26/12-14: So I went to Miami...

Wal-Mart's missing people board - one woman had been missing since 1989!

Literally drenched in paint...

Going through security check before entering the festival

The gang after the first night of LIC festival

Me, Marie Ale & Dani ready for day 2 of LIC

One of the stages - more than 60,000 people!

The hotel room was.. tight..

Næsten inden julen var helt ovre fik jeg pakket tasken og fanget et lift til Miami. 

Vi var to grupper GRSP'ere (i alt 22 personer) som skulle være dernede ovre nytår, og der var allerede nogen som havde sørget for at booke to lejligheder hvor vi alle skulle bo..... 

Troede vi... 

Det viste sig nemlig da vi ankom kl. 7.30 om morgenen, at der ikke var nogen lejligheder til os.. 

Det viste sig at hjemmesiden var blevet "hacket", og en tredjepart havde fået fat i beskeden vedrørende lejligheden, og efterfølgende overbevist dem der bookede om at pengene skulle overføres til ejeren af lejlighederne i UK - og det var naturligvis en røver. 

Vores situation var altså at vi stod 4 personer i Miami, og yderligere 3 som kom senere på dagen (og endnu flere et par dage senere), og vi havde ikke noget sted at bo i den absolut travelste uge hele året.

Det eneste vi rent faktisk vidste med sikkerhed var at kl. 16 startede Life In Color (en musikfestival), og den skulle vi altså til.

Life In Color (LIC) er en elektronisk musikfestival hvor de sprøjter maling udover publikum - det lyder måske ikke specielt interessant, og jeg havde været i tvivl om jeg overhovedet ville med til en festival hvor de udelukkende spiller elektronisk musik - men det var altså MEGA FEDT!

Vi brugte de første par timer af vores morgen i Miami på Starbucks hvor vi fik fortalt alle de andre at der ikke var nogen lejligheder, og i øvrigt forsøge ikke at gå i panik over at være hjemløse i Miami. Da panikken begyndte at indfinde sig en smule tog vi en lille pause for at købe hvidt tøj til festivallen - hvor man jo selvfølgelig skal bære hvidt så man kan se malingen der bliver sprøjtet på dig. 

Vi besluttede senere at det ville være umuligt at finde en lejlighed hvor vi alle kunne være i med så kort varsel, så i stedet bookede vi et hotelværelse til de næste to nætter, så vi i det mindste havde et sted at sove (du kan se hvor tæt vi boede på værelset på sidste billede). 

Da vi endelig havde fundet et sted at bo som vi også kunne betale os fra, skyndte vi os at tage i Wal-Mart for at købe mere hvidt tøj (og øl :-) ) - og her fik jeg taget mit aller første billede på turen af den lidt chokerende "missing" opslagstavle de havde. 

På trods af en kaotisk og skør start på ferien fik vi på en eller anden måde lagt det hele lidt bag os og havde en virkelig god aften :-)

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Almost before Christmas was over I got my bags packed and I caught a ride to Miami.

We were two groups of GRSP's (22 people total) who were going to spend new year's eve down there, and someone had already taken care of booking two apartments for us....

Or at least that was what we thought.... 

As it turned out when we arrived around 7.30AM, there were no apartments for us...

We found out that the webpage had been "hacked", and a third party had gained control over our messages regarding the apartment and convinced the people paying that the money had to be transferred to the owner's account in the UK - and that of course turned out to be a scam.. 

So our situation now was that we were 4 people - with 3 more coming later that day (and another bunch in a few days), and we had no place to stay in the without a doubt busiest week of the year. 

The only thing we knew for sure was that at 4PM Life In Color (a music festival) was going to start - and we were going to go!

Life In Color (LIC) is an electronic music festival where they spray paint all over the audience during the concerts - it might not sound very nice, and I was also very much in doubt if I wanted to go to an electronic music only festival - but it was SO AWESOME!

We spent our first couple of hours in Miami at a Starbucks telling the rest of the 18 people that there were no apartments for us, and trying not to panic about being homeless in Miami. When the panic slowly began getting to us we decided to take a break and go out to buy white clothes for the festival where you obviously needed to wear white so you could see all the paint you got on you. 

We later decided that it would be impossible to find a place where all of us could stay with such short notice, so we booked a small hotel room that we could actually afford for the next two nights and that way we at least had a place to sleep (you can see on the last picture how tight it was).

When we finally had the accommodation for the night checked off we rushed to Wal-Mart to buy more white clothes (and beer :-) ) - and this is where I finally had time to take my first picture in Miami of the slightly chocking bulletin board of missing people.

In spite of a chaotic and crazy beginning to our vacation we managed to put it all behind us for a bit and had an amazing night at the festival :-)

25/12-14: Christmas is here

Our tree at Theresa's mom's house

Most of the cars outside the house

Our tree back at Moore Crossing

Så er det blevet jul i USA - den 25. vel at mærke. 

Den 24. var der ikke noget særligt på programmet, og det var da lidt trist at se hvordan alle hjemme i Danmark fejrede juleaften med deres familier. 

Jeg fik heldigvis facetimet en hel masse med min familie, så det føltes faktisk næsten som om jeg også var der, og så var det ikke så slemt :-) 

Om eftermiddagen havde jeg fået arrangeret at invitere hele familien på æbleskiver. 

Det lykkedes mig at finde en professor på universitet som havde en æbleskivepande jeg kunne låne, og jeg fik vist lavet omkring 60-70 lækre æbleskiver :-D Så blev det lidt julet alligevel!

Til aften var jeg ude at spise med to venner fra Brasilien, som også plejer at fejre jul den 24.

Det endte med at vi inviterede dem begge over til den store familie julemiddag dagen efter, men en af dem var desværre ikke helt rask til at komme med. 

Den 25. tog vi tidligt over til Theresa's mor som er flyttet til Valdosta for et par måneder siden. 

Der startede vi med morgenmad, og omkring kl. 9.45 kom der gang i gaveåbningen. 

Som I kan se var der flere gaver end der var plads til under træet, men de var alligevel alle sammen åbnet på under en halv time :-) 

Jeg fik selv en masse fine gaver, og mange flere end jeg havde regnet med! 

Efter gaveregnen skulle de sidste forberedelser til julemiddagen klares. Ligesom Thanksgiving er det ikke aftensmad, men mere en sen frokost man spiser, og mange af retterne er de samme. 

Jeg havde lavet brune kartofler, rødkål og ris a la mande som tilskud (samt et par andre småting) - der var dog alt for meget ris a la mande, så vi nåede aldrig at finde mandlen.. 

Vi havde en rigtig hyggeligt eftermiddag, og var hjemme ved en 19-20tiden - jeg skulle nemlig have pakket til Miami og der var afgang ved 22-23tiden. 

::::

Christmas has finally come to the US - the 25th of course. 

We didn't have anything special planned for the 24th, so it was kind of sad watching everybody back in Denmark celebrating Christmas with their families. 

However I Facetimed with my family a whole lot, and it actually almost felt as if I was there with them - so it wasn't so bad :-) 

For the afternoon I had arranged to have the entire family here invited over for Danish "pancake balls" (Æbleskiver).

I had found a professor who had the specific æbleskive-pan that you need to make them, and I made about 60-70 delicious æbleskiver :-D That made everything more like Christmas!

At night I went out for dinner with two Brazilian friends who are also used to celebrating Christmas on the 24th. We ended up inviting both of them over for Christmas dinner the day after, but one of them was unfortunately not feeling well enough to join us. 

On the 25th we started out early and headed over to Theresa's mom who moved to Valdosta a few months ago. 

We started with breakfast and around 9.45 we were ready to open all the presents!

As you can see there were more presents that there was room under the tree, but somehow we still managed to open all of them in less than 30 minutes. 

I got a lot of really nice presents too, and many more than I had expected :-)

After the present madness, we started taking care of the last Christmas dinner preparations. Just like Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner is actually a late lunch, and many of the dishes are the same as for Thanksgiving. 

I had contributed with a few Danish Christmas dishes such as "brown potatoes" (caramelized potatoes), red cabbage, and ris a la mande, which is a cold rice pudding dish with chopped almonds in it as well as ONE whole almond. Whomever gets the almond, gets a small present, but I had made so much that nobody ever found it.. 

We had a really nice and relaxing family afternoon, and about 7-8 we went home. I had to get ready and pack my suitcase for Miami and I was being picked up around 10-11.