So today I was kind of nervous to miss my bus. I snuck out of my accommodation at 5:30am to catch the bus and two metros to make sure I made it to the bus stop to leave with plenty of time. I grabbed breakfast and was proud of myself for basically using up all my spare cash before entering Pittsburgh. This would later come back to bite me.
I got on the bus at 7am, ten minutes before we were scheduled to leave. I had been there since 6:30am, but boarding only started at 7am. No big deal, although I noticed that it took a long time to get everyone on the bus and by the time to doors shut we were already 10 minutes late. No big deal, I was tired, so I took a nap.
When I woke up half an hour later, we still hadn't moved. No one knew why. I napped on and off again for the next hour and a half and still nothing. At 9:35am, we were told to get off the bus because it wasn't working and we hopped onto another bus. Unfortunately, this other bus didn't have a working wifi connection (although I was later told that that it is totally normal for Megabus) so I spent most of my time on the bus staring out the window, or catching up on some sleep.
Other than that, the bus trip was pretty uneventful. I made a new friend, a girl from Brazil who was studying in the US. When she got off she gave me some Brazillian sweets which was really kind of her. When I arrived in Pittsburgh though, I realised I was about 25 cents short of a bus fare to the University. So I spent about half an hour finding an atm, then a place to crack a $20 note into smaller, usable amounts and then finally, finding a bus stop to catch the right bus. All of this to then walk up a reasonable hill, lugging my luggage (which weighs a lot more than it did when I started this trip.)
The room though, is AMAZING. This is a dorm room for the University of Pittsburgh, but it is huge. And my roommate is amazing. Her name is Kelsey and she actually interns at the Department of Defense at the Pentagon. But, more importantly, she brought lollies. And she's a public speaker herself, so she's volunteered to listen to my speech. Here's hoping I know it!
Tomorrow is day one, but it doesn't start till 1pm, so we stayed up late talking and meeting everyone who arrived early. This group is really diverse - from Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Africa...the list goes on. I'm so excited to see what tomorrow brings!
Biggest problem - my razor blade is blunt. So, unclassily, I will have to do a morning dash to the pharmacy to find either a disposable razor package, or blades that fit my handle. Pressure is on, tomorrow is the big first day and I have to make a good impression!
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