How many Chinese people does it take to get a lightbulb changed?

No, it is not exactly a joke. It is the event of the day.

I have had a couple of burnt out fluorescent bulbs in the kitchen for some time now. I have been putting off getting them replaced. Why, you may ask. Am I too lazy to do it? Too cheap to buy the new bulbs? No. The hotel likes to do these things for us because of their "delicate wiring" that impacts so many. In my mind I replace "delicate wiring" with "shoddy workmanship and potentially dangerous wiring" but that's just me.

Today was the day. 5:00 I call down to the front desk and explain my problem. I am told that housekeeping will be right up to fix it. I think things are going too well. Could it possibly be that someone from housekeeping can replace lights? I won't keep you in suspense. The woman, who arrived almost immediately, saw the problem and asked to use the phone. She called someone and said some things in Chinese and then told me someone would be up very soon.

Once again, very promptly, help arrived. This time in the form of an assistant manager and a security guy. They examined my problem and made a call. Someone from engineering would be right up.

As promised, engineering showed up. There was main dude, guy who hands things to main dude, and supervisor(?) dude. Of course assistant manager and security guy are still here as well. The mounts for the lights were unscrewed and removed. New lights were put in and then the lights were remounted. Supervisor(?) dude periodically used his cell phone to update heaven-only-knows-who on the progress.

Shortly after 6:00 pm the project was done. The kitchen is once again much brighter. And it only took seven people to help me with this issue. Just think, if assistant manager guy hadn't spoken English I would have also gotten translator dude!

For those of you wondering why I have not yet had my pictures hung on the walls, well, you can probably know imagine. I need to plan a full day with lots of helpers.