Suddenly last night I started to feel a bit sad to be leaving. This was tempered by the prospect of yet another Saturday night alone - whilst all my friends back home are in the midst of St Patrick's debauchery (or, um, I guess they would be waking up from it).
I went down to dinner - I wore my pretty skirt with flowers on it hoping someone would maybe talk to me. I was thinking it would be fun to chat with another traveler, but the likelihood would be pretty low, considering almost everyone at my hotel was a business traveler.
Just when I was convinced my entire meal would be spent staring around the hotel and noting various architectural elements - someone actually came and talked to me! It was a fellow I'd seen in the elevator earlier. It was fun - he was American (Atlanta), and we chatted about how
crazy India was for a while. I even had a glass of wine (all glasses of wine I've had in India to date have been notsogood). It was fun chatting with someone also on his first trip to India, who's also doing high-tech stuff here.
I'm going to miss my nice hotel. :) When I told my favourite doorman I was checking out the next day, I was sad. I didn't even have time to go for breakfast this morning - no chance to say goodbye to the nice restaurant staff. They knew my roomnumber, and that I liked black tea,
sat in non-smoking, and that I breakfast with the other American engineers (when they were here). They would come over and inquire about my cough when I tried to hack up a lung every night at dinner. I will miss them!
Also - who will turn down my covers at night now?? Who will set out my slippers beside my bed so I can wake up and slip right into them??? No one will come and fold the corners of the toilet paper to make it look neat! Who will empty my garbages every day? Turn on the light so it
looks friendly when I come home from work? Refill my shampoo, conditioner, body lotion and body wash every day? Ensure I have enough tissue, and two fresh bottles of water? And of course generally tidy up and make the bed, clean the tub and whatnot, put out fresh towels. Mmmm.
When I got to work today, I realized I'm going to miss those buggers too. They might have frustrated me at times, but they're a good lot, once you get used to the head wobble. The operators got really excited that I sort of know two Murathi words now - the word for 'remove' and 'place' (useful in giving rework instructions - had I stayed longer I would try the word for 'swap' - but its hella long).
I think now that I'm leaving, I'm learning to appreciate India more. I'm totally down with the wobble now - in fact, I catch myself doing it as well.
There were definitely times on this trip when I just wanted to GO HOME. NOW. When work wasn't going well, people were frustrating - everything was just so ghetto....but I will miss India, and I am looking forward to coming back. I want to go visit the Taj Mahal, have dinner at Charles' house - see more of Mumbai in general.
Speaking of Charles - I'll miss him too! He was such a great driver! :) He was my main contact for asking all sorts of stupid questions about Mumbai, and my main source of info about how things work there.
I'm at the airport now (flight delayed until 2:40 AM. Jebus.) I've have a fun day, despite some nasty technical problems at work. Work was very relaxed (giving that it was Sunday, and even in India they don't work on Sunday). They have these nice loungy chairs you can recline in at the airport - I suppose because tons of flights leave in the middle of the night here. It almost seems unreal that in 30 short hours I'll be back in SF.
Bye India! Best Regards.
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