Someone's Knocking at the Door....

....or in my case, banging on the wall! I awoke this morning around 9 am India time to banging, right next door. As reminder, I work 630 pm - 300 am. I get home around 340 am and to bed around 4 am. I thought, goodness, this should be over soon. After about 30 minutes of constant banging, I decided to call Guest Services. I told the gal in my groggy tone that someone is banging on something next door. Before I could even finish my sentence she asked for "two minutes" to get it resolved and she'd call me back. I told her that calling me isn't necessary and to please just ask that it stop. Well, about 10 minutes later, I get a call from the hotel manager stating that there's some renovating of the hotel going on and that work begins at 9am. However, they'd be happy to move me to a different room. Meanwhile, 2 more hammers have joined to make a band - hammering and banging away. He tells me that "whenever it's convenient" they'd be happy to move my packed luggage to the other room. As politely as I could, I explained that none of this is really convenient and that I could be ready to be moved early afternoon. I attempted to sleep - with no less than 5 hammers baning away now I realized that this was impossible. I decide to get showered and throw my stuff together. After clearing the fog from my head, I thought "perhaps I should ask to see the room before they move me", so I called to make that request. Thankfully I did as the other room smelled like a smoke stack. Being a non-smoker, living in a room that smells like smoke for a month is not an option. Gross. Exhausted and frustrated I told the manager that this room was not acceptable as a tear fell down my check - really, I didn't intend for that to happen (mom, I know you're not surprised). To make a long story short, I'm still in the room next to the hammer choir and it's about 345 pm.

Because of Holi, we were advised not to leave the hotel. Instead of more shopping, we decided to sit by the pool..... unfortunately I had packed all of my belongings for an expeditious move that still hasn't happened. Today, it's only about 95* F. Now I'm a big sweatball and have all my shower accoutrements packed away and need a shower. For those of you that don't know me that well, understand that this poses a problem. I have no less than 3 shampoo options, not including what the hotel provides, various face and body washes, not to mention lotions and make-up. What I will say is that despite my feeling of needing a shower, this is truly an option as some here choose not to shower (or put on deodorant) on a regular basis. I most certainly won't be the most offensive. Unpacking and re-packing just doesn't sound that appealing.

Tomorrow we plan on another day of poolside fun with our pool boy bringing us chilled bottled water, cold refreshing towels and rosewater mist every hour as Holi and the color throwing madness won't end until evening. Perhaps for our trouble today (and a few tears) we can talk the hotel into a spa treatment and cocktails!

I haven't overlooked the fact that today is Good Friday. To bring a little American culture to India, I hauled a bag of those plastic Easter Eggs along with some Easter grass and bunnies around the globe. My intent is to host an Easter Egg hunt. I LOVE Easter Egg hunts! Be it known that this probably wasn't my brightest idea as the eggs are NOT the most packable items, however most made it. I stuffed a little of that Easter grass (I'm sure the guy that cleans my room LOVES that grass all over the carpet) with a chocolate bunny inside each egg. Fun, right? I'll be sure to capture some pictures and post them asap. I pray that Mickey doesn't find the eggs interesting...

Let's hope my class is NOT in rare form today and take pity on me. As you can imagine, I'm a little tired. Considering it's Friday AND a holiday, I think my chances of that are slim and I'll be spending most of my evening herding the class back into the classroom and monitoring computer usage. Lovely. TGIF!