I felt so much nostalgia this weekend when I was doing what seemed to be an impromptu tour of all of the Oakland haunts from my college days, and the cathedral probably brought back some of the fonder memories I have had academically at Pitt. Most of my freshman year classes were in the Cathedral as were several of my upper level courses. The particular reason for this visit to the Cathedral was to view the nationality rooms. I had never really viewed them before (except when I had class in the Israeli room one semester during the holiday season) so I was eager to see them since I have heard many positive things. Honestly, I thought the rooms would be more decorated for the holiday season than they were. Each room had a little tree in it and usually a manger scene but there was not a whole lot except just reading material about how Christmas is celebrated in that country. Now the main room in the Cathedral, was beautifully decorated with trees with white lights. It was the last day of finals so there were plenty of students still taking advantage of all the hidden places in the Cathedral to study. The rooms are on the 1st and 3rd floors, some were locked, which we later found out was because there is an "official" tour and they give you keys on that so you can unlock all of the doors. Of course it costs money, but I think it's pretty minimal and everyone I saw doing the official tour seemed to enjoy it.