Life in the Burgh

As many of you may know, I have recently started grad school in Pittsburgh.  Let me tell you--Pittsburgh is a great city!  I've started to explore different areas, and I am enjoying it here.  Above all, this is my favorite aspect of the city so far:

There are a lot, a lot, A LOT of hills.  Many of the buildings on Pitt campus have multiple entrances on different sides of the building, but when you go through a different entrance, you enter on a different FLOOR.  To me, that is pretty neat, and in my mother's words from when she visited the city, "that is just...wrong."  To the normal Pittsburgher this is not a big deal at all, so I always come across as sort of insane when I start up almost every conversation with a new person I meet by saying, "wow, can you believe the hills here?!?"  For example, take a look at the view from about halfway up my epic hill of a street.  

This is a pretty level shot on google maps, and it still doesn't do justice to the hill that extends through a large portion of the Pitt campus.  Just a few blocks over, the incline has been affectionately named 'cardiac hill' by the students, who have to climb it to go to Pitt basketball games.  While I am still getting used to the major change in scenery from the flat Midwest, I actually love the scenery here.  I have heard that fall is beautiful, and I can't wait for the leaves to change!  I can wait, though, and hope to, for the snow and ice to come.  I am pretty sure that my commute to class after a good storm will consist of me walking out my door, falling, and sliding the entire way down the hill before I can manage to stand back up.  I will have to remember to bring back a sled when I go home for Thanksgiving in order to make the trip more comfortable (get it, trip?? hahaha). 

Puns aside, I am getting acclimated to my new environment and I am beginning to feel at home here.  Let's hope that the first round of exams and papers over the next week go well!