Honeymoon Diaries #3 – Pittsburgh

Najib's favourite Italian place in Philli

April 17 (Wednesday)

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was that we found out that the Boston bombings happened while we were hanging around the Apple store in Grand Central in NYC. When we first saw the news on BBC we thought it was a joke and it quickly sent a shiver through our spine as we somehow did not choose to go to Boston for our trip, for if we did we would have stopped by such a large event to ‘ke-po’.

Back to Philadelphia. We were pleasantly surprised that Najib’s place was so close to the historic corners and we spent all morning bring a tourist, learning about the Liberty Bell, some history of Philly becoming a temporary capital and many story about slavery in the early years. I was happy with the new exhibits where they showcase old quarters of Washington’s (and other early President’s) slaves and their stories. Kinda reminds me of how a public figure have to “go with the flow” and enact laws to catch escaping slaves, while willing their own slaves to freedom thereafter. When things are wrong on a massive scale, it might take some time to correct it.

We bid farewell to Najib and daughter/mum and headed back to Fairfax to collect the rest of our luggage and had our first (and hopefully last) buffet on our trip. It wasn’t the best but it was the best Fairfax had to offer. Nothing cheered us up more when we got to see Laven and Clarisse again, and their hospitable parents.

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76 Turnpike

April 18 (Thursday)

We embarked on our ambitious journey north to Hershey town while aiming to reach Pittsburgh before sunset. This was the first part of our journey where we were really alone, sorta like reliving university life kind of travel that we didn’t get to do together since we got together late. Along the way, we witnessed various weather patterns (which is another way of saying that it finally rained in the USA), stared at farm after farm, ranch after ranch, thinking about which one we would like to take over and run for the rest of our lives (seriously, it did come across our minds that maybe it’s better to be a cowboy/cowgirl!)

But the cold weather dampened the spirit a little at Hershey’s Chocolate World. We took the free ride that explained the chocolate making process, and shopped for so much chocolates that it became “burden #1” that would start to build up over the trip. But alas, knowing that we still have long way to go, we postponed all shopping till the very end (LA) and left Hershey with our catch.

Toll for the 76 turnpike was more expensive than I expected, but it did bring us safely to a place I froze my a** off for 3 winters. You know what, Pittsburgh doesn’t disappoint! We got the worst weather of our entire trip so far, with high winds and chilling rain that not only destroyed the mobot competition, postponed some buggy races, and soaked our shoes as we try to apply our Singapore made umbrella to it.

We spent an evening in downtown Pittsburgh, which in hindsight wasn’t a great idea after all as I think the town really spooked Dear out. With even more weird and homeless people than New York past 7pm, and everyone else at the game across the river, I guess I’ve just thrown romantic getaway spooky style into the mix.

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At the cut. CMU of course!

April 19 (Friday)

If you’re from Carnegie Mellon University, you would have sensed it already: yes it was Spring Carnival weekend in CMU! And boy the campus was crowded. Seeing the early morning crowd, we decided to roam around to Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Schenley Park, got lost, and found our way to the Strip District to shop at Lotus Foods and Wholey Foods, literally our lifeline to get stuff for cooking in those years. The Strip District has now a lot more Asian wholesalers, and each has more diverse products now. Prices too moved up on average 30 to 50 percent.

We went back to CMU around noon. Parking along Filmore St, I got to see one of my old place that has somewhat transformed (the rumored hot dog store wasn’t there though, maybe only in summer?) with flags of nationalities who’ve stayed there before hanging in front it (yup both MY and SG flags are there, as it has been a pass me down thing). We walked the carnival area but quickly felt the dampened spirit due to the weather, while booths just didn’t seem as well-done (high fidelity?) as it was last decade.

Dear got a school tour. Most of the school, such as University Center and everything visible from the cut, has no observable changes, except the new Gates-Hillman building, which imposes on new visitors as it kinda sticks out in terms of architecture. The rest of the campus seems to retain its old simple charm, with minor additions like the weirdo walk to heaven thing being the only main difference. We got lost multiple times in the Gates building no thanks to the spiral in the middle. CS seemed to have completely cleared out of Wean hall into their new buildings, allowing the science faculties to expand from Dorothy.

The Robotics Institute put up a really good demonstration of the latest research with high speed soccer-bots, roving tour guides, autonomous hovercrafts, and more, especially the planetary robotics part, with plenty going on with NASA to put more human creations into space. Red Whittaker was visibly older but still bouncing with spirit.

Ironically, the most memorable part was still the Chinese food eatery (still the only one) in Newell-Simon Hall. The store position was the same, the offering was the same, the price was the same, down to the curry powder and the flavor of each dish – exactly the same as it was a decade ago. Moral of the story – when you have a winning business formula, stick with it.

It’s a pity we could stay for the weekend (as the weather did turn for the better judging from pictures we saw thereafter). But Pittsburgh will always hold a special place in my heart. The university has been doing a great job connecting with their alumni (constantly canvassing for donations no less), so whether it was effective marketing or genuine thinking, my fond memories and learnings of school continues to shine a light on the path I walk everyday in life.

And it saddens me when I learn that it isn’t that way for many other students. Some treated it as a pathway to be forgotten, others abhors the entire experience (common among those who attended local universities in Malaysia), and even others tried to breakout of their association. Some say it was the school’s ranking that made my proud, but in my introspection, I found more pride in the spirit of how the school came into being – that a rich magnate would setup a technical school that become a renowned university that comes with the motto: my heart is in the work – and how the school became relevant in the age of the Internet.

But that’s for another post at another time. We spent the evening back at our Days Inn motel watching the live capture of the bombing suspect from the boat, while packing ourselves to head to Canada tomorrow.

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