I should have blogged yesterday but have been out and about that I didn’t get the chance to. I’ll just pick up from where I last left off in regards to the “resort”. So prior to getting ready for this supposed hotel resort I went to see the third Transformers movie with Arthur (from Portugal), Dana, Fergus (his English name, he’s from China), Nilay, Sam and another new intern who arrived from Germany just a couple of hours prior. The movie was okay, your typical American action film with the same plot, little to nil character development and of course the stereotypical “bangs” and “booms”. I’m still trying to figure out if I like 3D movies so far I’m not really feeling it, I don’t like to watch movies with a pair of glasses on my face – I don’t get what the big hype is about. Anyway, if I remember correctly the movie finished approximately 1:30-2:00AM from there we all went our separate ways. Dana and I went with Nilay since we’re temporary staying there until these AIESECers can figure out what the heck it is that they’re doing. When we arrived back at Nilay’s house we had to wait for Alex, Dominic, Sebbi and another one of their friends – they went to “party” (which apparently in Baroda means getting piss drunk and then driving home). They arrived shortly after el 7amdullah in one piece although I’m not really sure how that was even possible since they were all piss drunk. Anyway, they wanted to get chai afterwards but Dana really wanted to sleep and I wasn’t really in the mood, plus I was more worried about how they were going to get home than anything.
Dana and Nilay decided to back first since Nilay’s mom had been waiting for us to get back – which by the way I feel horrible about since it was well into the hours of the morning. I ended up staying back for a bit to make sure they were okay. Dominic was beyond drunk he couldn’t even sit up let alone be able to ride on the back of one of those motor bikes to go home. Alex was trying to find a place to sit, which is pretty much code for “drunk” and Sebbi came and left to where, I don’t even know. I met their other friend Amir who seemed to be sober – or at least compared to the other three. I stayed outside for a little bit and chatted for a bit maybe 20 minutes or so then Alex walked me to Nilay’s door. There was no point in sleeping at this point since I had made arrangements to meet with people back at the office at 5:00AM so we could take the bus to this (supposed) 5-star hotel, 4 hours away from Baroda. I packed some clothes, showered and then went on Skype to check messages since we finally got the internet stick to work. Chatted with Nilay for a bit and he knocked out. I was Skype with Omar but after about an hour or so the internet completely crapped out… go figure, seriously, nothing in India works properly it’s quite frustrating. I stayed up all night, tried to blog but nothing came from that, so I just sat and worked on Sudoku puzzles, it’s my new favorite puzzle and it involves numbers – great stuff.
To be honest I’m not sure when it started to pour rain but it did happen. At around 4:40AM I got a call from Saman but I didn’t get it, I think I might have dozed off for a little bit – I love sleeping to the sound of rain. Honestly if it wasn’t so dirty and if there weren’t so many mosquitoes, I would have ran around outside in a tank and shorts since it’s not cold. Anyway I got a call and was trying to figure out how to get to the office considering the entire road was flooded… Didn’t work out well, Saman called me again and said they were going to bring the bus by, which was very nice of them. The bus came maybe half an hour or so later (trying to remember lapsed time after the time has lapsed is not going too well with me, especially here in India where NOTHING seems to work). Anyway, needless to say I still got wet as I had to walk through the flooded street to get to the bus. Got on the bus and went to pick up everyone else then headed out to this supposed 5-star resort.
There’s one thing that I detest more than anything else and it’s when people lie… I know that no one is perfect but what I can’t understand is how people can lie through their teeth and be completely complacent with it. My experience thus far in India (a total of 15 days) has been nothing but that. Quite honestly, I’m really ready to leave even though I am trying to be reasonable about my studies and of the great opportunity that I have with BCC. I guess time will let me know what’s to happen in the next couple of weeks.
Anyway back to the trip. So we were originally told that the trip would take only 4 hours but of course as I just mentioned above, lying seems to be a norm here – at least in Baroda. 4 hours turned into 5, 5 turned into 6 and so forth. Total duration of our trip… 8 hours; isn’t that lovely (total sarcasm if you didn’t get that)? Anyway we get to the place… finally and it wasn’t even a 5-star resort, just a 3-star hotel. Honestly I had to try to tell myself to take things into perspective. I’m mentally and physically exhausted from constantly doing so.
So yeah, yesterday we went swimming… the water was quite dirty! Saman made a funny comment; there are two types of pools, chlorine and salt-water pools, India has a third – just dirty. I’m starting to expect the worse and then some… That’s not a good expectation to have. Anyway so yeah yesterday we went swimming and all that junk, then at night Ankur through a dance party thing upstairs in the conference room. I stayed for a bit and the microfinance group was downstairs doing their thing. I called it an early night. Now we’re waiting for our laundry – which I’m 100% sure will not be dry. Lunch soon and then hopefully heading back. Why do I have this awkward nagging feeling that the trip back is going to take more than 8 hours? Let’s hope I’m just being a worrywart and that I’ll be wrong…