Pittsburgh Visit

I’m in Pittsburgh right now for CMU’s open house.

There’s… lots of snow. Seriously. Apparently, they’ve had a record-breaking month in terms of snowfall. I’m told it isn’t this bad normally.

Got in late afternoon on Thursday and drove in. Since I had some extra time, I wandered around a bit around the hotel. I’m still not really sure what that building in the photo below is.

Pittsburgh at Night

Pretty full schedule this weekend at CMU. Lots of people to talk to and events to attend. Campus is pretty nice, Computer Science building is apparently fairly new (sponsored by and named for Gates).

CMU in the Winter

Had the chance to walk around Pittsburgh a few times, too. Not much time to actually go visit things. But I saw interesting buildings like the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Hotel was really close to this huge tower called the Cathedral of Learning. Apparently, it’s part of the University of Pittsburgh nearby.

Really wanted to go in there, but didn’t have the time. I heard its filled with classrooms and that the first 2 floors have big rooms with different ethnic furnishings, maintained by the different ethnic communities in Pittsburgh.

Cathedral of Learning

Went to this really interesting restaurant called Church Brew. As the name implies, there is both Church and Beer involved. It’s great, if a little unsettling.

Church Brew

The place was actually a church, by the way. Sharp-eyed readers can see the giant brewing machines where the altar is supposed to be.

An accordion and string bass player wander around, playing music. At times, they’ll lead loud, German toasts (complete with the whole “ziggy zaga” thing).

Went to a few coffee shops and the like too. There’s this interesting place called Te Cafe that specializes in loose leaf tea. If you’ve ever been in Austin, there’s a similar place called The Steeping Room. They even use the same teapots.

Te Cafe

The sand dial thing is a timer with 3 times: Light (3min), Medium (4min), and Strong (5min) tea steeping times.

Overall, had a pretty nice time in Pittsburgh. CMU was very welcoming and receptive. Going to fly back to (relatively) warm Texas tomorrow morning.