A Visit to MiamiTravelling together with friends was a dream for me. Each summer I travel with my family and I really have a fantastic time. However, as a teenager I was looking for something else. I wanted to spend more time travelling with friends than family members. This is because my friends were very interesting and I enjoyed myself more travelling alongside them. I also learnt a lot by being around them. My dream to travel with my friends grew day by day and the impatience grew by the day. Finally, my parents agreed to my constant nagging and permitted me to spend my spring break with my friends in order to make me feel a little bit independent. To me, this was a dream come true and I was so elated about it. They also thought this was going to be a reminiscing and exhilarating experience in my life and also an opportunity to learn about other people’s cultures and lifestyles.

My four friends together with I finally met and decided on a suitable location to travel to and spend the spring break. I can still vividly recall the events that unfolded on that day. We met on a Sunday evening and sat around Ameraus dolphin-shaped pool. Edith was the most beautiful and scintillating girl amongst us and she wanted us to spend the spring break in a serene, interesting and secure location. She suggested that we travel to Paris and kept convincing us to accept her suggestion. Nonetheless, none of us agreed to his suggestion. The rest of us felt we needed an interesting and lively location where girls could have the best of all manner of fun and as such, Paris was not the best option. Based on our previous knowledge of Paris, we generally felt it was more of a formal set up and could not offer us the fun we anticipated during the vacation.

Sara, who was commonly known to be nerd girl amongst us, then suggested that we should visit Greece. To her, this was a good opportunity to visit their homeland. She tried convincing and nagging the rest of us to accept his suggestion but none of us could swallow the bait. We though going to Greek to learn their culture, spend time in museums and libraries and travel around were not the best kind of fun we wanted. After a rather boring evening full of disappointments and disagreements, an idea finally struck my head and I asked, “What about Miami?” Luckily, I did not get any opposition from my friends as they all unanimously backed up my idea. I was very excited since we were a few steps away from setting out to go to the trip. However, a lot still had to be done.

Preparing for a trip became more challenging than we had previously anticipated. We spent quite a considerable amount of time learning about Miami, the scenes and places we would visit and the kind of inhabitants. Surprisingly, I even experienced challenges choosing the most suitable items to carry in my bag while I was packing. I carried enough clothing, swimming costumes, hats, camera, and shoes. I however had some hurdles choosing the best clothing based on the weather we were likely to experience once we arrived there. I really waited for this day to come. I became more nervous and impatient as the days dragged.

The long awaited day finally came. It was Thursday 20th of March, 2011. Every detail of the events that took place on that day is still fresh in my mind. We were all gathered at the airport waiting for our flight in Qatar Airways. Our families escorted us to the airport to see us off. I could sense some level of sadness in my parents as we waited for the flight to arrive. The departure time finally came and we couldn’t hold our tears of joy. We hugged our families goodbye and boarded the plane. Amina sat on a large comfortable seat in the first class while the rest of us sat in the economy class. The economy class was much cheaper for the rest of us who wanted to save money in order to spend more in Florida. As the journey progressed, I was unable to get my mind off the anticipations I had of Miami. I had huge expectations of the place and the people there. After seventeen hours of flight, we finally landed at Miami International Airport.

We got our luggage, alighted from the plane and boarded a taxi to a hotel where we purposed to reside throughout the vacation period. It really loved the sunny weather of Miami and the site of people walking around. The ladies and gentlemen in the region were so nice, welcoming and very friendly. They were approachable anytime and anywhere in case someone needed any form of assistance. In addition, they were so beautiful and almost resembled the models on the cover pages of magazines. Before we could get to our hotel, we dropped Amina in her luxury hotel which was Fountain Blue Hotel in South Coast then proceeded to our hotel in North Beach which was a little bit cheaper.

Miami proved to be more beautiful than we had ever imagined. We had a nice time filled with fun. Every morning we could wake up, go to the beach and enjoy the sun while taking part in almost all the activities one could find interesting such as jet skiing, banana boat which was rather scary but fun and enjoyable. At night we could extend the fun by going out and partying. As a matter of fact, we never went home before sunset. We had just two or three hours of sleep daily. Fatima, who was our photographer, never missed a moment without finding something to capture. To me, this was like a day dream and I never wanted to wake up from the sleep.

Two days before going back to Saudi Arabia, we decided to go to go to downtown to have a once in a life time experience of the ultra-music there. This was an event that only took part once every year and we felt lucky that in 2001 it took part while we were visiting. Despite not having had tickets, we tried our best to obtain them at the last minute and luckily got a chance to attend the event. The event was full of fun. The people who attended were very many and quite a number of them looked like gangsters and mafias, and this really made me scared. Nonetheless, we decided to have fun despite the fear that raged all over us. On various occasions, they could try to bother us and my friend Amina decided to ignore them and concentrate on having fun. This was indeed a good and mature attitude considering we were visitors. She kept saying that we could get quite some handsome and nice guys during the event. Nevertheless, we all agreed to just have fun and club all night.

Our vacation finally came to an end and we headed back to Saudi Arabia. It was a felt very sad leaving Miami. The fun, the pleasant people, the good weather, the good food, the beaches, the beautiful sceneries, and the hotels finally came to an end. Acrimony and pain of leaving all these got the better of me and at some point I could not hold my tears. This was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life. I had an opportunity to spend time travelling with my friends and that automatically was a dream come true for me. I also had a chance to learn about the culture of people in Miami through their lifestyle and their museums. I also learned to be independent, manage my affairs and make sound decisions while in the absence of my caring parents.

In addition, the vacation gave me a chance to integrate very well with my friend. I had an opportunity to learn more about them and that strengthened our friendship. I was able to understand them well and came to accept each of them with their unique differences. The happenings of the vacation brought a significant turning point in my life. Up to date, I am able to live with other people, accept them as they are and appreciate the uniqueness that everyone holds just because of the lessons I learned during the vacation. I can now be able to live in any country and with people of different culture and still relate with them cordially and in a friendly manner.