I'm back home

After two flights, one to cross the States and another to cross The Pond (a.k.a. the Atlantic Ocean), I'm back home. I´ve been for few hour already, but I had to keep myself busy so would not fall a sleep before the right time.

Other than tired I'm fine!

The last 24h...

Right know it's 7h58 in the morning... So I have 24h and a few minutes remaining in San Francisco. :)

What to do with the remaining time?!
Finish packing, go for brunch, go around town and most of all enjoy the day.

There were few times that I thought that time was not going by, but, like always, in the end it has gone by quite fast.

Well, I do not have much more to write. See you when I'm back home.

Just to let you know that...

... in exactly one month I'll be in the middle of my journey back home.

The real countdown has begun. It's that time when you start feeling that you really have to start making the most of the time that you still have, going back to the places that you like and visiting the ones that you sill have not gone to.

I started visiting these "I really wanna go to" places last week, with a visit to SFMOMA (San Francisco Modern Art Museum). It was a very interesting visit, got to see paints by Dali, Frieda Kahlo, Matisse, Duchamp and others. I have a strange relation with modern art, sometimes I really like others I just do not understand it... but I think that happens most of the times.

There still a few other places that I want to go to: Alcatraz, the Museum of the California Science Academy and the Asian Art Museum. Let's see if I can make them all...

This time a year a go I was in...

...Germany, more specifically in Hannover.

I went there to visit my younger Sister and had a very good time going around town and visiting Hamburg. I also saw what snowing really meant for the first time and bought two j-rock Cd's. :)

It was a visit that was promised for a long time and after finishing and delivering my MSc Thesis the time felt right to go there. It was my first flight in 13 years...

When I returned I said that I would post some photos, which I ended never doing. So after a year I'm finally fulfilling my promise.

The soundtrack and the hobby that helped the time pass during the train ride and flight.

A beautiful garden (I'm sorry but I do not remember the name of most of the sites that I went to).

A lake made by man, ordered by Hitler to give a job to many of the unemployed of that time.

A church that was destroyed during the WWII bombings and that remains in the same state to this day so that people do not forget the consequences of war.

The detail of the entry to a church.

A street in Hannover.

Hamburg.

A channel in Hamburg.
(One of my favorite photos.)

Bismarck.

Another church destroyed during the WWII bombings, this time in Hamburg.

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).

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!! :)

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

The last post in Portuguese soil?! Maybe...

After two "quick" passages through American soil without having to board a plane I obtained my visa to the States.

On the same day that I went to pick my passport, with the before mentioned visa, my flight (or should I say flights) to San Francisco was confirmed. And what I didn't want to happen is going to happen, that is we are not going to have a direct flight from Europe to San Francisco. Nope, we are going to do a small (3h25m) pit stop in Newark Liberty International (Newark). Which is going to be better for us if we consider the amount of time that a direct flight would take (around 14h). The way things are planned now we are going to do two smaller flights of 8h10m (from Lisbon to Newark) and 6h20m (from Newark to San Francisco). God, I'm going to end this journey so dead...

I'm leaving from Porto airport at 9h30 and will arrive at San Francisco at 21h40 (local time), which corresponds to 4h in the morning in Portugal. I'm curious about how will I be at the end of the day (yeah, I know I'm a bit of a sadistic... because, of course, I will be as fresh as in the morning :P).

So tomorrow and the day after tomorrow I'll be busy packing and trying not to forget anything important.

But I'm feeling so calm about everything... I'm really surprised with myself... Probably won't sleep from Sunday to Monday. Ohh yeah, I stil haven't told when I'me leaving... hihi... Ok, so that should be Monday, June 30th 2008 from Porto to (Lisbon -> Newark ->) San Francisco.

Bye... I probably will not post again before I get there.

And the awesome news was...

... that I was accepted in a International Trainee Program, and above all that I will be going to do my internship in SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA!!!! To tell you the truth at the time I wrote that post I still didn't know where I was going to go, we were only told at the 23rd of May. Yes, I know that today is the 9th of June... but I really took my time to digest the news. And I think I have still to fully digest them...

I really had no expections when it came to the place I was going to be send to when I arrived for my week of formation in Lisbon. However, during the week I would sometimes harbour the thought it would be cool to go to San Francisco. And guess what?! That was where I ended up. And I'm going to be there for 9 months... :)

The only thing that I'm sorry about now is that Miyavi has already gone there for his world tour... bad bad timing... :)

So, in about a month the posts are going to start to coming to you directly from the USA. I'll try to be little more consistent, to give you guys a feeling of how the things are going on across the pond and a continent. ;)

(credit to www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it/)

Germany...

Since I returned from visiting my little sis in Germany I've been meaning to post some photos here... but I've been lazy and has you can see I haven't done it yet... It's just that I have to choose the photos and upload them in a image sharing site... and like I said I've been lazy.

Will do that this week...

Apart from that I really had fun, enjoyed the time that I was there and the efforts that she made to show me the most in the little time that we had. Furthermore, she took me to a shop (in fact 2 shops) where one could find Japanese Visual Kei rock music. Hihihi, I bought to cds... :D

Some photos will be up soon...