Three more things about the Pittsburgh trip...

Well, Tony, Jessica, and Carlos have to write the comprehensive exams soon, and they were studying in Pittsburgh and talking about it. I managed to provide some details of my own experience and advice, but it appears that they didn't feel any better from that...I was only telling the truth, of course...like, the exam is hard.

Toll booth funnies: When we first entered the U.S., there were greeted almost immediately by two toll booths, each wanting to collect 75 cents from us. At the first toll booth, none of us in the car had any small change, so I showed the lady a $20 bill. She asked if we have anything smaller, and we said no. She then asked if we have Canadian money, and we said yes, and I flipped through the car to find a looney. When she received it, she said, "oh, I only need a nickel...but anyway, you go." And we were like, hmm...........very strange...I think we got ripped off. So then at the second toll booth (about 10km later), we prepared 4 Canadian quarters. We asked if they would accept Canadian money, and he said yes. So we gave him the four quarters. But he said he only needed 3, so he returned one to me. But I accidentally dropped it, so he just gave me another quarter back, and we left. We then saw him picking up the dropped quarter...

Sunday evening, I was feeling sick, so when the guys decided to go to downtown, I decided to stay in the hotel room. I watched TV. Turns out that they went to Mt. Washington instead, which is the place that I really wanted to go...but it was raining, so I'm not sure if I made the right decision to stay in the room.