At the same time, Miami feels like a foreign land and completely familiar. My hotel is a ten minute walk from the ocean. I spent much of yesterday and today along the beach. Yesterday felt like being inside a wind tunnel because of the strong ocean gusts. But I still somehow managed to get a little sunburnt. The architecture in South Beach is like nothing we have in the midwest. Everything is clean shapes and lines. Lots of circles and squares.
And the women. My God, the women. Physically, they aren’t that much different than women anywhere else, but they dress and carry themselves in a way that demands attention and a little awe. I think midwesterners have a certain sense of discretion about their own bodies that simply doesn’t exist here. I experienced a little culture shock when I started seeing topless women on the beach. I had to catch myself because I think I was gawking more than once while walking along the beach. At lunch, we were sitting at a sidewalk restaurant on Lincoln Drive when an absolutely beautiful woman with long hair and olive skin walked by. She looked at me and I looked at her and she smiled so brilliantly and I was filled with a bittersweet longing for the rest of the afternoon.
Don’t know when I will write again. Maybe not until Tuesday.
Haha! Sounds like you’re having a good time. 🙂