Bienvenidos a Miami!

Good evening friends and family from Miami Beach at night! I've decided that this might be the easiest way for me to let everyone know how I am doing, and what I am doing, in my new city of Miami, and with my new job with Frito Lay! So I will be updating this hopefully on a regular basis.

These past couple weeks have been fun, interesting, and at times very frustrating just trying to get accustomed to the way of life down here, especially knowing that when I drove through the last tollbooth the Latin woman asked for my passport, in Spanish, and then said Bienvendios a Miami! This is a very unique and exciting city for many reasons...probably mainly b/c the entire eastern side is a beach, it seems that many stores and shops are open all hours of the day the further south you go, and English is not the main language, nor is it in the top 3 or 4 languages! The weather is very nice, and rumor has it that it is nice year round, we'll see about that during this year's hurricane season. I could go on and on about what I've heard about this place, but I'll just share with everyone what I've personally seen and experienced thus far as the new King of MIA!

Last week I got to Miami, and had my first meeting with my company, and it went really well. They still seem to be excited about me, so I give it another couple weeks until their excitement wears off and they want to get rid of me. I then drove up to Gainesville to visit my parents, and sister and my niece and nephew Ashley & Austin (they were in town visiting for a week or so). Now Gainesville is about 325 miles north of Miami, which is close enough that I could visit my parents, but far enough away that I should never get any surprise visits from them! We all had a great time, and just hung out and enjoyed good family time for a couple days! Ashley is just over 2 yrs old and enjoys singing, and would sing like Ariel to me, which was very cute! Austin is about 5 ans 1/2 now, and is very kind and funny...must run in the family. Also, while I was in G-Ville, I got a new Camry, and I like it a lot, my only concern is how long it will last with all these crazy Latin American drivers down here that believe it or not, do not have turn signals installed in their vehicles, and left, right, and u-turns are allowed from any lane that you choose. It should be fun.

Well, I then got to Miami last Friday, April 4, and had a fun experience meeting an Ultimate Fighter in a gas station, that was very kind, and would like to hang out, but intimidated me enough so that I might just hang out so I am not found in an alley some night. As I was trying to get gas and a bite to eat, I then realized that you either speak Spanish, or you will have a hard time getting by, b/c nearly every single person speaks Spanish. I am fortunate that I also speak it, so thus far it has been fun, and reminds me of my mission I served for my church in Santiago Chile.

I have spent a lot of time, in fact almost every hour outside of work looking for an apartment to live in, and up until yesterday it has been horrible. Its very unfortunate, the real estate market in Miami is, how do I put this, not doing so well. In fact, every single place that I have looked at has coincidentally been in either foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, or the steps before pre-foreclosure begins. As sad as that is for those people, what that means for me is a headache of trying to determine how long I can live in a certain place before the bank takes it completely and removes all tenants; so I could have anywhere between 30 days and no more than probably 180 days in a place that is going through foreclosure. This is irritating b/c the owners do not want to share this "unimportant" info with me b/c they would be able to collect my first and last month's rent, and security deposit, and then if it gets taken, they take my money and run.

So I had not been able to find a place until yesterday when I met a very nice guy, Julio Triana, inside a bldg off of Collins Blvd in Sunny Isles Beach, which is North Miami Beach. He showed me a couple places, including his own where he introduced me to his wife and family, showed me some family pictures, and then topped it off by inviting me to his mother-in-law's birthday party with his entire family! Here I was, this 6'4" 225lb gringo, standing around with about 12 5'0" - 5'7" Latins, eating empanadas, chocolate cake, and singing Feliz Cumpleanos, and I was taking photos for them! It was a fantastic time, for both them and me, and even more amazing that they are so open to allow me into their home, to share that family time together...loving people! As a result of those fun times, I am going to be living with Julio's son, Jonathan, in a beautiful apt over looking the coast, so it will be fun and exciting next 9 months, probably more so for him than me.

This is the view from the pool, and our balcony... not too bad!















This morning I woke up and decided that I wanted to have just a little fun, so I drove to South Beach, and spent a few hours there walking around people watching, and enjoying the beautiful weather, that I have gotten very spoiled with just after two weeks, I love it, and trying to hang out with Will Smith...Dominican women with cinnamon tans! South Beach is funny, b/c you take Miami, and all the stereotypes of craziness and fun, and then multiply it by like 100, and you end up with South Beach! I saw a a lot of interesting things: a guy about 35ft up in a palm tree, throwing coconuts down to a guy that was trying to catch them in a trash can, but only caught maybe 1 out of every 4, and the rest were being dodged by pedestrians walking by, I am not sure how many drunks I saw, but a lot, I saw dogs that were bigger than me, many guys holding hands with guys as they roller-skate by, and girls holding hands with girls, and some other not so funny things, and many other funny things! I actually was able to enjoy a front row seat to the "AVP" I think it's called, which is some big Beach Volleyball Tournament with about 25 nets set up, and there were multiple matches and games and fun things to see and do on the beach around it. There was also some Miami Heat music dj, with a loud stereo system with the Miami Heat dancers and entertainers doing stuff for everyone-fun.


I started out at Lincoln and Collins and walked south about 20 blocks south to what is called 1st and Ocean, and then back up, which almost killed me, and especially my feet, b/c I haven't done much ejercisios lately! I really want my close, and beautiful friends Joshua and Michelle to know how much this meant to me, to see where it all started for them....

And to top it all off on Miami's South Beach, I was able to watch what I consider the most awesome thing ever, a live filming of Tru TV's "Beach Patrol: Miami Beach!!" My buddy Dave and I once spent hours watching Tru TV, and he told me before I left that I'd better get on that show! Unfortunately and fortunately I was not on it, but at least I got this as a souvenir from it...I love you DNix!

Well everyone I'm signing off, I know this was long, and for those that know me know that I am long-winded, but I hope you enjoyed it, b/c there will be many more coming in the weeks and months to come...and I plan on it only getting more and more exciting! I hope all of you are doing well throughout the country. Have a great week, I love all of you so much! Ciao for now!