The Bus To The Restaurant

Its late and I'm tired. My blogs have been somewhat weak lately, and I would like to think its because I don't have enough time to do a really good job (and not just lack of talent). The trip to Jordan provided a host of great blogging opportunities. How's this story. On the first evening the 380 or so conference goers were due to have dinner at the "famous" Kan Zaman restaurant (I'd never heard of it). We were all to meet at the side door at 6:30pm. I met Emily, a curriculum learning coordinator from Chennai (India) in the elevator going down to the buses, we became fast friends and sat together on the bus. Engrossed in one of those deep conversations you usually only have on planes, I only kept a half an eye on the dusty construction site that is Jordan as it whipped by. On we drove, into the dark night. The first sign that all was not well was when our bus stopped suddenly on the side of the highway and then made a daring U-turn across three lanes of traffic (actually more like five lanes in Jordan). The atmosphere on the bus slowly tensed. You could feel the unrest, or maybe it was just hunger. It was clear there was a problem. A high school principle sitting in front of me muttered between clenched teeth, "its been an full hour, and they said it would take a half." We stopped again. This time in the middle of what I'm sure was probably a humus field. There were no lights, no people and no signs. The driver started screaming into his cellphone in Arabic. Clearly he had no idea where we were. After a bit of reversing and another terrifying highway U-turn, we once again stopped. Someone from the back of the bus who spoke Arabic confirmed that he indeed had no idea where we were going. He was also getting conflicting directions from the other side of the cell phone (and hence the screaming).

All this while, Emily and I discussed curriculum, learning, technology in schools, the smells of Chennai and other most interesting topics. It was big fun. The passengers were getting increasingly disgruntled as we drove in ever increasing concentric circles trying to find the restaurant. To everyone's surprise we suddenly rounded a corner, drove up a hill and there were the other six buses parked haphazardly outside a large stone building. Our restaurant at last. We headed straight to the bar and cashed in our drinks coupons. And you know what, the food was not even that great.