Cooking at the AXO house

So a few of my friends are here over the summer, and they live in the AXO house. One day, they invited me over for grilled cheese and tomato soup, and because it was delicious and because I throughly enjoyed eating with all of them, we decided to have another "family" meal, except it was my and my friend Harsh's turn to cook. So last Sunday, Harsh and I went shopping for our family dinner, and decided that the night would be called pasta night! And so pasta we cooked. Appetizer was a delicious pasta salad and dinner was my personal favorite, spaghetti with marinara. It was a delicious meal with great company (:

Meals: Done!

The way meals work at Carnegie Mellon is that there are a set number of meals for a two week period. I have 22 meals for 2 weeks, which works out to 11 meals a week. I had yet to finish all 22 meals, but for the first time I FINISHED. It was quite the accomplishment. 

Hammerschlag Hall

This is CMU's "Engineering" building-the equivalent of the Gates Building for CS students. Most of the graduate students have classes here, but I have my Matrices and Linear Transformations class in the 2nd basement of this building. I took this picture because the contrast of the sky with the building was gorgeous :) 

Pausch Bridge (again!)

This time, you can see it changing colors! 

Giant whiteboards!

One of the giant whiteboards that we CS majors work on! This, incidentally, is on the 8th floor of Wean Hall, which is where the office hours for 251 take place. There is very little covering the board right now, but on Wednesday and Thursday nights, the board is covered in Expo marker.

Incidentally, this week, we got a 2 day extension on the 251 homework, meaning it's now due Saturday. Coupled that with the fact that the only other homework I have is studying for my matrices midterm, and this week seems to be a pretty light one so far :) 

Tazza D'Oro

So Tazza D'Oro is a cafe on Gates 3, and they have the best cookies and chocolate croissants, especially when they are freshly baked. So me, who was craving dessert, decided to buy both a chocolate chip cookie and a croissant. And it was delicious. 

And with that

Carnival is over. It was an eventful three days, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was the first time that I was able to completely let loose and not worry about anything that I had due in the next week. And it was the first time that CMU felt like a real college campus (although not sure that I enjoyed all parts of that).  While Sunday is still considered to be a part of Carnival weekend, it is generally reserved for tearing down the booths and finishing all the homework that was assigned over the four days. This next week is going to be hell week, but hey, Carnival was worth it! Expect to see more Carnival pictures come up in the next few days once I upload them from my camera.

El Clasico 2012

I'm a huge soccer fan and I also have a lot of work to finish. So what do I do when my favorite team and their arch-rivals meet? Do both. El Clasico 2012. May the odds ever be in Barcelona's favor.

(EDIT: Just as I was typing this post, Madrid scored. Great.)

I won a giraffe!

So a friend of mine from the Mock Trial team and I went around Midway, and won almost every game there (the only game we didn't win something at was closed). I won an adorable giraffe and a teddy bear, and she won a teddy bear, a duck, and a basketball. I love Carnival <3 The only time CMU feels like a real college. 

Crepe place!

There's a delicious crepe place (conveniently named The Crepe Place) that has at least 25 different varieties of sweet crepes and maybe 15 or so savory crepes. I finally went to this place last week, and again yesterday, with a friend of mine who had never gone. This is a picture of a nutella and berries crepe. Delicious! 

Dinner at Chipotle!

So my friends and I have a weekly tradition. We always eat at Chipotle on Friday after all the homework has been turned in for the week. Unfortunately, since we are allowed to take late days to finish the 251 homework (we have five in total), for the past 3 Fridays, we haven't been able to go since we generally work until midnight and then eat dinner, at which time, Chipotle is closed. BUT YESTERDAY, after the 251 midterm we decided to go out at grab Chipotle. The midterm ended at 9:30 and Chipotle closes at 10. By the time we finally left Gates (where the exam was taken), it was around 9:40. Me being the Chipotle fanatic that I am, decided to walk 0.8 miles instead of waiting for the bus. And so, at 9:40 pm, I half walked/half ran down Forbes Avenue to Chipotle. I made it at 9:50. The others who had waited for the bus? Made it at 9:51. But it was completely worth it, because my Chipotle chicken burrito bowl was delicious, and after a week and a half of no Chipotle, that was all I wanted. 

What CS majors survive on

And they are quite delicious. Better than the small double shot espressos. Chocolate and coffee is delicious. 

Typical Lunch at CMU

Typical lunch at CMU-salad, side (of pudding) and soda. 

MIDWAY :)

This is a picture from my room of the parking lot where Carnival will essentially take place! The wooden structures are what we call Booths-essentially two-story wooden structures that students build by hand. The parking lot was shut down on Friday, and it's amazing to see how much all the organizations have gotten done since then. At the very back of the parking lot is SigEp's booth-rumored to be the best one this year. The theme of all the booths is "As seen on TV", and apparently, SigEp is building the Krusty Krab and Spongebob's house. Can't wait to see it! :)

A friend of mine is studying 251 on Gates 6 Balcony...

And looking pretty baller doing it. That's how we do it as CS kids at CMU. 

More Gates Pictures!

View from Gates 6 balcony! On the left is the Cathedral of Learning, a Pitt building.

Pittsburgh Weather

Yes, an entire post dedicated to the weather in the city of Pittsburgh. Simply put, the weather in Pittsburgh can transform from blizzarding to bright and sunny in the span of 20 minutes. Think I'm kidding? It happened three times in one day. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. The weather in Pittsburgh is unpredictable and bipolar, and you can never plan for it.

However, today, Pittsburgh was kind enough to give me my favorite weather-cold and sunny, with no clouds in the sky. Of course, I'll be spending today on Gates 8, attempting to finish 251 homework.

Pausch Bridge again.

Pausch Bridge at night!

View from Gates 6! Another shot of the Pausch Bridge, this time with the Purnell Center for the Arts in the background. 

View from Gates 8!

So the Gates-Hillman Center for Computer Science-affectionately nicknamed as Gates by CS students-is my home away from the dorm. And in fact, there have been quite a few days where I have spent more time in Gates than in my own dorm room. I love this building! Currently, I'm sitting on the 8th floor of Gates, working on none other than 251. The bridge that you see is the Pausch Bridge, named for Professor Randy Pausch, who unfortunately passed away. Apparently, there is a graduate-level class in which you can actually program the lights on the bridge (which are visible at night) in whatever manner you want to. Rumor has it someone programmed it to be like Mario Kart.

Expect to see more pictures of both the exterior (and interior) of Gates in the future!