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I had to work this morning, so I dragged myself out of bed at an ungodly hour. The shift was a one-trip deal out to the local amusement park. "Pick up twelve to nineteen students, and drive them out to work at the park, and you're done," they told me. "Easy."

Well, I arrived at the apartment complex to find fourteen Russian students who spoke in very rudimentary English. (I'm almost completely sure they were Russian. It sounded like Russian, and they kept saying "nyet" when they shook their heads. I suppose that it could have been any of the Slavic languages, though.) Not a problem, since I just pick people up and take them where they need to go, right?

The students settled into their seats and conversed very loudly in whatever language they were speaking in. I had decided to take the back roads to the park, since the main thoroughfares become terribly clogged with amusement part traffic in the morning. While I was maneuvering the bus down the narrow back roads, one of the students came up and asked me something. I wasn't totally sure what she said, so I asked her to repeat it.

"What time we go home?" she asked again.

I didn't have the foggiest. So I hopped on the radio and called the weekend on-call dispatcher, the Maintenance Manager. He told me their pick up time, and I relayed it to the passengers.

"Nine o'clock tonight," I said, and suddenly I had fourteen very unhappy Russian students on my bus.

"That is, uh, is too late for us," said the students' spokeswoman. "We are done to be work at twelve thirty."

Back on the radio, I explained to the Maintenance Manager that the students would be done by 12:30pm, and asked him to give the students' supervisor or team leader or whatever a call. A few minutes pass, and he calls me back with the answer. Again I relay it to the passengers.

"You are getting picked up at 9pm so that you can ride the rides," I said. They looked at me blankly. "So you can ride the roller coasters. So you can play."

An eruption of Russian deafened me for a few minutes while they spoke amongst themselves. I sighed quietly. This would have been a lot more peaceful if they didn't know any English. I looked up in the mirror as the spokeswoman leaned over the rail again and said, "But we do not, uh, do not wish to ride the rides."

Cue bus driver shrug. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing that I can do. That's what time we were told to pick you up at. You'll have to speak to your supervisor in order to get that changed."

Blank faces.

"Talk to your boss," I said.

They nodded. That they understood.

Frankly, I'm a little baffled as to why they didn't want time to look around the park and ride some of the coasters. I would have gladly traded places with any of them, since I love roller coasters. They were so mad that they were being forced to stay at the park! I don't understand.

Must be a Russian thing.