Quito it is and the way there...

Okay, so now I have decided after tremendous thinking to write in English... Alright, so here we are in Quito! Today is the 17th so we have been here for 2 days.. what have I been up to? Let me try to remember and I shall make sure to include it in this first REAL POST IN ECUADOR!

Alright, so after a good desayuno which included a 100% fruit-pressed juice with some delicious melted queso (cheese/fromage) , as well as a ridiculously good orange/chocolate cake, I feel i may be able to recount a few anecdotes of the past few days!

To start off with, the first thing to come to mind, is that I already lost my passport (French)... so yeah, that really sucks and makes things here a tiny bit more complicated ... as well as when I will be returning: i got no Study Permit anymore.... Oh, we also weren't able to bring in the laptops... Let me spare you from all the complications we're running into!

15th of May: Since Time Square things have been speeeeeedy! We slept about an hour and a half or so, meaning we got up at 5, had a McDonald's MEGA BRUNCH - busted my belly - and then hit the road. So there we were trucking through the sweet looking NYC Sub down to Penn Station to catch the New Jersey transit train to New Wark International Airport.

Yannick was a charm, he kept on tapping on our suitcases to every beat he could thing of and shared his musical talents with the lucky passengers at our side! (most of you can imagine the scene) ... Clearing the check in was easy, no problems with the ton of luggage we had with us. Then we, or more precisely, Yannick tried to convince the American Airlines Carribean agent to pose/dance to him singing American Woman (Lenny kravitz) since write behind her there was this solid silver plated logo saying "American" - she declined, too bad for her.

Miami, la playa, las mujeres, a "Dude-like" pilote... yes, we transited through Miami, Florida. Right off the plane Yannick shares his burst of enthusiasm and excitement, his first pray: the "dude-like" pilote. What do I mean? Well he walks off the plane with a guitar strapped to his back as well as a suit case that had tons of bumper like stickers (take a look for yourself).

Then we wander off down the corridors, la idioma espanol is already lingering around every corner here is Miami a latino clone of Montreal: Spanish and English is the currency around here.

On our way to the departure gate, some American girls ask us if we're speaking French - you can imagine the rest.

To our greatest regret they are far far away from where we will be during the upcoming three months, too bad for them (Again, hehe)

Arrival to Quito, real smooth since Yannick and I had a great travel buddy named Jennifer who was able to deal with all the weird stuff the fatigue was pushing us to do. A few minutes from the landing, a slight excitement starts boiling within me, I've never actually been to South America and here I am! Quite a spectacular landing, for to get to Quito the plane suddenly climbs in altitude to then dip down into the bowl (yes, Quito in a sort of bowl surrounded by mountain tops) finally landing right in the center of the city!

Off the plane, we head to pick up our luggage, they're all present now awaits the customs - well you know the rest of the story, nothing passed.

However, to counter-balance the bad news at customs Cesar Cerda, president of Campo Cocha where we will be teaching, was here to welcome us!

Then we headed into town, and by the way between customs and well heading out into town I lost my passport. Cesar invited us to dinner, though I was kind of disappointed. He brought us to an Indian restaurant, I was expecting something much more traditional but I guess he thought we would be more keen on eating food we are more or less used to - Heck, I don't know... no cliché intended haha! After the restaurant we headed back to our hotel and had a good night sleep, had been a while.

16th of May: PAPER WORK... followed by FAILURE. Yes, we had paper work to do for customs and well it turned out it wasn't sufficient: ONE PAPER WAS MISSING. Cesar therefore had to return to Campo Cocha (12 hour bus ride) to then come back Tuesday with the appropriate documentation. However, before his departure we hopped by to the French Embassy (Yeah, remember, I lost my passport!!) and well I guess French habits are international (they're only opened 2h30 a day, week days please), so those papers are post poned to Monday. After bureaucratic racing we settled down for a Sushi! Yup, after having failed numerous times for a sushi in Montreal we found a random Sushi place, quite expensive. They even had FRUIT sushis/makis...too awkward for me.

Cesar gone to the jungle, we roamed in town and got a haircut. Last night was our first night out, pretty chill, we drank a Canolesa: it's big, yellow, warm and efficient. Alone at a table, we had no luck meeting people and then started talking to a drunk man and cheered him up "playin" tam tam on our legs/table (I have huge bruises now on my legs hehe). We could then call it a night, extinguished we just drifted off to the realm of dreams ( ;) Léna)

17th of May: Little Yannick wakes me up to the crisp clear sound of his voice and guitar melodies... he really is a charm, eh? Now, here we are keeping in touch with all of you out there of what we have been up from the Cyber Café la Sala and getting ready to roll out for a Amuerzo, only 1.50$... whereas keeping in touch comes up to 2.40$ - it must be love.

P.S THANKS Q for the POLO, it's traveling for sure!
___________________________________________________________________

Voilà, j’ai décidé finalement, après une longue réflexion, d’écrire en anglais pour vous transmettre réellement mes pensées ! Que voulez-vous, j’arrive à transmettre avec plus de spontanéité mes pensées dans la langue de Shakespeare. Nous voilà a Quito ! Nous sommes le 17 Mai et cela fait deux jours que nous sommes ici… qu’ai-je fait depuis mon arrivée ? laissez moi y réfléchir et je vais pouvoir vous décrire ces premières 24 heures dans ce PREMIER COURRIER EN EQUATEUR !

Après un bon dessayuno (déjeuner) qui comprenait un jus de fruits 100% naturel avec du queso (fromage) fondu, ainsi qu’un gâteau délicieusement bon a l’orange et chocolat, me voilà fin prêt pour vous raconter les anecdotes de ces derniers jours.

En fait, la première chose, qui me revient à l’esprit, est que j’ai bel et bien perdu mon passeport (français)… oui, c’est vraiment ennuyeux et ça complique les choses… à savoir lorsque je devrai repartir, je n’ai plus de visa étudiant ! ah ! oui, nous n’avons pu non plus passer les ordinateurs portables… Je ne vous ennuierai pas avec toutes les ennuis que nous rencontrons !

15 Mai : Après avoir été à Time Square tout s’est déroulé très, très vite ! Nous avons dormi à une heure trente environ de New Wark, donc le lever à 5 heures du matin, suivi d’un MEGA BRUNCH à McDonald – qui m’a mis l’estomac à l’envers, et nous avons enfin pris la route. Nous avons du nous frayer un chemin dans l’accueillant métro de NYC pour rejoindre la station « Penn Station » et ensuite prendre un train régional de New Jersey à l’aéroport international de
New Wark.

Yannick était d’un charme incontestable, battant la mesure sur nos valises et partageant avec nos chanceux compagnons de voyage ses talents musicaux ! vous imaginez sans peine la scène… Aucun problème pour enregistrer nos bagages oh ! combien nombreux ! Yannick a essayé de convaincre l’agent de la compagnie American Airlines des Caraibes de prendre une pose pour danser et chanter pour lui la chanson "American Woman » (Lenny Kravitz) car derrière elle, il y avait une imposante plaque argentée qui disait « Américain » ! Elle a refusé, tant pis pour elle !

Miami, la playa (la plage), las mujeres (les femmes), un « Pilote BG » oui, nous avons transité par Miami en Floride. Dès notre arrivée, Yannick a laissé éclater son enthousiasme et son excitation au « Pilote BG » . Je m’explique : il avait sa guitare dans son dos, un sac couvert d’étiquettes (voyez-vous par vous même).

Ensuite, nous avons flâné dans les couloirs, la langue espagnole traînant dans tous les coins. Nous sommes à Miami un clone latino (hispanique) de Montréal : ici les devises sont espagnoles et anglaises.

En allant à notre porte d’embarquement, des filles américaines nous demandent si nous sommes en train de parler en français – vous pouvez imaginer le reste.

A notre plus grand regret, elles voyageaient aux antipodes de notre destination où nous serions pendant les trois mois à venir, dommage pour elles hihihi!

L’arrivée à Quito s’est très bien passée, grâce à notre super compagne de voyage Jennifer, qui a su prendre en mains les difficultés, la fatigue ayant pris le dessus bien qu’une excitation pointait en moi, alors que je réalisais que j’étais enfin arrivé en Amérique du Sud pour la première fois.