Basketball Games at the Ramsey Center

During my stay here I've been having the opportunity to cheer for the WCU's basketball team both men and women's. And being a communications major I have the joy of working for TV 62, the university's student run television channel. For now the channel is only broadcasting online for catamountsports.com, but it's being really fun and I've been gaining loads of experience.

I set forward from Portugal knowing that I would have a more pro active engagement in activities related to my academic pursuit, but I never thought it would be this accessible and amusing. Unfortunately this type of opportunities never apperared to me in Porto, Portugal. This gets me thinking about my future academic life. Should I return and take backward steps in my learning? Should I stay? Or should I sail off for a masters in Sidney, Australia for example? And will they have the same "hands on" type of teaching?

(Video edited by Jarrett Frazier)

Lot's of questions have popped in my mind ever since I've came here. But one thing is for sure, I've been given a golden opportunity and I'll do everything I can to take the best out of it. Thanks mum! ;)

Marathon Running & Reporting

February 9th of 2011, a Wednesday I'll never forget. 

The alarm clock on my one month old Verizon cell phone rang. It was 5am. The reason I woke up that early was simple, I had a mission. That mission was handed to me by my "commander in chief" Katerina Spasovska for my News Reporting II class, which I gladly accepted.

Reporting about the Valley of Lilies 2011 Half Marathon proved to be more exiting than what I thought it would be. After checking practice time with the runners at their Facebook group page and arranging interviews with them, I set the equipment. Checked camera battery and "cleaned" the memory chip. It was on! 

Tracking suit on I set forward. As soon as I left Norton Residence Hall I felt the freezing 30 Fahrenheit ripping through my cloths and embracing my bones. 
It wasn't long before I started running with them across the campus. During the course I tried to find the best places to shoot but I was conditioned with a pitch black luminosity. It would take a while for the sun to turn up. 

Well, long story short, I felt in first hand the constraints a reporter might feel while working on the field. And this time was the cold weather, the hopeful waiting for the sun to rise in time for some "killer" shots and to be prepared to run a training marathon with a camera on my back. In the end I think I really had a glimpse of what it feels like to be a field reporter.

Hazards of reporting from Egypt - Features - Al Jazeera English

Hazards of reporting from Egypt - Features - Al Jazeera English

Being an International Student

Being a college student for five and a half years in Portugal magnified my perspective about life, people and the world, in a multitude of different ways. I've always felt the urge of experiencing how life would be in different cultures than my own. But since constant traveling is a perk within the reach of a selected few I had to find a way to compensate being most of my time in my own country.
The internet is surely the most reliable, broader and always present mean, along with TV, books and magazines, to learn about distant worlds. But I found that the simple act of having a beer with somebody born and raised in a completely distinct environment than your own is the closest you'll get to actually experiencing those surroundings. So during my academic course I tried as much as I could to get together with international students. At the same time I was getting to know them, I tried the understand where they were coming from and what they were experiencing at the moment.

"International Friends" diner at the Alumni House 

At the present time I find myself in the position that I've always been wondering what it would feel like. And let me tell you, despite the gazillion of problems and obstacles you're going to get bombarded with regularly, it's still worth it!
I guess that it the end it all comes down to perspectives. Changing the environment you live in automatically changes your perspective about life, and you start to appreciate the small beautiful things around you.