IMHO, Pittsburgh is one of the most depressing cities in the USA. I'm not an expert, and haven't been there recently, just from what little I've seen (talking about the city--not the nice countryside/environs). Then again, I'm not a fan of cityscapes to begin with. Dated someone who loved it, so tastes are different (just like how you like reverse clickies ;) . A different close friend agrees with me however; he calls it "Piss-turd". And yeah, if you eat meat, the Philly Cheesesteak would be a must-do. Report back on what you think, lol.
If I lived there, I'd get you out of there and see the nice forest and countryside. Even away from the Appalachian mountains, probably a lot of nice views. Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio (Pittsburgh is near the border of western Pennsylvania) both have a lot of that, but, then again, much of the USA has a lot of that beautiful terrain. I'm sure Scotland does too. Obviously you appreciate that kind of stuff from the pics of your cabin (or whatever you call it), and actually I thought the outdoors there looked pretty similar, but again I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts of how our countryside is different, if you look. Oh--Pennsylvania food can resemble what you've described in Scotland, and those who don't value their arteries; what was it--Pounder? A pound of flour, pound of butter, and a pound of salt or something? The German-folk in PA aren't much better. You're getting near the epicenter of Pretzels: merely white flour and salt (and water, cooked away of course). You can't get a "purer" pennsylvania dutch food (probably too cheap to use all that butter yous do). In parts of PA they have "soft pretzels", sold fresh, usually streetside, and those do have fat in them (pretty tasty, too, for white flour and salt anyway).
I think there is a famous art museum there (not big on that, either). Lots of 'culture' stuff in the city (probably opera or play type stuff too), if you're into that and need to take a bus. You'll be missing "state fair" season (autumn/harvest time), but that can be a culture shock even to me. There may still be some weekly local markets ["farmer's markets", but imbued in local culture] there if benign culture shock is what you're into. I guess if non-benign culture shock is your gig, you'll find plenty in "da hood", LOL ('the neighborhood'--bad neighborhoods). There will be plenty of American fast food 'joints' to sample to your heart's/arteries' content, cheaper than in Europe (always found American fast food joints to be expensive to me in Europe). OH--make sure you have some GOOD PIZZA. Dang, pizza is so expensive in Europe (what's up with that!), but they seem to try to 'fancy it up' then. There should be some serious pizza joints in Pittsburgh. There you go. Now THAT, I would do if I were in Pittsburgh. Cheesesteak, pretzels, pizza, and fast food. Good luck with the arteries. And Harley-Davidsons. That's basically what the Pennsylvania 'Dutch' (really Deutsch, but they can't even write their own ethnicity properly--and that doesn't mean I'm racist) have to offer. I could go on, but it would start to get less nice, so I'll save it.
If you're interested in trying to pick up local college women while you're in seminary, the local big university is called "Pitt", by the way (LOL). It's quite popular, however I can't help but think it's a descriptive name! Do you see a trend here. I guess I'm racist against everyone, even myself.
Renting cars can be pretty cheap here, BTW, if you book in advance online. If you book for a week and in advance, easily $20 a day if you shop around, and sometimes $15 (I don't know how they make money on the latter). Try hotwire and/or maybe the other ones like (just pulling this out of my butt) travelocity, expedia, or other brokers, go with the cheapest/economy model, and try different dates (I think weekends are cheaper). The further in advance, the cheaper it is, and vice versa (if immediate, it'll be about $40 a day--yeouch). You can usually get unlimited mileage, and occasionally unlimited distance (they sometimes limit your range to certain large regions). Gasoline/petrol is 'expensive' here right now, but will be probably shockingly cheap to you, roughly $0.88 per litre to you. Depends where (how far) you want to go, or if you want to do a 'road trip'. Hard to have a better country for road-tripping. I would encourage you get a friend to take you shooting (especially outdoors if possible) if that's not something you've ever done or are likely to do again. That could be a two-fer for seeing the countryside and doing something cool, and--hey, 'cultural'; three-peat.
By the way, NOMB but since you mentioned it, I admire you for going through the theological seminary, but heh I've heard it's pretty common for people to lose their faith when they go through those things... or, if not 'lose it', get their points of view quite subdued by being baffled and challenged. I'm not saying that's a bad thing necessarily, but I wonder if you've considered that, or how much consideration you gave it (just to get into YOUR mind). When you look at the Catholic Biblia (and its history) under a microscope, there are a lot of... uh, warts which many didn't notice before (kind of like the LED solder splatter close-up thread recently). As a side topic, guys who become atheists during seminary, and then still continue on to be priests... that's a head-shaker.
BTW if you wouldn't mind as a favor to me, try to get these Christian types in America to stop thinking circumcision is part of their religion. Met too many people who claim to read the Bible 'daily', who have no clue that the New Testament is even 'anti-circumcision', much less exactly how anti-circumcision it is--from Paul's pejorative names of the sacrifice which don't translate well (translated into English as "mutilation"), to going so far as (the way I read it) telling people the Atonement doesn't apply to them if they believe circumcision is religiously attached to Christianity. I'm not talking about non-Christian denoms, that's a whole other can of worms, just Christians in particular. People who get their kid's penis partially amputated in a hospital, alone with a medical tech, strapped to a circumcision board, and think that was 'religious' somehow... well it disgusts me, what can I say, as a victim of such religious wrongness. Christianity doesn't involve any blood sacrifices or sacrifices of humans, virgins, children or infants, all of which categories babies fall under. While not universal, it's pervasive, in some denoms more than others, but it's there. The history of circ in our country dates back to the 1880's or 1890's where it was a punishment for children who were caught or 'suspected' of masturbating. Medicine was very willing to cover for religion, and both were twisted. The lie kept changing, and at some point religion actually backed off to a point, but by then the poisoning was enrenched in culture and medical thinking. When the UK came to its senses (somewhere around the mid-1900s) and abandoned this insanity, we ignored you guys, perhaps because here, medicine is generally thought-of as a (for-profit) business, not a service, so there's a huge conflict of interest and naturally all the slanted "objective" brochures at hospitals to go with it, and nurses who get in trouble for lowering the circ rates of their units when they talk truthfully to parents, etc..