Fun places in Pittsburgh

They say if you love the Pittsburgh weather, wait for 5 minutes. :)


Excuse the unpredictable weather and Pittsburgh is not all that bad....The city is not as fast paced as New York or sunny as California but it definitely has its own charm. There are a lot of good places to drive to in and around Pittsburgh. Depending on your mood and the weather, you can go to a variety of places: Mt Washingon, Station square cruise, adventure sports (sky diving, white water rafting, skiiing etc), Carnegie museums, Cathedral of Learning are just some of the attractions. You can also catch some great shots if you are here in the Fall season.


In the following part of this post, I have added my review on some of the places in and around Pittsburgh where one can go and enjoy a day of fun and frolic.

Mt Washington: Situated just 6 minutes from downtown, it is one of the best spots overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline and the confluence of the Alleghany and Monoghella river. This spot was rated the second most beautiful vista in America by USA Weekend (and the best urban vista). Its fun to go by train to Station Square and go uphill by the the Monogahela and then enjoy the view and come downhill by the Duquense inclines, the oldest continuous inclines in the world. Its an amazing place to watch the sunrise or sunset from or just go with friends during New Year to watch the fireworks. 

Point State Park - Amongst the numerous crazy things we did, Malay & I spend a winter dawn sitting on the ledge of this park waiting for sunrise. I will not recommend this to you. But I will definitely recommend visiting the park in good weather to enjoy the sunrise with the view of confluence of Allegheny and Monongahela river. This park also has a fountain at the head of the Ohio river, which shoots water upto 150 feet. Today the park provides recreational space for workers, visitors, and residents in downtown Pittsburgh and also acts as the site for major cultural events in the city, including the Venture Outdoors Festival, Three Rivers Arts Festival and Three Rivers Regatta

Schenley Park - Want a walk through the tranquil forest, Schenley park could be the place of your choice. We used to frequent this place on late nights for a stroll. If you walk down to the place below the bridge on a sunny morning, its a beautiful site with butterflies fluttering and ducks swimming in the lake. You can feel the strength of the wind and enjoy the site of the stars if you stand on the bridge on a clear night. The lake is frozen in the winter and it offers skating also. If you want to go for a picnic or enjoy a nice drive, this park offers it all.

SV temple: My first visit to the 'Tirupati of the West' was in Fall'07. After that I have been to the abode of God Vishnu once or twice every semester. The temple is not as big as Tirupati and definitely not as crowded but it is one of the most serene places. The temple is situated on a hill top near Rodi Road and mind it you will never find it with the GPS unless you enter the address: 1535 McCully Rd., Monroeville, PA 15146


The temple opens at 9 AM and closes at 8.30 PM. There are bharat natyam classes and music school at the temple. One of the attractions at the temple is their awesome south Indian cuisine. The temple sells $2 dishes : upama, sambhar rice, curd rice and pulliogre (tamarind rice). On celebration days pulao, eggless cakes and other special dishes are also served. Most Indian/Hindu visitors to Pitt do not miss the SV Temple. So if you have about 3 to 4 hours, do make a trip to the temple.


Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium - Most people skip this one not knowing what they are missing. Its one of the fun places to visit (especially if you love animal photography or have kids). It costs $8 only but its definitely worth the price. Apart from the well fed His and Her Highness of the jungle, the yellow n black stripped soul, the horned rhinos, the long legged ostriches, and giraffes, elephants you will find the milky white playful polar bears which are one of the main attractions in this zoo. The PPG Aquarium is also just awesome. Colorful fishes, hammerhead sharks, jelly fishes, penguins and putins are only some of the residents of the aquarium. It houses a lot of exotic flora and fauna. There is also a glass pool where you can pat sting ray and baby sharks. The Zoo and aquarium would almost take 4 to 5 hours. It opens at 9 AM and closes at 4 AM,


Sever Springs - Situated about 1.5 hrs drive from CMU campus, this is also an amazing place to go to in the winter and the spring. The best time to visit would be early spring when the snow has not melted from the slopes and it is also not bitterly cold. There are seven slopes and pretty much from beginners to professional skiers will have fun here. They also have lessons for beginners. Whats amazing to watch at seven springs are some of the 5 to 6 yrs olds who can ski better than most of us. Its a treat to watch some of the professionals skiing gracefully down the steep slopes. Skiiing is a must if you are coming to Pittsburgh in the winter and now you know where you would need to go for that. :)
Kennywood - We had a lot of fun at this amusement park. 1st sem @ CMU, Fall 07, a bunch of the INI gang left for Kennywood. We took a convenient bus ride from school. You can easily spend a whole day at the park. There are fun rides including an old bumpy wooden roller coaster. Thunderbolt and phantom's revenge were awesome rides. If you love the splash, do go for the Pittsburgh plunge.

Lake Erie and Presque Isle State Park - Malay and I planned a picnic to lake Erie in our last spring semester at CMU. It was about 4 hour drive from Pittsburgh. Erie is one of the great lakes. Its vastness gives an effect of a pseudo-sea where you cannot see the shores on the other side. When we arrived at the venue it was quite cloudy but beautiful. Given the weather there were very few people and it was quiet and serene. Right after we munched our sandwiches we thought of wading in the water and oops....it was REALLY cold. We walked for a while, enjoying the breeze and before we could soak the beauty of the ambiance we literally got soaked in the rain :)

Falling Waters - This place was strongly recommended by a  friend and I am thankful to him for convincing me to visit it. Falling Waters is organically designed house on top of an active waterfall. Without disrupting the harmony of its surrounding, this weekend home of the  Kaufmanns, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is considered an architectural masterpiece. The house has small bedrooms forcing people to walk into the balcony to enjoy nature. Going uphill the house are the guest quarters. The guest quarters feature a spring-fed swimming pool which overflows to the river below.

Hershey's Chocolate Factory - On a spring weekend, I had managed to convince Malay and 2 of our common friends to drive down to Hershey's chocolate factory, luring them with descriptions of how we would see chocolate being made in an actual factory. It was quite a let down when we visited the place. This factory was definitely one of the best places for kids but I am not sure how the 3 grown up kids felt about sitting on the chocolate train and tasting 'kisses'. I would recommend it for families with kids as they would enjoy the colorful setting and the fun miniature chocolate making machine. But for others, I guess a happy hour at CMU might be a better option :)


Pittsburgh cruise ride -

Mayakoba, Riviera Maya

One of the best perk which an employee can get is a holiday to Cancun with your loved one to celebrate Valentine's Day! While at HRT, I was part of the lucky lot. Being in the transition phase of F1 to H1B, I was quite skeptical if I would be able to make it  but alas Malay and I were booked for the trip. Tons of thanks to Julia!

Malay and I were to meet at the Cancun airport. Malay was flying all the way from India. I flew from New York to Cancun with a stop over at Charlotte. When there are hurdles you can never rest till you have reached the final destination of travel.  As I arrived at Charlotte, we got to know all flights ( to Cancun and Hawaii) were overbooked. Some flights from New York arrived pretty late due to the stormy weather. As extra flights have been scheduled to accommodate passengers, the airlines was in short of pilots! I was quite scared to know that passengers were stuck in Charlotte for 2 days! The crowd was getting so impatient that volunteers started coming up for flying the plane! The airport was a complete chaotic scene. After a long wait of 6 hours, the good news was finally announced that a plane has been scheduled. Hurray! Oh wait! The bad news was of the 200 waiting passengers about 120 would be allowed on the flight. They declared people with seat numbers below 23 cannot board the flight. My seat number was 23F! When luck favors you nothing, you breeze through all problems without doing much. I was really lucky to be on the flight and even though I felt sad for the ones who would have to wait for an indefinite period at the airport, I was could not help grinning broadly. What could be a better than being able to spend 14th of Feb with him on the sunny white beaches of Cancun!

I captured this breathtaking shot from the flight. Finally I landed at the Cancun airport. Malay had arrived from Mexico City and was already waiting for me. Clearing immigration we started towards the Riviera Maya, our last and final stop. Mayakoba, the Fairmont resort is tucked under a forest canopy. It was dark by the time we arrived. Escaping the New York snow and cold weather, this place was heaven. After a quick check-in we were transported to our casita (villa) in a golf cart. 

The design and decor of the casita was in complete harmony with the mangrove forest around.  They never fell short of ways to perfectly pamper us. The luxurious bathroom had a soaker tub and a garden next to it. Malay and I decided to have a quite dinner at La Brisas Restaurant. There was sensual harmony about the place. Hearing the waves of  the wonderful  Carribean Sea we enjoyed our wonderful dinner. We went to  bed looking forward to the next 3 day of fun and frolic. 

After an good breakfast next day, we went for a walk around the resort. On the way we met several friends from HRT.  Mayakoba had a network of crystal clear waterways. It offered the feel of 5 different ecosystems - mangrove, tropical forest, lagoon, water canals and coastal dunes. As we reached the beach we were stupified by the breathtaking blue lagoon infront of us meeting the blue sky in the distant horizon. Julia had booked a super fun suite with an infinity pool for all of us. We lazed on the hammock and gazed at the sea. 

After a while we decided to take a walk on the beach. As we strolled, it felt like we are time warped. I was walking on the soft white sand, dipping my feet in the warm and crystal clear water, letting the wind in my hair, in the arms of the guy I am going to spend the rest of my life with.... Every moment felt like I was living a dream. 

Later that afternoon we went for a horse ride on a more secluded side of the coast. Malay's horse was galloping in parts and mine was quite excited about trotting on the water, playful and joyous.  

GRE Verbal Section

GRE , as most people say, has a repetitive pattern of questions. So adapting a smart preparation technique always helps. A fear most people have is you have to mug words. akes.

Now coming to vocabulary. The common methods are flash cards. It definitely helps if you prepare the flash cards yourself. However, it is a bit time consuming. But before you target 3000 words or so, it is always advisable to learn the 200 GRE most common words. You would definitely get a few words from this list and they are repeatitive in the exams. So do this first. Alongside start analyzing the prefix, root and post fix words.

Now coming to the flash cards....Sometimes flash cards do not work out for candidates pursuing a full time job. I prepared for GRE while I was working till 1 AM at office everyday. So fI do know how difficult it is. But if you keep the bigger picture in mind, that 3 or 4 months of hard work can change your life, it would definitely keep you focussed. To make it a little easy for you if you are really not able to take 4 to 5 hours a day for GRE, get the flash card packs from book stores. But do make it your life. During your commute, keep reading it. Start with some pattern which is comfortable for you. Try to group similar words in your flashcards. I went the long way and followed the complete barrons word list. I had started with A, then did Z, then went to B ,Y.,C, X etc. However you can choose any technique. Read it on your breakfast, lunch or dinner table. Before going to bed, revise what you have read that morning.

If you are the types who likes to stick to the computer, use guru's software. You can download the first beta from http://grewordlist.groupfetch.com/gre21b.zip

Install this software and you can keep playing with it everyday for an hour or two. Try to beat your own score each time. This tool has most of the Barron's words (all 50 wordlists). So it helps to review yourself after you have read some flash cards. Later on when you are quite comfortable with some of the word lists, randomize the words and score yourself. However this tool only lets you choose the meaning or synonyms. GRE does not test you on synonyms but knowing the meaning always helps in identifying antonyms and is helpful for the other sections as well.

For antonyms I used to follow the GRE big book and do Barron's excercise as well. GRE Big book is a compilation of numerous GRE questions and is one of the best ones to practise from. You can also download the Big book wordlist from here.

For sentence completion, analogies and comprehensions, I practised from Big book, Barron's Kaplans. You can use any other material. Practise fast reading for comprehensions. You will have less time in GRE and you should be able to identify key words and concepts in a comprehension instead of reading all the lines. If you have a reading habbit, it always helps. If you do not read as much, start reading articles from Reader's Digest, News paper editorials. They not only help you pracitise fast reading and understand different topics but also makes your vocab stronger and gives you points for your AWA section as well sometimes.

GRE Analytical Writing Skills

Before you start with the GRE AWA section read the "Criteria for Scoring the GRE Essays" and read some sample essays and arguments (read chapter 6 to get an idea how the issues and arguments are). Also read issues and arguments with different scores of 6 and 5 and see how the rating criteria has been applied to each one. This will give you an idea before starting as to what standard of writing is expected.

In GRE AWA section, always use pencil and paper to jot down some points on the topic you want to attempt. Do not always choose the first topic in the issue section you see but take time to evaluate on which ones you could actually get more points and examples to support your points. Make five or six high level points on that topic. When you start writing maintain a flow. Its very important to make the reader be interested in your style.

Make it lucid. Its not always important to use bombastic words in your issue or argument. Use words which implies the meaning correctly and make your arguments cogent by supporting them with examples. If you can its better to use examples pertaining to the United States or North America. Refrain from only taking examples w.r.t India. You can read more on other cultures and countries to use them in your essays. its always good to cite statistics if you know the source and the figures correctly. Reading New York Times, Economic Times, Wall Street journals and journals and case studies from different B Schools helps. When you have free time read them online. it helps you get adapted to the online reading as in GRE you will read and write everything on the computer unless you want to take a paper based test. (In India mostly everyone takes an online test. )

For the argument section, always refute the notion suggested. Most of the arguments would have major logical mistakes like data give would be insufficient or illogical to reach the conclusion the argument suggests or the comparison cited might not have complete relevance. Like the argument might suggest "Company X made profit A% but did not have policy Z whereas company Y made profit B% but had this policy Z". So policy Z might be necessary for company X to make profit. Most of the arguments might be in this line. Here you may say, well company X and company Y might have several other policies which might have triggered the profit. Its not right to judge, only policy Z has caused a profit without evaluating all the policies and conditions of company X and Y. Also the profit % is dependent on the total revenue of company X and Y and their local markets. It might be Company X did not make enough profit because it spend money in expanding its market in some other country or anything like that. Usually you can follow these leads to refute any given argument.

This section tests your logical thinking ability. How you deal with data and how you respond to suggestions. So to prove your analytical skills in this section, as soon as you read an argument, make note where all it uses statistics and data references. What conditions are provided for the different comparisons in the argument and if they are valid. Do not repeat points. Make 5 to 6 short paragraphs. Start with a very brief introduction explaining what the argument states. Thereafter start pointing out the flaws in the argument. Each paragraph should convey a different point supported by examples. You can use facts or hypothetical examples as well. (like I stated a hypothetical example above). End with a cogent conclusion summarizing why you think the arguments are not strong enough to make the suggested conclusion.

GRE Quantitative Section

Yes, GRE does demand a strong vocabulary but that is not always the only criteria to get you a good score. For technical students, aiming a 800/800 in quant firstly gives u a raise. Its easy, its your strong point so do not neglect it and use it to your benefit in this exam. Practise a lot. Even though it is elementary maths, practising the tricks (vedic maths concepts and agility) gets you ahead in the competition. You’ll have 45 minutes to get through 28 questions in the maths section. Each GRE math question comes in one of three basic varieties: Problem Solving (PS), Quantitative Comparisons (QC), or Data Interpretation (DI). Practising elementary arithmetic (fractions, distance, relative speed, rate problems ), elementary alzebra and area, volume, basic properties of geometric figures will give you a good stand.

If you have joined Kaplan, IMS or some other class room coaching, you would know the techniques to use and what topics to concentrate on. Others who have no guidance, can use Kaplan. It has a fair amount of practise problems which is very similar to the actual GRE pattern. The book also guides you on the tricks to be used. The books guide you on all the topics to be covered. General Math Strategies involve using shortcuts, approximations (GRE is never calculation intensive), avoiding common traps (the most obvious answer is not always the right one, think twice), elimination techniques, using scratch paper and avoiding careless mistakes at all cost.

GRE preparations

Having gone through the GRE preparation process I felt it might be a good idea to share my experience.

Firstly I want to ask students DO NOT have the myth studying in US is impossible due to funds. Funds are definitely something you should think of but there are several other factors on which you should work out.

Before appearing for GRE, think about whether you want to pursue a masters degree or go for a PhD. PhD might be a good idea if you want to research and funding might be an issue for you. However do not plan to enroll in a PhD program because it takes a long time and if you have doubt that you might not like your work and just doing it for some degree, spending so much time and effort is not worth it.

If you want to pursue a masters or doctorate degree in US, GRE is a must.

GRE or Graduate Record Examination is an examination which you can appear anytime during the year. GRE is of two types. General Test and Subject Test. Most schools in USA, look at your general GRE scores and do not want a subject score. However some departments or schools need the subject scores so depending on your subject area of specialization, find out if the schools you might want to aim, need a subject based score.

The GRE General Test measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking and analytical writing skills. Verbal and Quant sections are 800 marks each and Analytical Writing section is measured in a scale of 1 to 6.

To start with your GRE prep, buy Barron's. You will definitely need this book for the verbal section. You can also download the wordlist from the following site
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13263450/Barrons-GRE-word-list
Princeton, Kaplan are also good books to have for reference.

If you are in a technical stream, maths might not be too much of a problem for you as they mostly ask elementary algebra, arithmetic and geometry. For students who come from non technical stream, it might be a good idea to enroll in a class room course as they will teach you the tricks for solving the GRE kind of problems.

Class room coaching from Kaplan, IMS (in India) are good. There might be other institutes in your country or state.

Another site which will help you pre and post GRE is edulix.com . So register to this site. A lot of information about preparation, various universities, funding, scholarships, etc can be found here. Usually current students and alumni contribute to this site immensely and the information from this site is updated. Also you can ask several students about the doubts you have.