Matthew's Arrival & Our Time Together in Pittsburgh

The Day has finally come; the last day of my internship and the day for Matthew to fly in so we can start our two week adventure home!

Matthew's flight came in about a quarter to midnight on the 22nd of July. I picked him up and he got to see the beautiful site of Pittsburgh as we drove back to my aunt and uncle's home in New Kensington.

This morning we woke up and I attempted to finish my packing. Before long we were headed off to explore a bit of the city. First stop...The Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh. I had been told that this was a must see and decided early on that it was something I wanted to wait and do with Matthew. It was a really cool experience. There are several classrooms and each represents a different nation. The different nations represented made the decisions of what their room would look like. The first part of the tour included you walking from room to rom with a cassette tape that gave you information on each room and nation it represented. The second part of the tour also included going from room to room, but there was a switch in each of the rooms that you pushed that had a recording of information. There was something like 22 different rooms with 3-5 more in progress. If you would like to learn more about the rooms or take an online tour go to www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/pages/allnr1.html. On our way into the Cathedral of Learning, Matthew and I were enjoying the outdoors and in an instant, without even thinking I yelled out "Squirrel!" while pointing at a giant squirrel running across the lawn. I have no idea why I had the urge to do such a thing, but immediately after doing so, I realized that many confused faces were looking in my direction. Matthew and I then started to laugh pretty hard about it! Here are some pictures of some of the rooms we enjoyed:

Left: Inside the Cathedral of Learning where the Nationality Rooms are located. Below: Bronze statue in the Yugoslav classroom titled "Post-war Motherhood"; it is a picture of a mother feeding her child.

Matthew is standing in between an Iron Gate in the Romanian Room. The tour guide stated that the Iron Gate is a place of safety where "An Icon" can be displayed.

The picture of me is also in the Romanian Room. The doorway is patterned after a doorway from a 17th century monastery.

Right: Picture of the ceiling in the Chinese room. The coiled dragon is a symbol of nature's energy.

Below Left: Picture of me in the Norwegian Room. Matthew really liked the pretty blue color. Below Right: Picture of me with a globe in the Polish Room. This is a replica of the first globe to show North America as a separate continent.

After finishing the tour of the Nationality Rooms, I took Matthew to this sub shop near where I did my internship so he could try their amazing Sweet Potato fries. These fries are wonderful and one order is big enough for two! After getting some fries to tide us over we drove back to the New Kensington area to run some last minute errands. On the drive over Matthew told me that another passenger on the airplane told him he had to try Pittsburgh's famous sandwich. I had planned on taking him out for sushi, but since I had yet to try one and he really wanted to, we stopped to eat at Primanti Brothers to have their sandwich that had the fries and coleslaw right on it. You can find the history behind the sandwich at http://www.primantibrothers.com/04history.html

After running our errands and filling our stomachs we headed back to Leland and Kristi's home. Matthew took a nap while I finished packing. We had plans to go salsa dancing with Justin, but I wanted to bring Matthew up the incline so he could get a good view of the city and so we could get our Pittsburgh magnet. I also wanted to get a few photos of the view of Pittsburgh at night, which I had yet to do. So off we went!

When we got to the parking lot of the incline there were a lot of people waiting to park. We were behind a car that seemed to be waiting for a spot near the entrance of the parking lot, so we drove past them to look for a spot further in. After parking and jumping out I turned and saw the driver of the aforementioned car giving me a nasty look and mouthing "Thanks a lot" in my direction. I guess she wasn't waiting for a spot...I felt bad, but luckily she also found a spot to park in. The scene from the incline was beautiful! We stayed at the top for about 30 minutes enjoying the view and looking at pictures and reading some history of the city and the incline. We then met up with Justin and Erin at a salsa club downtown and enjoyed a few hours of dancing. On our way back to the car we found some unique structures to photograph, and then we headed back to Leland and Kristi's for some shut eye. And thus were our adventures in the land of Pittsburgh!