Travel report: US - Miami

Place: Miami, Miami Beach (they are 2 different cities)
Time:  August 2013
Hotel: Double Tree - Hilton ***** (Bloody yeah!!!)
Company: a group of Russian teachers and students and me

Practising English, flirting with strangers, being scared while riding buses and metro, relaxing in jacuzzi and swimming pool - that`s what Miami was:) All that for 2 great weeks!


The thing is we didn`t expect the appartments at all! I mean, we expected sharing a small room with strangers somewhere near the ocean and things like that. Nobody told us we`re given this! Five stars appartments in Hilton!!! With a jacuzzi inside the room!!! With a swimming pool and a jacuzzi one floor below!!! For students! Yeah!!!

Alligators like eating cans:)

I was seriously amazed by these automatic cash desks!

View from the upper floors: the closer one is our pool, the farther is of the neighbouring one.

These ones belong to our neighbours, I guess:) 

View from our appartment: the magnificient Miami storm sky!

Here we used to take our bus to Miami Beach every morning to be in time for classes.

Miami Beach

Yeah, I love Miami sky!

Lincoln Road Gallery Walk

Art Deco. Remember this. The style is called Art Deco.

Jerry`s Famous Deli - a nice place to have a dinner in. Cheap and tasty! Warning: big portions!

Ocean Drive in the evening

Other localities

At the front of the bus you (hardly) can see transportable holders for 2 bikes!

And here under the seats are special fastening for wheelchairs. The seats can be removed and a chair can be promptly fasten. By the way, this is the bus driver who does it. 

First time at Shake Shack waiting for my first for so many years burger! The buzzing device was a surprize! "I scream. You scream. We All Scream For... Frozen Custard!" 

EC Miami School

Amazing EC staff! Special thanks to Mark and Allie!

 Fake cameras in the coridor will keep you safe:))

Welcome sign 

That was a bad idea to walk in Miami in the evening, we were really scared of the absence of... somebody in the streets and quickly decided to come back...

Trip to Dadeland Shopping center for my Lenovo tablet:) People, where are you??) (Saturday, 12 am)

The Camera tree. 

Miami Beach

Sherlock Season 3 episode 3 failures

1) The Spectacles

For not a single moment I believed that the spectacles might be a device. Honestly. I was deeply dissapointed, that Sherlock thought so (it was written that he thought so). For the God sake, he told himself, that the files can`t be kept on a computer because it can be hacked! What hard drive are you talking about then?! "Sherlock" is not a sci-fi movie, and there isn`t any technology like that by now, except for the Google Glass, but it looks like a Bluetooth headset put on in a wrong way! 

2) The Guards

At the first meeteing Sherlock and John were searched for the guns. At the second one neither Sherlock nor John were searched. You saw the result, a quite logical one. Some say, that`s because Magnussen considered them both harmless, but can`t he, such a smart disgusting buisnessman, do something just to be sure?

Well... I still consider Episode 3 the best of the season, really:) Nevertheless, the idea of working with fans this way, taking into account their ideas and mocking at the same time, was pleasant, a real delight! If you ask me, Sherlock BBC is still my favorite TV show ever. Just because it is that unpredictable and crazy, but witty and charming. Doctor Who is Doctor Who - it has the same features, both series are outstanding. But... 

Doctor Who has about 3 generations of people grown watching and loving it. In 2010 I turned on my TV knowing nothing about what I was going to see. And noone knew. (Well, almost noone, you understand). So I was among the first ones. The earliest explorers, you may call us. And it is amazingly thrilling to have the feelings remain the same. 


Thank you.

Sherlock. Season 3 episode 2 failures

1) The Case

Would you come to a detective  in the evening and torture him with your case, being aware that he is drunk? I wouldn`t. Why she leaded him to the "crime scene"? For what? For him to lose conscious there? And where was Mrs. Hudson? Why she didn`t show the door to the nurse once she saw her? The case really wasn`t a life and death question, she even didn`t look frightened that much. The scene was so long and doubtful that cause disappointment. There`s enough humor in the series.

2) Her Majesty's Household Guards

I doubt that it is allowed to common people to walk in the building where the guards live. The first two soldiers ought to have noticed him, I can`t find any reason why not.

3) The Wound

If you can easily feel a paper cut, how thin the blade must have been for the guard not to feel it? Show me, please!

4) The Case (again)

The case was just too easy for Sherlock to solve it that long. Even I began to suspect the photographer even before this scene.

5) Drunk Sherlock

Hmm... On the one hand, I don`t remember any connection between Sherlock and booze. On the other, he smoked and took drugs (in original), what he doesn`t do now, so we reach balance this way. But: Sherlock began to resemble Sheldon too much. It must be Sheldon who resembles Sherlock, not vice versa. Actually, they are quite similar... but Sherlock doesn`t have stupid habits, caused by psychological disease, which Sheldon has (and a lot). So he shouldn`t gain Sheldon`s manner of behavior. My thought: Please, don`t make him Sheldon! DON`T MAKE A SITCOM OUT OF "SHERLOCK"!

(Actually, they don`t seem to. Prepare a shock blanket for the episode 3;))

Sherlock. Season 3 episode 1 failures

Well, I needed two days to recover...

Fine. The episode was a delight! For fans especially:) The last version of "how he did it" seems to be generally convincing, as it explains the little girl, Molly`s involvement, the necessity of John to stand where he was. But for one thing: the sniper. So, there are particularly 3 points that I didn't like about the episode:

1) "There`s always an "off" switch. Terrorists could get all sorts of problems if there isn`t an "off" switch."

Bullshit. Terrorists could get all sorts of problems if there WAS an "off" switch.  A way to prevent the blow - yes, but would you place it on the bomb or on the control panel in your suitcase instead? Or hide it the way no one could guess where it is? "No, let`s just put an "off" switch, no one knows bombs have ones!"

 












Look for the one when you happen to deal with a bomb:)

2) Blowing up the Westminster? Really? Did you watch American blockbusters a lot?

We all love stories about secret tube lines under the main governmental buildings, but are really bombs in the "car" and some in the tunnels to the surface enough to blow up the building that way? Don`t be ridiculous!

Unless... Unless you mock the tradition:) Well, then.

UPD Sorry, didn`t know it is actually V for Vendetta (2005) reference, sorry

3) THE SNIPER 

In the s02e03 we see clearly that the sniper folded up his gun and walks away calmly after the fall. The same sniper who has come earlier, unfolded it and aimed at John. Now they tell us, that "Mycroft's men interfered before he could take a shot. He was invited to reconsider." meaning, his sniper simply shoot the Moriarty`s one (we are shown the target of his). How on Earth would he have walked away if he was shot "before he could take a shot"?

 




 








And if not shot, but blackmailed or something... is it really so simple to convince Moriarty`s people in something?

Well, the episode was not without flaws. "Everyone`s a critic" Right you are!