To backtrack a little...

ok, I´m sitting in Quito writing this, obviously, but I should backtrack a little. Back to LA (I didn´t have internet access in LA).

I arrived in LA almost hassle free. It just took me about 5 hours to get out of the airport! It was so ridiculous! First, it took 2.5 or 3 hours to clear immigration. They had about 5 or 6 flights landing at the same time, so a LOT of people to get through. and the line I picked only had 2 immigration officers (instead of 4), something I didn´t notice until I got halfway through and realised all the other lines were moving twice as fast! Ugh. Anyway, when I got to the end finally, I had to suffer the indignation of being fingerprinted and getting my photo taken, even though a sign had announced that only those requiring visas would have their privacy rights violated. I would have questioned it, but I was too tired by that stage, and really just wanted to get out as fast as possible. Plus the immigration officer was grumpy and not courteous as the sign had promised.

Anyway, after making my way out of the airport, I rang the backpacker place for them to pick me up, only to wait another 2 hours for them to do so! I kept calling them back every half hous, just to see what the hell had happened, cos the 1st time I rang, the person said the shuttle would be there in 15 minutes! So to cut a long story short, they eventually came, but were trying to hint that it was my fault because I kept ringing them back instead of waiting in the 1 spot. Well how the hell was I supposed to know that? Plus I needed some sort of confirmation that they were actually coming! Anyway, getting over it now. I got to the hostel in one piece.

I had a shower the next day, which was the first clean experience since leaving Brisbane (possibly 2 days ago)! It was soooo good! I won´t go on about it, but something else I will go on about is the atrocity of American English. Let me provide some examples:

• Carrousel (this was at LAX, where we picked up our bags!)

  Chicken cordon blue (the rest is from a menu from a restaurant at the place
  where I stayed)

  Garden quich

  Cole Slaw

  Chardonnay

  Grasshopper- creme de Menthe, Cream de Cacao and Creame

  Cabernet Savigion

  Choice of rice french fries or baked potato or mashed potato (it took me a
  while to realise that their french fries were not made of rice)

  California favorite

I think that is enough evidence. Seriously, do people not spell check?! Anyway, I´ll stop ranting about America now. Although, just before I completely stop, I have to say that LAX needs a serious upgrade. For an international airport, it´s really in te backwaters. It´s in an embarassingly bad state, and still living in the era of 70s architecture. They don´t even provide free internet access! The internet kiosks provided cost $15/hr. Maybe I´m too used to the services in Asian airports (well, Taipei and Singapore really, I can´t remember any others). Ok, now I´m stopping about America.