The truth about airplanes is that they fly, don't go a-thinking they ride their way

The airplane, that became one of my favorite thing about travelling. At one point, I even thought about becoming a flight attendant to be able to travel as much as I wanted (and so everywhere in the world) As that never happened, I will enjoy many flying experience because I look forward to work in many different countries with my soon-to-be job (archaeologist). Anyway, about planes. I like riding in them, it feels like a safer (?) roller coaster ride (when you get turbulence anyway) plus you get food while sitting on it (and I do enjoy the food too, but that must be part of my weirdness). I enjoy the movies too, I like to shut myself out (if I'm with people I know) and plug those free (they are not all the time) earphones and check out movies I haven't seen yet. So the longer the ride is the happier I am. I like all those people carrying luggage around the arriving airport, looking out where they have to go (often my case except when I'm in YUL - Montreal-) The frenzy that goes along is awesome.

So the first time you get on an airplane, you get struck by the small passageway in between the rows and stressed about where you'll end up with the seat number. Because even if it is the first time in a plane, you know you don't want to end up at the back (well, that is after you have watch Lost). I didn't end up in the back luckily the first time I took the plane. I even got the window, which is awesome (even at night) because you get to see the landscape, which would be here the skyscape. All the flights from Montreal to Europe are at night, so basically, you only see something when you arrive at destination. Alright so back inside the plane. We got ourselves something warm to wear for the flight, because we were told it would be a bit cold at one point. With our big sweatshirt in hand, luggage and plane ticket in the other we tried to sneak in between the lucky passengers who had already found their seats. And slowly passed each seat's number, verifying from time to time with our own number, until finally we had reached our sitting destination. The adventure wasn't over, we just couldn't rest now. We had to put out our stuff in the compartment above us. My friend proposed herself to stay up and try as quickly as she could to put our stuff inside the tiny rounded space.

Now that all further movements was now to be narrowed to move in the seat to get comfortable, we could relax and take it easy for a while. I got a bit nervous, because it was getting real by the second. We were leaving for London and there were no coming back. I thought about what I would do and how it would be around with my friend. But really, what could go wrong I thought? I stopped worrying about it and started to enjoy the present moment. I checked out everyone who came in, the people who sat besides us, the many flight attendants. Planes are always crowded. And suddenly the engines are running and we feel a light movement. The airplane slowly goes to its shipping (?) lane and right when it is ready it gives all it can and the speed kicks in. And that's not even the fun part! The speeding is really nice but when the plane is ready, it leaves the ground! Yeah it figures, planes are flying and not riding. That's really fun to experience, you feel the rapidness of the machines under your seat. And once you're up in the air, well you just stay there until destination (that is for me London's Gatwick airport).

Heading for something else

I love to travel, it unravels the old stuck-up routine for a time, you get to meet new extraordinary people (and let's get real, most of them you never get to see or hear again -even with facebook and the like- and that kinda sucks!) and see new landscapes, hear other stories and try different foods and activities.

I visited London, China, French Guyana and at the end of this summer, France. I love every trip I had done, even if some brought tears and pain sometimes. I still keep amazing memories anyway. And they brought out something in me, they showed sides of me, I didn't know I had. They all have something special.

The first one what in London, for 3 weeks. Initially, I was to help out a friend of mine that had in mind to leave her hometown to live for a while in the UK. Ever since high school, she had quite a passion for London, and the royal family. I remember when she called me the first time she explained her plans for the Fall. It was early January and I was about to start on a new semester in Anthropology (and it wasn't going so good, bad grades because of poor study -which reminds me that I should start on to study for NEXT semester already, no kidding!- The school did threw me out at the end of that very semester). So my friend (let's call her UK-loca) told me she was planning to stop school and get away for awhile and that she wanted me to be around to help out over there. I never really had a thing for England, I never got on that UK passion-thing. But hey, why not? It was a trip like no other. We settled for dates couple of weeks after that phone call. We decided for mid-September. That would gave us time to get some money in our pockets and also time to check out what we would do over there. I should have known back then what would have occurred when we would have settled. Basically the idea was that UK-loca would get a job and that from then on, I would get whatever time left to visit the country (or at the very least, the city). That didn't quite happened.

Time passed and we planned what we would do (as to visiting and seeing the most we thought we could) but never really was any word exchanged as to where my friend would look up for a job. We got passport, got our money and plan tickets and on a special day in September, my parents took me to the airport for my very first (and long, 3 weeks) trip. I met up UK-loca over at the airport, we both had big backpack, we were really excited and all. That was until my mother cried...so OF COURSE I had to cry too. (Honestly it was sympathy tears, I wasn't sad at all!) And I wasn't the one leaving for 'a good while' -that too, could be taken as hint of what would *not* happen-

After the tears, numerous hugs and many good words, our parents left us to be and we passed on the first waiting line. I thought airports were like in the movies. Family get to see you get on the plane, get to see you leave. NOT!! We had left our big backpack to get x-rayed and all. We were lighter and still very much excited. We head to what was some kinda a giant waiting area with many doors for the actual planes. I saw a horizontal escalator and that had made my day (just like in the movies!) The wait is the worst as for the first trip you do. You just don't know what you're getting into (the destination as well as the actual airplane trip). You're sitting around many people that you don't know, and you try to blend in. You try to sit in a cool enough way so that the other travelers don't know it's your first time (why the heck we do that?)

You try to pay attention to what people say, it could be useful later on. Anyway, eventually after much much wait, you just don't care anymore. Because of course, we always get there really early, everybody says to do so. At one point, we get call in the plane and heart starts racing again, it had settled a bit since the arrival but went on again because something new was to happen...

The long way home

It wasn't so long and turned out pretty fun.

Early morning, Boston, Motel

We got our free breakfast, which consisted of bagel, fruit juice and a coffee. This tiny brunch was alright, at least it was free so couldn't really say no to that! After our stomach 'full', we grabbed all of our stuff and packed the car to get back home. We instinctively took all the same spot inside the car, made ourselves comfortable and crazy friend drove following roomy/fellow traveler friend direction (again, she's amazing!) We had all agreed to stop whenever we wanted for pictures and what not.

I was completely out. I don't know whether it was from the alcohol from the night before (only 3 pint -over many hours- shouldn't have much effect, usually anyway) or the lack of good sleep. I was almost passed out the entire way back. I needed coffee, something to get my heart pumping to turn that blood around. I should have had my window open all the way back, it would have been...refreshing. Anyway, we stopped a few miles after the tollbooth (or was it?? I did sleep a good while.) to get something to pump us out (We were all kinda affected by our road trip - so maybe it really wasn't my 3 pint-party from the night before). We didn't find much at the liquor store. I took a minute to picture a work-site. As if I never seen one before!! Well, it was all sandy and all, I thought it was real pretty. (However, I just can't find the picture on my phone, anyway it must have turned out horrible since I took it from my phone. Oh well)

Another while in the car, and well all gushed on how the landscape was beautiful, seems like we just couldn't get enough of all the green, the rocky mounds and the white and blue sky. Crazy and I spotted smiling all-American cop (that just melted our hearts) and we nagged the two others about it (till this day! But really, he was so cute and all) What happened is that while passing a standing duo cop on the road while we were slowing down for the construction work, the smiley-cop happened to turn his head (followed by his enormous cop hat - we don't have that in Quebec-) when we passed him. The moment was super cute. And I don't know why but Frenchie doesn't like to hear about it (jealous much?? - It's just a smiley-cop! - That's what she said!)

We did a stop at Franconia, dear Franconia! We loved her much! Gas and then BOOM! Stony-head-guy-mountain! (It is SO our next location for the next road trip!) It's this very picturesque site, where the mountain has a face on one of its side. Very beautiful! We got to stop and stretch our legs a good while. We saw a trout lake without any trout (but where were they???), we visited the main pavilion to get some information for the next trip and then we just admired the awesome view of some more green and mountains. We hopped back into our vehicle and continued our way back.

Crazy had an idea that we could opted for another road to get home. We all didn't mind, we just wanted to get eventually home. We quickly learned the mischief in it. Crazy wanted to visit her soon-to-be dog (which unfortunately happened for something like 2 weeks, but that's another story to tell!) So we headed back toward the wonderful America-Canada line where we were warmly received by a fellow Canadian (and he was probably even a Quebecois). From there, we got to the dog place Crazy wanted to go (near Sherbrooke?). Couple of minutes of wait, because I didn't get out of the car, I was still a little bit weirded-out, and we FINALLY got home. At that time, it was time to get back into our appartment AND enjoy a nice hockey game (I only remember it was Montreal's Canadians -of course-, but I don't have a clue against which team they were playing and who won...).

From that day, I still recall that very special night where we all said: Let's go! Let's do it! I count the days. I really hope it'll happen again!

I am to go to Mont-Louis, 7-8hour drive from QC city to get a friend of mine back to the city. My brother is coming instead of Crazy friend. Lucky me!! I don't know how it'll turned out. It probably will be my next entry. The 16h drive (to and back) Saturday. Good title, no?

;o)

MC

The Boston Tea Party

It turned out more like a (smallish) -visiting- pub crawl

So as Frenchie called me in as to do a little visit around town, I said nonchalantly: " Yeah" . I didn't want to sound to eager or to excited to go. What was I thinking? I was that cool travelling chick who has already seen it all? (Come one now!) Anyway, so as I was lying in the motel room, we all watch blankly at the TV (I think it was Requiem for a Dream, which BTW I have never seen completely). I was secretly with piercing eyes watching Frenchie and hoping she would look at me so I could pull out: " Whenever you're ready girl!" And suddenly, as the gods of travellers from all around the world -the only known to me is Greek god Hermes- made Frenchie turn her head at my direction and I was able to say what was making my tongue roll. We happily hop off our respective beds and grabbed shoes, camera (but of course not mine, I forgot it just beside the TV set inside the motel room) and some money. The guy over at the counter told us the train (hmmm no, subway but that's what they call it over there) station was really close to the motel. We still had some good light from the end of the afternoon and the weather was just a tiny bit chilly, just perfect for walking in the unknown city of Boston.

We quickly catch on the station and got to see that it was indeed a subway (who knew Boston had a subway??) We tried on to buy tickets, hard task since there is no service counter (to the great disbelief of Frenchie here, who kept on quickly look around to see if there would be someone around to help us) I stubbornly insisted to do it myself (and as any guy around the globe, I said to myself I can do it myself). Really the problem was my credit card, I knew how the machine worked. So we finally got ourselves two round-trip ticket (Adult fee, we weren't going to mess up with the student thing) and we headed to the nearest map to see where we would go. Our main goal there was to check out the Ocean. From a map point a view, Boston is right on the Atlantic Coast, right? Well, not where we were unfortunately, but we did saw a pretty good deal of the port.

After a little stop at the beautiful old Boston port, my friend proposed that we do a little walk around town, to see what is was like. With no main destination in head, we took whatever street we felt like (an awesome and pretty relax way to visit a city). We crossed a street and in front of us we saw an Irish pub. (Pubs = Friend + I) We couldn't resist for a little drink (we took Guiness). We also took pictures of our stop and that's where I got the nickname frenchie for my friend because, really, I took one of her while wind was in her blond hair, the pint in hand ready to have a sip at the Guiness. She basically looked French on that picture. After the pint, we continued on our walk and we randomly chose streets around town. It was really fun. We had to other beer stop and we walk a very very long way. We saw the historic part of Boston with its brick sidewalk and rows of red (and wavy) houses. We both fell in love with the city. I so want to go to U Boston now!

It got late ( past 21h00) --we were awake since 3:00 in the morning-- and we decided to grab the nearest subway station and go back at the hotel. We slept most of the way in the subway (Beer+ Vibration = amazing sleep). We had a good night sleep, we all knew we had lots of road to do the next morning to get back home.

As we slowly got up, the word was to visit some more the beautiful Boston. However Frenchie and I couldn't really say where we were the evening before so we kinda drop off the idea of getting ourselves again lost and preferred to get our asses back over in Canada. The crazy friend did offer to slowly head back and stop whenever we wanted to to watch the landscape. We of course all agreed to it. Who wanted to go back home now anyway? We were all in that adventurous mood.

to be continued

Surfing on malicious net waves will make you sick

Or at least your computer (but then I did catch a cold pretty much at the same time, I guess I could say sympathy (pain) virus!)

It's been quite a time since I uploaded something new here. Let's talk about that virus (not that computer one i am very embarrassed about :P, yep I did...anyway...) I did catch up a cold (or the flu... i can never make up the difference between the two) and I suspect my road trip to Boston to have subtlety gave me the sniffle (who could have thought at this time of year??) Last Tuesday (a week ago already!) my friends and I decide to leave very very early that very morning (3:00am) for Boston -let me remind you that I live in Quebec city- a good 7h ride away from our destination. Why Boston you might ask? I say why not! No predisposition were there to let us head over to Boston other than my crazy friend who probably threw in a hat random names of big American cities and got out Boston first!

We didn't know what to expect over there, we just went for it (we did cheat a little by checking out what was to see hence the Natural History museum on the Harvard Campus) After a very long ride (with stops in Franconia (which we must go see again), Concord (the lovely) we finally arrived in the Massachusetts state. The sun was hitting hard in the car but it was a tiny bit chilly outside. It was the kinda weather though that was perfect for a walk outside. We hadn't checked the hotels (or other sleeping facilities) before leaving Quebec (I thought since we didn't know Boston enough, we couldn't actually pick out a room on one side of the city not knowing if we would reach it, fair enough right?) We spent a good deal of time figuring out where the Museum (and Harvard Campus were) with our little mapquest printed maps (And what saved us from going mad, was my little GPS app on my phone, lucky us!)

So we did get to the museum , got 1: 45min to visit it (because we didn't have enough change for longer time) - the museum was bleh... I guess you just can't compare it to the British Museum- Back outside the museum, it was time to figure out where we would sleep, it was still early in the afternoon, so it gave us time to plan out the day. We learned that very minute that my crazy friend (the appellation is filled with love I assure) didn't want to sleep in a dormitory in a Youth Hostel (a place that I swear by really), so I panicked...jumped to conclusions that we would sleep in the car because hotels were out of question because of our lack of money. Discussions ensued and we settled to check out hotels (we were all agreeing to put a bit more of money if needed to), First stop? Wait, we don't know! Oh no, my other friend (and roommates, and fellow traveler) did saw a hotel sign when we arrived by the 93 highway. Hooray!

We figure out our way back (how? I don't even remember!) We had to stop at a McDonald's to see their menu...basically the same thing, but I'm sure the large drink portion is bigger over in the USA than in Canada! When we finally got into the hotel, the manager ...told us that there were no more rooms left (Some sort of convention he said took place in Boston, couldn't it be the Hockey game the night after?) He nicely offered another hotel (and it wasn't the same chain!) We quickly to notes down on how to get there and we headed with no further ado over. We got lost (of course!) I was (again) starting to panic over at my GPS apps that wasn't acting quickly enough for my crazy friend driving skills. We managed to get there with the help of my roommie, traveler friend who had crazy knowledge of how to read half a printed mapquest map (I lift up my hat!)

And well, of course just to put us through more unneeded stress, when we arrived at the hotel, the manager also told us that the convention (really it wasn't the Boston-Philly game??) had taken up all the rooms. He were really nice enough to lead us up some road to maybe get the chance to find out a room in a motel. (People in Boston are SO nice with its visitors...is it the same when you're a local?)

Thank god (who or whatever it was) the outings of Boston greeted us with a shady motel (the one that makes you think you're in a horror movie). But the staff was very friendly and the place turned out not so bad after all. However the guy over at the counter asked me (the one who was to talk to people because seemingly my english is not bad) for my passport when I register the group for a room (I did turn around to my friend and say Hostel anyone? --referring to the movie of course, and luckily I was the only one o have seen it...otherwise, I'm pretty sure the girls would freaked out!--) Anyway we got a much needed room and rest. The mood of the group peacefully went down a notch because all of the drama of driving around an unknown city is quite nerve-racking. Showers and lunch for everybody (we did brought with us bread and peanut butter - a must for road tripping I say!-)

The crazy friend wasn't up for walking around the city, it was around 17h and I sure wasn't going to stay in the motel for the evening and night! We were in Boston, gotta see Boston not stay inside a crummy motel room and watch TV. Why did we get there? To see a bit of the city at the very least! My roomie/traveling fellow friend wasn't up for it too (ohh co-me on !!!!) Oh but my other friend (frenchy) was totally up for the part, as she asked me first for checking the sight a bit!

.....

(to be continued)

That kinda winter where you don't see any snow (newsflash)

Alright, been way too long since I wrote here!

So we passed 09 and now we are debuting a new decenny! 2010. It's big and scary, I figured out that 2010 would be my 25th year and I haven't done (or become) what I thought I would by the time I hit 25. I guess it's alright though, I am in NO rush for sure but it's disappointing to see that your 21 years old sister is getting married (when you're not even close of dating any guy) SAD!

But I am not worrying too much, I am way too laid-back for this!

So quick newsflash: still at school (last semester of the Bacc) BUT will be doing a whole new year to get my grades up, won 2 times tickets to see show (but couldn't, so I gave them to Evelyn), got on Twitter and I like it, no boyfriend (none in sight), staying with the same roomies (dealing some what better after almost a year), getting my hair long (hard, so hard to do), thinking about getting a new tattoo, got myself transfered to the Ste-Foy store (cuz big @F$%? happened at work) and my sister is having her wedding a year in advance.

All of this need some more details, which I will eventually do write. But for the moment I do need to get to school and do that test! (North American Prehistory)

Olympics are on (VANCOUVER BABY!!!) and Canada doesn't suck too bad

;o)

see ya

MC