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Hi there!
Another week passed by, which means another post in my blog!
This week started off with a nice Monday. As always, since I started the Cambridge program, my classes finish at 11pm every Monday. So after 11, I went to relax and work on my tan at the beautiful beach. The seagrass has disappeared more so it's almost possible to walk into the water without becoming a seagrass-monster.
During the evening I transfered some photos and hanged out with Fosca and Erika eating some icecream. Erika is a new friends of mine from Brazil, she arrived last week. It's nice to get to know some people in my own age :-)
On Tuesday it didn't happen so much besides that Erika took me and Fosca to a Starbucks which apparently is located only 3 blocks north from school, and I didn't know! I've never seen it before...so now I don't need to go all the way to Lincoln Road (9 blocks south) to get a real cup of coffee, I can just walk 3 blocks north and then I'll reach the paradise of caffeine. Thank you Erika, you made my day <3
Wednesday, another day at school until 12:35. After class I had a funny Skype-session with my family and a couple of friends to them. I spent the rest of my afternoon at the beach before dinner. During the evening I helped out with an event by the pools namned "Mocktails with Randy". Randy is one of the RA's at school. We made Mocktails which is like a cocktail but with no alcohol since this is a school where alcohol is forbidden. Even if you are way passed 21 years old, which is the age limit for drinking in USA. However, it was a nice evening!
On Thursday I went to the gym after breakfast, because my first lessons at Thursdays doesn't start until 12:45. Then class until 17:05 followed by dinner, Starbucks visit and a couple of episodes with That 70's show. I'm in season 4 now, just can't stop watching...;-)
On Friday we had a test in use of english and listening, and it went really well! I feel that I'm improving. Cambridge Advanced is difficult, just what I expected it to be and it's a real challIenge! I'm greatful for the proffesional teachers I have in my course. In the afternoon I worked in the reception with Chelsea who taught me how everything works. It was nice, met some new students and helped out with common campus-issues. In the evening me, Fosca and Erika went to Bayside Park to have som dinner at Hard Rock Café, because it was Erika's last night in Miami. Ivan and his daughter Annie, also from Brazil, joined us aswell. They are also students at EF. We had a nice dinner and drinks at Hard Rock. I tried the Legendary Burger with a nice glass of red wine. It was awsome. After dinner we went for a stroll at Bayside Marketplace and looked in some stores and Erika could get her last souvenirs before returning home. Me and Erika got ourselves some dessert at Häagen Dazs icecream shop, which was very tasty. After a magical evening at Bayside with a view over the bay of Miami, we went back to EF.
On Saturday I worked at the front desk a couple of hours in the morning. Then after brunch, me and my roomies Margot and Fosca took an Uber to Miami Seaquarium. We had bought a Summerpass for 58$ shich includes entrance to 4 different parks/museums in south Florida, and the aquarium is one of them. A relatively small park but with a lot of different animals. We saw dolphins, crocodiles, turtles, sharks, penguins, sealions, a 40 year-old killerwhale and others. The dolphin show and killerwhale show was awsome, but I couldn't avoid feeling sad seeing all these beautiful animals stuck in captivity and in small pools. The only time they looked happy was when they got a fish after performing a jump in front of a screaming audience. Some of the animals are in the aquarium because they have been hurt or damaged, which would make it difficult to survive in the wild. And that's what I tried to tell myself, that they are in good care. I hope. I think we all remember the movie "Free Willy". I mean, who wasn't affected by that movie?! The funny part was when the killerwhale made such a splash so half of the crowd got soaked. I laughed, because I had taken a seat higher up so I wouldn't be wet, cause I wanted to take photos with my phone. Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon, it was very hot outside, so we felt quite unfresh when we got into the Ubercar. But that was easily fixed by a shower when we got home. After dinner I did some laundry and just had a chill evening in my room.
Sunday - a spontanious and crazy day.
I woke up at 9:45 and decided to go the gym before brunch, which felt good in body and soul. After brunch I was supposed to be a Airport-greeter, you know the people who stands with signs etc. and welcome new arrivals? Yeah one of those, but for EF students. But 15 minutes before, I got a text which said that I wasn't needed...so I was annoyed because I usually try to use my free weekends to look around and do trips, but if I'm working it's not an idea to book anything. So there I was, sitting surprised in my room and suddenly had the afternoon off. Spontaniously, did me and my roomies take an Uber to the Science museum - which we thought was included in our Summerpass. But when we got to the Frost Science museum, they told us that our passes wasn't valuable for that museum, it appeared to be another Science museum in the west of Miami.....So surprised and a bit disappointed, we walked away. Since we already were in downtown, we felt that we should use the time. So Fosca came with the great idea to go to the Vizcaya Gardens and Museum. An old mansion with a beautiful house with a lot of French style in architecture, furniture etc. The garden was beautiful, a labyrinth, fountains and a lot of pretty flowers and decorations. A nice and quiet afternoon. It's so nice to get away from school sometimes just to get some silence. 700 people can make a lot of noice at one campus, I can tell you that. So we took a stroll around the garden and also in the house. It was nice to do something cultural. After our little trip we decided to take an Uber to Little Havana, but the Uber driver dropped us off in a neighbourhood somewhere in the area of Little Havana, not the main street we thought off..after walking for a while we found a Walgreens supermakert, so we bought some water, then we realised that the time was 5:30 and we were all tired so we ordered a new Uber and went home. When I got back, I just had a quick refresh and dinner then I went to help out at the frontdesk to do one of the RA's a favour. But it turned out to be a very peaceful evening so we were more people than they needed. So I went back to the room and did my homework so I had it over with before going to bed.
Only 5 weeks left, tomorrow week nr 9 starts. Crazy how time flies.
Wish you all a great week!
Hugs and kisses from Miami Beach <3
//Ellinor
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