, Sara Parr, Avi Prince, Ilan Rasooly, Nate Schorr, Eli Shaubi, Sarah Sonenberg, Jonathan and Tali Speiser, Gray Visco, Sam Weiss, and Judy and Michael Zwillenberg (Apologies if I've forgotten you).
~JD
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