South Beach to Doral

Ill begin by back tracking from the weather. It is perfect most of the time. It is South Florida, so sometimes we have horrible storms that made it difficult to get to class. Weather causes an issue because poeple in Miami already are very poor drivers and when it rains it feels like you are moving 1 mile in an hour.

The prices differ depending where you are in Miami. I lived on campus in Florida International University so the food and entertainment around me was not so expensive, however my dorm was $3,900 per semester (or 4 months). Finding a cheap apartment takes some time because most apartments are extremely expensive. If you go to South Beach, be ready to spend a lot of money if you are going to eat at most the restaurants by the beach. However, I would always eat at Beach Paradise Hotel (Ocean and 6th) and it was fair priced and delicious food. It is not worth living by the beach because it is extremely expensive and far from most schools.

Traffic there is horrible and the bus's in South Florida do not run as often as in Europe. Your only realistic option is to find someone with a car or rent one (which I am not sure how much that is).

As far as entertainment and partying, there is always something to do. My personal favorite is Wynwood art district because the art is really cool (they have art galleries and something called "Art Walk" which I believe is once a month). The best part are the bars (Wood Tavern and Brick House), they are kind of hipster but, if you want to dance you can go to Shots. They are really strict with IDing. In South Beach, if you're a girl and know a promoter, you might be able to get into a club without being 21. However that is impossible for men. Also most women get in for free (again good thing to get a promoter name) but, men pay anything from $40-$60 for entrance unless you're best friends with a promoter and bring a lot of women. I liked LIV and Mokai, not a big fan of Mansion and didn't understand the hype of it. Regardless, South Beach is very plastic and you have to dress nice, have to wear heels, and men have to dress nice (no jeans guys). I stopped going there my last year of college because I couldn't deal with the people there. Go out with your friends, don't expect to have a great conversation with anyone there because it's all about fake body parts and money. 

With respects to food, you have a lot of options from South America. However, you can find food from every country because Miami is extremely diverse. I fell in love with Colombian food and some Cuban foods as well! This will also show in custom and culture. Miami is bilingual however, if you don't speak Spanish in some places you will not get any help. It wasn't a big issue where I lived but, I know that certain parts of Miami are Spanish speaking only. There is a lot of pride of the Hispanic cultures all around Miami and can be enjoyable to experience.

As far as architecture and landscape, it is an architect's dream. FIU has one of the top schools for architecture and I made many friends there who love working as interns in Miami. You have every type of building from 50 foot hotels (Where club 50 is) to old villa type houses. It never stopped amazng me driving on the bridge from downtown to south beach. In the Gambles you can find very green areas and neighborhoods. When coming home from the beach in the evening, watch for the giant woman dancing (it is a lighted image on one of the tall buildings in downtown), hard to miss as I think it is about 40-50 stories tall!

Overall, I enjoyed my stay in Miami for college, however I don't like big cities and would not want to live there. The life is very fast paced and very egocentric. The people in most  parts are open and nice, the food is delicious, and you can never be bored. People come from all over the world to this big city and you can meet a lot of characters. I made my best friends in Miami and am greatful to the city for that!