78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



jiggity jig
2005-08-18   12:12 p.m.

Home, and adjusting quite well this time. Peru was a rewarding challenge, but when even the check-in woman from American Airlines tried to rip us off with the "departure tax" payment by giving us the wrong change and claiming that if one pays in the LOCAL CURRENCY, one has to pay TEN DOLLARS (yes, that's US currency) more, we were thoroughly done (completely made up, by the way). This is how we handled that:

Steve: "But it says right there [points to LARGE SIGN behind the woman's head, indicating the price in dollars -$28- AND soles -95-] the price. If it's more than that, why doesn't it say so on the sign?"

AA Woman [Glares at Steve]: Because.

Me: "'Because?' What is this, primary school? GIVE US BACK THE CORRECT CHANGE".

AA Woman: "I did."

Me: "So let me get this straight. You're saying that if we pay in LOCAL CURRENCY, we have to pay MORE?"

AA Woman: "Yes."

Steve: "I'd like to speak to your manager."

AA Woman: "It's only a few soles, sir."

Steve: "I'D LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER."

AA Woman [takes out a few 10 Soles notes, which she claimed before to "not have", and slams them down on the desk]: FINE. TAKE YOU CHANGE.

Me: "So what, you're angry that we didn't let you rip us off? What, do you pocket the extra? Did you think we wouldn't notice? [Woman glares at me, Steve starts dragging me away.] I'm writing to the company about this! You're a thief and a liar! You know how many people would kill to have your job? Do you?"

Ahem. You know I'm not even ashamed at making a scene, because "Sandy" so obviously has a good deal going: make something up about "new prices" so that you can take a few extra soles from everyone who checks in and wouldn't really know/care about the difference, and then leave with a few hundred US extra for the day. She was so angry that we didn't let her rip us off that it made me angry, and I started telling everyone else in line about what the exact price should be. "She'll ask for extra and then pocket the difference," I yelled at a line of stunned and curious passengers. "Don't let her do it!"

Yes at the time, it felt like a big honkin deal, but now, it's just all fizzled away. I did write to the airline to let them know several of their workers are stealing from passengers/the company, but haven't bothered checking for a reply. A few hours later, when our pilot came on to tell us we had to "land in Montego Bay to refuel" (uh, refuel?), we burst out laughing, wondering what was next. "Really," Steve said to me, "is this a friggin tv show, or what?"

We sat on the tarmac in Jamaica for two and a half hours, while the pilot, every once in a while, would come on to tell us we were "re-fueling" and we'd be done in a matter of minutes. We smart and savvy passengers knew to look out the windows, though, and when no fuel (or any other) trucks came out to the plane, and no one got on, no one got off - when we just sat there, in short, for a few hours, we began to ask what was really going on. "I flew from Malaysia to the US on a fifteen hour flight two months ago," a woman said from behind me, "and we didn't have to "pull over" to "get more gas". She was so mad that she was doing air quotes with her fingers. All we really could do was giggle.

We took off after never having been touched or worked on after a few hours. So the big mystery: why did we land? Security threat? Mechanical issues? Pilot craving jerk chicken and stopping in Montego Bay to get some? Guess we'll never know. I was really really happy when we landed in Miami.

I've been sleeping so much, and I took a real shower, one I wasn't afraid to breathe under for fear of getting toxic water into my mouth. I had bacon and eggs for breakfast, and gave a local doctor two little bottles of my blood so that we can be sure I don't have leishmaniasis, dengue fever, or chagas' disease. Same for Steve, though the doc's suspicion is that we're just a bit malnourished and have/had flu-type things. Good news!

Can't wait to do some food shopping and cook in my own kitchen. Also getting photos developed asap, and down-loading digital camera pictures if I can drag myself away from watching all the episodes of McLeod's Daughters that I taped. hoo-ray!

xo