Pittsburgh so far seems like Minneapolis/St. Paul in a lot of ways. It has its unique little shops and restaurants in the city and the calm suburb life outside the city. We gravitated toward the quiet suburb living while choosing an apartment. It’s about fifteen miles outside of downtown Pittsburgh, which translates to a twenty-five to thirty minute drive for Gabe to get to CMU, depending on the city traffic that I had almost forgotten about since living in Springfield. One reason we are thankful to finally be in a bigger city again is the public transportation. Gabe is able to get to school for free by shuttle bus. And, of course, we love the sights and new restaurants. There’s something exciting about being in a large cityscape with students milling about and businessmen coming and going. There’s so many places to go, so many things to do. When my dad was here with us during our first week, we went to the Museum of Modern Art and Natural History, and we’re planning more museum trips in the future. This past weekend we went walking in Squirrel Hill, a “hip” neighborhood in downtown Pittsburgh where many CMU grad students live. I have never seen so many coffee shops or foreign cuisine on one street.
And we had to scout out our regular weekend eat-outs: Chinese and Chipotle. Sadly, Chipotle is in downtown Pittsburgh. Still, we have made the trip when our cravings called. We found a stand-by for cashew chicken at a nearby Chinese place. We also discovered Lula’s, a noodle restaurant with all types of Asian cuisine and, most importantly, bubble tea, which I have been without since my last trip to the Tea Garden in Minneapolis.
I have had a small change in my job lately as well—I’ve moved out of the training room into a new cubicle with the rest of the world. When I was told my cube faces a window, I thought I was lucky. But, I have now come to realize that businesses have become experts at creating environments with absolutely no distractions. Having a window consists of a tiny sliver of light above the wall of my cube. I can’t even really tell whether or not it’s raining outside.
My new spot is not without its quirks. On Friday afternoon, I was busily getting my work done before the weekend when something fell from the ceiling onto my arm. I shook the bug—calmly and rationally, of course—onto my desk to inspect it better. This bug was nothing I had ever seen before. It looked kind of like a small moth with a hard exterior. Fortunately, one of my friends is in the cube across from mine, and she came to my aid and whisked the bug off to the garbage. “Don’t squash it,” she said. “It will stink up your whole desk!” So ended my first encounter with my new friend, the stinkbug. Apparently, the stinkbug is the fall bug of Pennsylvania. Now, my little friends buzz around in the fluorescent lights above my head and in the small crack of window above my cube. At least they get a view of outside.
