I more or less decided that when I walked off campus. It isn't my dream school. It's got some serious problems. That said, I can live there, I can work there, and most importantly I think I can have fun there.
Just thought I'd get that out of the way. Now, onto the parts you actually want to (or maybe not) hear about.
We left promptly at 2:30 pm (Read: 4:30). I was pretty tired, so I went to sleep. End car ride description.
Well, not quite. I woke up just as we were entering Pittsburgh. For those who don't know, my dad is a graduate of Pittsburgh University and is convinced he knows the city better than Google. To prove it, he dismissed the Google Maps directions and proceeded to drive through "a better way." Of course, we ended up in the middle of the city and my dad hadn't the foggiest idea where we are. Eventually thanks to his expert navigating (blind luck) we found the hotel. He asked us to thank him for the excellent tour of Pittsburgh. I was slightly less than amused. Thanks to my dad's heroics we were able to arrive around 9:30ish. I was starving, but we couldn't find a nearby place to eat. My dinner consisted of sprite and chex mix. And tons of those Lindor Truffle things, damn they're really tasty >_>
We wake up the next morning, and I start taking a shower. There's this really, really minty smell hanging around the bathroom ... I'm wondering what the hell it is. I found my answer pretty quickly.
If you can't read that, both the soap and the shampoo are mint.
Now I pay about as much attention to my soap and shampoo as the next guy, but I'm fairly sure I have never used mint soap, much less mint shampoo. I could not get used to my hair smelling minty fresh like, the entire morning.
On the way out, I took a picture while running across the road of this giant tower. University of Pittsburgh students call it the Cathedral of Learning. Apparently CMU students call it the Tower of Ignorance. Seeing as I'm not going to Pitt, I will get in the habit.
Note the lovely blue skies often seen in Pittsburgh.
Anyway, we find our way to the admissions office without a hitch. Yes, a small miracle concerning my dad's "knowledge" of Pittsburgh. I mean, seriously. We walk up to this block, and he's like, "OH NO!!!!" We're like, "uh what." He's like "They demolished the giant church here! St. Paul's!!!"
Turns out the church was on the next block.
But anyway, we went around to information sessions, all of which were entirely useless. We (my dad and I) sat in on this class called "Mathematical Foundations of Electrical Engineering." Sadly, we were late to the class, but this didn't bother my dad. He more or less barged in and then attempted to sit in the back. The professor (or more likely, grad student) was like, "Um, are you looking for something?" My dad apparently didn't feel like speaking. Instead, he waved around some paperwork. None of it could be read from the front of the room. The expression on the professor's face is pretty priceless. He was probably wondering what this random old guy was doing in his class. Eventually the students figured out and told him >_>
After that rather awkward experience, we went off to meet a random physics professor. He was uh, quite a character. He told me that for every school I got into, I should put my feet up on a desk, clasp my hands, and say "Damn, I'm good."
This was like, a 70 year old man. Couldn't quite get over that.
Unbeknownst to me, my parents had signed me up to stay overnight with a student. When they dropped me off at admissions and started leaving, I was like, wtf ....? They apparently meant to tell me on the car ride, but forgot because I was sleeping. I'm sitting there like, oh. My bad.
So my host has two kids - me and this random other guy. Let's describe the host first.
This kid's name is Yannis Chebani. I might've spelled that wrong or something. When I first saw my assignment I wondered if they were getting revenge on me for having a gender-neutral name or something. Or well, not gende- neutral, but gender-indistinguishable >_> This kid is a Chem Engineering major from NJ. Nice guy. Yeah, he wasn't particularly interesting. However...
My fellow bagger (what they call people sleeping over) was named Brendan White. As much as I hate to say it, white is the perfect description of this kid. Actually he said it himself, so I feel slightly less bad >_> He's from the middle of nowhere in Ohio. When asked what he does for fun, he told me that there's not much to do out there. His main activities consist of stealing road signs, shooting road signs, or going to tractor pulls. I'm sitting there thinking, "holy crap. It's a real, live hick!"
He's a nice guy though. I found out, because apparently CMU students have like, homework. Yannis was like, yeah. I gotta do work for like ... 3 hours. You guys can go do whatever. So Brendan and I go chill in the lounge, play the worst game of pool I've ever seen (I knocked in more of his balls than I did my own), and talked about life and whatnot. It was actually a pretty interesting experience. This kid who has the strangest background I have ever seen could actually identify with some aspects of my life and concerns. One of the better conversations I've had in a while.
Before we did that, Yannis took us to this rather interesting class. It's called "The Good Life." It's taught by this rich south african guy who describes his class as "how the other 0.01% parties." That class's theme was all about the most exclusive bars in the US. Apparently, these bars have no lines, doormen, or even websites. You get in by texting the doormen, and his number is apparently not easy to get a hold of. Yeah. It was actually quite hilarious. One of these bars is actually called "The Pink Elephant." Heh.
So after that we more or less sat around in the dorm, played pingpong (don't worry, I destroyed everyone), and watched the final four. What a lame game >_> When I was about to go to sleep, these guys show up in Yannis's room telling absolutely crazy and hilarious stories about when they were in high school. They were uh, less than appropriate. I'll save them for more appropriate times >_> Anyway, this kept me up an extra 2 hours, so I ended up sleeping at 3 ><
My mom decided to call me up at 9, telling me that I had a meeting at 10. I was like ... uh. Now I have to sneak out of my host's room. Great. Fortunately he was like, half awake, and so was my fellow bagger, so I got to say goodbye. Sucks that I didn't get to do a better job, but Brendan, through his sleepiness, made reference to our conversation over pool the previous night. I really, really appreciated it. I said it before, and I'll say it again. He's a great guy.
As soon as I stepped outside, I noticed something was amiss. Using my incredible powers of observation, I figured it out almost immediately. Let me direct your attention to this lovely photo that I took as I was leaving my house.
Virginia is so beautiful
Oh well >_>
After lunch, we went to meet our final professor of the trip. A math professor, as it turns out. As soon as I walked into his office, I was like, holy crap. Dr. Osborne?!?!?!
No, it wasn't Dr. Osborne, but it was pretty close. This guy was short, but apparently he's also a body builder, so he's just plain ripped. It's ridiculous. I think I was staring at his arms rather than his face the entire time. He also is absurdly loud. If I wasn't used to sitting in Dr. Osborne's class, I might've needed earplugs. Finally, as if it wasn't proof enough that this guy is Osborne's long-lost cousin or brother, he had 2 2-liter coke bottles on his desk, one of which he constantly took sips from. Creepy? Slightly. Hilarious? Absolutely.
Just as I thought we were about to leave that terrible city, my cousins called us up and asked us to meet. I don't think anyone knows much about these cousins, but the last time I saw them was a few years ago. Let me tell you, the younger one is probably the most annoying child to ever grace the face of the earth. I avoid him like the plague. The last time he came to visit Virginia I was on my orchestra trip to Chicago. My mom called me up and told me that he was here. I was so ecstatic at having missed him that I shouted "YES!!!" really loudly. Apparently I was on speakerphone.
Anyway, he's changed a lot since then, and is actually much improved. His sister, however, finds him as annoying as ever. When my dad asked her what classes she was taking and she gave him some random hum classes, my dad was like, uh what? She said, "Oh they want me to be a well-rounded student." My dad was like, "Oh, well you look pretty well-rounded to me." I'm sitting there trying to hold back laughter, but not my other cousin. He cracked up so hard, gave my dad a high-five, and then ran outside and up and down the block, laughing the entire time.
Yeah, that's actually an improvement.
It was good to see them again, though. I never realized that I missed them that much. Even the younger guy, who in case I forgot to mention is a 9th grader atm. His sister is in college at university of pittsburgh.
The ride home was another snorefest. Literally. I kind of made up for that sleep I missed out on staying up until 3 and waking up at 8:30.
Sigh. If I didn't have to leave people behind, I might not mind going to college. I get the feeling though, that it won't be as drastically different as I thought initially thought. Something that made me laugh was the grafitti. It wasn't quite TJ. There were no random genetics problems or whatever. Instead
was found on a ton of the columns.
Again, not quite TJ. But pretty close, and that's more or less what I'm looking for.
On the way out, I took a picture while running across the road of this giant tower. University of Pittsburgh students call it the Cathedral of Learning. Apparently CMU students call it the Tower of Ignorance. Seeing as I'm not going to Pitt, I will get in the habit.
Note the lovely blue skies often seen in Pittsburgh.
Anyway, we find our way to the admissions office without a hitch. Yes, a small miracle concerning my dad's "knowledge" of Pittsburgh. I mean, seriously. We walk up to this block, and he's like, "OH NO!!!!" We're like, "uh what." He's like "They demolished the giant church here! St. Paul's!!!"
Turns out the church was on the next block.
But anyway, we went around to information sessions, all of which were entirely useless. We (my dad and I) sat in on this class called "Mathematical Foundations of Electrical Engineering." Sadly, we were late to the class, but this didn't bother my dad. He more or less barged in and then attempted to sit in the back. The professor (or more likely, grad student) was like, "Um, are you looking for something?" My dad apparently didn't feel like speaking. Instead, he waved around some paperwork. None of it could be read from the front of the room. The expression on the professor's face is pretty priceless. He was probably wondering what this random old guy was doing in his class. Eventually the students figured out and told him >_>
After that rather awkward experience, we went off to meet a random physics professor. He was uh, quite a character. He told me that for every school I got into, I should put my feet up on a desk, clasp my hands, and say "Damn, I'm good."
This was like, a 70 year old man. Couldn't quite get over that.
Unbeknownst to me, my parents had signed me up to stay overnight with a student. When they dropped me off at admissions and started leaving, I was like, wtf ....? They apparently meant to tell me on the car ride, but forgot because I was sleeping. I'm sitting there like, oh. My bad.
So my host has two kids - me and this random other guy. Let's describe the host first.
This kid's name is Yannis Chebani. I might've spelled that wrong or something. When I first saw my assignment I wondered if they were getting revenge on me for having a gender-neutral name or something. Or well, not gende- neutral, but gender-indistinguishable >_> This kid is a Chem Engineering major from NJ. Nice guy. Yeah, he wasn't particularly interesting. However...
My fellow bagger (what they call people sleeping over) was named Brendan White. As much as I hate to say it, white is the perfect description of this kid. Actually he said it himself, so I feel slightly less bad >_> He's from the middle of nowhere in Ohio. When asked what he does for fun, he told me that there's not much to do out there. His main activities consist of stealing road signs, shooting road signs, or going to tractor pulls. I'm sitting there thinking, "holy crap. It's a real, live hick!"
He's a nice guy though. I found out, because apparently CMU students have like, homework. Yannis was like, yeah. I gotta do work for like ... 3 hours. You guys can go do whatever. So Brendan and I go chill in the lounge, play the worst game of pool I've ever seen (I knocked in more of his balls than I did my own), and talked about life and whatnot. It was actually a pretty interesting experience. This kid who has the strangest background I have ever seen could actually identify with some aspects of my life and concerns. One of the better conversations I've had in a while.
Before we did that, Yannis took us to this rather interesting class. It's called "The Good Life." It's taught by this rich south african guy who describes his class as "how the other 0.01% parties." That class's theme was all about the most exclusive bars in the US. Apparently, these bars have no lines, doormen, or even websites. You get in by texting the doormen, and his number is apparently not easy to get a hold of. Yeah. It was actually quite hilarious. One of these bars is actually called "The Pink Elephant." Heh.
So after that we more or less sat around in the dorm, played pingpong (don't worry, I destroyed everyone), and watched the final four. What a lame game >_> When I was about to go to sleep, these guys show up in Yannis's room telling absolutely crazy and hilarious stories about when they were in high school. They were uh, less than appropriate. I'll save them for more appropriate times >_> Anyway, this kept me up an extra 2 hours, so I ended up sleeping at 3 ><
My mom decided to call me up at 9, telling me that I had a meeting at 10. I was like ... uh. Now I have to sneak out of my host's room. Great. Fortunately he was like, half awake, and so was my fellow bagger, so I got to say goodbye. Sucks that I didn't get to do a better job, but Brendan, through his sleepiness, made reference to our conversation over pool the previous night. I really, really appreciated it. I said it before, and I'll say it again. He's a great guy.
As soon as I stepped outside, I noticed something was amiss. Using my incredible powers of observation, I figured it out almost immediately. Let me direct your attention to this lovely photo that I took as I was leaving my house.
Virginia is so beautifulThis is the scene I woke up to
Sadly, the same cannot be said for Pittsburgh
Sadly, the same cannot be said for Pittsburgh
After lunch, we went to meet our final professor of the trip. A math professor, as it turns out. As soon as I walked into his office, I was like, holy crap. Dr. Osborne?!?!?!
No, it wasn't Dr. Osborne, but it was pretty close. This guy was short, but apparently he's also a body builder, so he's just plain ripped. It's ridiculous. I think I was staring at his arms rather than his face the entire time. He also is absurdly loud. If I wasn't used to sitting in Dr. Osborne's class, I might've needed earplugs. Finally, as if it wasn't proof enough that this guy is Osborne's long-lost cousin or brother, he had 2 2-liter coke bottles on his desk, one of which he constantly took sips from. Creepy? Slightly. Hilarious? Absolutely.
Just as I thought we were about to leave that terrible city, my cousins called us up and asked us to meet. I don't think anyone knows much about these cousins, but the last time I saw them was a few years ago. Let me tell you, the younger one is probably the most annoying child to ever grace the face of the earth. I avoid him like the plague. The last time he came to visit Virginia I was on my orchestra trip to Chicago. My mom called me up and told me that he was here. I was so ecstatic at having missed him that I shouted "YES!!!" really loudly. Apparently I was on speakerphone.
Anyway, he's changed a lot since then, and is actually much improved. His sister, however, finds him as annoying as ever. When my dad asked her what classes she was taking and she gave him some random hum classes, my dad was like, uh what? She said, "Oh they want me to be a well-rounded student." My dad was like, "Oh, well you look pretty well-rounded to me." I'm sitting there trying to hold back laughter, but not my other cousin. He cracked up so hard, gave my dad a high-five, and then ran outside and up and down the block, laughing the entire time.
Yeah, that's actually an improvement.
It was good to see them again, though. I never realized that I missed them that much. Even the younger guy, who in case I forgot to mention is a 9th grader atm. His sister is in college at university of pittsburgh.
The ride home was another snorefest. Literally. I kind of made up for that sleep I missed out on staying up until 3 and waking up at 8:30.
Sigh. If I didn't have to leave people behind, I might not mind going to college. I get the feeling though, that it won't be as drastically different as I thought initially thought. Something that made me laugh was the grafitti. It wasn't quite TJ. There were no random genetics problems or whatever. Instead
was found on a ton of the columns.Again, not quite TJ. But pretty close, and that's more or less what I'm looking for.
funny post
ReplyDeleteWas this guy whiter than Brendan Greenley?
heh heh heh.
ReplyDeletei will love you forever for figuring out classes between college.
and who doesn't love smelling minty? kekeke
also, WHY IS CHRIS BEATING ME ON ALL OF THESE COMMENTS.
ReplyDeletebetter question: WHY AT THE SAME APPROXIMATE TIMES.
Lol, what hotel did you stay at?
ReplyDeleteYour dad is so nice to your cousin...>_>
Seems pretty cool though
your dads awesome minus the brown part ... i mean going to brown!! >.<
ReplyDeleteull def enjoy college. it would be a travesty not to/
as friends we all want everyone to enjoy life, make the most of it so hold nothing back
Hahahahaha. This was high quality. Your dad is the most pro person ever. LOL. Oh man.
ReplyDeleteLOL at Dr. Osborne showing up at CMU, you should definitely tell him when you get back to school.
You should mosdef tell those stories from 2am in the morning.
And I am a huge fan of the last picture, for sure.
OH MAN you just made me so excited for college preview weekends, you have NO idea. :D
lol i love the two names for that tower.
ReplyDelete