San Francisco, CA

What's there to say about San Francisco that everybody doesn't already know?

A perfect combination of big city lights, pure ancient nature, fresh pacific breeze, hot californian sun, tasty wine and a never ending variety of cultural entertainment that'll enrich your perception of life forever.

"On a warm San Francisco night" "sitting on the dock of the bay wasting time..."

It's easy to understand why so many people fall in love with the bay area. I know I did.

Link to video on Wix

Link to video on Youtube

Once again, thanks mom!

July 2011

Seattle, WA

Hey kids!

It's been a while since I said hi! My apologies, transitioning to another country (again!) can be quite time consuming - my excuse to say that I've been lazy :p

Anyways, I've edited yet another way-too-long video with a bunch of footage that nobody but me wants to see. This one is about one of my favorite cities I visited in the US and A - Seattle!

A truly and amazingly awesome place. I'm seriously thinking about moving there. Seriously, if you have any idea on how I can do that, please leave a comment or send me an email or something. Much obliged. 

Once Upon the Appalachian Trail

The outdoors surrounding the Appalachian Mountains are worth experiencing. Pristine rivers and hills along with a rich and remarkable culture, make the Appalachian trail a must-see landmark.

The Mountain Heritage Day held annually at Western Carolina University is open to everybody, and it's a great opportunity to experience local food, craft-work, music, Cherokee stick-ball, and even a vintage car show. But the best of the mountain hospitality is definitely it's people.

Enjoy ya'll !

Closing Chapters

So a whole year as gone by and I'm back home were it all started.

Since the blog is called "Once upon a year in America", I'm still going to post videos of what I saw and what I did in the States in 2011. At least some of it...there's so much footage I don't even know where to start.

That brings me to a point I want to make about travelling abroad and how your perspective of reality changes the instant you step off of that plane. Heck, the instant you're sitting on that plane everything is already new and exciting! I remember when I was arriving in Atlanta a year ago, watching a movie the flight provided entitled "Life as We Know It". The movie is set in ATL and exactly at the same time I'm watching this scene showing the city's skyline, the plane is on it's way down to the tarmac. I pull up the blind and I'm "living" the same skyline. You can somewhat now understand how it's easy to get "lost" in photographing and videotaping every single thing you see from then on. It's also stuff like this that moves me to search for new adventures somewhere else out there.

This movie inspired me in a lot of ways, none of which have to  do with this  image.

Atlanta's skyline. (By the way, I did not take this pic.)

For now though, I'm closing this chapter of my life by putting together the last videos of that all-around wonderful experience. Stay tuned.

Purple Vision: Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes with COMM 493: Purple Vision, the class that transmitted the WCU Football games for the stadium's Jumbo Tron and a live web-stream.Thanks to everybody involved with Purple Vision for a great season.

Video by Marcelo Maia
Western Carolina University, Fall 2011