So, Dan and I trundled off to the domestic terminal in hopes of using the Arrivals by United™ facility to make a free phone call. This involves going up one flight, across the international terminal, and down another flight of stairs. Of course, with as much baggage as we had, we had to take the elevators. And the second elevator has an exceptionally narrow door: it was too narrow to fit the big black bag through it. Thankfully, a lot of jiggling resulted in elevator access, and we made it to United.
They wouldn't let us use the phone. Bastards. Imagine paying US$8,000 for a business class ticket to Sydney (we didn't - ours was free - but just imagine) and then being told you may not make a local long distance phone call (this would typically cost about ten cents a minute). Well, Dan used the pay phone in the United lounge to call Matthew, who as it turns out was standing outside. Guess how much that three minute conversation cost?
US $9.46.
That's right. A$17. Back in Australia, I could call my parents for an hour from my mobile phone for A$17. Here in California, it cost that much to call a cell phone for three minutes. Of course, if Dan had had a pocketful of coins instead of a few US dollar bills, he might not have had to have used our credit card, but even so... $9.46?
Back to the job search.
