Enough talk, here are some pictures from my hotel. It is hard to find time to update this, and a picture's worth 1000 words, right?

Here is a picture of my suite, taken prior to my bags being unpacked! There are sliding glass doors which seperate the living and bedroom- though I really don't have a reason to close them, as I'm the only person in the room.

At the back is the window looking out. My first morning I flung open the curtains to reveal the view I would have of India for the next 5 months. Temples? Palaces? Gardens? Not exactly... there is a construction site for a mall where work on the foundation is underway... but I only ever see a handful of people working, so who knows when it will be built. The convenience of having it next door would be nice, but not the noise of the traffic it will bring, so I'm mostly glad it isn't completed.

My first day in the hotel I learned about the game of hide-and-seek that I and my fellow expats have to play with the staff at the hotel. There is a privacy light for when you wish to be left alone in your room, and not have them come clean it or bring in your laundry. However, they really do want to do their job, even if that means waiting for you to exit your room and catching you in the hallway. Some days I just want to be left alone in my room with my clothes I've tried on and decided not to wear that day flung everywhere, and empty drink containers and snack packages on the tables- it reminds me of home! So then when I need to go downstairs or to the club lounge, I have to try to sneak past the open doors of the rooms in my hallway trying to escape their notice, with limited success. I'll think I've made it by successfully and am about to round a corner, when behind me I hear "Sir, may I clean your room." On those days I've said "No, it's fine, it's ok, no need to clean it" and they seem baffled as to why I wouldn't want them to. I'll finally get a call from their manager, and tell him I just wanted to stay in my room by myself for a day, that it's ok with me to go one day a week without having my room done. They've gotten crafty... one girl here wanted to have her room left alone for a day, so they called her from the room of a friend... when the name showed up on the caller ID she answered, and heard "Ma'am- your privacy light is on- don't you want us to clean your room today?"

The rooftop garden outside my window. Sometimes when the stress gets too much for me I'll open the curtains, sit on my bed and look out into it. Watching the breeze blow through the blossoms- which just opened a few days after my arrival- is calming, and the antics of the pigeons usually improves my mood. Man, I miss US television.

One of my neighbors outside my window.