Weekend #5

Dang... I have a lot to cover. I guess I should have posted something last night or Friday!

My Friday was similar to last week; however, there were a few modifications. After pounding my head against my homework for a while (ill get in to that later), I ventured out of the Engineering building in to the great unknown (just think about puxatony phil coming out of his hole). There was a surprising amount of stuff going on around campus. Ranging from a CIT (Carnegie Institute of Technology, I think (which I think I am a part of in engineering)) appreciation BBQ (but all of the free stuff was already plundered), there were buggy trials (I am not even going to go in to this right now), a fraternity was also doing some sort of rush thing... I don't know. But the part that I did involve myself in was checking out the Miller gallery.At the moment they are housing an exhibit on Steelers fans and their oddities. It was interesting... surprisingly small... I was expecting a lot but it was really only one medium sized room, with a lot of open space. In one corner they had a web cam set up with a bar in Europe somewhere that was labeled as a "Steelers Bar," this was a little creepy... Other things included a recreation a a particular fan's basement room/shrine to the team, a large gallery to tattoos, and a large map of Steelers organizations and Bars, two of which were in the TriCities, Kimo's and Jackson's. I have been to both, and neither had an over all Steelers feel.... but hey! TriCities rep in Pittsburgh! All to note was a running video of the "Yinz luv da Stillers" show. I felt more enlightened as to the culture of Pittsburgh after leaving.

After getting my culture on, I headed back to the PITT area (same area as last week) to check out the "authentic" Mexican place that I passed up last week. I should have passed it up again this week. It was rather disappointing. My "supremo burrito" was more the size of a hot pocket, and was rather bland... oh well. It was then that I decided that I am going to need to temporarily depart from my Mexican leanings (in terms of sustenance) and branch out. I am going to need to embrace the local fare. One word: Perogies (Ill talk more about that later).

After dinner I enjoyed another movie put on at school, Friday was Ironman 2. I had seen it before, but it was just as good the second time. I would suggest it to anyone who enjoys super hero movies or general action movies. After this I found myself waiting for a bus, apparently with the CMU theater students. For the entire 25 min duration of my wait they were singing and dancing. It was like a real life musical, but sort of weird. This was my first "late night" bus ride. Turned out ok. Don't worry Mom, Ill survive!

Saturday I had the pleasure of going over to Mitch and Cassidy's house for some studying and dinner. Getting there was a bit of a hassle. Turns out there are two St. Joe's, one was St. Joe's Street, and One was St. Joe's Way. Silly Pittsburgh...

So Machine Learning. We received homework last Monday. It is due not tomorrow but the next Monday (the 27th). I think the best way I have come up with the situation is this: It is like teaching a first grader that 1+1=2, and then expecting them to be able to do Trigonometry Homework. The work that we are being asked to do is significantly more complicated that anything that we have seen in class (... more complicated, math wise, than I have seen in ANY class). It was really good for my confidence to hear that Mitch was having a hard time as well. At the end of our efforts we had about 25% of the homework done. The rest I have not the slightest as to how to even approach it, let alone solve it. Mind you have have spent about 4 hours average over the past week working on this, and I have talked to 2 of the TAs frequently about this. Tomorrow we are going to go talk to the professor and see what she says regarding the ridiculous expectations.

So... dinner was really good! Cassidy made Pizza! They are both really nice, and very... I guess gentle would be the best word. Mitch commented that we might have to make this a more regular thing (that is dinner and HW). Don't worry, I didn't show up empty handed, I brought James-inspired Brownies!

Today (Sunday) was a good day of rest. Larry has been M.I.A. all weekend ( I just found out that he was in West Virginia, I did not know this... and was starting to worry a little), so it has been quiet. I went to church, great sermon on standing up to giants (David and Goliath). Headed to the store for a few things... went to the Market Place (Giant Eagle, of course), yes this is the store with underground parking; which today I found out was 2 layers! Good news, you can all rest, they have Reeds. And not just Reeds Ginger Brew, but the Spiced Apple Brew. I was super excited.

So for dinner I ventured out in to the culinary unknowns of Pittsburgh delicatessen. Pittsburgh, apparently, is known for Perogies. I had never heard of them before coming here. They are a huge deal. Apparently the "real" place to get them is at a church; many churches (particularly Polish churches) sell them as a sort of fund raiser. They are basically polish ravioli. They are fairly large pasta pockets, filled with varying things, most commonly potatoes and cheese, also sauerkraut and cheese but range to bacon and ham to plum puree and other odd mixes. Reports show that Pittsburgh consumes more than 11 times more Perogies than any other notable population. I do not know the right place to get these little guys, not yet, again, Larry was out of town. So I went to the Perogie section of the grocery store (yes, their perogie section was bigger than their Chili, Mexican and tortilla sections combined) and picked out some potato and cheese ones. I am not sure the correct way to eat them, but a good sounding serving suggestion was to saute them with onions and peppers. I added a little cheese to the top as well. The resulting concoction was very different, but certainly good. In the future I am going to have to try to make my own Perogies, which I don't think is going to be that hard; and I need to find a church to buy them from too

But fear not... when I am back on the west coast, I am looking forward to real (albeit, Americanized) Mexican.

Oh! and I almost forgot! I went back to Shadyside for a very nice Young Adult bible study. It was very relaxing, and a good "end of the week." I met some new people and talk to others who I had met before. So far Shadyside is a good fit. I certainly miss Colbert, but this will do for now :)