9 hours and 4 movies later, I know… shocking (but side-note, if you haven’t seen The Greatest Showman yet, go and watch it), I touched down at Miami international airport. I was immediately greeted by a blissful 28 degrees and a stunning sunset, quite the opposite to the last few weeks back in the UK. I am here in Miami to attend EBS Miami, my home for the next 3 weeks where I will be learning all things bartending.
We are staying in a dorm so if you’ve read my previous blogs on hostel experiences you would know that this time I wasn’t taking any chances, I came prepared with earplugs and all! Of course, the one time I come prepared, my fellow room mates all seem to be no trouble at all!
The first day was epic, we started school at 9 am and to begin with we began to learn 6 new cocktails as well as some basic flair movements. I’ll throw my hand up and say there were a lot of dropped bottles and glasses… thankfully they were all made of plastic. I can also safely say that I am not a fan of a Tequila Sunrise… A Cuba Libre and a Rusty nail, however, are much more up my street. At the end of the day, a group of us went to South Beach where I tried my hand on the beach’s open gym, doing some weights is quite difficult when some meathead right next to you is doing double the weight. After doing some sort of workout, but mostly just watching in awe at some of the exercises these guys could do, I went and swam in the Ocean. The weather was perfect and the water didn’t disappoint either. The evening was serene and after a long day of making cocktails, it was amazing to just chill there in the water and watch the sun go down over the Miami skyline, creating one of the most picturesque sunsets I have ever seen.
We got back from the beach at around 8, after which I pretty much crashed out, only to wake up at 4 am due to the time zone differences, which was a little frustrating, to say the least as once I was up, getting back to sleep was not an option.
The second day certainly backed up the excellence of the first, we practised the same six cocktails and free pouring once more, improving our skills each time. Later we were lucky enough to find a bar serving $1 dollar burgers! As you can imagine I certainly didn’t waste this opportunity. No one seems to have grasped just how much I eat yet… they will.
So the first couple of days have been an absolute blast and best of all, no sunburn yet! I’m doing the English proud. Tomorrow we learn another 6 cocktails so I best get studying up.
Until next time, Cheers.
