From: smir+@CS.CMU.EDU (Yury Smirnov)
Subject: Soap Opera : Welcom to Pittsburgh
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 01:39:21 GMT


Kratkoe soderzhanie predyiduschih serij :
Once upon a time one xSU intense mentality worker was somehow accepted by Ph.D.
program at SCS,CMU. Having no problems with passing the US. boarder ( there was
the only restriction of $10,000 in a pocket ), he didn't expect to be accustomed
to a heavenly life. The only thing that he knew about the US. and Pittsburgh 
particularly was that New-York is a city of contrasts. Plying on a low altitude
between JFK and La Gardia ( which didn't exceed the public bus's height ) he found
out that all passengers in NY use exclusively Russian language while using public
transportation system. Probably, buses stimulates eagerness to communicate in
Russian or maybe just to the opposite a deep knowledge of Russian pushes a person
to demonstrate it somewhere. At last he found a modest seat in an American Eagle
Aircraft ( which was something between a flying bookshelfe and a rumbling
Hierichon Tube) neiboring with an American TV star. The worst thing was that
all passengers, a stewardess and the only pilot of the plane used to accomulate
near that star patiently jumping in order to see him 1 second more than all the others. It was so nice that a provident xSU-mentally retired passenger took all
his heavy stuff from NY to Pittsburgh - it was the only counterpoise in the tail
of a plane to that fan_crowd near the first row. Even the pilot's presense in the
plane's salon were not so fearful as a presentiment of a new scientific and
every_day_life unknown enviroment. But as soon as xSU foot made the first step
on West Penn ground - nebesa razverzlis' i nastupilo vseobschee soglasie v etom
isterzannom mire.

The first car which I met in Pittsburgh was Rolls Roys. Unfortunately, nobody
advised me to take it to get CMU, but vice-dean was so kind that she met me
10 feet further and delivered me and all my staff to CMU which in its turn looks
like a big ship continuing Columbus's course inside the Northen America. As I was
worned by a Seatle's predecessor ( kotory teper' zapisalsya v partizanyi ) that
American universities uses to organize American picnic - a meeting with brown
bags,I took from Russia a lot of useful food - bread, butter, sugar, solt, smoked
sousages, cavier, nails, kashas, safety pins, beer, spagetti, needles, etc. and 
was greatly surprized that CS at CMU had 3-4 parties weekly where all this staff
is useless. Probably, Russian beer at Pirate's baseball ( free for CS,CMU ) could
be consumed, but safety pins were solely intended for safety sticking in a soft
part of a human body. The main principle is to deal with everything as with a
reasonable child - at first to feed, then to indulge, and at last to sent to a
hell. The corollary : one can survive in Pittsburgh without apartment, home phone,
frige, TV set, car, wife & children, pen, pencil, clothes, money, humor sense,
etc., provided, that he is a CMU,CS grad student. Do you really need all this
rubbish while being in Paradise ?!


 
 Yury Smirnov
 
 DISCLAIM : Not all opinions are purely mine, but they are private and were
 created in the process of human communication, they don't belong to and aren't
 the official point of view of any profit or non-profit organization or
 non-organization.



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