Tuesday, September 25, 2012

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!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Adventures in Cooking part 1: Pad Thai

Hello friends!  I am starting a blog about my life adventures, and I must say, I am feeling a little adventure-less at the moment.  The most exciting things I have done lately (besides the great lectures I have had in class, but I will post about this later) are my cooking adventures.  I recently moved to an apartment in Pittsburgh, and there is no dining hall or mother to feed me.  My favorite dish so far was a delicious pad Thai recipe I found on Pinterest.  Here is the original recipe!  This is how my dinner turned out:


It was great!  The recipe made enough for three different meals--although I probably should have not waited five days to eat it for the last time....my stomach didn't really appreciate that.  My next plan is to make some tomato basil pasta, but that will have to wait until after the Notre Dame-Michigan game tonight!