Ellinor

At the time of writing, I'm having my last Sundayevening in Miami. That feels so unreal, and what's even more unreal is that I'll go home on Saturday...Anyway! Here's a post about last week.

 

Monday was very chill since we had a long adventurous weekend in Key West. 

Got my result back from the Mockexam and it was good! So I hope it will remain as good. 

After class I had a quiet afternoon in the room, talked to my parents over Skype and just had some relaxing time. In the evening, after dinner, I went with Margot and Fosca on a walk along the beach. Ended up at Lincoln road again, where we did some shopping. We met our new roommate Amy from Czech Republic, she seems nice!

 

Tuesday was like Monday very relaxing, which is not weird at all since I hadn't had a proper good night sleep in a couple of days. There was a "White party" at EF Tuesday evening, where they had put a lot of lights in the cafeteria and people came dressed up in white to have the different light reflecting on their clothes. Some how I was talked into leaving my bed and Netflix by Sasha, to take a look in the cafeteria, but after maximum 30 seconds I left it and went back to watch my comedy series. 

 

Wednesdaymorning me and Margot woke up early to try to see the sunrise. We walked to the beach around 6:20 and sat down to enjoy the view. Even if there were clouds here and there we still got a good morningview. The sun became more clear later on, so after class I went to the beach with Margot and Fosca. It was very nice, I'm trying to use my last moments before I go home, because I've heard that the weather back home is bad ;-) 

But I aim to bring some sunshine and heat when I go home! As long as I get through security. 

The evening was chill. I just took a walk with Sasha and Margot and then I did some studies.

On Thursdays I have a sleep in because class doesn't start until the afternoon, but 7:30, a girl knocked hard on our door three times, so I went up and opened it, she asked for a german girl that doesn't live here! Annoying indeed, it's the second time this happen, but last time the person knocked on the door in the middle of the night, asking for someone who didn't live here.... Anyway, I spent some time at the gym before class. This day we had a lot of reading exercises. After class I  went to Freehand with my roommates and Sasha together with a group of other students from EF (over 25) and had some drinks, it's a nice place and they had a good happy hour deal. 

Friday - Last day with Margot because she's living on Saturday.

I finished class before noon, then I went with Margot, Sasha and Fosca to Sawgrass Mills again, Margots last wish to do before she'd go home, and who can say no to Sawgrass? ;-) 

But I behaved, only bought a couple of shoes on sale and some gifts. But yes, it's like impossible to walk around there without finding things you like. If I come back to Miami I will certainly do a revisit to Sawgrass Mills, I just love shopping there. They have everything! So that's how we spended o

ur Friday night before getting to bed to save energy fort Kennedy Space Center.

  

Saturdaymorning, we were supposed to wake up around 5:10 and pick up the rental car at 6, but for some reason didn't my phone ring...Luckily I woke up 6:30, and jumped out of bed and we went off to the car rental. We had 2 hours to get the car after 6 so it was still there when we arrived. So we finally hit the road, but since we started almost 2 hours later then planned, we ended up in a traffic jam....In Miami they have reconstructions everywhere, outside the school, every other block and ofcourse on the highway. So we were stuck for almost an hours before the traffic started to roll. It was around 3,5-4 hours drive up to Kennedy Space Center, we arrived around 12:30. The weather was great, but very hot, so we tried to take breaks inside where the AC was. It was a rocket park with different rockets that had been used before. We saw some 3D movies where they talked about NASA history and the different projects and astronauts that has become heroes. They had a big hall of fame - astronauts, it was beautiful. We also went on a bustour around the area of NASA, headquarters, launch site of the rocket and Apollo center where they had the gigant spacerocket Apollo 8 and its firing room. It was so cool! The rocket is not really small....I felt very small next to it. Even if I'm not a science geek or typically keen of space I found Kennedy Space Center remarkably interesting. It's a great deal, that mankind have reached the moon and outer space. It's so much hard work and belief behind NASA's achievements and I respect every single one of those who works in this area. I think it's too late for me to become an astronaut so instead of applying to Space Academy, we took a ride in the 3D virtualizor of a rocket launch, it was cool, but I can't imagine being stuck in a small space in several S. I prefer to have my feet on the ground. 

Anyway, we had a fantastic day! We found some nice souvenirs and felt that we had time to see everything we wanted to. When we came back to EF a bed was empty, Margot had officially left the building..But I think our ways might cross again someday, like with most of the great people I've got to know this last 3 months, I will probably go visit some of them in Europe and definately go to Brazil and visit some friends there :-)

 

After approximately 6-7 hours of sleep I woke up Sundaymorning at 7:30 to load with coffee, because this day we had our real Speaking exam for Cambrigde CAE. I was tired but my energylevel increased thanks to a slight of nervousness. I believe it went well, however we will not receive our score until the middle of September...so it will be a long time of waiting. But at least now I have one part done and can continue to focus on the big part on Friday. After the test I went for a walk before going to brunch. The afternoon started off very quietly with a nap, waited for my roomie Fosca to get back from Everglades. It had been raining all morning with a thunderstorm in the beginning, but it started to reduce, so when Fosca got back we took an Uber spontaniously to Key Biscayne to finally see the island we had heard about. We started in the south in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park where we found the lighthouse next to a nice beach. Then we followed a path through the forest right next to the sea. It was nice to get awat from the city and to be close to nature for once, can't wait to get back to swedish nature again. Key Biscayne seems to be the place where residents go with their families on picknicks, so we where probably some of the few tourist on the island. We left the park and took an Uber up to Virginia Key to se the historic beach, which wasn't so much to see. Apparently it was the first beach in history here, but I must say that I prefer South beach ;-) Next to the historic beach we found the worlds highest sandcastle, about 14 meters. It was a piece of art with different famous buildings for example Colosseum, Pisa, Big Ben, Eiffeltower, Brooklyn Bridge, Taj Mahal and others, impressing! Then we took a long walk across Virgina Key until we reached Rusty Pelican, a restaurant/bar located in the north part of the island. We were hoping to see the sunset, but sadly 20 min before the sunset, a bunch of clouds appeared. The waitor forgot about us so we never got to order any food either so after 20min waiting and no sunset we left and took an Uber back to Miami Beach and got some dinner at Subway instead. Much cheaper too ;-) 

 

Last week is ahead and I have to start packing soon, which feels very surreal but some how also good. 

On Friday I have my Cambridge exam so I will try to use my freetime to study, but will probably end up at some spontanious tour anyway ;-) 

 

 

Hugs and kisses from Miami Beach

 

//Ellinor