And some more cheese please..

Friday 26th @ Area31, myCeviche, Kukaramakara

Thought that the weekend needed a post of its own for the pictures. After a quick make-up and some changing of clothes we were off to start the night with happy hour at the Epic hotel at Area 31. The view from their terrace is something special, that along with nice music and absolutely amazing cocktails is the perfect start on a great night. We got a little hungry and thought we had to fuel up with some food before hitting the Salsa club we planned on visiting, Said and done we went to myceviche for some fast food a la Peru. Super delicious and one of my favourite dishes - hard to not be a success in Emelie world.

After that we went to the Salsa place, Kukaramakara, which is a Colombian place. They would have a live band playing later on so we went there early to make sure we wouldn't have any problems getting (since we were 8 girls). What a place!! Everybody was open and fiendly, laughing and dancing everywhere - Why can't Stockholm be a little more latino a la Miami? 

A guy came over an asked me to dance with him. Ok, I'm not that skilled when it comes to dancing, these long legs and arms are not so easy to control. They are usually all over the place - preferably in someones face or spilling someones drink. But since I absolutely love to dance I said yes. Why not? 

Here in Miami I've made a commitment to myself to say yes to everything (as long as it's not dangerous or illegal). So we danced. And he was really good. Showed me the steps and tossed me around like a little doll. It gave me some confidence and after that I never stopped dancing. It was so much fun.

Me and the girls from work Cristina, Janira and Luisa

Saturday 27th @R house, Brick house, Blackbird and Baru

I treated myself with a sleep-in since my girls were a bit too tired to go to the beach. When I woke up I got dressed and walked over to the mall that's pretty close to me. Took a manipedi for my aching sore feet (dancing is not to take easily aooch) and bought a new bag (ok I admit it.. I bought two new bags.. but they were soooo pretty and whispered that they wanted a new home). 

I was a little upset that the sun was shining so nicely and I didn't have a car to get myself somewhere. So I decided to get some lunch and sit outside. Yes the crazy Swede is out and about again. WHO sits outside when ts crazy hot and there's AC inside.. well I do. Sat there for an hour or so,..enjoyed my Icetea, my salad and my crossword - just like an old lady.

After that I had to go home and start to make myself ready, Luisa had invited me to go with her to a friend's birthday dinner in Wynwood. Usually I'm really quick and get ready on a couple of minutes but my feet and legs were still aching a bit so I wanted to take a warm bath before heading out. Maybe sounds crazy when its 30+ outside but it was exactly what I needed. 

Luisa picked me up around 8 and we went to R House which is a place in Wynwood where Patricia had her dinner. Wynwood is an urban artsy hipster kind of area here in Miami. It's filled with galleries and graffiti walls and you can tell that it used to be a warehouse and manufacturing district. Many places are a bit rough when it comes to the interior design. Restaurants has kept their pipes and vents visible and a lot of concrete floors. It's a laid back and cool area to hang out in. You can wear whatever you like and doesn't really need to dress up compared to the high-end clubs at the beach. 

But since I've now found the dancer within we decided to leave Wynwood after a quick stop at an outdoor bar. Instead we went to Blackbird which was packed with UM students. The atmosphere yelled party so we got our groove on and danced until we ended up at Baru once again, where we basically danced the night away. Just love that place.

Actually I still haven't been to a place that I didn't like. Every place is different from the other, but they all have a thing in common they are filled with happiness!

On our way home we stopped at a Venezuelan place, a hole in the wall. We ate a cheese bread with cheese filling that was topped with cheese. We also had some kind of bread with a meat filling. Looked like pita bread with pulled pork basically. Both dishes was absolutely delicious (and super unhealthy hahaha) I'm not sure I can go back to a life without all this amazing food. I'll be depressed.

Sunday dear sunday. I had sat the alarm to make sure I got up if the weather was nice. So at 9am I jumped (ok I crawled - my legs and I wasn't really best friends after this weekend with dance a la super workout) out of bed and packed my little Emelie bag, yeees I have a little sportsbag that has my name on it it's purple and super pretty. Anyway I met up with Luisa, Carolina and Pricilla - it was beach time. The weather was absolutely perfect and the water was wonderful - no jellyfish so I was happy happy.

I can't say it enough... THIS LIFE I TELL YOU!! #recipeforhapiness

How about some cheese?

Monday 22nd - Wednesday 24th.

Of course I got a guilty conscience from the burger frenzy I had at B'n'B. People who know me know that I'm not a runner. It bores me to death. But I told myself I would end up as the American Biggest Looser contestants if I didn't get my myself to some kind of exercise after eating crazy delicious stuff like that. So.. said and done.. I put on my little running shoes and went out on Coral way. Managed to run around 3,6km. As I said I'm not a runner, people who don't know me might think that isn't an effort.. but believe me.. this heat combined with the shape I'm in.. also walked the same distance back so 7,2 km isn't that bad. I was so proud. Go Emelie!!

The day after I was a bit sore from the exercise, but still super happy by the fact that I actually managed to gather some character and do it.. My legs wasn't up for another run but I thought I could always manage a nice walk. Took my camera and walked on Miracle Mile towards the golf course. It was a wonderful evening and a beautiful environment and turned out to be 3 km back and forth to course and 3,6 km around the course. Perfect, mental note for next run.

At work I got the opportunity to listen in when one of the teams presented their plan and recommendation for an upcoming campaign to the client. A good job! Since the TV market is so different here from compared to the Swedish market (as I told you earlier) - so is the collaboration focus. For this specific campaign they had worked out quite a lot of collaboration ideas and sponsorships with different vendors and channels. In Sweden those ideas would probably be collaborations with the big digital vendors and media partners instead.

A thing that crossed my mind is that sometimes having a lot of suggestions actually can make the client indecisive. I know I'm like that myself. If I get too much to choose between it ends up with me having a really hard time to make a decision. So I think if you present like that, you also need to have set your mind to what you as a consultant believe most in, what are your favorites - and sell those ideas a little bit more than the others, know by heart why these ideas would rock this campaign and make sure you have prepared answers to possible upcoming questions as good as you can. Then you give the client a large smorgasbord with opportunities but also ease the decision making for them.

This is one of the views from the golf course at sunset. It's Magical

Thursday 25th @places (don't remember their naaaames)

Me and some of the girls from work decided to get Mexican food for lunch. We went to this place, not entirely sure but think it was Mi Rinconcito Mexicano, OH MY GOD. I died and went to food heaven. You start off with home made ships and Salsa. After that we ordered an amazing guacamole and tacos for starters and as you can see on the picture we also had a dish with cheese and choritzo ;) and another one called Pollo en Mole which is chicken in a Mole sauce. That sauce.. well hello.. we could be best friends.

In the evening Luisa took me to a place that had a reggae band playing so I could dance away the calories from lunch. A perfect ending on a super day.

Friday 26th @the office

Started the day with this little Darling and some scrambled eggs. It's called pan de bono, which basically is a cheese bread. It was, as you can imagine, a bit heavy but I absolutely loved it and didn't really get hungry for lunch. But went down to the café and bought a salad. Yeeees they have some healthy alternatives too. It was a fine sunny day so I enjoyed my food outside in the sun reading a book. 

It was a bit windy though. Didn't rally think of that until when I had finished my meal. So I sat there, totally focused on my book, and the wind got hold of what was left of my salad.. and spread it everywhere. Got vinaigrette all over my arm, luckily I had taken my sweather off. Thank you dear weather god - you made me smell like vinegar and fish.

Got a bit frustrated and ran up to the bathroom to wash it off. Guess what was waiting for me on my desk when I got back? A package from my mother with Swedish candy. I got soooo happy and totally forgot everything about fishy smells and vinaigrette arms. 

Because there's something I truly miss from Sweden - our candy. I absolutely LOVE salty licorice and there's no such thing here. The shelves are filled with chocolate bars and M&M's. I let some of the people here try our Swedish salty licorice and as many others (yes I try to make all my foreign friends taste this) the did not really enjoy it. Coca-Cola flavored gel candy was apparently much more likable.

Pan de bono - the Colombian cheesy breakfast thing, A little piece of heaven right there.

I miss thiiiiiis.

All happy before any windy salad disasters.

A car, a burger, a beach and David Guetta

Friday 19th @LIV 

We heard that David Guetta was going to play at LIV so I met up with Carolina and we went over to the beach to pick up Diuli. When we got to Fontainebleu the line was crazy. Guess there were more people than us who thought of this brilliant idea. Anyway we hung out in the blue bar for a while until our friend had pulled his strings to get us in.

It was worth the wait. What a night, what a show. Can't really believe that this man is 47 years old? I will probably not have the stamina to keep that energy up when I turn 47.. :)

Saturday 20th - Sunday 21st @thebeach and Burger and Beer Joint

When I got home i set the alarm for 7.30. Yes I like to punish myself after a night out, or not, I had an appointment with the rental company to pick up a car at 8am. After that I just crashed into bed and actually wanted to cry when the alarm went off. I was so tired, but felt awesome. Was extremely happy that I had been smart enough to focus on drinking water the night before instead of other things. 

Went across the street to Sears and picked up my car, a lovely little Ford Focus. It was perfect. Yes you could now think that I would go back home an sleep a couple of hours before i went out exploring Miami. Nope, with google maps and the direction function I sat my course to THE BEACH. No way I would miss out on this privilege now that i finally had a car. 

Driving in Miami is not that bad. Not in my opinion anyway. Didn't really know where to go and had no sweet spots when it came to parking so I just drove to South Beach. Went down to the beach, made sure I had sunscreen all over and laid down. Spent the day half sleeping and swimming in the ocean. I was in heaven. In the afternoon it started raining and I went home to my precious bed.

Woke up pretty early the day after. Texted Carolina and picked her up to enjoy the perfect concept from the day before. After a couple of hours at the beach we got kind of hungry and went to get one of the most american experiences you can have. We enjoyed huge burgers, milkshakes and amazing skinny fries at Burger and Beer Joint, of course watching football since it was football Sunday. I can't even explain how good it tasted. 

Pretty good weekend huh?

Miami Update

Hi Darlings!!

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a car for the weekend. Fingers crossed for good weather so I can visit the beach because today it's been raining - POURING. I got soaking wet just for a 100 m walk with umbrella during lunch. Being outside it's not that bad because the temperature is still around 28 degrees, but inside at the office.. burr. Got both my sweater and my scarf on me, don't have time to get sick.

Second week is almost over and I'm actually starting to get a bit stressed that the days are going by so fast. I absolutely love it here and I know that the 6 week exchange will be over before I know it. Anyway I've been a busy bee for a week an a half. A lot of work and a lot of fun, so the update part has been suffering. I know. Very bad. But therefore - a picture bonanza. Wihoo, happy day!

Happy hour in Brickle Friday 12th

I got the honor to join some of the girls from work for a happy hour with their friends after work last Friday. I can't state enough how friendly people are here. They are so open and social and make sure to really include me on all that's happening around me.

Calvin Harris @ LIV Saturday 13th

I started my Saturday with walking around Coral Gables. It was really good weather but clouds were stacking up. Treated myself with a manipedi and the best coffee I've had so far in the US. Found this little french place called "le petit café" and the woman there did an amazing caffe latte. 

Later on I met up with Carolina, one of the girls I met for the first time the day before (see, I tell you that everybody's so friendly and including me?). We we went to LIV to see Calvin Harris and had an awesome time dancing all night long. That club.. Haha it's something i tell you. It's really different from Sweden. All the bartenders are girls. Ok that's maybe not a life changer but it's different.. AAAAaand they are having VERY little clothes on, like hotpants  stockings and a bra - donät think that it would. Oh and of course they're having the go go dancers as well. Love those, they really know how to move.

'

Media seminar @Biltmore Hotel Tuesday 16th

 I got to go with some people from the office to a media seminar at The Biltmore Hotel. What a place. Very old fashioned and classic and HUGE. Apparently they have a great golf course but most important I saw a very nice pool area *mental note*. Microsoft had invited us there on a breakfast seminar to present their new launch of MSN. I think they're moving in the right way. It looked good and they have some smart approaches to meet the "on-the-go"-life. Will probably be released shortly if it haven't been already.

Salsa time @ Baru in Brickle Thursday 18th

So we went for dinner at a place here in Coral Gables that's called Hillstone. We ate some amazing smoked salmon and some sushi. Since it was pretty empty with people in all the bars, and Janira had to go home, me and Luisa decided to go to a hispanic place in Brickle. I had such a good time. It was perfect. Salsa and reggaeton music all night long so the über tall swedish amazon girl was happy happy.