Posts Tagged ‘pittsburgh’

It’s my first 4th of July in the US. It was definitely an interesting day. Pittsburgh downtown was crowded and there were a lot of events going on. From speed powerboat races to food contests and fireworks.

While we were waiting for the fireworks, we listened the US Army National Band. It is interesting that at least on the 4th of July they really try to make war veterans feel special.

4th of July Fireworks from Nuno Loureiro on Vimeo.

As I previously said, the weather here is crazy and June is a special month for thunderstorms. It was pouring for a few hours, along with thunders and even the beginning of tornado formations.

There were floods everywhere, and part of the campus was closed the following day due the floods. You can read more about this storm here.

Thunderstorm in Pittsburgh, PA from Nuno Loureiro on Vimeo.

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!