Pittsburgh 101

Pittsburgh baby!

Many people would probably lower and shake their heads in a manner of both pity and disapproval, but I like it here.

LOTS of things have happened since my last entry. August came, I flew back from Guatemala to Austin, my dad and Pedro visited Marcos and me in Austin from Chicago, we had a great week going to the Austin touristy places, during which I got to see two of which I had never seen before (The Oasis restaurant & the bat colony commute at dusk) (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/4JuarezInAustin), I aligned my car tires, then Marcos left for Guatemala, then I dropped my dad and Pedro off at the Amtrak station, they went back to Chicago, and then I drove north to pick up Pedro at his apartment in Waco, TX, where we drove off further north all the way to Pittsburgh, PA.

We stopped at several points along the way. We stopped driving the first day in Wichita, KS, where we stayed at an expensive Super 8 motel ($65 or so), watched Gran Torino on my laptop computer and ate popcorn in the room. The second day we arrived at Kansas City, MO (note: not in Kansas), where Google Maps directed us to my cousin Javier and her wife Nichole's house in a nice residential neighborhood, where we stayed to chat, meet their little daughter Eliel, and to eat the lunch that Nichole had very kindly made for us. We missed Javier because he was working at that time, but we talked to him on the phone and apologized for not having made it on time the previous night (I had told him we would arrive the previous night). After saying goodbye to them, we drove off again, further north, until reaching Des Moines, Iowa, where our route turned us towards the east and we drove all the way to Chicago, IL, where we parked near my parents' house and stayed the night.

The next morning I decided to take Pedro to a little tourist walk around downtown Chicago. We left at about 10AM, walked around Grant Park and Milennium Park (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/AUSPITRoadtrip#5372110905024913698), saw the Buckingham Fountain (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/AUSPITRoadtrip#5372110986383107986), met up with Isabel (who was at the time, I think, stapling papers at her office downtown) at a coffee shop called Descartes, talked a bit (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/AUSPITRoadtrip#5372111016973662754), said goodbye, went back to the house, picked up our stuff, said goodbye again, and drove off again, this time encountering a little traffic in the downtown area. We headed east through Indiana and Ohio, and when we reached Pennsylvania, it was only a little after 2300 hours. We arrived at Pittsburgh proper after midnight, and Leila was very nice to wait for us awake at her place until almost 0100 hours (we got lost in downtown). We met her at a street intersection just to say hi and then she went back to her apartment, so then we headed to the CMU campus, where I was hoping to find an empty office to get some shuteye for the rest of the night.

We were surprised to find the GHC building unlocked. I remembered from a certain email that my office was #8015, so after failing to turn on the elevator, we walked up the stairs to the 8th floor and found my office. It was also, very luckily, unlocked, so we went in, found a comfy chair, and spent the rest of the night in Dreamland (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/Pittsburgh101#5372116244246937602).

The next few days were slightly hectic. I had no apartment, no truly comfy and proper place to lay down and sleep, so I had to find one quickly. I could not get one the very first day though, but we were lucky and Filipe very kind, and he let us stay at his apartment the next night.

It was only the next day, however, that I finally procured an apartment that both Pedro and I agreed upon was a good deal (he made most of the appreciating): the basement of a nice house in a quiet, residential area. Designed for 1 person, fully furnished, $750 a month, 4 blocks away from campus, I believe it was a fair deal (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/Pittsburgh101#5372116338593833234). It became a sweet deal, however, when a potential roommate I had contacted through email confirmed his participation on occupying the apartment, and my monthly fees were reduced by 50%. And I thought "yay!".

So things have been going well. Lots of things have happened, I've been to lots of places, filled out a lot of paperwork, and now I stand as follows: I am officially the tenant of my fully-furnished basement apartment in Ellsworth Terrace, I officially have a roommate, we've signed the lease, I have an office in the Gates-Hillman Complex, I have a CMU ID, my car insurance policy was successfully transferred to Pennsylvania, I'm awaiting the delivery of an AT&T data-only plan SIM card which I plan to use with my blackberry 8800 along with SkypeIn and Skype subscriptions to get a VoIP yearly voice plan, I'm awaiting the delivery of a Verizon DSL installation kit at the apartment, I have not yet paid the $968 due for my student health insurance, I have not gotten any textbooks yet, I already emailed one professor to make an appointment with him, there are no Bank of America (the bank I have my accounts in) branches or ATMs in Pittsburgh so I plan to open a new PNC bank account here in Pittsburgh sometime tomorrow, and I plan to obtain a special Giant Eagle (the local grocery store chain here in Pittsburgh) discount card so that my future grocery purchases may be cheaper than they are for non-discounted customers.

Hmmm... That's about it. Terse and uncaring language, I know, but it's just way too much if I wrote it aaaaaaall. But bottom line, I'm almost settled in Pittsburgh now. I'm happy, I'm excited, and I'm anxiously awaiting next week's Immigration Course.