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Happy New Year!

I have so many New Year's resolutions that I know that keeping up with all of them is going to be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible. One of those resolutions is to write more blogs. Hopefully that one will be kept.

Unfortunately, as I am suffering from a nasty cold, blog entries will have to wait. But I can't wait to write about what's been going on since my last entry! The answer is, not much has been going on. But I have a couple pictures I'll put up later.

Best wishes for 2009!

Pittsburgh is a Winter Wonderland

Pittsburgh has been getting a lot more precipitation this year than last. Although it was incredibly warm up through October, we got our first snow early on, and it has since been snowing quite frequently. I recently invested in new batteries for my camera, so here are some photos from Pittsburgh's Winter Wonderland:

When I walked to my 18-240 final last night, rain steadily turned to snow. When I walked back, the same event occurred. Events like these are what makes scraping the frozen snow from vehicles such as Andrey's difficult.

It's snowing! Just believe it.


One fascinating thing about winter that I enjoy is the appearance of birds' nests in the trees.

Snowy Shadyside, as seen from my apartment.

Christmas trees right outside our window!
St. Paul's Cathedral. Even Pittsburgh has some old-style architecture.
I did not know this at the time I took the photos (I took them because of the bagpipe band playing in the corner and the decorated people standing on the sides), but apparently there was a memorial service for Special Agent Hicks, the FBI agent from Pittsburgh killed in a drug raid last month.

The fleet of Port Authority buses to transport people to the memorial gave the event away as something important (if the bagpipes and decoration rifles didn't give it away already).Streams of people.

Snowy campus. Administration had to tie down their beloved "Walking to the Sky", since it was swaying in the wind too much.

Snow!

Welcome to Finals

Today was the last day of classes.

It's slightly depressing, since this means that finals start on Monday. If today were not the last day of classes, I'd have at least one extra day to study.

Here is what my finals schedule looks like:

12/8 5:30PM Physics II
12/9 8:30 AM Econ
12/10 10:00 AM Concepts of Mathematics (moved from Tuesday night since I had 3 exams in a 25-hour period; thank you university final exam policy!)
12/11 5:30 PM 18-240
12/15 5:30 PM Stats

This schedule makes me with CMU had a reading week between classes and finals, like many other universities, instead of a reading day in the middle of finals.

I'm not so worried about Econ or Stats. I have some topics to brush up on in 18-240, but I've already figured out that the best preparation for that class is a good night's sleep the night before and a flexible mind (and remembering to check your work!).

The exams that I am more concerned about are Physics and Concepts. Physics covers a broad range of applications. Concepts covers a broad range of topics. Plus I've been scoring on the borderline in both classes, so there is more pressure going into the exams.

Ah, study break is over! Time to finish up some hot chocolate and study more math!

'Til December 15th!

DCDI

I find it amusing that the last time I wrote on my blog was the first snow in Pittsburgh. That's only funny since today/yesterday were the only days since during which it has snowed.

Anyway, I went to D.C. a few weekends ago with the ballroom team to compete at the annual DCDI -- D.C. Dance Inferno! We had a great time last year, and with a larger team and more competition (that's what you get for moving up a level) , we were bound to have an even better time this year.

I mean, to start off with, I drove there in a BMW. Do you know a more classy start to a ballroom competition?

Silver level dancers (for comparison with the open level competition later)

Some members of the ballroom team.

Sophie!
Leman and James, who are awesome in Jive.

Jackie , my floormate last year, helped get me involved with ballroom. Now she dances Silver level.The professionals... or at least good enough to be in pre-champ or champ competition.

American
The better the dancers, the better the hair.

Quickstep!
Couple #2 in the nation in standard dancing. They swept everyone else off the floor.

Look at the footwork!Look at the stride!

Look at that fantastic reverse corte!
They're incredible.
I really liked this person's dress, too.
You see a lot of nice dresses at these events.
This one even looked like it was on fire.


Wow. You can never take a picture of them at an awkward moment.

Our attempt at a reverse corte. Not quite as great, but at least we have fun with it!