Miami and Palm Beach, Florida

by Julie Tetel Andresen | March 24, 2017 |

The second-to-last stops on our Southeast Coast Road Trip were Miami and Palm Beach, Florida. I skipped right over this part of the trip and wrote all about Cuba, but I wanted to make sure I shared about this part of our journey too.

We stayed two nights in Coconut Grove. Our hotel did not have this view!

The building boom may have slowed in downtown Miami, but it’s alive and well in the neighborhood of Coconut Grove. It’s also the reason the waterfront views of older properties here keep getting eclipsed by new construction.

Almost everywhere I’ve been in the past twelve months – from Nishinomiya, Japan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to south Florida – cranes are a seemingly permanent part of any major (and minor) urban landscape.

I first commented on cranes in one of last year’s blogs: Globlalization Through the Lens of Malaysia

We didn’t go to Miami for the views, so the cranes didn’t matter. We went so that I could guest lecture in a linguistics class at Florida International University, which is taught by my co-author, Phillip M. Carter, and where our textbook is being used:

We have now made about $1400 in royalties from the book, which we are donating to the Endangered Language Fund

Miami and Palm Beach: Florida International University

Here are pictures Phillip took of me in the classroom.

It was a thrill for me to see students with their books open and passages highlighted. People are actually reading it! The students asked really good questions, and I was honored to have been invited.

Here the students are engaged in a group exercise to come up with proverbs from as many languages as they know:

On the blackboard is a Romanian proverb: Te faci frate cu dracul și treci pontea “You make a brother with the devil and you cross the bridge” = Sometimes you have to have to make a (bad) compromise to get something done.

The students produced proverbs from Spanish, Polish, Jamaican Creole, Chinese and Japanese. The exercise was related to Chapter Two “The Language Loop.” I was impressed with the range of languages the students in the class know.

I found the campus of FIU to be beautiful. It certainly makes the most of its tropical setting with rows of royal palms everywhere.

Delia could not help but notice that in Romanian FIU means ‘son’

Fountains are also everywhere:

In the building behind the fountain is a food court

This fountain is ringed with study cabanas/swings:

The lobby of the humanities building is a tropical treat:

Everything is open-air and breezy

All in all I was impressed with the campus and the students.

Afterwards Delia, Phillip and I went to dinner at Pueblito Viejo #2, a Colombian restaurant. From the outside it looked interesting enough:

8285 SW 40th Street, Miami

The inside was riotous!

The ceiling is an explosion of flowers and stuffed animals and dolls and what-have-you

We loved it!

Phillip and me

Delia and me

Miami and Palm Beach: A Night on the Town

Then it was on to drinks at the Sonesta in Coconut Grove:

Seventh floor restaurant terrace where Phillip and I began writing our book in 2014

We got there after sunset, and everything was dark… so once again, we did not have this view!

The next morning I couldn’t resist swinging by the Biltmore Hotel in the Caddy:

No, we didn’t stay here. Yes, in taking this picture, I am being ridiculously pretentious. Hey, it’s South Florida. You’re supposed to be pretentious

Miami and Palm Beach: West Palm Beach

We continued on our Miami and Palm Beach, Florida trip. The last stops in our East Coast extravaganza, namely West Palm Beach and Palm Beach.

For lunch we chose Rocco’s Tacos and Tequila Bar on 224 Clematis Street in West Palm. The ceiling is not as riotous as the one at Pueblito Viejo but at least it has some spangle-y stars and a hanging bicycle: