Miami – Postcards from GW

Summer Plans

AdminJune 4, 2019June 4, 2019

Summer is right around the corner. This Thursday I’ll be done with my final exams and all my papers and I’m really excited so I’m going to take a break from studying and write about my summer plans!

From May 11 to 15, I’ll fly from DC to Denver and back. While I’m in Denver I’ll be meeting up with a childhood friend who I haven’t seen since 2014. I have no idea what we are going to do apart from a 14er hike, but I’m super excited to see him!

On May 17, I’ll officially say bye to DC and head to York in Pennsylvania again. I’ll be spending Friday night with my cousin to celebrate the end of my semester!

On May 18, I’ll take the train and arrive in NYC just in time to celebrate the birthday of a couple of friends. I’ll be in NYC till the 27th. During this time a bunch of my high-school friends are flying in and it’ll be fun to have a mini reunion in NYC. I’ll make sure to get a bagel while I’m there because I’ve never had one and apparently that’s weird.

On May 27 I’ll be flying out to Miami, and if you’re looking for me, I’ll be spending most of my time on the beach till June 3. Hopefully I’ll get a tan because that just isn’t possible in DC.

On June 3rd I’m going to fly out of Miami and go back to LA (during Spring Break I fell in love with LA and I just had to go back). I’ll be in LA for 2 days, and then on June 6, I’ll drive out to Las Vegas. I’ll get their just in time for my birthday on June 7 and that should be fun! Hopefully, I’ll have time to visit the Grand Canyon during my 3 days there.

On the 9th of June, I’ll be flying towards San Francisco. I’ll have 2 full days to visit this city and I’m looking forwards to squeeze in as much as possible in this time frame.

On June 12, I’ll be on my flight back to NYC. I’ll be spending my last night in the US there with a couple of friends who’ll still be around.

On June 13 (the last day of my 30 day grace period) I fly out to Paris where I’ll be spending 3 nights there before heading back to my grandparents house to attend my family reunion just in time!

If you’re interested in following my adventures while I’m visiting all these cities follow me on instagram: @Anthonyscheercuzy, cause unfortunately, my exchange semester at GWU is coming to an end and which means that so is my run with this blog!

Fall break adventures

AdminOctober 13, 2017

By sarajebbar

Fall Break is coming! Whoaaa! As students, breaks are always the best thing that can happen in school. But before talking about Fall Break adventures, I would like to talk about my recent activities and discoveries in Washington DC. The highlight of my week here in DC is going to Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias' concert. In Morocco, we don’t usually have such big concerts with famous stars. So, I have always dreamt of going to a big concert like the ones in America. But having my two favorite male singers in one concert was the perfect realization of my dream. The tickets were expensive, but it was so worth it. The concert was insane and I’m so grateful for being here and having the chance to see them singing live.

As you may know, midterms are coming. And since I’m so lazy to start studying, I figured out that I need an extra motivation to do so. There was no better place than the Library of Congress. As GWU students, we can register easily and for free to get a library card and have access to the library facilities. Finally, it was a good decision to come here. The library is so beautiful from the inside and it has a very sophisticated style. It is true that the fascinating architecture distracted me from time to time, but it’s such a nice place to study in while keeping playing the tourist.

Even the 2 midterms that I have right after the Fall Break wouldn’t stop me to have a nice vacation. The destination for this break was Florida. I spent two days in Orlando and two days in Miami. If you go to Orlando, you’re probably going there for the amusement parks. The main ones are Walt Disney World and Universals Studios. We chose 2 parks in one day option in Universal since we wanted more thrill rides and to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I’d say that this day was the one in which I had the most fun in the US. It was a really unique experience that you can only get in Orlando. That was one item checked off from my world bucket list.

We ended our trip in Miami. I rented a bed in a hostel in front of the beach. The location was amazing for such a cheap price. I fell in love with that city. The weather is warm and nice and the beaches are beautiful. In general, the city has a chill and vacation vibe. It also has a vibrant nightlife. Once the sky starts to darken, you can hear music everywhere in the streets. Miami reminded me a lot of my hometown Agadir, which is actually located right across the ocean. And since I lived almost all my life in a coast city, going to the beach for Fall Break was the best way to relax and forget about studies. As an exchange student, I feel like studies are not the number one priority but after this, I believe it’s time for me to settle down for a while and start working for my midterms. Stay Tuned!

IG: @Sarajebbar

Fall Break

AdminOctober 13, 2017

By evavilloslada

The Fall Break has been simply awesome. In a short period of time I have done so many things I don't know even how to start. Me and four other friends decided to go to Florida, but not only to one place, we wanted to go to Miami and Orlando, so that's what we did.

We started in Orlando, everyone knows that the outlets there are amazing and who does not love shopping? I completely do, so we spent the first day shopping. The outlet was huge, you would need more than a day if you want to go inside every shop, and there were so many sales that the temptation to buy was really big, at least for me and my friends. I bought five pairs of shoes, and I didn't spend that much. In Spain, brands such as Nike and Adidas are very expensive, but in Orlando I bought a pair of Adidas for 25 dollars when in Spain they cost 80 euros. You can imagine how happy I was that I had found such a bargain.

Other thing everyone know that you have to do if you visit Orlando is going to one of the parks. I am a fan of Harry Potter, so I didn't have to think about which park we should go, I chose both that have The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Island of Adventure, and Universal Studios of Florida. It was quite expensive, 175 dollars for both parks, but as I said, I'm crazy about Harry Potter so I didn't really mind paying that much. We were kind of scared because it was supposed to rain during the whole fall break, but we were lucky and it only rained when we were finishing the Park, so we could do most of the things we wanted to.

Although both parks were amazing, the main attraction was The Wizarding World. They had all the places from the movies there, from the Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, and everyone was wearing shirts and clothes from Harry Potter. There were many rides and restaurants to eat, everything imitating the films. My favorite ride was the one inside of the castle, it was like you were playing a Quidditch game, and the 3D was amazing. It was like if you were really there. Even the waiting was good because while you waited you were walking inside the castle. The other thing I loved was that you could take the Hogwarts Express from one park to the other, and it was identical even in the inside. Clearly if you like Harry Potter this is your place. If you don't like it you would also have a great time. Two of my friend haven't seen the movies, and they loved it, so I think you should go either way.

It has much more things to do than the Wizarding World, two amazing roller coasters for example, water rides, 3D rides, Springfield, etc. The other ride I loved was the Jimmy Fallon Show one, it was like if you were racing through New York in a Ferrari and it really felt like it. I was in New York last weekend, and I can say that it felt really close to being actually there, it was really impressive.

We finished our Sunday going to Disney Springs to walk around and have dinner, there were many restaurants there and it was beautiful to see it at night. Unfortunately we were so tired we didn't go downtown, I have heard it is really nice but we didn't have enough time to see it.

Monday morning we took a bus to Miami. We had the apartment in Ocean Drive, just in front of the beach, so we walked around and took some pictures at the beach. Then we went to one of my favorite places there, Wynwood Walls. The whole neighborhood has painted walls, and the place where the famous ones are is amazing. I really loved the art, some painted walls were really special and they change some of them during the year. There are only few ones that always stay there.

We also went to Bayside where we took a cruise to see everything, I loved it, you could see all Miami and the islands from the boat, and the views at night were stunning. They even showed us the millionaires' houses and a few yachts, it really makes you feel jealous, at the end of the day everyone wants to be rich. The tour lasted one hour and a half and it cost 25 dollars, which I think is worth it, although it would be better if it was free.

Our last day was sunny, so we spent it chilling on the beach and enjoying the sun. The beach in Miami is a really good one, and there weren't many people because it was Tuesday morning, so it was really nice. Then we finished our trip walking down Lincoln Road and visiting some souvenirs shops there.

I really loved Florida and I am planning on coming back, even if we visited many things, four days is not enough to see everything. The good thing is now I have an excuse to go back.

From the Snow to the Sun – Spring Break 2017

AdminMarch 24, 2017

By sophieheard

Nothing screams Spring Break more than Miami. Sunshine, the beach and delicious food all rolled into one week of festivities. What was meant to be a week of relaxation turned into a week of adventure. We had managed to get ridiculously cheap flights from New York and so on Monday morning we hopped on the Megabus and headed up to the city ready for our flight on Tuesday. This wouldn’t have been an issue if it wasn’t for storm Stella. On Monday night New York was hit by a blizzard and we woke up to the city being covered in snow. Everywhere in the city was closed and all the flights for that day were cancelled.

The night before the storm we met up with my friend from New York and headed to Cantina in Harlem for the best tacos and burritos! Luckily another group from the exchange program was staying in the city for the week and so we stocked up on supplies and crashed at their Airbnb for a couple nights. Stranded in New York we decided to make the most of the snow and go exploring. For the city that never sleeps, it was a rare opportunity to experience New York without the hustle and bustle. As we were headed to Miami we weren’t exactly dressed for the weather. We bundled up in as many layers that we had brought with us and headed down to Central Park. Although it was not what I had in mind when I pictured Spring Break, the city in the snow was beautiful and was worth missing our flight.

We headed to the Newark Airport early the next morning hoping that there were some spare seats on the upcoming flights. Luckily, 15 minutes before takeoff we managed to get two free tickets and were on our way to Miami! A couple of hours later, we had said goodbye to the snow and were basking in the sun on South Beach.

There was a large group of us staying at an Airbnb in South Beach. The week was spent chilling at the beach, having BBQs out back and gorging on the best Cuban food I’ve ever had. We headed over to Wynwood Walls to explore the amazing street art and decided to stay in the area to enjoy the St Patrick’s Day celebrations. If there is one thing I’ve learnt is that Americans don’t know how to do anything low-key. They had everything from green coloured drinks, food trucks, vintage clothing stalls and live music.

After a week relaxing and having fun in the sun it was time to return to reality. As our flight was at 6 am the following day we decided to not book accommodation for our final night and go the full 24 hours. We checked out at 10 am and spent the rest of the day at the beach, before returning to one of our favourite places of the trip for dinner Ball and Chain and finishing the trip off at Story. At 3 am we grabbed an uber to the airport and made the long journey back to DC.

Spring Break was exactly the adventure I expected it to be. Miami was the perfect combination of fun and culture and completely lived up to the hype of Spring Break.