At this my interviewer’s demeanour changed entirely: 'fine, we don’t care
about your debt problems. Have a nice day!'
Fortunately they did not interview Emma... our secret is safe.
Finally, having claimed our bags, we were stopped one last time to be
interrogated, this time by means of a somewhat bizarre quiz about the tourist
sights we were planning to visit. We must have passed, because we were
allowed to leave the airport. Perhaps they just wanted to make sure we were
really tourists?
Our next challenge was to get a taxi to our hotel. After careful research on the
Internet we had estimated that this 45-minute journey from Newark to
Midtown Manhattan would cost us $50. When we reached the queue for taxis
the man in charge told us it would be $60, plus tolls. The eventual charge?
$84, slightly worrying given our tight budget for the next three months. Our
first taste of the Big Apple? Sour. The American Dream? A nightmare.
Things did get better once we were inside our hotel, the oddly named "Jazz
on the Town by Habitat" (not, I think, the UK furniture store). First, we were
upgraded! From a trundle bed (?) to a three-quarter regular non-trundle bed!
Second, we found out that breakfast was complimentary. OK, so it was bagels
(huge boxes of them that were never replenished with fresh stock during the
week we were staying there) and instant coffee with creamer, but on a budget
everything helps.