the great race

Hey so I would really like to get Stever House residents involved in the Great Race.  It's such an important Pittsburgh tradition, and a lot of fun.  It looks like it's $18 per person if we sign up by september 5th (the race is sunday the 28th) and there is some sort of buy one get one half off deal.  What do you guys think?  Do we have the funds for this?  Here's the website if you want to check it out... http://www.rungreatrace.com/index.html

Pre-College Life

Hey guys!

Wow it seems like everyone is having a great summer!  My summer started out with an amazing month of traveling.  I started in Miami where I visited my grandparents, which is always an adventure.  I then went to Toronto to see my little cousin as Baby John in West Side Story, which was probably the cutest think I've ever seen.  The following weekend I took a road trip to D.C. with a friend.  Lastly was NYC where I went to visit friends from CMU.  I finally got to go to the MOMA and was amazed at the amount of famous artwork in their collection; Picasso, Monet, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, ahhhhh I was in heaven!!!  The other thing I got to do was go to game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals!  Though Pittsburgh lost, it was a really great game and something I will never forget!

I just finished my third week of Pre-College.  I'm really enjoying it but it is much more work than I ever would have thought.  I think it's good though because I feel much more prepared to be an RA.  The students are tons of fun but very exhausting.  This weekend was family weekend and I was in charge of directing the talent show.  It was extremely hectic but it turned out pretty well.  I really enjoy having a small group, we've become very close.  We hang out after curfew and play games and stuff, it's cute.  Tonight I did a program relating to women's physical and emotional health.  It went much better than I ever could have expected and I'm really excited about it!

Can't wait to catch up with everyone in person!

-Katie

ps: Angie is awesome, you guys will love her :)

Hello all,

The summer has been going well; not much of excitement though. Mostly it's been books, soccer, friends, art museums, and family. I'm working... at an architecture firm as always. Besides a roadtrip or two, work has offered the most blog worthy adventures. I helped design a few small projects. Now, I'm redesigning their website. The guys there just moved into a 109 year old building. they purchased and renovated it back in the spring. I helped move in and clean the decades worth of dusty abandonment. The theatre next door is slated for demolition; it's a shame because the rooftop tree cover provides us with a beautiful privacy screen from the oceans of asphalt and horizons of steel and glass. The trees grow because the structure was been empty for half a century. Soon only the delicate and ornate facade will remain. My city, youngstown, is interesting in a peculiar way. There's a rich urban fabric from the steel industries' hayday. I watch helplessly as it is left to decay. More frightening though is the erasure. Officials think they can bring renewal through growth; they raze gem after gem, clamoring for tabula rasa. But the growth never comes. The city is shrinking, left to be emptied. At best drab and mediodre buildings replace the terracota queens once lining our boulevards. Such are the battles we wage from our ancient, dusty office, saving only the occasional historic refugee.

... this is what has occupied my summer (along with fun and relaxation).

matt

Hey there folks.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. It's been HOT here in the burgh! I'm an optimist; I'd like to think this means it will be nice and cool for move in day. Less than three weeks before everyone returns for training...the countdown has begun! I am going to email everyone our roster (it's finally up!) and a short questionnaire to fill out for RA training. Keep your answers a secret. Just send the info back to Tarun and I and we'll add it to RA training. Also, most of you sent you preferences back re: your room set-up and if changes need to be made to our emergency cards, but if you haven't, please send them my way by the end of this week.

Take care; peace, Angie

Hope everyones summers are going well! mines been pretty busy the past couple weeks... if anyone's been reading the news Freddie Mac (where I'm working) has basically been dying. Actually its been pretty sensationalised by the media, but whatevs.

Other than that summers been gooood. I went home last weekend which was well needed. Relaxed, hung out with the family, all that good stuff. Other than that I've been watchin my cubs tear up the National League and exploring DC, what more could I want? Haha. Its crazy that we're all in SO many different places! Angie and I have been talking about training and other Stever House related things... I'm starting to get EXCITED

Tarun

P.S. You all should be expecting phone calls from me over the next couple days.. foreal this time! haha

The Bloomberg Terminal

That is where I'm sitting.
I'm media monitoting for some news relaeases that are going out today. Even though it's news, the client is confifdential so I cannot say more than that.
After a hectic weekend where a bunch of last year's residents came to visit me, I'm settling down into a more relaxed schedule until I take a trip up to Jersey next weekend. This has been an unbelievable summer. I love it. From my internship, to hanging out with my family, to going to Indian conventions and the temple, to seeing friends, it's been a whirlwind. I almost don't want to go back.
If any of you haven't been down here, DC is a beautiful city and it's super friendly to people our age. We were all kind of upset about the hand gun ban being lifted, but now we're feeling more at ease after they specified more regulations (in home, lock, difficult licensing, etc.). Since it's election year, this is such a cool place to be. I'm definitely thinking about coming back down here after school.
My office is too cool. We had breakfast with the CEO yesterday, which was so lucky, because she is on the road 70% of the time. We have over 21 offices globally and she tries to make it to each one every year. Kind of ridiculous lifestyle, but that's what you have to do in a growing company.
As much as I miss "New House," I'm glad that we finally have a name and here we all are, in the midst of something totally new. We'll be the first to chant the Stever name. We'll be the first to have the logo. We'll be the first Stever staff. It's so cool when you think about it. Our chants, logo, Stever-ness will be held as tradition. Let's own this year, peeps. I think there's so much potential.
So any luck with door decs, yet? Tarun-- ours better be good. I'm putting pressure on you now. Haha...I'll see you all in a little over 3 weeks!

India and its Craziness

So India has been great so far. This past weekend was the big wedding that I was very involved in. See I have been to weddings in India before, but usually they are for people that are a generation older than me so I don't do much. This wedding was my cousin's and since she only had one brother I had to help out because many of the rituals require more than one brother. So this past weekend was crazy with all that. Now I have another three weeks at my internship and not doing too much more these days. I hope to watch The Dark Night this Friday but we will see if I can actually get tickets. The cool part is that the movie theater and mall is next door to our apartment building. I always joke that I could jump out of the balcony and land on the roof of the mall!! Haha. Anyway not much more going on. Can't wait to get started and see everyone again!

The VA side of things

I've been in Virginia with my grandparents for a little over a week now, after getting back from my 5-week backpacking trip through Europe. This last weekend was spent at Virginia Beach at my aunt and uncle's, finishing off my tan, playing with my cousins, and eating ice cream with my boyfriend.
Getting there, however, was the hardest part. Since neither David nor I had a car to borrow, we decided to take the Greyhound down on Friday. At 3 on a sunny Friday, the traffic was, understandably, horrible. We got to the stop about 10 minutes before the bus was supposed to come (cutting it a little close), but the bus ended up being about half an hour late.
After about an hour, we were still 80 miles from Richmond (where we had to catch another bus), and at 10-20 miles an hour, we weren't going anywhere fast.
Our layover at Richmond was an hour and twenty minutes. We got to Richmond an hour and twenty-five minutes late. So, doing the math, we should have missed our connection.
Thankfully, the bus was held for the group of us that were on the very late bus. We ran over, expecting it to be ready to go, but only found it with door closed, full of passengers, engine idling, and no bus driver in sight. After 20 minutes, she finally came back, but only after those locked on the bus nearly staged a revolt. Another 20 minutes to load, and we were all on the bus. Except that the engine almost didn't catch. I was cracking up at this point, because I didn't think the trip could get any worse/better.
But it did when a poor little girl got sick in the back, adding puke to the onion smell.
So, 7 hours after we got on the first bus, we were in Virginia Beach ready for a couple days on the beach.
Angie, glad to meet you!
-Corinne

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

I hope this blog will afford us the ability to communicate over the summer before your return back to CMU (or, for those of you already here, before RA training begins.

I'm very excited to be the Housefellow for Stever House. I'm a native of Pittsburgh, and have spent the last six years working at Chatham University as the Director of Student Activities. I've always appreciated the quality programs that CMU produces, and am continually impressed by the people of CMU.

Hopefully we can share a little about ourselves with each other...I'll get the ball rolling! I live in the South Hills of Pgh. (Pleasant Hills specifically) and my partner, Matt, and I have a 14 month old son named Owen. I'm sure I'll attach a family photo soon! Lucylou is our 8 yr. old yellow lab, and really defines herself as our first child. Summer is my favorite time of the year--I love being outdoors and I'm a huge live music fan--so I've spent most of the summer taking Owen/Lucy for walks and/or checking out the summer concerts. July has been really diving right into CMU life, and I really look forward to starting August with all of you!