Undulations

This week ended with the fact the subletter was honest and told the landlord that his dog was 55 lbs. The limit is 40 lbs, although I know I’ve seen bigger dogs around (bull dogs, for starters).

So I’m probably not moving, unless I can find a subletter by 5:30 today. I kind of doubt it.

Recently, life has been a little difficult for me for a variety of reasons that I don’t care to air in public. I’ve contacted my undergraduate physics department. Due to the nature of the school, I happen to be very close to them. We all were in that department, since it is tiny. It was very family-like, which for someone who isn’t close to her family, was very good.

Even when life gets hard, it’s really an incredible feeling to know that they’re still supporting and trying to help guide me. While I don’t necessarily wish to go back to the undergraduate years, I have to admit that I’m a little nostalgic now for them, especially knowing how sincere everyone is. I’m no longer their responsibility, and yet they still want to help.

It looks like we got it!! I wasn’t really worried, since I have good credit, but you never know. I did find (at least it looks like it) a subletter, so let’s hope that he pulls through and that all goes as planned.

Now just to get through this week.

Part of what’s recommended for prospective physics graduate students is to contact schools and specific faculty. It’s a combination of networking and feeling out whether one is really a good fit. I’m not sure if this is exclusive to physics or schools in the US or both, but I’ve always received this tidbit of advice.

Personally, I do not enjoy it. I find it awkward to contact a stranger and try to make a conversation of sorts with them regarding their research. Even if I’ve read about their research or a paper by them, it is still difficult to start that conversation. Then (perhaps this is just me) it’s hard to tell when you should end those email conversations.

What I’ve noticed, though, is several schools don’t seem open to this networking. I think they may get flooded by it, so they heed it off from the get-go, saying that they admit students generally, not by field or individual. I wonder if the idea of networking is going away. I’m not sure how I feel about it, since I find it rather awkward. However, I do think it’s given me an extra perspective on departments/people and hopefully, they get a good perspective of me beyond my personal statement.

I wish someone had a formula of how to approach these things or how to get into a school.

Today I took another day off. I needed it, considering after the labs from hell starting on Wednesday of the last week, I was also doing a take home midterm in EM, took my general GRE (I did better on it than I originally had), and finishing up homework on which I had an extension. I also think that I’m getting sick, because one of the profs for whom I TA was out all week with the flu.

I can use this week to catch up, since we have no EM due thank goodness. EM, though, I can handle. Programming in Matlab is not my stronger points; I’m not that interested in programming and not that good at it, perhaps as consequence.

And, as a final note, if anyone is in the Chicago area and looking to live in Chicago proper from Nov 1st to Jaunary 31st (or longer), please contact me. I began my search for someone to sublet from me.

I have to hand it to the electronics kids; they were in good spirits this week about lab, even though it looked daunting (It wasn’t time consuming, though). I really respect that they’re so willing to learn something they won’t really use in their lives and that they’re not being jerks about it; sometimes, I have encountered students who have poor attitudes towards learning physics and make teaching them a constant uphill battle. I understand that they’re only fulfilling a general requirement, but I try to make the most out of every situation and try to learn, if only because I’m being graded. I feel that they’re really trying to make the most out of this class, even if they’re met with challenges (their midterm I hear was killer and last week’s lab was no picnic). I’m really overall happy with my students this quarter.

I think that my fiancee and I have found an apartment to move into together! While my current place is fine, he doesn’t like having carpet (I can’t blame him; it is a pain) and wishes that we had a bigger kitchen. The new place is a bit cheaper and beautiful. It’ll be crazy moving towards the end of the month/beginning of Nov (finding a subletter, packing, etc.), but I think I can handle it.

Let’s hope this move happens.

Aida Nour, for those of you unfamiliar, is an Egyptian dancer who was part of Mahmoud Reda’s dance troupe. The significance of that is they were the group that researched Egyptian folk dances and theatricized them. Below is a video of Aida Nour.

Workshops are an interesting experience, because you see parred down versions of everyone. A few of the show’s performers participated in the Sunday workshop. While they are still beautiful, it is strange to see them not in glitter, sequins, and full makeup. There were no divas, which is nice, because some of these women are instructors and highly regarded, yet they are happy to be students. They’re very nice, too, to everyone. Aida Nour was very nice; she had a grandmotherly feel and while she demanded us to do well, she wasn’t mean and welcomed questions.

The workshop was about shaabi and Melaya Leff choreography. Shaabi music is music more by and for the poorer people. It is often, from what I’ve been told, a bit more offensive than other pop music in Egypt. Melaya Leff is simply a dance with woman going to the market in a dress and flirting with this heavy black veil that she uses to wrap and unwrap herself. Below is a Melaya Leff piece.

There was not a lot of technique breakdown (Aida’s style is to simply have everyone follow, no direction; we occasionally got which foot should be where and what move she was doing). I wish there would’ve also been more passing down knowledge, such as cultural reference information and attitude. From what I understand, Melaya Leff is coy, but I’m not sure what attitude a dancer using shaabi should take. None of the moves were new, but they were done slightly differently and the combination were different.

Besides gaining a good workout, what I got out of this workshop is the simplicity of these choreographies. Even if I couldn’t get something right away, nothing was layered a lot, ie. shimmy while traveling and undulating with snake arms. They were also repetitive, but it worked. I know I’m horribly guilty of not repeating enough in my choreographies. The choreographies only used a few moves but were interesting.

Depending on what you wish to gain from the workshop, I may hesitate to recommend it. I don’t think I could perform a Melaya Leff, honestly. However, I did walk away with a new view on some moves and hopefully a stronger body.

Even with all on my plate this weekend, going to the Aida Nour show and the workshop today was so worth it. You know you’re too tired and overworked when you can’t speak properly and combine names oddly; I keep calling Matlab/Mathematica Matlabica, and I’m not doing it to be funny.

Firstly the Aida Nour show. I took my fiancee along, because well, I never let him watch me dance and he is unfamiliar with Middle Eastern dance. I hesitated at first to do that, because I know going to these shows can be boring to some people. I’m really glad that I asked him to go. He enjoyed it thoroughly, even though he didn’t know what to expect.

Aida Nour of Egypt and Karim Nagi of Egypt/Boston were amazing. Aida has a very powerful style and comes off as such a lady. It’s fun to watch. She also comes off very natural. Karim Nagi is a ham in the best way possible. You can tell he enjoys every moment he’s on stage.

As for the other dancers, I thought they were great. Each woman really had a different personality that showed in their dancing. That was really cool to see, since we sat through many similar dances (most everyone had a drum solo and orchestrated song for their set). The personalities varied from sweet to strong to sultry to sassy. You could see they all enjoyed performing, even if they didn’t have the same persona.

Off the top of my head, here were my favorite specific things from the show. Everyone else did wonderful performances, but these were the ones that really stuck with me today.

• The opening cane (raqs al assaya) piece. What was awesome was that the dancers interacted in the dance. I love that, because it gives a purpose to having a group of dancers. Otherwise, you’re watching x number of dancers do the same thing. Having them, like in this piece, play fight with the canes, gave it some extra oomph.
• Chellcy’s drum solo with Karim Nagi. It was a good drum solo as is, but they really played off of each other well. Again, the interaction part was really well-done. Karim didn’t just sit in a corner and drum; he stood and made it about both of them, which made it different.
• Shoshanna’s costume. She wore a very odd combination of clashing patterns and yet it all worked. I can’t explain it, but it was the equivalent of wearing plaid and polka dots with stripes. Kudos to her for pulling it off well; it looked amazing and managed to be distracting. I know dancing isn’t about the costume necessarily, but the costume does add to (or subtract from) the performance.
• Karim Nagi’s stick dance. I had never seen a male version of the stick dance, and it was breathtaking.

My fiancee’s comments were interesting to hear. He liked the show, because most of the dancers looked natural, like they did were improsiving entirely. He liked that they weren’t 100% perfect (there were some subtle veil issues, Karim Nagi missed catching the stick once or twice); I guess it’s nice to see that people are human. I’m not quite sure why he liked that aspect, but I like that at least one member of the general public is more forgiving of imperfection.

The worst part of the show was that very few people attended. That is a shame. I realize the economy is awful right now, but if you can manage, please support you local arts and other community things! The tickets were I think $27/person and well worth it for a 2 hour show.

Tomorrow I’ll review the workshop; I have work that I must get done tonight

Yesterday was the hardest day (I hope, I really hope) that I will have this quarter. I TA Modern physics labs by myself. The spectrometers (who knows what went wrong with them; they should be as painfully simple as plugging in a USB cord and screwing some stuff in) were still being angry. To quote Tim Gunn, I “make it work” the best I can, which was using a functioning station for the rest.

My afternoon lab took 1.75 hours over time. Because they’re nice kids and were actually working (it was a long lab as is, and they were drained from a midterm), I stayed for that, even though I had schoolwork. I’m very lucky the professor for that class recognized I’ve been working on the schoolwork all week and have had a rough schedule. It does pay to keep people informed. Not in a whiny way, but simply telling him what was happening (I went downstairs at one point when I realized lab was going to run over so much to see what I could work out) in my day to day seemed to work. He was also fine with me skipping class; I just didn’t think it would be productive for me, since I was so tired. It was nice to go home, relax with my fiancee who just got from vacation, and sit.

This morning, I played substitute for a non-major general physics lab. Being a substitute is odd at this point in the year. I don’t know the kids, I don’t know how best to approach them (I know some kids really love being left alone in lab), they probably have a comfort level and a feel for what’s expected out of them.

As I wrote someone today, I’m all labbed out. This weekend will still be busy (take home midterm, Aida Nour, General GRE), but I’m just breathing right now, which feels good.