Day 96: Passover Seder

What went well? 

1. Productivity is back (for the moment! everything is anicca (impermanent), after all...no grasping!), apparently. Got about 4200 words on the page for my Buddhism paper, with about 4.5 hours of work. A lot of this was direct quotes so I haven't actually paraphrased or "written" it properly yet, but it still feels good to get everything I think I want to include on the page, and to refresh my memory on the ideas - that's one thing I've found with this research - it's hard to keep track of all these complex ideas at the same time, and yet that's what's important for drawing connections. Will need to think about a system to deal with this issue for future work, especially things like theses and journal articles.
2. Went to a Passover seder, organised by a classmate. It was really interesting to gain some insight into Jewish culture, because I really don't know much about Judaism, and am actually quite interested in different religions now (not in converting to anything, but in understanding what people do and what it means to them). It was great to have this new experience. Also, I appreciated this:



3. Got a lot of potential RSVPs to my solo recital in two weeks! It will be lovely to have the support of friends there.

What did I learn? 

• Asana looks like a great tool for project management & organising communications. My mentor in Melbourne emailed me this morning about it, asking if I thought we should use it for our journal article project, so I checked it out and thought it looked great - definitely saves a lot of emailing and keeps communications in one place.
• Kosher (Jewish dietary restrictions) everything exists. Including Kosher coke?!?!?! (no corn syrup)

• Bits and pieces about Reform Jews and how they differ from Orthodox and Conservative Jews. The overall impression I got is that Reform Jews take a much more modern approach to their religion, trying to make it relevant to the modern context, and not taking the Torah as the law and direct word of God, but understanding that it was written by humans, for a certain time & place, even if it may have been divinely inspired. So even though it's still important to them, they interpret it with these considerations in mind. Reform Jews are also a lot more progressive in terms of welcoming gay/lesbian Jews, and also in terms of feminism.
• Even more impermanence. You know how it was absolutely gorgeous these past few days? No more!!! Storm. Wind. Cold. A massive worm massacre too, washed out by the rain...ew.

• A man was shot to death last night about 4 blocks away from where I live. But, as my friend puts it so eloquently in a Facebook status:



*snaps*. Oh god, I'm snapping! That is an American thing to do too btw.

Day 64: Mindfulness in Education Network Conference - Courageous Schools Workshop

What went well?

1. Got a lot of interesting ideas out of the Courageous Schools workshop today, even though it was somewhat different than expected. More on this tomorrow. I felt very mindful today. Was also inspired by the day to write a blog post on mindful communication - watch this space! I do have more thoughts on the day, but will share them in tomorrow's post after the whole conference!







2. Another great vegan dinner. This is probably one of my favourite things about the US, tbh - the ability to find really nice vegan food really easily. Practiced mindful eating.



3. Got an email from my mentor in Melbourne inviting a few of us to coffee with her and to possibly work with her on a positive psychology paper. I'm obviously not in Melbourne at the moment but still find it heartwarming that she's making such an effort to engage keen students and to mentor us by providing this kind of opportunity, and hopefully I can still be involved via email etc.
4. The library at American University doesn't require student IDs for entry, so I managed to get a bit of work done there after the conference.

What did I learn?

• Expect transportation dramas. Leave way more cushion time than you think you need. After my taxi didn't show up, Uber saved me again and I got to the conference only 20 minutes late, but it was more expensive than it needed to be.
• Travelling is improving my confidence/risk tolerance. Walk 30 minutes alone in the dark? No problem! Jaywalk? Sure! Sleep in a room with a bunch of random travellers? Why not, it's cheaper! No need to plan transport ahead of time, Google Transit/Maps will get me there! I don't know if this is a good thing or a stupid thing. But I believe that with common sense and situational awareness, it's really ok.

Day 5: Exchange Student Orientation Part 2

We started the morning with our immigration check-in, before a brief campus tour and lunch at a food hall, Houston Hall. Hey, the food wasn't as bad as people had made it sound. I thought the options were actually pretty good. I mean, this salad I got was probably the healthiest thing I've eaten since I've gotten here:

Although, I don't get why the walnuts were "candied" - who puts sugar in their salad?!

One thing that I've definitely noticed though, with regard to food, is that healthy food is significantly more expensive than unhealthy processed fast food. For example, that salad was $6.50, while a McChicken burger is about $1.50. This must be a big contributor to why poverty and obesity go hand in hand, and it's largely due to the messed up farmer subsidy systems here.

Here are a few more photos from the tour:

College House. The architecture here is breathtaking. 

The Broken Button. Legend has it, Benjamin Franklin broke a button here? And apparently, one of Penn's "traditions" is to have sex under the broken button before you graduate. #collegeshenanigans 

The Fisher Fine Arts Library, where you get stared at if you breathe too loudly. I'm so glad there's actually somewhere to study where silence is enforced by efficient librarians (compare to "silent" sections in libraries at UniMelb).

The oldest standing building in Pennsylvania.

The "Dueling Tampons".

After lunch, we had some more orientation sessions on public safety, sexual violence, cultural adjustment, and using the library. I actually learned a few interesting and reassuring things about Penn's public safety systems and programs:

1. Free walking escorts anywhere around campus, 24/7
2. Free transit rides at night around campus
3. Guardian, which you sign up for on your phone, allows Penn Police to use GPS to pinpoint your location if you call them. You can also set a timer where you call and set a reasonable amount of time for you to get to a location, and leave a voice message that describes where you're going, what you're wearing, etc. Then when you get to the location safely, you call the number and enter a pin code to deactivate the timer. If you don't deactivate it, they'll send the police out to find you.
4. Free RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) Self-Defense courses. I'm really keen to sign up for one of these.

The exchange student orientation leaders put on a hilarious skit that encapsulated all of the possible cultural differences we might come across, in completely stereotyped form:

"Frat party"

Other memorable moments in the skit included:

• American guys confusing the hell out of an Italian guy with frat language - "brother", "servant" (pledge), "Greek"
• An over-enthusiastic American roommate, keen to become "BFFs"
• American students eating in class and dying to contribute to the discussion, with no substance whatsoever in their contributions

It was really cute.

I then went on a library tour of the Van Pelt library, which is kinda the "main" library. It's got 6 floors and is incredible. It blows UniMelb's Baillieu, Law Library and Giblin Eunson completely out of the water. I can't believe I get to study there. Will take some photos next time I go. And there are about 11 libraries in total at Penn. Really excited to see all of them. I'm still in awe at how well-resourced this place is.

Bought some dinner for cheap ($4.50) at a food truck, but I will start cooking soon (a few times a week), once I schedule in a grocery run.

So in summary:

What went well?

1. I was really impressed by all the public safety initiatives in place.
2. The cultural adjustment skit was hilarious.
3. Learning about some of the history and stories behind some landmarks at Penn.
4. Being excited about the awesome libraries here.
5. The exchange student leaders are all really friendly, nice and helpful.

What did I learn?

• The dining halls are actually pretty good! There are plenty of options, and they are very very vegan friendly.
• There is way too much stuff to do here, it can get overwhelming. Too many events to choose from, too many possible clubs to get involved with, too many cool people to hang out with...#decisionfatigue. I think to be strategic with this, I'll set aside maybe 30 minutes at the end of every week to research and decide on what I really want to do and go to in the following week.
• Penn has so much more tradition, history and culture. There's a story behind everything here.
• There's a 30 day "grace period" after the J1 visa program end date, but if you leave the US before the end of that grace period, it automatically ends, so you can't re-enter the US unless you get another visa (or a visa waiver, in the case of New Zealand). That was a really important piece of information for me to learn, since I'll be travelling to Canada during my grace period, so I'll need to apply for that waiver sometime.

Class starts tomorrow and I can't wait!! I'm also going to audition for an early music ensemble, Ancient Voices. My voice isn't exactly in peak condition at the moment with all the talking I've been doing these past few days, meeting all these new people, but hopefully it goes ok!

Also, I'll go and update my post from yesterday now, since that was a bit sparse.