Misc

Today, we went to a beer distributor to buy beer. After ordering a pack of beer, they asked for an ID. I showed my european driver’s license, which is fine for renting a car but I guess is not to buy beer.

I didn’t have my passport with me, so Luis showed his passport. It was Tiago’s turn to pay, so when he was about to pay, they promptly said that Luis had to pay, since he was the one that showed the ID. As portuguese, we solved the problem immediately, Tiago gave the money to Luis so he could pay! Well, not really, they said that Luis had to pay with his own money!

I can understand if they ask the person that shows the ID to pay, but demanding his own money, oh god! We were about to tell them that Luis had Tiago’s money in his wallet and the other way around, but we would rather have the beer than playing games so we didn’t.

Interesting how cautious these Americans are. They warn riders when they know that someone with a contagious disease rode the bus. They even give riders information about the desease and instructions on what to do.

Pittsburgh is a relaxing city. As graduate students, our student ID card allow us to ride the Bus and visit any museum for free. This is a nice initiative and a good example of the good interaction between the University and the city of Pittsburgh.

However, the transportation system is far from being perfect. Often times the bus is late, they stop at every 20m and in the hotest days you need a blanket so you don’t freeze to death in the bus.

We are now living on the 5th Avenue in a nice flat.  There are lot of green areas around the house and we have a small terrace where we can enjoy some piece of mind when the road is not so busy, or when the mosquitos are not attacking us.

The weather here is crazy. You can have all seasons within one day. So you really need to check the weather forecast before you leave the house, so you know whether to wear shorts and flip-flops or a fleece and an umbrella.

In Pennsylvania, alcohol cannot be sold in grocery stores. If you want to buy alcohol you need to go to a liquor store. This is really annoying specially when you want to buy some beer to drink with your BBQ meals. Speaking of BBQ, we have a grill and we use it often. 🙂

Welcome everyone!

We are a small group of Carnegie Mellon students from Portugal that moved to Pittsburgh, PA, to work on our Master thesis. As Portugueses living in a different country, we find interesting differences between the two countries.

I am personally familiar to the US since I’ve spent more than 4 months here split in different journeys while visiting my wife before we got married, but only when you are living here on your own, you can notice some small and sometimes funny details about living here as compared to living in Europe.

During our stay here, we will be posting some interesting and funny stories in this blog. Hope you enjoy!