Pittsburgh Owls!
After over a year of COVID lockdowns, I finally made my way to Pittsburgh for Duolingo's IPO and quality team time.
Travel woes
It was a bit of an ordeal to get to Pittsburgh. My connecting flight from Newark to Pittsburgh got delayed, so I went through swampy DC instead. As soon as I landed at IAD, I was shocked to discover how humid it was. I also found myself going on a wild goose chase between terminals to find airport lounges, only to get denied due to my plebeian Star Alliance Silver status. Whenever I have lounge status, I become a slave to it. Whenever I don't, I'm convinced that it's a hassle and waste of money.
COVID testing was also a hassle. I tried going through a Rite-Aid drive-thru on foot to take a free PCR test. Since Pittsburgh is a driving-oriented city, all the workers were confused and insisted I drive by instead. Luckily, my teammate Peter swung by to take me through the drive-thru. The testing centres were super backed-up though, so my results didn't come within the mandatory three-day period required to fly back to Canada. It didn't matter anyway, since my return flight got cancelled. I went through a five-hour headache with Expedia trying to rebook, and only ended up on a flight leaving the next day (a tough lesson for flying in the 2020s: always book direct with airlines). I had to relocate to a Hyatt for my last evening in August, but at least they offered free day-of COVID tests there. It was a relatively smooth process. Turns out I could've just skipped all the Rite-Aid research and shenanigans!
Celebrating a return to work
I checked into a hotel that was just 15 minutes from the Duolingo office. It was SO cool and trippy to meet all of my team members and colleagues in person for the first time. People's heights never align with their presence, and people have a certain quality that doesn't translate well over Zoom. Others had trouble recognizing me too (or at least, Krish blamed it on the double-mask and glasses combo). Office lunch was great too — the team ate lunch together on the roof, which was honestly idyllic.
Fun fact, the Duo costume is smaller than it appears. We had a height requirement for someone to wear the Duo costume upon IPO, so people padded their heights only to discover that Duo is a short king!
It was fun having a bit of a work gang again. I visited Redstart Roasters and Commonplace Coffee with Peter, Krish, and Ben. I was super impressed with my Leona's sesame chocolate chip ice cream sandwich. I was amazed that it stayed frozen solid despite the heat! During my second visit, I had to grab another one — this time, a lime black raspberry sandwich from Leona's actual storefront. From there, Peter drove us to see a great view of the city from Duchesne Overlook. Kudos to Peter — he took Krish and I out to Taiwanese Bistro 33 during our second visit, and it was surprisingly tasty! Dare I say, one of the better meals in Pittsburgh?
Duolingo loves a good party. During my second visit, we went for a team dinner at Senti. It gave big hotel vibes, and I ate veal with interesting mashed potato fritter cubes. Some of our colleagues bought flashy cars post-IPO, and Debbie also joked about a guy revving his engine on a powerful motorcycle.
The team also made its way to Denis's lake house for some fun bonding. I was amazed to discover that he built the place 50 years ago as a teenager. We had a fun afternoon eating lovely home-cooked food, driving and sliding down a boat on the lake (I got to DJ at some point, although my music preferences didn't align well with some of my older colleagues), and biking around the circumference of the lake with Nancy (it was just the two of us chatting and biking alongside each other since everyone else sped ahead).
Beyond the team, the whole company came together at Cinderlands for a warehouse party. It was nice and open, but the small-table set up wasn't very conducive for mingling with coworkers. I did get a good chance to chat with extended cross-functional team members. It was interesting to hear how deeply committed to Pittsburgh people were post-IPO: they all planned to stay for at least four years (based on vesting schedules). For example, Mark was even custom-building a house!
Gentrification
I learned that low income housing near the office recently turned into a Whole Foods — what a harbinger of gentrification. Despite all the nice, new buildings, the sidewalks in Pittsburgh remained quite uneven. I found myself tripping over my feet every single day. Similarly, I felt whiplash visiting a Trader Joe's and Giant Eagle near the office. The demographics were starkly different. To this point, I hadn't spent much time "living life" in America (vs. merely touring around), so I was incredibly excited to visit a Trader Joe's (which seems quite comical now). I stocked up on so much frozen food like açai bowls, chocolate covered strawberries, xiaolongbao, chips, and pizza mac & cheese. I wasn't particularly impressed with any of it, which would remain true about Trader Joe's food once I actually came to live in the US.
Steph comes to visit!
We were allowed to bring a guest to the Duolingo IPO celebration, so I decided to bring Steph! She flew in from her other part of Pennsylvania, and we had a fun tourist weekend together. First, we went to Mellon Park for the Duolingo festivities. It was super fun meeting everyone and having Steph chatter in her usual unfiltered way. We saw Fitz and the Tantrums, which was fun. I realized I knew a couple of their songs, like "Fool."
The next day, we visited the Phipps Conservatory. It weirdly had an animatronic TROLLS exhibit?? There were interactive sensors that caused the trolls to move, plus little trolls hidden away throughout the gardens. Troll artwork from kids was also proudly put on display. So bizarre — surely kids would still find the gardens fun without the trolls? As a word of warning, I would not recommend eating at the conservatory cafe. I had a bowl of chicken soup that tasted like it was catered by Sodexo.
After lunch, we tried visiting the Cathedral of Learning, only to discover that it was closed off for students only (I SUPPOSE that policy made sense so that students could actually learn).
We then checked out "the Strip," which was much busier than anywhere else we had visited in Pittsburgh so far! We ate at Kaya Caribbean, which I found sorely disappointing. It was far too spicy, and the fresh tacos were weirdly fried and heavy. I quickly realized that Pittsburgh is seriously lacking in the food department, since this restaurant was featured on all the top 10 lists. At that point, we met up with Krish (who was also touring around Pittsburgh for the first time!). We got ice cream at Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor, which had cool "old chocolate shoppe" vibes). The horchata flavour was okay, but the strawberry lemonade was amazing. The three of us walked up and down the Strip again until we exhausted everything the place had to offer.
Steph's colleague Lauren suggested a place called Maggie's Farm Rum, so we chilled there for a bit. I had a virgin mojito and enjoyed the company of my friends.
For dinner, I went to Apteka with Steph, Krish, and Peter. Apteka is the #1 rated restaurant in Pittsburgh, which really underscored my lukewarm sentiments towards Pittsburgh cuisine (or maybe the bigger issue was that it was a vegan restaurant). Thank goodness we reserved ahead of time — it was the restaurant's post-COVID opening weekend, so the line ran out the door. We had fried squash (which was too fried for my liking), fried pierogies which tasted like spring rolls and sauerkraut, and cherry pierogies. These were my favourite. They were SO unique and such a welcome reprieve from all the fried food. The desserts were the highlight though — we had sorbet, strawberry rhubarb pie, and a blueberry turnover/doughnut. I will commend this place for making vegan food taste decidedly NOT vegan, at least.
Unique cherry pierogies!
To cap off the evening, Peter drove us to the Schenley Park Overlook for sunset. It reminded me of Mission Dolores Park, minus all the crazy crowds of SF. We then drove past some of the bigger houses owned by professors at CMU. What's the architectural equivalent of people-watching?
After Steph left, I spent a chill day stocking up on Trader Joe's food, visited Anthropologie and Free People, and ate a poke bowl at Kahuna. I also grabbed a drink from The Milkshake Factory before staying in to catch up on my shows (Nevertheless on Netflix and Big Brother).
Second time's the charm
After the second visit, I really came to like Pittsburgh. The locals have so much pride for the place, and there's some charm in the affectionate "yinzer" moniker. The architecture was so unique too — it was an amalgamation of so many different periods, and the converted industrial buildings had so much character. The city was making great strides to revitalize while being conscious of those who may get left behind, which is a lot better than I can say of many other cities around the world.
I mean, just look at the Duolingo office for a juxtaposition of old and new.
My memories of Pittsburgh and Duolingo are strictly and resolutely intertwined. Duolingo is truly a special place to work, and I understand why people boomerang back so often. You’re so well taken care of there, and given the wings to fly. I loved being at a 300-going-on-500-person organization at a time where everyone knew each other yet the growth was tremendous. Peter talked about being on a weekend soccer league with the CTO and other employees. Elise’s swag boxes were truly delightful, and I loved the refreshing transparency of Luis’s twice-weekly company-wide meetings (with updates, Q&A, birthday serenades, and the occasional HQ trivia session). Plus, my charmaine@duolingo email handle made me feel the absolute coolest. It was bittersweet that my time at Duolingo was mostly remote; I probably would've enjoyed spending more time in Pittsburgh. I don't know if I'd be able to handle the lacklustre food scene and limited diversity indefinitely, but I heard that's improving now too (looking at you, Duo's Taqueria). I also recognize that I got to see Pittsburgh at its best. We had beautiful weather on both trips, which was a remarkable feat considering Pittsburgh only has 160 sunny days per year! You could say that I really warmed up to Pittsburgh (hah) by the end of my time there. I have endless gratitude for this experience and my time at Duolingo.
Trip dates: July 29-August 3, 2021 and September 13-17, 2021