Pittsburgh Adventures

For my truncated exchange (due to COVID-19) I’ve decided to highlight a few experiences and thoughts to my life in Pittsburgh.

As a city itself, Pittsburgh was far more built up and beautiful than I’d have ever thought. Taking a cab into the city (after a horrendous series of flights into the US – mostly my layover at JFK airport), would ensure that one would enter a long tunnel. The first view on the other end of said tunnel would be the magnificent sight that is Pittsburgh. My jaw dropped when I first saw the view. Huge skyscrapers, colorful suspension bridges and the river that encircles the city just added up to a beautiful sight.

Pittsburgh is home to a number of colleges and for my exchange programme, I was at the University of Pittsburgh. The school itself is pretty great with the campus buildings spread out across the vicinity. The Cathedral of Learning, otherwise known as Cathy, is the massive centerpiece of the campus. It served as a huge venue for classes and activities on campus. Studying in it, genuinely felt like studying in Hogwarts.

My classes were great with professors not only being exceptionally experienced in their fields but had such kindness when dealing with students. They were all very accommodating, especially when pressed for help on content that I was struggling with (The nuclear engineering module was pretty tough). Dr David Griesheimer (Nuclear Enginneering) and Dr Kacey G. Marra (Tissue Engineering) stand as two of my favourite professors to have been lectured by. Classes were tough but the lack of a strict bell curve (used in NUS) made it far more manageable to handle stress (albeit the grade free nature of my course). Furthermore, it made my grades far more about my capabilities than a comparison to the available student body that I was taking the class with. It is very evident to me which system I preferred.

The social aspect of my time here was so incredible it’s hard to pick where to begin. I’ll start with my accommodation. Due to a series of events I ended up subletting a room from a guy I didn’t know, on the Facebook group designed for such purposes (most US Schools have a Facebook group that help connect students in search of sublets or rental opportunities). I lucked into an unbelievable set-up. I got a huge house full of amenities and three incredible housemates. These guys introduced me to all of their mates as well as our neighbors (who were their close friends too). They made a huge effort to include me wherever they could and it made my stay far better than I could have ever imagined. On top of all that, they were easy-going lads so it fit perfectly with my living style and incidents were few and far between. The incredible set-up was made even better with the fact that our neighbors were just as kind and inclusive as these lads. I spent as much time over at their places as I did mine! Everyone from 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 Courts (and JJ of course) made it so comfortable. Painful to leave, is putting it mildly.

On top of the living situation, there was such a bustling social life present in the school I always found myself busy. There were the other exchangers from around the world and as there were a handful of us, it made it much easier to get to know most of them. Ellen, Leevi, Alice, the list goes on. There was ESA as well, a service group that I joined out of sheer curiosity. I ended up with a big (a system where where newcomers are paired with a senior member as a “Big” and “Little” where I was the little in this case) in Jess as well as close mates in Anna and Addy (amongst everyone else in ESA of course). It was great having people to constantly hang with and we had so many plans in the works for post spring break that were trashed by the COVID pandemic. (Writing this makes me want to book tickets to fly there right now)

There was also the rugby team who took me in (no questions asked) and knew the definition of work hard and play hard. It was death at fitness sessions, love at training and going hard all other times. It was such a shame the season was cut short and our formal and season got cancelled – all the photos I wanted were supposed to be from the two events….

Lastly, Mckenzie and her family were an absolute blessing. Besides showing me the kindness of hosting me with board games & pizza, they helped me get settled in and gave me the very notebooks I used for my time at Pitt! (after I mentioned I came over with no supplies at all)  

While my time at Pittsburgh was cut short by a third due to coronavirus and I lost a HUGE number of events that were planned (it really forms a lump in my chest to think about the events that were lost), the fact that a pandemic ended it made me just lucky to have had the experience and to have met such incredible people.

And frankly, isn’t that what it’s all about.