This just in.....American girl up the creek without a Volvo.

One of my worst nightmares came true this week. Well, sort of.  How scary is it to be stranded some where with no one able to help you? Well...I can now relate.  A couple of days ago I took a nice little trip to one of the fabulous malls here in Manama before I went to a much dreaded orthodontist appointment.  Upon completion of my little shopping excursion, I hopped into my car, turned the key, and *silence*.....nothing happened.  Of course I could have panicked, but I did what any normal girl in America would do...I called my boyfriend.  After Captain America calmed me down, I decided to hightail it to my ortho appointment...in high heels....down the highway....in 100 degree heat.  I know....not the brightest idea in the world, but for the past month I've had a broken wire hanging out in my mouth and wanted that sucker removed!  I made it to my appointment on time and an hour and a half later....after much drilling and a new permanent retainer installed.  I decided to wait for my knight in shining Civic to come pick me up.  Please remember that it gets dark early here...as in 530pm.  As I waited for him to show up, I stood waiting on the corner of the block...in the dark (not another bright idea).  Shortly there after, I noticed an SUV flashing it's lights at me.  The SUV slowly approached...with my heart beginning to race....and a man rolled down his window.  Before he could ask "How much?" I was saved by the Captain.  It was then that I realized that the lovely Russian women that I had noticed walking around the building probably weren't residents...and most likely were "ladies of the night"......and that man thought I was too!

So what to do about my abandoned car?  Get it towed, of course! But, no, that would be too easy....in America at least.  After several phone calls the next day I was able to get a tow truck out to my car.  Here's how it went:
Me: Hi! Thank you for coming out here. Okay, I need you to tow my car to Volvo Motor City. Can you do that? Can you drive slow so that I can follow you because I don't know how to get there.
Driver 1: *confused look to Driver 2* No speak English.
Me: Seriously, then. WTF?!?!?!?!?
Yes, eventually my car made it to Volvo....after standing out in the hot sun trying to converse with the drivers in my limited Arabic and their non-existent English for about an hour.  So what happened once I got to Volvo? My car cranked and all the men at the dealership gave me THE look. You girls know that look....the stupid-girl-doesn't-know-anything look.  This one was almost exactly the same, but throw in some stupid-American-girl and you get the idea.  After pleading with them to at least check the car out, I left feeling dejected.  The next day I received a call from the service manager saying absolutely nothing was wrong with my car and he would come pick me up from my house to get my car. Uh....back in the states I don't climb in a car with just any man, so why would I even think of doing that in the Middle East?!?!? When he arrived to the house it was already dark outside so there was no way I was going on an adventure with the possible perv! So, I ran outside with my weapon of choice in my pocket (a potato peeler....don't knock it! they're sharp!) and grabbed my car keys from him and ran back in, slamming doors in the process.  The end, right? No.  My car still died on me again last night. What'd we do to get it running again?  Jump started it off of Captain America's car.....which promptly killed his car.

We just can't win, can we?!