It's been a month...

Who would say that a month could go past so quickly?!... Everyone!! lol

When you are doing something new and exciting time just flies by. And that was what happen in this first month in the States. To think of it, I almost didn't have time to think of what was going on, of where I was. So many thing happened at the same time: searching for a place to stay, moving in, in the mean time facing jet-lag (so bad that on my first night here I fell a sleep on the restaurant..), going out, meeting new people, starting work, welcoming the ones that arrived after us and saying goodbye to the ones that welcomed us.

At this moment the balance is positive, even though most of the city is still to explore and tons of things are still to be done. :)

A month has passed, 6 and half to go (the countdown has begun).

Booka Shade was...

...simply phenomenal!!!

Tomorrow I'll edit with a video, if I find one.

EDIT: Instead of one you get two videos!! Enjoy!! :)

Booka Shade - Body Language (live)

(credits to physicalfilms @ Youtube)

Booka Shade - Charlotte

(credits to physicalfilms @ Youtube)

Last Week

I feel like writing but I don't know what... isn't that strange...

Things here in San Francisco have been going great. Lots of parties, not that much of sightseeing and lots of new acquaintances that have a great potential to become good friends (I'm sorry!! But I'm not one to call a person a friend so easily. However some have already a special place in my heart and others are getting there.)

This past week has been quite hectic. Starting on last Sunday our "welcoming party" (C11 interns) commenced their return to Portugal which ended yesterday, hence the parties and dinners. From what I saw I know that you guys really enjoyed your stay here and made a big effort to pass us that message. Thank you for your warm welcome and even though the time we passed together was short it was full of good memories. I hope to someday see you all again, but must of all I hope that this 8 months full of experiences will become a good foundation for your personal evolution.

The only sightseeing of the week was a short trip to Haight Street (Sis I think that you would like this street). The once heart of the Flower Power and Love Revolution. It really ended up being a short trip and I wanna go back to see more of it and maybe take some photos, because even though I took my camera I didn't took one photo to show for it... It's an interesting neighbourhood full of Zen shops but it also has some more commercial ones. We entered a second hand clothing shop, that had from 50's swimming suits to 80's evening gowns and everything in between. Very interesting. :)

Ohh, and yesterday the weather was great, the best that it has ever been since we came. I was able to wear sandals!! Yuppiii!! But today its cold again and grey...

What more to say?! I think that will be all for now. Don't forget to go see the photos, the links are on the right side bar and please say something.

More photos...

I just uploaded a new photo album and more will come this weekend...

So, if you're interested, go take a look. :)

Be careful...

Net firms in music pirates deal in BBC news.

Even though this concerns the UK law everyone should start to be careful with file-sharing, things aren't has simple as they were...

On a side note: this is my 105th post... and it's my first news post in a long time...

Pleasant surprises...

Sometimes a simple pleasant experience can come from the most unexpected and innocent act.

The most simple gesture can lead you exactly to the right thing for you at that moment. And you can even be unaware of how much you were needing it... You might have a slight idea, but not the full grasp of it. In the end, it might have been your subconscious giving you a heads up when you decided to do that simple gesture or ask that simple question.

The problem is that you might feel the need to repeat it, but you know that either it was a one time thing or due to circumstances that are out of your reach your time is very short.

But at least you experienced it and it will remain a good memory. :)

And sometimes things have the meaning that they have because they are random events.

P.S. - Just another random thought.

P.S. 2 - I want to write much more but I really don't know how to express the thoughts and feelings that are running around my head.

Photo Albuns

Links to my photo albuns will be given on the sidebar (->), please go take a look... tell me if it works and if you liked them.

More to come...

See you!! :)

Japan Center

On Saturday I went to one of the places that I really wanted to go ever since I knew that I was coming to San Francisco... The Japan Center... Can you guess why?! :P

Ohh god!!! I got completely lost there!!! I was able to taste Japanese food, that wasn't Sushi, even though I love sushi I'm very curious about the other plates. The food was great and at a very accessible price.

But the biggest treat was the store that I found that sells from magazines to cds passing through dvds of Visual Kei. All my favorite bands were there... with more than one cd. Ohh, the effort that I had to do to not buy anything... The prices were a bit high and this is not the month for that kind of expenses, but next month... who knows... :) I really looked like a little kid in a candy store!!

I also found some Japanese textbooks that may come in handy, if I decide to still try to teach myself Japanese. :)

To summarize: I was in Heaven for about 2h this weekend. :P

The Lost Boys... Memory Lane... :)

Let's make a break from posts concerning San Francisco and Inov Contacto, not that I have written many of them...

Yesterday, my young sister send me a file called Surprise, on that file are two musics from the 1987 movie The Lost Boys. I only opened the file now and it was a drive down memory lane. This was one of the films we saw bunch of times with my older sister and our cousins when we where younger.

The movie's soundtrack is awesome, from the musics that where written especially for it to the musics that where "borrowed", for instance the movie opens with People are Strange from The Doors. At that time my older sister was in a The Doors phase, among other things.

Besides that, the movie is completely 1980s from the visual aspect to the music, going through the story line. However, I think that it's good 1980s movie, well it's a Joel Schumacher movie and it stars Kieffer Sutherland (trailer)... :)

Here is one of the great songs from the movie: Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister (credit to StylishSurfer @ YouTube)

San Francisco - first impressions...

Cold... very cold...

Coming to San Francisco, in the state of California, one would expect a very comfortable temperature... well I'm sorry to say that the weather in San Francisco, most of the times, is equivalent to the beginning of Spring in Portugal. That is to say, it's to f*****g cold for this time of the year. And to think that I considered bringing my Winter jacket and decided to leave it at home... I only have summer jackets...

Another characteristic of San Francisco is the fog, rare is the day that is free of fog... and it's an heavy fog. It usually starts to settle at the end of the afternoon beginning of the night, it's quite spectacular to see it coming from the hills into the bay. But you know that you are going to be cold when you are out in the street that night.

Ohh, and the hills... they are pretty but a pain in the a** to climb... here is a photo from when we went looking for a house and ended up going almost to the top of one of this hills:
(The image won't upload, I'll try again later... FINALLY IT WORKED!!)

But I have to confess that I'm liking my stay here, even if until now I haven't had that much time for myself. Maybe now that I already have a house I can start to relax and get into my own special rhythm.

And another thing, the cars are huge... really huge, even the small ones are big when compared to Europe. Of course from time to time you see a Toyota Yaris or a Mini, but that is rare.

More to come when I have the time and the right feeling to write. :)

The arrival (finally...)

(The only picture I took during the flights: Ilha do Pico, Açores)

The journey to San Francisco was long, tiring, fun, stressed, calm and something I had never done.

Let's start from the very beginning...

I woke up at 5h30 in the morning so I could have the necessary time for my morning routine and leave the house to the airport with all the calm in the world. I didn't want to start my almost 24h journey day stressed. Everything was good in the journey from Porto to Lisboa, with the small exception that there were a bunch of kids in the same plane as us that had never flown. Meaning that all small things were an excuse to scream and laugh, they counted about 4 times from 5 to 1 in hope that the plane would take off when they reached 1... :)

When we arrived to Lisboa it was already time to start boarding to the flight to New York, so no time to go to the free tax area. In here, our remaining 3 journey companions joined us. The flight was completely booked and we ended up getting separated, when we had pre-booked our seats so we could be near one another... This was a good flight, even if long, 8h long... And then we arrived in Newark. We didn't get to see the Statue of Liberty, only some of us our lucky enough to see Manhattan, because we were on the right side of the plane (which would be the left one). And here started the big adventure... the first time you arrive in the USA you have to go through the Immigration Services.So, we got “held” in the Immigration Services for about 2h, and why?! Because even though we were legal, the time frame that our visas allowed us to stay in the USA was not long enough to complete our internship. So, due to that four of the six of us lost their connecting plane to San Francisco. Since I was the first one to get my extended visa I was still able to catch my plane, but I really had to run. There was this very nice sir that resolved that since I was in such a hurry I should volunteer to do a more through check-up, that is aside from having to take off my shoes and put them in the x-ray machine with my bag and computer, I was searched by a police (security)-woman and my bag, computer and shoes were screened for any trace of prohibited substances...

There were some “interesting” stories in the time in got held in the immigration services, for instance a guy was led there with his hands handcuffed, a Portuguese man was there because is name was similar with that of a guy that was having troubles with the police and there was this couple that the guy had to be deported, because if he entered the US he would be arrested... this one was a bit sad, the girl was completely torn and the boy didn't know what to do. They were still young, early 20s. But it really was the best for him to go back to Portugal, than to be arrested for 5 years...

And back to our journey, my flight to San Francisco was horrible because I didn't know what happen to the rest of the guys and was completely stressed. After 6h10m of stress, I arrived at San Francisco International Airport. The plane still was at the gate and I already had my phone on and tried phoning them... and my calls wouldn't go through. So I decided to get my bags as fast as possible (if they had made it to the plane) and go to the arrival terminal for the plane of the one that would fly separately from the rest of us. I got there and waited for about 5 minutes for her plane to land. But then I couldn't see her... I start thinking that every one was stuck in Newark, and that I couldn't reach anyone... but then we spotted each other. We decided to wait and see if the others came in the next plane, if not we would go to the hostel by ourselves. Luckily, after about an hour they arrived (their plane was late... they weren't very lucky).

Then, off to the hostel where we arrived around 2h in the morning.

I was exhausted, but I almost didn't sleep, and suffered severely from jet-lag until Wednesday, today was bit better, but I still feel tired easily...

And this is the report for the journey to San Francisco. Others will come for the remaining days. :P