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!

Snow!

Pittsburgh celebrated its first snow today! At first it was more like rain than snow, but it has since turned into nice, fluffy flakes and can most definitely be classified as snow. It started early today around 1 AM and hasn't really stopped since. It has finally gotten to the point where it's stopped melting when it hits the ground. Soon CMU will be covered in white!

It's hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago we were frolicking around in the high 70s.

Preliminary Schedule

Scheduleman.org finally updated its site to include the Spring 09 schedule. I put my preliminary schedule together this morning, which you can see HERE.

I've been telling myself that I'll take less units next semester, since I want to spend more time concentrating on my courses and other aspects of life. This schedule contains 5 more units than my current Fall 08 schedule, and the classes are notoriously harder. Most likely I'll be dropping a course (15-213 anyone?) by the end of week 2.

Tell me what you think.

Life's a Symphony

Andrey and I joined the math club in its annual outing to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. I was somewhat disappointed when the intermission came early and I realized that I was looking at the wrong schedule. The soloist was good, however, even though I missed hearing Dvorák's New World Symphony.

The weather in Pittsburgh finally got cold. We enjoyed a week of Indian Summer (which I celebrated with a cold) and now the city is plunging head first into winter (I'm celebrating the transition with another cold). I guess I was not gifted with a great immune system.

The schedule of classes has been unofficially released. I promised myself I would take very few units next semester in order to concentrate on my ECE classes and work on my own projects, but as always I find myself gravitating towards more classes. After this semester there are only 5 semesters left! It may seem like a lot, but when you look at the classes you need to take, and when you have to take them, 5 semesters seems to shrink.

This weekend will be busy. There are two exams next week, one of which will be easy (but it's on Monday...), and the other doesn't matter, since if you get a better grade on the final (almost guaranteed) your grade gets replaced. More importantly, Andrey and I need to practice our ballroom dancing. DCDI is next weekend!