Plot Twist

Mention Miami to anyone outside South Florida (or really anyone outside Miami-Dade), and they instantly think of one thing: South Beach. South Beach, the drinking, the partying, best time of your life, etc. etc. etc. Now, anyone who actually lives in Miami knows that South Beach is highly over-rated, and really, really expensive. The best place to go if you want a drink and a little clubbing is Coconut Grove. The Grove is pretty much the place for a night out if you're a student at the University of Miami; me, being an introverted, largely party-hating, not-into-getting-plastered person, had never been. Until last night.

I know what you're thinking: "Sarah, it's a THURSDAY NIGHT. Don't you have class in the morning or something?" Well, not exactly. The way Miami schedules a lot of their classes (mostly business and communications classes...), a large portion of the student body does not have class on Fridays. This has given rise to the tradition of "Thirsty Thursday" among students. In my prior three years at Miami, I've always had a class of some sort pretty much first thing Friday morning, so even if I had the desire to go out, it was out of the question. This time was different: I have one class on Fridays, at 1:30PM (plus work after). The reason for this is so I can devote my mornings to research out at RSMAS, but I'm currently labless, and therefore have the whole morning free (hence the blog post). Plus, we've only had two days of classes so far, so there's not much in the way of homework yet. Thus while I initially refused when Hannah walked in last night and invited me to The Grove with Julie and Lindsay, I though about it, and figured I've never been, I don't have class until 1:30 tomorrow, I don't have heaps and heaps of work like I will later in the semester, and I'll be going with three people I really like and am completely comfortable with, so why not? And so I went.

Both Lindsay and I were "Grove Virgins," so Hannah and Julie were determined to give us a good time (luckily they both know us well enough to know that our definition of a "good time" is very different from most Miami students). First we hit up Moe's - a bar styled like Pub 199 back home but with only one animal head rather than using them instead of wallpaper. We decided to split two Moose Juice's - the house specialty - between the four of us. Hannah and Lindsay were more focused on drinking the thing, while Julie and I too small, careful sips, trying to figure out the flavor combination in the "top secret" recipe (we decided there's definitely pink grapefruit, coconut milk, a dash of pineapple, and vodka).

Then we went to Sandbar, which I could tell at a glance was the main club of The Grove. While getting in had a little hiccup (the people checking IDs suspected Lindsay had a fake, even though she's the oldest of all of us and has been 21 for almost a year), once we were in, it was packed. I ran into a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a while (Bree, Shannon, Colleen), and had a mini Galapagos reunion with a bunch of group pictures (Megan, Abby, Sara G, Christy, Alex). The music was way too loud, but still nothing compared to Carnival, so it wasn't terrible. The early music was questionable, but then the DJ started playing things like Living on a Prayer and the dance remix of Don't Stop Believing, to which Julie, Lindsay, and I badly sang along to and danced like dorks (chicken dance, anyone?). At one point in the night, we pretended to be rednecks, which evolved into replacing some part of each song's chorus with a rendition of "Vote Mitt Romney" as a massive inside joke (we got some really funny looks, but it was too loud for most people outside of our little dorky dancing circle to hear what we were actually saying). 

In all, I had a great time, though I don't think I go again. I feel like last night was one of those magical nights that can never quite be matched. It was a unique mix of circumstances: the people whom I went with, the fact that it was both Lindsay and I's first time, the musical taste of the DJ, and seeing a lot of people again for the first time in months. Anything else is just going to be disappointment. It was a great night, and I want to savor the memory.