What does 'ein scheize' mean?

So, this morning we tried to take the hotel elevator to the ground floor like we do every day. Today, a large, angry-sounding German man was already in the elevator when we got on. Before we got to the ground floor, the elevator switched directions and started going back up again (this is when the German guy said 'ein scheize'). So, we all got off on the 4th floor (one floor above ours) and took the stairs instead. By this time, a poor guy with a big suitcase had joined our group. When we got to the first floor, there was a sign saying to please take the elevator to get to the ground floor. Since we tried this already and it didn't work, we soldiered on and got to the ground floor by the stairs. However, the way was blocked off by a tarp nailed across the doorway. At this point, the German guy was on his last nerve and so was the guy with the suitcase. The guy with the suitcase starts yelling for help and then the German guy tears the tarp open like the Incredible Hulk and storms into the lobby. We meekly followed behind.

This in addition to the constantly ringing phone in the hallway and the construction that goes on until way past midnight is kind of getting to us. I casually asked Marcelo at breakfast IF any rooms at Le Meriden did open up, would he like to move there instead. He said that he already checked online and there are none. :( It's really not that bad, but we are associating this place with being on our deathbeds on the weekend (again, being overly dramatic -- we weren't that sick).

It is a lovely, temperate day in Pune. I am gradually eating more again, but still not back into the deep-fried Indian breakfast from before. Today I had two, perfectly made eggs over easy, white toast, rose pancakes, pineapple, and bottled water. Marcelo is more back on the horse than I am and he had the aloo paratha, pohi, veggie cutlet, and onion uttapam.

The day is so much more leisurely now that I am not doing formal training. Marcelo and I are spending time reorganizing/cleaning up test cases to feed to the team to automate. The goal by the end of January is to have all of Online automated and ready to run. From the looks of it, I think it is more than feasible.

At lunch, the punking out continued. We went to a place down the street called Kobe Sizzler. Their specialty is these huge, fajita-like platters of sizzling meat and vegetables. Marcelo had one with Kobe-style beef and lots of vegetables (cabbage, spinach, peas, onions, tomato, etc.). This was too much cooked food for me, so I completely wimped out and had a chicken/cheese sandwich on white bread with the crusts cut off and fries. And a Diet Coke. I know. I know. I'm ashamed. We had Indian dessert though -- kesar pista kulfi, which I think is Indian ice cream with ground pistachios and ginger. Yummy.

The afternoon glided by easily. Shirish came by to ask me some excellent questions. They are so on the right track. I can't wait to see what they produce by the time we leave.

As far as dinner goes, we would rather eat from our mini bars than go to any of the hotel restaurants again. Even the thought of it makes me queasy. So, we asked poor Pradeep to drive us all the way across town to the Taj Blue Diamond Hotel to eat in the Whispering Bamboo restaurant (an 'Oriental' restaurant). When we came out of the office, Pradeep had like four of his other driver friends hanging out in the car with him (there are tonnes of other drivers for SSS hanging out and waiting). I think that Pradeep is totally the life of the party in that group. You'd never know it because he's so quiet, but I think he quite popular. We have the coolest driver. And if anyone from SSS is reading this, please don't think I am complaining. I'm so glad Pradeep is enjoying himself while he's waiting around for us.

So, the drive to the Taj was crazy. So much traffic. I took a short video clip of part of the ride and uploaded it to youTube. You can see it here. Note that our car is stationary and in the left lane. All the motorbikes, bicycles, and rickshaws that are passing us on the left are on the sidewalk.

We got to the Whispering Bamboo at about 7PM but just like our hotel restaurants, it doesn't open until 7:30. So, we walked around and hung out a little by the pool. This hotel doesn't look that much better than ours and it's on a very noisy stretch of road. I thought that someone would kick us out of the pool area because we weren't guests, but the only person who came by just asked us if we'd like a drink. Yes, we're spoiled.

Dinner at the Whispering Bamboo was terrible. The decor was nice, so we were all set to like it, but the food was awful. If anyone who is reading this is planning on going to Pune, do not go here. We ordered lotus root stems, chicken dumplings, braised tofu and mushrooms, chicken with pickled ginger, and 3-Flavour Noodles. The lotus root was deep fried and in a generic sweet sauce, the chicken dumplings had a dense lump of tasteless ground chicken in them, the chicken with pickled ginger tasted like really sour lemon chicken, and the noodles tasted like the smell of our hotel restaurant (ugh). The braised tofu was okay. This was also the most expensive meal we've had here so far. So, it was very disappointing all around. But, since we are too polite, we said everything was good and just didn't eat much.

The COOLEST thing ever happened on the drive back. We saw actual elephants in the traffic among the cars! It was dark, so they were hard to see, but we drove right past them. They looked like moving buildings; they were so huge. A couple of guys were riding on them close to their heads. That made the entire evening worthwhile. That was so cool.

I heard from my friend, Darryl, that is has snowed a bit? I hope it's all clear on Dec 19 for our landing in Toronto. I'm looking forward to being back and seeing you all. Goodnight everyone.