And so it commence's....

            I have officially made it here in one piece! It began with the bargain £17 megabus London-Paris, which I would tres recommend. After the ferry the drivers swapped and the second one was a little bit of bantersaurus... coming up with such gems as "and now ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to get out your camera, prepare to see a side of Paris you have never seen before..." as we entered a ten-minute long tunnel which seemed to run underneath most if not ALL the potential sight-seeing opputunities. However, I think this was trumped to quote of the day by.... "Watch now if you will, ladies and gentleman, as I navigate a large roundabout, with no road markings, everybody just taking their time, enjoying their day...." as we almost crashed about three times. 

          Luckily, the bus stop was just around the corner from a tube line that connected to the airport, so I got on fairly hassle-free with all my baggage -although I did have to sacrifice all dignity and wear one backpack on the front ... .sad sad times.... Had my first encounter with a french homme who invited me to ignore the airport come chez him, drink some wine eat some food.... much though this sounded very appetizing I decided to stay on the tube to the airport. He didn't seem to believe me when I told him that I don't have a working phone in France- but apparently all English girls are very beautiful, not like the french.... what a smoothie!

        Orly airport is not the most exciting place to spend a night, so I dont have much to report, apart from the awkward look on the mans face when I ordered a pain au chocolat, por favor :S I must stop doing that! After a bit of reading I decided to find a suitable place to settle for the noche, and whilst wandering round the empty terminal just me and my overflowing trolley, another lost soul, looking similar appeared and said, Polly??? Oui c'est moi... I think it was the cookie monster hoodie that gave it away. Luckily I had ran into Olivia, another assistant, from Edinburgh, who was on the plane, and who also seems well up for lots of adventuring during our many holidays...

       15 hours later we boarded the plane. Pretty uneventful, I would however recommend Air France for airplane food, where else do you get served a mini bottle of wine AND a double shot of RUM with your lunch? Win. We arrived, as did all the bags (phew), and the toilet had a toilet seat AND toilet roll, which is unheard of in South America. We will choose to ignore the fact that their was ONE ladies toilet in the whole airport. ONE. And also my passport wasn't checked as everyone just pushed past the one women in uniform who was supposedly customs control. 

        It was beginning to look a bit dodge when there were no signs with our name on it, but at least there were two of us and we were too tired to be panicked. Then this women appeared... vous etes assistants.... OUI! and we jumped in the car and got dropped off at a swimming pool which is our free home for the week,. Except we are not allowed to use the pool. And there are no buses anywhere and the nearest shop is a 20 minute walk. Banter? I am going to get SOOOO fit walking this year-- shame about all the chinese takeaways which are the cheapest way to eat :P

         So for this week we are living at the pool which is in a suburb called Remire-Montjoly about 8km outside of the capital, Cayenne, which I have yet to see... I HAVE been to the beach though... always a plus! Although, I never thought I would ever say that the water in Scarborough is CLEAR by comparison....

(I think the photographer must have got a good angle for this photo as it didnt look quittttteeee this nice yesterday... however, still pretty cool!) We've eaten lots of chinese (the only cheap option) and lots of baguette as we are tres french. Can you believe that the corner store here it costs like 2 euro for an apple but you can get a nice packet of pork terrine for only 1?! That shit Kray, Jay! O and also you can get a litre of rum  (55% alcohol ) for 5 euro... well... if there isn't anything else to do.....

This morning we had a meeting with all the teachers and government people and to be honest it was 5 hours too boring and 5 hours too french for my liking so Im hoping the others can fill me in on any important points I may have missed whilst doodling. Everyone seems to be having some kind of crazy panic about where they are going to live... I on the other hand, am going tres flow... I mean we are not going to end up on the street :S I hope... anyways there is not much we can do until we get to the towns we are teaching in and are able to look around... I have found another girl in the same place as me and I think we are going to look for a place together. The teachers also seem really nice and offered me a place to stay while we find somewhere and seemed worried about lifts to get me there and so on... Dont they realise that I am Polly J, traveller extraordinaire and things such as travel do not worry me :) ! 

So, all in all this has been a rather rambling account of my first few days. I still dont really GET guyane... I love the complete mixture of cultures and races but I dont really understand why it even exists and how it works. I shall keep you updated when I learn more.

On a parting note, apparently one of the schools I am teaching in is in the village of an Ameridien Tribe... how i'm going to get there I have NO idea...but it sounds a little bit cool. 

Also, there are four flavours of desparados at the local shop AND you can buy it in cans. WIN

Until next time when maybe I will have a clue about what is going on here....

POLLY x