The path from the airplane door to the entrance to our hotel in Kuwait was reminiscent of a classic video game: you have to overcome multiple hurdles, or levels if you will, to get to the next, until you reach your final destination. First up was the visa, which most of the group had to queue for in a never ending line. Then they held one of the reps in passport control for a little over an hour for “security reasons” (She had an American passport but was born in Iraq). As the group assembled outside waiting for our bus, the next run-in with Murphy’s Law materialized in the form of..our bus. It was large enough for our luggage, but not for us. We waited another 30 minutes or so while they got a van to take the luggage, then we boarded the bus and we were on our way. But Mr. Murphy was not about to let us go so easily. This was the “boss level”, to use a video game analogy. The bus got out of the airport grounds, but wouldn’t get out of second gear, and it broke down a couple miles down the highway. The group broke into a communal fit of laughter, while Joseph, the group leader and fair organizer, yelled his butt off on the phone at some poor soul at the hotel. It was so much fun.

So I am in Amman on the first leg of the usual annual tour. Great to meet up with old trip buddies as always. On Thursday we went to Tafileh, a rural town a couple hour south (?) of Amman. Funny day. After the fair, they took us on this “tour” of the town. We went own to a valley that had some stone quarries. We stayed there for something like 5 minutes. Then we went to another place that overlooked the valley, maybe to look at it from another angle, then we had what seemed to be a never ending ride on a bus with almost no brakes on narrow winding roads to check out some hot springs in the desert, which were actually pretty cool. Thankfully, dinner was served there, and a pretty good one it was.

The second day was the Amman fair, usually one of the busiest. After 3 hours of continuous talking, sometimes yelling, I completely lost my voice. Drinking copious amounts of hot drinks with honey and whatnot didn’t seem to fix my screwed up vocal cords. Right now I sound like…well, I don’t even sound.

Today the group went to Petra, which I wanted to do but I decided to sit it out. I had loads of stuff to do. Email, papers, meeting with prospective students, etc. Productive day but I still regret not going to Petra. Oh well, at least its something to look forward to next time.

Tomorrow we’re leaving to Kuwait.