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Pittsburg seems like a pleasant city, although I've not been able to see very much of it... essentially just the downtown area. I got in late Sunday afternoon and, although I did walk around the immediate neighborhood of the hotel, there's not much to see around here on a Sunday afternoon. There is a big domed arena near the hotel, so I suppose that's where the major concerts and the circus and stuff like that appear. Also, Dusquene University is near the Marriott, but I've not wandered over to their campus. Downtown has lots of tall buildings... as with most towns, many of these are bank headquarters. There is a very pleasant brick paved public area surrounded by restaurants in the midst of downtown, next to the cluster of glass buildings belonging (naturally) to PPG. (Note to Australians: PPG corp used to be called Pittsburg Plate Glass before they decided to be known by their initials. Speaking of that... the USX tower is near my hotel... they used be called U. S. Steel.) Monday was chilly and windy. Today was chilly and windy and also rainy. I walked downtown from my hotel on Monday morning. I would guess that it's about a mile, perhaps a mile and a quarter, from the Marriott to the Westinghouse building where I am taking a class. I followed a slightly different route back at the end of the day. This morning I walked through a light drizzle. By the end of the day it was raining a bit more steadily so I opted for the subway. Yes, Pittsburgh has a subway. I had not realized that. When somebody had mentioned it on Monday I thought they had been joking about the Subway sandwich shops. It is not a very big subway system; I think it is underground only in the central city area and then becomes an above ground light rail system. However, there are three genuine underground subway stops and service is free between those stops. I had been trying to get in touch by phone with Emily (who is a college student here in Pittsburgh) because we had an email discussion about getting together while I'm in town. So I finally succeeded today and made plans to meet her and her boyfriend for dinner on Thursday night. I've been reading her online journal for about four years now and I think it will be so cool to finally meet her. I used the hotel's fitness center when I got back to the hotel tonight (I hadn't finished classwork until almost six), about ten minutes on the stairclimber, a little work with free weights and maybe two miles on the treadmill (I had to keep changing treadmills to find one I liked), shower, dinner in the hotel's restaurant. I am exhausted because I've been getting very little sleep. That tooth problem I had complained about a few days ago has been bothering me. Most of the time I don't have any real problem with it and then suddenly it will hurt. If I am asleep when it decides to hurt then I quickly become wide awake. This is not a good thing. |