The Pitt News

Photo blog: midterms, spring break edition

“You have to understand everyone's gonna give you a response but they’re never actually going to do that. I would say that I would’ve gone to the museums or the Mattress Factory, which I have never been, but realistically I probably would’ve played video games or maybe go out to dinner somewhere decent. You're going to get answers that are going to be pretty outlandish and unrealistic. I'm just telling you what I honestly think. I’m probably going to go out with some of my friends and go ax throwing. However, realistically what ends up going on in a week when you don't feel like you have anything going on is nothing.” -Senior finance and accounting double major Vincent Vallorani

Kick off your break from class and the stresses of midterm exams by reading about how these Pitt students wind down from midterm exams and plan to spend their spring breaks.

“During exams, I discovered that I like cleaning my room. It helps me take my mind off of it. Normally, I wouldn’t enjoy cleaning my room or boring chores, but with all the stress and stuff in my head, I find it really relaxing to clean the house and organize stuff. Somehow, the boring stuff gets interesting. I don’t know why.” -First-year computer science major Faisal Alshafei

“I have a few personal projects that I’m working on. I mostly develop iOS apps, the last project I worked on was for a company. I’m going to Gibraltar and Tangier, Morocco. Random, I know. I’m just using my airline miles and I like visiting new countries. I’m bringing my Arabic phrase book along with.” -Junior computer science major Khalid Mirza (left)
“I want to learn programming languages like C#. I’ve been watching these tutorials online on how to make a small RPG game without any GUIs but instead with the basics of what object-oriented and C sharp is. However, regardless of what I do, I don’t think I can ever relieve stress. That’s why I’m visiting my sister in Virginia this spring. And yeah, subscribe to Pewiediepie!” -Junior computer science major Chip Beck

“Whenever I’m stressed, I just take breaks and maybe play basketball. I also love to cook. I like cooking different types of pasta. I just love Italian food. It’s been a tough semester. I’ve got 17 credits, so I can’t wait to go to Long Beach Island with my friends for break. Except I have a midterm right after break, so that’s no fun.” -Junior economics and statistics double major Michael Greco

“Right now I’m in an Italian marching band. I’ve been drumming for 10 years. My dad has been playing since he was 11. I started playing on his drum set in our garage. I live in the dorms, so I don’t have a drum set here. I have a little drum pad and it’s actually quiet so I can play it as long as it doesn’t get loud and people get mad. It’s probably been a month or two since I’ve played on an actual drum set. What’s funny is that every time I come home and I play, my dad says, “You sound better than you did before,” even though I haven’t played at school. Maybe I should just stop playing drums and then maybe I’ll be like the next Neil Peart or Buddy Rich.” -Junior computer science major Joseph Monaco

“I’ve been putting in about six hours a week for midterm exams and if I wasn’t doing that, I’d just be practicing the piano. I started playing it last semester. I’ve been learning new songs, basically, and working on that. I sometimes practice at the Center for Creativity where you have to plug headphones in the keyboard, but I would usually go to the music building. They have a bunch of practice rooms, like 15 or 16 of them, and I’ll spend an average of two hours whenever I go. I just love classical music, but it’s not possible for one person to play an entire orchestra and the piano was the closest thing to it.” -Sophomore neuroscience major Zarrar Nashman

Over break, Sophomore biochemistry major Gwyn Shermanski says she plans to “play piano and work out more, it helps to take things off my mind. I’ve been playing since elementary school. There are pianos are on campus that I usually play on. I’ve missed my high school friends, so I’ll probably just hang out with them and with family.”

“You have to understand everyone’s gonna give you a response but they’re never actually going to do [what they say]. You’re going to get answers that are going to be pretty outlandish and unrealistic. I’m just telling you what I honestly think. I’m probably going to go out with some of my friends and go ax throwing. However, realistically what ends up going on in a week when you don’t feel like you have anything going on is nothing.” -Senior finance and accounting double major Vincent Vallorani

“I’ve been trying to teach myself code, but midterms got in the way. I interned at this company and they use the programming language R a lot for data visualization. And I don’t have any R courses in my curriculum for my major, and I know that it’s useful. So that’s something I’ve been trying to get myself into.” -Senior actuarial science major Devon Rozycki (left)
“I want to get better at ping pong and chess because I like playing chess. I’m not really that good. I’ve been playing chess my whole life, but it’s been on and off. I started playing ping pong when I got into college. I used to go to the ping pong club but I stopped because it was too far to walk to it at the field house.” -Senior computer science major Luis Taylor

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