Pittsburgh

It's going to be an incredibly long update, seeing as I've been in Pennsylvania for the past 5 days...squeezing in tourist and family time and would like to recount all of it.

Unfortunately, had to take a plane to Pittsburgh, but at least this time it was a continuous flight rather than when I went last year and had to switch planes 3 times. I don't enjoy flying at all. I'm in a state of nervousness the entire flight, with takeoffs, landings, and turbulence causing my panic level to rise. Being squashed next to random people who talk your ear off and having nowhere to run is a bit of a downside too, but overall the flight wasn't horrible and we arrived in Pittsburgh at night feeling as good as could be expected from a day of travel. Driving from the airport into the city made me realize how much i hate the desert atmosphere we live in. In Pennsylvania, and all around the east coast area, there's thick, lush trees and everywhere you look is green. Coming back to the Santa Clarita Valley with its burnt trees and dry brush was severly depressing. Pittsburgh is a very old city, famous for its work during the Industrial Revolution, so the city is a little delapidated, but has a very unique feel. Almost all the buildings are dark brick and you can tell theyve been there for many decades.

The next morning, all the relatives wanted to meet at the ungodly hour of 8 am (which is 5 am California time) for breakfast, but the thought of seeing them all again was well worth waking up at that time. The whole family turned up and this was the first time ever that all of my family and all of the PA family has been together at the same time. My grandpa who just turned 75 and is still as articulate and personable as ever, my two pairs of aunts and uncles, and my 4 cousins met up for breakfast. I was a little nervous about seeing them, fearing that they were upset with me for choosing USC over Carnegie Mellon (two of my relatives teach there and my other uncle is the provost). I was worried they felt insulted, but they seemed genuinely interested in how my freshmen year went and didn't make any comments about me choosing USC over Carnegie Mellon.

The thing that excited me most about this visit is being able to spend a few days bonding with my little cousins. My CA family is pretty isolated out here, with my whole family on the east coast, I felt a bit jealous that all the cousins got to live around each other and interact all the time. Here in CA it's just me and my brother which is fine, but I can't help feeling bad that they are growing up without knowing us. #1 reason I regret not choosing Carnegie Mellon: If I had, I wouldve been able to be around them a lot more. Stupid me. Anyways, all 4 cousins are adopted which is pretty awesome, 2 from the US, one from Russia, and one from Romania. Gilly is 15, Ally is 11, Rebecca is 10, and Zachary is 7. I'm going to post some pictures with them in this entry. Anyways, the first day we took the kids minus Gillian to the Science Center and took a tour of a World War II submarine. It was really cramped down there and I'd never be able to make it on a 90 day submarine tour. Then we went to my uncle mark's club for a special birthday dinner for my grandpa. He has a blood clot so he can never travel on an airplane, so whenever we get the chance for a visit, it's really important.

The next day I went to see my cousin Rebecca play soccer. The humidity in Pittsburgh is incredible. It was 72 degress but felt like 90. Rebecca is such a little tomboy, she was running circles around all the other kids. She also plays in a coed baseball team and was trying out for a travel soccer team this week. We met up with the others to see Shrek 2, the animation was amazing and I really enjoyed it. Dinner at my aunt and Uncle's house resulted in games of Life and playing around on skateboards outside. Good thing these were little kids and not expert skateboarders because I definitely fell off a few times and looked silly.

We spent Monday on a boat trip down the river, touring the city's buildings, landscape, and football stadium from the water. We hit a storm where everyone went under the deck to the inside part of the boat to keep dry except for my mom, my brother and I who felt like sticking it out. We got drenched!! Matt started dancing in the rain to the Good Ship Lollipop song, and the captain stuck his head out of a doorway and stared at Matt like he was crazy. Everyone else thought we were crazy too when we showed up soaking wet and asked if we had never seen rain before. On Tuesday we went to check out the Frank Lloyd Wright house "Falling Water" which utilizes natural architecture to create harmony amongst the surrounding area, and is built over a water fall. The rest of the trip was spent at meals with the relatives, and my aunt said that Matt and I were welcome to come back anytime we wanted. We all made plans to meet up in Napa Valley in two years, which Im excited about...especially because we wouldnt need to take a plane to get there.