March is Spring Break time, although that means very little in the world of graduate students. In general that has meant one of two things for me as a grad student: 1) there is more time to work in the lab because classes are canceled for that week OR 2) it is absolutely an oxymoron to say it's "Spring Break" when we grad students have to teach the med students during that week because med student Spring Break is the week afterwards!
Since I've finished my teaching responsibilities as a student and I really didn't feel the need to spend more time in the lab, I chose to take a break. Only for a couple days, though. I drove about an hour southeast of Pittsburgh to Linn Run State Park where I had rented a rustic cabin. When they said "rustic" I figured it would mean REALLY rustic. Electricity, sure that was to be expected, and I had been told that there would be a refrigerator, also. But I was quite surprised when I stepped in the door and found this:
We're talking full kitchen here, folks. No running water, but there's a stove with an oven. And, although it didn't make it into the picture, not the tiny dorm-room refrigerator I was expecting but a full-size fridge/freezer just like I have in my apartment! Too bad I didn't know about all of this before because I had worked really hard to pack food for two days that could fit in a tiny space and be made using nothing but...a coffeemaker (one of my secret talents is coffeemaker cooking... They're good for much more than liquid. Mwa-hahaha!).Despite the nice kitchen, the remainder of the cabin was much more rustic. There was a wood-burning stove (with which I had a fight because I couldn't get the fan to work the night I got there and I felt unsafe letting the fire burn without it so I was quite a bit cold and wore as many clothes as I could over my pajamas) and a dining set with table and wood benches and a connected room with a bed and a bench and night stand. And there was a mouse. How much more rustic can you get?
Other than the cold, which was quite annoying (I wore a hat most of the time), the place was wonderful. If I stepped out of the door, I walked onto a covered cement porch with a picnic table and a lovely view of the little "run."
I could even hear the river/creek gurgling when I was sitting in the cabin - it was that loud!While I was at the park, I did some hiking and reading and thinking. It was very nice to get away from the many stresses of life and worry about more basic things like keeping the fire going. And it was also very nice to see some natural beauty, even in the midst of a winter that came late but wanted to extend itself as long as possible. Due to the weirdness of the weather, the waterfall I hiked to was not completely frozen, but it was mostly frozen.
After two nights in the cabin, I packed up and hopped back into the car to get back to the city for my appointment with the chiropractor. I definitely want to go back to my little "home" in the woods!
2 comments:
The cabin is great, I think I would have almost prefered it over the hotel room at the ENC.
i'm jealous I would have love to do that!
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