Moving to Miami

Hello! Gisela and Isabela here! We are Interns at Larkin Community Hospital, doing our Community (Isabela) and Clinical (Gisela) rotations. Both of us are Venezuelan, and given our country's political and socioeconomic situation, have found ourselves moving several times from place to place. Moving and adapting to a new place and culture, even to a new workplace can be hard, but we have found Miami is an exciting place full of vibrancy, night life, and Latin culture!

We were both really excited to have matched with Larkin, given it feels a bit closer to home. However, moving to a new city and leaving the place that was your home for years can be tedious, hard, and emotionally draining. Thinking about how to move (flights, moving company), finding a good and safe neighborhood, furnishing an apartment, finding adequate transportation in Miami, etc. can be very overwhelming. Here you can read a bit about our experience and hopefully get some tips for moving to Miami.

Isabela and Gisela

TRANSPORTATION:

One of the good things about Miami is that there are a lot of different locations you can live in depending of what you are looking for. In our case, our main concern was finding a place close to Larkin, as commuting can be a pain in Florida given it is tough to get around without a car. We were both lucky enough to find places near the Metrorail that leaves us 5 minutes walking distance from Larkin (South Miami Station). For $2.25 you can buy one ticket or you can get a discounted monthly pass. There are certain areas in Miami you can’t reach with the Metrorail, however, by taking the Metromover, (which btw is free), or the bus, or the new Brightline train you can reach your destination. Be sure to check if there is a train station near you, if you are not planning to buy a car, as Uber and Lyft can be expensive.

APARTMENT HUNTING:

There are many web pages where you can search for an apartment, Isabela used www.zillow.com, but there are many more, such as: www.trulia.com and www.apartments.com. Start looking for apartments at least one month before starting the internship, make lots of appointments and fo to many showings so you have several options. In my case (Gisela ), I moved in with my old roommate from Boston, who coincidentally had moved to Miami a year ago. If you can’t find anything online, you can go on Facebook and search for Roommate-searching groups. Other places online to look for a roommate are www.roommates.com and www.easyroommate.com. Remember that renting an apartment in Miami can take a long time, between background checks, filling out long forms, deposits, interviews and board approval, so try to plan ahead of time.

WHERE TO GO:

The Miami area is full of life; everywhere you go, whether it's Ft. Lauderdale, Miami beach, Boca Raton, or Wynwood, there's always something fun to do. One of our favorite places to hang around with our fellow interns is Wynwood. The Wynwood neighborhood is full of bohemian/artistic coffee shops and bars, art galleries, and food trucks. We love to go explore after our didactics as a group and relax with a couple of beers and fries. Boca Raton is also one of my (Isa's) favorite places, much closer to the beach.

Carlotta, Isabela and Gisela at the Wynwood Marketplace

SUPERMARKETS:

One of the good things about the internship is that during several rotations (Clinical, Food service, and Pediatrics) you will get free food from the cafeteria (saving some money can be great!) But when it comes to shopping for food and groceries, Trader Joe’s is our favorite supermarket. Trader Joe’s is close to Larkin, and is accessible via metro (Dadeland South station), so it’s a convenient place to shop for both of us. We love it not only because of its location, but also because of its great prices and unique products. Other supermarkets in the area include Aldi, Publix, Costco, and Presidente. If you are not a local, we would highly suggest you take a trip to Presidente and familiarize yourself with typical Latin foods, as this will be the population you will mostly work with during your internship.

FUN!:

Our favorite thing about Miami is that there are a ton of things to do. Dietetic internships can get stressful and overwhelming *cough, cough, clinical rotation* so we recommend you take some time for yourself during the weekends and weekdays if possible. You can rent a Citi Bike and explore, rent a kayak at South Beach Kayak, take a trip to the Keys for the weekend, and SO many more outdoors activities (hello Sunshine state!) One of my favorite websites (Gisela) is prismcreativegroup.com/. They are a group that focuses on community building by listing events that will happen throughout the month around the city i.e. free yoga, concerts, plays, dance, etc. Follow them on social media to know what to look forward to during the weekends!

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions related to Miami, moving, etc. We’d be happy to help!