I begin to like this: Today I used the CMU Escort to get home from school. It’s basically a night shuttle bus that takes you from campus (there are bus stops) to any street corner within a 1.5 mile radius from campus. That can be veeery convenient (need I mention it is free for ID card holders).
No, dear night owls, they won’t pick you up at your favorite bar when you’re too drunk to find your way home on your own — but if you happen to remember where campus is, they would probably pick you up there.
All in all, this makes it easy and safe to get home even when the regular buses are done for the night, which happens more or less early, depending on the bus line.
That went quite quick: I looked at two places and the second one was good enough so I took it. It’s a little room in Squirrel Hill, furnished and with air condition (believe me, that is important here). I even have an own bathroom. (And, as I mentioned earlier, I have decent cable TV that allows me to watch Euro 2008 soccer — yay for the landlady!)
At the moment however I live in a different room of the house because the current person to live in my room-to-be will only move out on July 15.
Either way, I am happy to have found a place to stay.
Murray Avenue, Squirrel Hill’s main street (picture off Wikipedia)
By the way, the neighborhood is really nice, there are a lot of families living there, it’s very close to amenities (grocery store, restaurants, post office, even a liquor store) and it’s a really short walk to the bus stop too.
Looks like I’m all set — Now I only need to write my master’s thesis. Peanuts! 