Today, Beth and I discovered just how strange some of the people in Miami really are.
After waiting until 4:00 to have management fix our stove, Beth and I headed out to South Beach once again. The first thing we did after getting off the bus was to find a place where we could buy a bus pass for the month of September. We found a drugstore that sold them, walked in, and stood in line for a little while before being helped. The young lady standing in line in front of us was wearing all black, a whole bunch of chains, and only part of a shirt. After a few minutes, she started digging around in her "shirt", and finally produced a rat. She proceeded to put the rat on her shoulder so that it could crawl around in her hair and over her shoulders. That was interesting person #1.
After that, Beth and I went to the Wolfsonian, which is an art collection owned by FIU. A man by the name of Wolfson was a collector of modern American art and previously owned all of the art in that warehouse before donating it to FIU. It was really a very fascinating collection, and most of it was American war propaganda from WWII or art that was commissioned as part of Roosevelt's New Deal.
When the museum closed, we took the bus back home. After getting off the bus and while taking the short walk back to our apartment, Beth and I met interesting person #2. This guy walked up to us and asked us our names, and when Beth said, "I don't have one," he said, "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to her," (meaning me). Beth said "she doesn't have one either," and we quickly walked toward the security gate and the door of our apartment. A few minutes later I took Francheska out for a walk, and he was standing outside our door and asked my name again. Without saying anything, I turned around and went back into my apartment. Since Francheska still had to go out, Beth and I decided to take a walk together toward the security booth in case that guy followed us again. We didn't see him again, but just now when Beth and I took our laptops down to the pool to use their internet, we saw him working out in the gym. Creepy.
Now what am I doing? Sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water while I type up this blog post. Paradise.
CYM countdown: 6 days
-Aly
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Life of a Miamian
Today, Beth and I were unable to do anything outside of our apartment since we had to wait for the guy who was going to turn on our gas for our stove and oven. They told us he would be there any time after 8:00 am, so we had to be in our apartment all day since he could have shown up any time. At 3:30 he arrived and told us that he couldn't actually hook up our gas since the apartment building had not provided us with a shut-off valve and had not actually ever hooked the stove up to the gas pipes. How did all of the previous tenants gotten by without ever realizing that? I don't know. After we reported the problem to the manager, he said he would do his best to fix the problem tomorrow, but he doesn't know what he can do since we didn't have the gas guy write down on a "red sheet" what needed to be done to the stove. Never mind the fact that I wrote down verbatim what he told us and gave that paper to the manager. This means that we have to stick around tomorrow for the apartment people to show up to fix our stove, and then another day for them to make another attempt at hooking up our gas. What a hassle.
Even though the gas guy left around 3:30, Beth and I still have not left our apartment. Why, you ask? The reason for this is that we can not think of anything to do. You may think that a city like Miami would have plenty of things to entertain two teenage girls. That is not the case, though. Any suggestions, anyone? It is true that we live in an exciting place, but it is probably more exciting for people who have the money to shop or who are 21 and older so that they can enjoy the bars and clubs.
CYM countdown: 7 days
-Aly
Even though the gas guy left around 3:30, Beth and I still have not left our apartment. Why, you ask? The reason for this is that we can not think of anything to do. You may think that a city like Miami would have plenty of things to entertain two teenage girls. That is not the case, though. Any suggestions, anyone? It is true that we live in an exciting place, but it is probably more exciting for people who have the money to shop or who are 21 and older so that they can enjoy the bars and clubs.
CYM countdown: 7 days
-Aly
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Adventures in South Beach
Today, Beth and I took our first trip into Miami/South Beach/Miami Beach. We had to wait until late into the day because of the weather and because of our appointment with someone who was going to get rid of the ants invading our apartment, but around 4:00, we were able to leave the apartment and have some fun. Trying to figure out the bus fares and schedules was difficult, but we think we are kind of getting the hang of it now. At first, we didn't know that you had to actually flag the bus down, so we missed our first bus. We finally made it to South Beach, though, and had dinner at the local institution, News Cafe. The food was excellent, and it was cool to be able to sit outdoors and watch everyone passing by. After that, we traveled across the street to the beach and strolled down that for a while, and then we took a little time walking down Ocean Drive and the Art Deco District. We didn't realize that our bus back home stopped at 7:00, but were able to finally find another bus back to our apartment that ran a lot later. In all, we only spent a little bit of time in South Beach, but it is mainly a tourist destination/boutique shopping location, so we feel like we spent just as much time there as was needed for two people living in Miami. Beth and I were both very happy, though, that we were able to say "Miami" when our waiter asked us where we were visiting from. : )
CYM countdown: 8 days
-Aly
CYM countdown: 8 days
-Aly
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Greetings from Miami!
Greetings from Miami!
I would like to apologize for taking so long to update you all on my situation in Miami. I don’t have internet hooked up in my apartment yet, and because of Hurricane Faye, it has been too windy and rainy to sit outside at the pool with my laptop, which is the only place with free wireless internet in my apartment complex.
As for Hurricane Faye, I believe I can already call myself a true Floridian since I have survived a hurricane. On Sunday, which was only two days after I moved in, I went to church and was informed of the hurricane by some of the people there. I was pretty freaked out since I had never experience a tropical storm before, but they told me all about how to prepare for it and what to expect. Luckily, I saw almost nothing of the storm. I have heard, though, that parts of Miami were really damaged by it.
Allow me to go back, though, and start from the beginning of my trip.
Thursday night, my best friend Julie showed up to help me with my packing. I really appreciated that since I had not packed a single thing before she arrived. She helped me to pack four HUGE suitcases (which I took on the airplane) and three boxes (which are being mailed to me). She stayed late into the night. I am SO glad that I was able to spend that time with her before I left, but that meant that I got little sleep that night.
Friday morning, my mom and I woke up early for our flight. Trying to give Pip (my kitten) Benadryl so that he would sleep through the flight was a disaster. My mom and I both got hundreds of scratches, and in the end, Pip still found a way to keep the pill in his cheek until we weren’t looking and he got a chance to spit it out. Trying to get through the airport and through security was also a nightmare. Between the two of us, my mother and I were carrying four very large suitcases, two howling animals, and two overstuffed “purses” (which is all they would allow us in addition to the animals we had as carry-ons). Trying to move it all was so hard that we ended up having to kick some of our bags across the airport to the ticket counter. The flight was also awful, since Pip and Francheska (my Chihuahua) were making A LOT of noise. In hindsight, though, it probably wasn’t that bad since the screaming baby in the seat in front of my mom was even louder than my two animals put together. When we arrived at Miami International Airport, we had to wait an hour for the car we rented. We drove to the leasing office of my apartment complex, and were informed that we were supposed to have with us a cashier’s check for a few thousand dollars for the remainder of the deposit on our apartment. We drove to the nearest credit union, where we had to wait an hour for them to fax my mother’s credit union to be sure that she had enough money in her account. On our way back to the apartment, we had to run in to the nearest supermarket to buy a litter box, litter, cat and dog food, toilet paper, and handsoap, while leaving the animals in the car in the billion-degree weather. These were things we thought we’d need immediately after getting into my apartment. We got back to the leasing office, and I had to wait another hour for the lease for me to sign, and to get my key. By this time, it had been twelve hours since I had eaten or since my animals had a chance to get out of their bags. It had been even longer since my animals had had food or water, since I didn’t give it to them in the morning before the flight. Then, I was FINALLY allowed into my apartment. Thankfully, my electricity and water were already turned on. After letting my animals out and giving them food, water, litter for the cat and a chance to go outside for my dog, my mom and I went out for breakfast/lunch/dinner. The rest of the day was spent exploring the apartment complex and putting some of my things away. Beth, my roommate, arrived around midnight that night.
The next day was spent grocery shopping and at stores like Bed, Bath & Beyond and Linens & Things.
On Sunday, my mother and I woke up early to go to church at Trinity Cathedral, which will be my new church and which is only a 20-minute bus ride away from my apartment. The cathedral is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The priest told me that a few of the people who attend church there also live in my apartment complex, and will probably be willing to give me rides. After church, my mom, Beth, Beth’s mom, Beth’s aunt, and myself all took a trip to Ikea, which is about 30 minutes away from where we are living. Since I flew out to Miami and couldn’t take much with me, I had to buy all the furniture for my apartment I will need. The five of us spent Sunday night putting together furniture.
Early Monday morning, Mom left for her flight back to Detroit. About mid-morning, Beth and her family woke up and took me on one last trip to Target, and also to the Social Security Office, because I lost my social security card and need it for City Year registration. Beth’s mom and aunt left around noon for the drive back to Louisiana, and then Beth and I had the place to ourselves! We spent some time looking for our mailbox, the pool, the trash dumpsters, and the laundry machines, and then spent several hours putting together the rest of our furniture. Then we hooked up our microwave and had our first meal in our new apartment (leftovers from the meal our families bought for us at TGI Friday’s the night before), and then went to bed early and exhausted.
That now brings me to today. Hopefully it will be sunny today, because Beth and I have seen nothing of downtown Miami yet, and would like to go exploring in the nice weather.
We have the next week to do that, though, so it won’t be too unfortunate if the weather is awful today.
As for Florida, it is absolutely beautiful. It has been the perfect temperature, even when it rains. The plant are beautiful, there are cute little lizards running around everywhere (including two that somehow got into my bedroom). My apartment is also great. I have a three-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment that I will be sharing with Beth and one other person. The bedrooms are kind of small, but bigger than the shoebox bedroom I have been living in for 13 years. We have a nice-sized kitchen and a large living room, which is also where we have the table we will eat our meals at. I can see palm trees outside me bedroom window, and the window in the living room faces the street, but isn’t too bad either since we can hear absolutely no car noises. We are on the second floor, which is good for security reasons, and is okay since there aren’t that many steps. The trash dumpsters that we have to carry our trash to are on the opposite side of the complex, but the laundry room is right next door to us. The complex is large and consists of 540 apartments. We are living in Miami’s design district, which is a small area sandwiched between the downtown area and the ocean. Fortunately, the bus stop closest to us is right next to our front door. We are also .1 miles away from Walgreens and Publix, which is the Florida equivalent of Meijer. All in all, I love Miami and my apartment.
When it is sunnier outside, I’ll go around to take picture to post here. That is, only if I can figure out how!
CYM countdown: 9 days
-Aly
I would like to apologize for taking so long to update you all on my situation in Miami. I don’t have internet hooked up in my apartment yet, and because of Hurricane Faye, it has been too windy and rainy to sit outside at the pool with my laptop, which is the only place with free wireless internet in my apartment complex.
As for Hurricane Faye, I believe I can already call myself a true Floridian since I have survived a hurricane. On Sunday, which was only two days after I moved in, I went to church and was informed of the hurricane by some of the people there. I was pretty freaked out since I had never experience a tropical storm before, but they told me all about how to prepare for it and what to expect. Luckily, I saw almost nothing of the storm. I have heard, though, that parts of Miami were really damaged by it.
Allow me to go back, though, and start from the beginning of my trip.
Thursday night, my best friend Julie showed up to help me with my packing. I really appreciated that since I had not packed a single thing before she arrived. She helped me to pack four HUGE suitcases (which I took on the airplane) and three boxes (which are being mailed to me). She stayed late into the night. I am SO glad that I was able to spend that time with her before I left, but that meant that I got little sleep that night.
Friday morning, my mom and I woke up early for our flight. Trying to give Pip (my kitten) Benadryl so that he would sleep through the flight was a disaster. My mom and I both got hundreds of scratches, and in the end, Pip still found a way to keep the pill in his cheek until we weren’t looking and he got a chance to spit it out. Trying to get through the airport and through security was also a nightmare. Between the two of us, my mother and I were carrying four very large suitcases, two howling animals, and two overstuffed “purses” (which is all they would allow us in addition to the animals we had as carry-ons). Trying to move it all was so hard that we ended up having to kick some of our bags across the airport to the ticket counter. The flight was also awful, since Pip and Francheska (my Chihuahua) were making A LOT of noise. In hindsight, though, it probably wasn’t that bad since the screaming baby in the seat in front of my mom was even louder than my two animals put together. When we arrived at Miami International Airport, we had to wait an hour for the car we rented. We drove to the leasing office of my apartment complex, and were informed that we were supposed to have with us a cashier’s check for a few thousand dollars for the remainder of the deposit on our apartment. We drove to the nearest credit union, where we had to wait an hour for them to fax my mother’s credit union to be sure that she had enough money in her account. On our way back to the apartment, we had to run in to the nearest supermarket to buy a litter box, litter, cat and dog food, toilet paper, and handsoap, while leaving the animals in the car in the billion-degree weather. These were things we thought we’d need immediately after getting into my apartment. We got back to the leasing office, and I had to wait another hour for the lease for me to sign, and to get my key. By this time, it had been twelve hours since I had eaten or since my animals had a chance to get out of their bags. It had been even longer since my animals had had food or water, since I didn’t give it to them in the morning before the flight. Then, I was FINALLY allowed into my apartment. Thankfully, my electricity and water were already turned on. After letting my animals out and giving them food, water, litter for the cat and a chance to go outside for my dog, my mom and I went out for breakfast/lunch/dinner. The rest of the day was spent exploring the apartment complex and putting some of my things away. Beth, my roommate, arrived around midnight that night.
The next day was spent grocery shopping and at stores like Bed, Bath & Beyond and Linens & Things.
On Sunday, my mother and I woke up early to go to church at Trinity Cathedral, which will be my new church and which is only a 20-minute bus ride away from my apartment. The cathedral is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The priest told me that a few of the people who attend church there also live in my apartment complex, and will probably be willing to give me rides. After church, my mom, Beth, Beth’s mom, Beth’s aunt, and myself all took a trip to Ikea, which is about 30 minutes away from where we are living. Since I flew out to Miami and couldn’t take much with me, I had to buy all the furniture for my apartment I will need. The five of us spent Sunday night putting together furniture.
Early Monday morning, Mom left for her flight back to Detroit. About mid-morning, Beth and her family woke up and took me on one last trip to Target, and also to the Social Security Office, because I lost my social security card and need it for City Year registration. Beth’s mom and aunt left around noon for the drive back to Louisiana, and then Beth and I had the place to ourselves! We spent some time looking for our mailbox, the pool, the trash dumpsters, and the laundry machines, and then spent several hours putting together the rest of our furniture. Then we hooked up our microwave and had our first meal in our new apartment (leftovers from the meal our families bought for us at TGI Friday’s the night before), and then went to bed early and exhausted.
That now brings me to today. Hopefully it will be sunny today, because Beth and I have seen nothing of downtown Miami yet, and would like to go exploring in the nice weather.
We have the next week to do that, though, so it won’t be too unfortunate if the weather is awful today.
As for Florida, it is absolutely beautiful. It has been the perfect temperature, even when it rains. The plant are beautiful, there are cute little lizards running around everywhere (including two that somehow got into my bedroom). My apartment is also great. I have a three-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment that I will be sharing with Beth and one other person. The bedrooms are kind of small, but bigger than the shoebox bedroom I have been living in for 13 years. We have a nice-sized kitchen and a large living room, which is also where we have the table we will eat our meals at. I can see palm trees outside me bedroom window, and the window in the living room faces the street, but isn’t too bad either since we can hear absolutely no car noises. We are on the second floor, which is good for security reasons, and is okay since there aren’t that many steps. The trash dumpsters that we have to carry our trash to are on the opposite side of the complex, but the laundry room is right next door to us. The complex is large and consists of 540 apartments. We are living in Miami’s design district, which is a small area sandwiched between the downtown area and the ocean. Fortunately, the bus stop closest to us is right next to our front door. We are also .1 miles away from Walgreens and Publix, which is the Florida equivalent of Meijer. All in all, I love Miami and my apartment.
When it is sunnier outside, I’ll go around to take picture to post here. That is, only if I can figure out how!
CYM countdown: 9 days
-Aly
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
My New Apartment
Yay! I finally have a place to live!!!
This friday, August 15, it the day I will be moving to Miami. For the past couple of weeks, it had been looking like I would have nowhere to live when I move in, which is unfortunate since I will have my cat and dog with me and wouldn't be able to easily find a hotel to stay in while waiting for my apartment to become available.
As of now, though, I am worry free!
I probably won't post again until after I am in Miami, but since I have wi-fi available to me in my apartment complex in Miami, I will let you know all about what happens once I get down there. If I have a stroke of genius, I may even be able to figure out how to post pictures of my new home.
Wish me luck, everyone!
Days until CYM: 15
-Aly
This friday, August 15, it the day I will be moving to Miami. For the past couple of weeks, it had been looking like I would have nowhere to live when I move in, which is unfortunate since I will have my cat and dog with me and wouldn't be able to easily find a hotel to stay in while waiting for my apartment to become available.
As of now, though, I am worry free!
I probably won't post again until after I am in Miami, but since I have wi-fi available to me in my apartment complex in Miami, I will let you know all about what happens once I get down there. If I have a stroke of genius, I may even be able to figure out how to post pictures of my new home.
Wish me luck, everyone!
Days until CYM: 15
-Aly
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Roommate Success
Unfortunately, a lot of stress has been added to my life lately because of a future roommate of mine who I have not even met yet! I will not go into details as to what actions of his or hers have been causing me all of this stress, but I will say that it involved arguments over acceptable housing and resulted in me wasting much of my time and energy. Today, though, we had a breakthrough. This difficult roommate of mine called me with an apartment (s)he found and was happy with, and that everyone else seems happy with as well. I am somewhat nervous about sharing an apartment with 4 other people that I have never met before and know nothing about, but some of that worry has now been alleviated; I truly believe that even if the year ahead of us is very difficult, we will still find some way to work through our problems and not get on each other's nerves TOO much. ; )
As for everything else concerning my fast-approaching departure to Miami, I have not yet started packing, like I should have, but I still have about a month until I leave. That should be plenty of time for me to pack and make all of my preparations, shouldn't it?? My "to do" list for moving is short, however. I will be taking very little with me, and don't have to arrange for a moving van since I will be either shipping all of my belongings or taking them with me on the airplane. What I do have to do, though, is buy a plane ticket (one-way!), make arrangements with the airline for my dog and cat, and find out how I'm going to store my car for the next year. Anyone know how to do that? I also have to pack and sign the lease on the apartment, or course.
People keep asking me if I'm nervous about moving away from home for the first time and traveling on my own to somewhere I've never before been, but I have to say that I am not very nervous at all; only excited! Really, though, I'm not sure everything has really hit me yet!
Days until City Year Miami begins: 37
-Aly
As for everything else concerning my fast-approaching departure to Miami, I have not yet started packing, like I should have, but I still have about a month until I leave. That should be plenty of time for me to pack and make all of my preparations, shouldn't it?? My "to do" list for moving is short, however. I will be taking very little with me, and don't have to arrange for a moving van since I will be either shipping all of my belongings or taking them with me on the airplane. What I do have to do, though, is buy a plane ticket (one-way!), make arrangements with the airline for my dog and cat, and find out how I'm going to store my car for the next year. Anyone know how to do that? I also have to pack and sign the lease on the apartment, or course.
People keep asking me if I'm nervous about moving away from home for the first time and traveling on my own to somewhere I've never before been, but I have to say that I am not very nervous at all; only excited! Really, though, I'm not sure everything has really hit me yet!
Days until City Year Miami begins: 37
-Aly
Thursday, July 3, 2008
The Search for Roommates
Today, an article about my upcoming year in Miami was published the the newspaper! Check it out at http://salinereporter.com/stories/070308/loc_20080703006.shtml .
Having spent the last two weeks in California on vacation and with only one month remaining until I leave for Miami for good, I realize now is the time I have to start getting serious about what is going to happen next year. I hope to visit Miami in mid-July to look for a place to live, but right now, I'm concentrating on finding roommates. There are two people who are for sure going to be living with me next year, but the search continues. The stipend I will be receiving next year will be very small, so I have to stretch every dollar of that. One way to help with that will be to find people to share rent expenses with. I will not meet any of my roommates until the day we actually move in, so it is kind of making me nervous that I know nothing about these people and what they are like. All of my roommates will also be City Year Miami corp members, though, so at least we will have something in common.
Countdown to the start of City Year Miami: 56 days
-Aly
Having spent the last two weeks in California on vacation and with only one month remaining until I leave for Miami for good, I realize now is the time I have to start getting serious about what is going to happen next year. I hope to visit Miami in mid-July to look for a place to live, but right now, I'm concentrating on finding roommates. There are two people who are for sure going to be living with me next year, but the search continues. The stipend I will be receiving next year will be very small, so I have to stretch every dollar of that. One way to help with that will be to find people to share rent expenses with. I will not meet any of my roommates until the day we actually move in, so it is kind of making me nervous that I know nothing about these people and what they are like. All of my roommates will also be City Year Miami corp members, though, so at least we will have something in common.
Countdown to the start of City Year Miami: 56 days
-Aly
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
