bienvenida a Miami ( written yesterday posted today)

I made it to Miami this morning without a hitch! I had a good day observing CBP process fliers coming off international flights. It was really interesting; I would have enjoyed staying for more than one day. I think 85% of the employees I met were of Hispanic heritage and bilingual, and probably 95% had some amount of Spanish that they use for their jobs on a regular basis.

I had a full weekend leading up to today. I got packed up on Friday by movers, then had some things left that I decided to ship to myself via the APO address. Since my shipment will take so long to arrive, I sent myself some things that were too much to fit in my luggage but that I'll likely want sooner. My friends from church cooked a dinner Friday night that was "Sarah's food allergy-friendly" and we played games afterward. Joanna (yay!) flew in bright and early on Saturday morning, and we both crashed for a couple hours when we got to my apartment since it was a late night for both of us.

We had a late breakfast at the Original Pancake House, which we had thought was a local chain in Illinois, but it seems there are a lot more of them than we realized. They had a gluten-free pancake option, which I thought was delicious! Dan came up after lunch, and hung out through that evening, when we met up with some of my friends to see some of the DC sights at night.

Sunday was an emotional day, as I said good-bye to the new friends that I've become so close to in such a short time, then to my dear sister (it was great to see her, but the time was too short!), and even to my parents over Skype. I was in a cab at 5:00 this morning on my way to the airport, and here I am! I got a great little hotel just a block from Ocean Drive/South Beach in Miami, so it was fun to get out and walk after finishing work today.