I'm in Miami Bitch!

Or I was... and I'm back minus a camera! :(

Miami was great! Totally not a city to live in, but if you want to meet the craziest people of your life then it is something you definitely need to experience.

We finished our midterms and headed off on our five day bender in South Beach, Miami.. all 20 or so of us. What we thought would have been a hilariously entertaining plane ride full of international students turned into the biggest sleep-fest imaginable. After our nap we arrived in Miami! We headed to the hostel we had booked in South Beach - it was like a club itself. We rocked up with bags in tow and waded through the crowd of like-minded travellers to our rooms. The hostel we were staying at arranged most nights for some type of hummer limosine to come and pick us up and take us to clubs for discounted rates - it was awesome!

Then we got mugged.

But that's the up and downs of travelling I guess, our group is without wallets, ids and cameras but we still have our passports and each other! As my Mum always says "you can replace things but you can't replace people!!" . Thanks Mum, you were in my head the entire time. I was lucky enough not to get mugged, but I think I left my camera in a taxi somewhere so some lucky bugger has some nice photos of Nicole and I in our bikinis on the beach! We think when we're famous whoever has my camera will show up trying to sell our photos with the american flag signs.

On a more positive note, I really did enjoy Miami after the bad start. We spent the time lounging on the beach and swimming in the Atlantic ocean. It was very warm compared to Oreti Beach at home!!! No ice floating by from Antartica... haha. Also ate a lot of sushi which was fantastic because I have missed it so much! Someone send me a $3 rice ball from Savoury Japan in Dunedin please!?

Aside from drinking, clubbing and dancing every night I actually did get to see some of Miami! A group of us went and did a 'duck' tour of Miami - you go in this massive boat thing that drives on land and in the water. Got to see Ricky Martin's house and Hemmingway's house which has some pretty tragic history. I took a photo of it for you Dad, but obviously I can't show you now!

I also went on another tour around the Everglades with a group of friends I met at the hostel. It was lots of fun and I got to hold an aligator! Very weird to touch - kinda like holding a massive tuatara. It was great though, we hired a car and drove around downtown Miami and saw all these big boats and people just living the dream. Some people have way too much money. I think this will be me one day. Just wait guys!

On our last night, the hostel took us in a pole dancing van to Nikki Beach Club which is this club right on the beach. It was awesome - had all these lounge chairs and things right on the sand where you could sit and just chill out. The clubbing scene is insane - and expensive! We met a promoter one night who took us to a club where he had a table... this meant that we got free drinks all night and the guys that have tables in miami leave like $1000 tips. RIDICULOUS. The money that is spent on losing your mind is insane in Miami.

The thing I liked the most about Miami was the cuban and latin american influences, I got to practice my spanish a little bit - which seemed to be better when I had something to drink! The buildings were really pretty though - lots of art deco. I was going to hire a ferrarri for the day one day, but thought the $2000 would be better spent during my trip through Europe before I come home.

All in all, Miami is a great place to visit, but I don't think I could ever stay there for more than a week - possibly because I would run out of money and become one of the crazies on the street. If you're ever in Miami, be super cautious of your belongings - it's definitely suitable for the tv series CSI. It was a great way to get away from the smallness of Chapel Hill here in North Carolina and just blow out before the university loads EVEN MORE work on us. It's not as though the work is hard (except linguistics perhaps...) there is just a continual flow of assignments. But oh well! Ignoring all homework tonight and we are off to see the Wombats in Carborro which is about a 10min walk! If you don't know who the wombats are then here we go.....

Hope everyone is well at home! Good luck with end of year exams and enjoy the sunshine :) it is starting to get cold here!!! Noooooo!!!

xx

Washington DC

Hey y'all!!!

Just got back from a weekend away in Washington DC with my friend Ashley, Amanda and Claire. It was amazing!!!! We spent the weekend in a hotel with Ashley's mum as she was down for parents weekend as Lindsey, Ashley's sister, goes to Georgetown university.

The Pileika's have to be the coolest people ever. We had such a great weekend!!

We went to Hooters in Virginia before arriving in DC... the ultimate american experience. Girls in booty pants and tight tops and dirty old men sitting staring at them. We got some wings and tshirts and left with a few photos haha.

On the Saturday we started the day at brunch with unlimited champagne and mimosas before going and visiting all the touristy things. I've put photos on my facebook if you want to check them out - they've been put out of order though but you get the general idea.

We went to the whitehouse, the washington memorial, the WWII memorial, the Lincoln memorial and the new Martin Luther King memorial which was being dedicated that day. It was such a beautiful weekend in DC - the sun was shining and of course the alcohol helped a little bit. DC is such a pretty city - especially Georgetown where we were staying.

That night we went out for mexican and then out to a few bars! There were dogs in the clubs! So random. Ashley's mum came out with us - she got hit on more than we did. The most hilarious night of my life. Finished the day off with a slice of pizza about the size of me!

On Sunday we went out for brunch again to this cute french restaurant. It was the best food I've had in America so far, and the cappaccino's were huge! Afterwards we went and visited Ashley's sister at Georgetown university. It only has 6000 people and has a big castle bit that looks a little like Otago. Got myself a sweet Georgetown sweatshirt - not too sure if I should wear it around UNC campus though.

We were going to go to the Holocaust museum but ran out of time as we had to get back to Chapel Hill. Went to KFC in some random town that we didn't know on the way home and the woman was amazed that we were travelling around by ourselves.. kinda felt like we were in a horror movie. KFC is the most disgusting thing ever. And they don't sell hot chips. Crawled back into the car and sang Westlife all the way home - to me, Ashley and Claire's delight and Amanda's disgust haha. Jessie you would be proud.

Tonight (18th Oct) we went to the North Carolina state fair in Raleigh. Amanda successfully drove Brad's truck out there in the pouring rain! The fair was insane. We had deep fried snickers bar, deep fried krispy kreme donut burger, deep fried cheeseburger, a massive turkey leg, deep fried oreos and chilli cheese fries. We also checked out the freakshow.. "spider girl" and the world's smallest woman. It was a bit sad. The spider girl was just creepy and it was totally just a mirror. They also had rides and games. I won a polar bear that has penguin feet... because this guy couldn't guess my birthday month within two months.

Off to Miami tomorrow! Can't wait for some sunshine and lying on the beach!! Hopefully the weather agrees. We are there for 5 days. First I have to get through a presentation to my linguistics class! Very nervous. They are all very intelligent. Thank god I'm pass/fail.

Lots of love

Pip

update!

Nicole is 21!

We celebrated her birthday at the Chris Brown, T-Pain and Kelly Rowland concert. It was awesome. I loved the dancing more than anything - and Chris Brown's final song had this awesome light show at the end. He and his backup dancers were in morphsuits with designs on the front in lights. It looked awesome. Watch this to see it.

Afterwards we got into this cab with about 10 people - over loading is not a crime here, so strange - and went to town in Raleigh. The cab driver was hilarious - calling out the windows to girls on the street stuff like "oh hey sugarfly sweetie I'll come pick you up later" and You should probably ask Knic what happened that night, although it is possible she won't remember - there are some photos on my facebook haha.

Not much else to report, it's starting to cool down here now but I managed to spend some time by the pool today reading my book. I'm looking for a coat to buy so if anyone sees one online that is reasonably priced let me know!

Hasta luego
Pip