Jen Drives Stick 4: Elle na marche pas

So, over the last few weeks my little car has had a few hiccups, and not any attributable to me. It has stopped randomly and not wanted to start again, most of the time in harmless places (like the parking lot at the gym), but once in the BIG round-about in Montpellier. That did not go well.

Naturally, I alerted my host family that there was a problem, and they took it into the garage last week to be checked out. "Oh, no, la voiture marche bien...pas des problems!" said the guy at the garage (Oh no, it is working just fine, no problems at all). So, I looked like an idiot American that doesn't know how to drive a French car. But even an idiot American can start a car, I mean, really. When it just sits there and refuses to crank up (well, you can crank it, but it doesn't turn over), it isn't because I'm used to driving an automatic!!

Anyway, I was hoping that the problem would remain rare or go away completely, but I guess mechanical problems don't fix themselves. The car stopped again yesterday when I was driving downtown, but eventually, as usual, it restarted again after a few minutes of trying. So, when it did it again on the way to school today, I was concerned, but at least I made it to class on time and the car was running OK.

I thought maybe it was frustrated because it was low on gas, so I took it to the station to fill it up and it broke down in line at the gas station. Some people behind me got out to push my car into the pump, but after I filled it up, it stopped again!! I cranked it and cranked it and finally got it going, only for it to die 15 seconds later in the middle of the road (THANKFULLY in a turning lane so I wasn't blocking TOO much traffic).

Then, the same people who came to help me before, turned around the road and came back to help me out. Of all of the luck, after speaking bad french for a minute, the woman was like "Do you speak English" and I was like, YES! Turned out she was Irish and her fiancee was American and they were my good Samaritans of the day.

Simon, the American (who comes from Pasedena), got out and pushed my car into the parking lot where he and his fiancee Ceira helped me phone the tow truck, the garage, and finally a taxi to take me home. They stood by me in the parking lot for an hour trying to help me sort everything out. I couldn't believe my luck! Of all people to stop and help (I guess it shows that the Americans, and apparently Irish, are MUCH nicer than the French who didn't stop to help but instead honked at me and yelled obscenities when I was broken down), two people who speak English! And luckily they'd been living in France for 5 years, so they also spoke very good French, and that helped me make it through all of the phone calls I couldn't have done by myself.

Yay for guardian angels! So, now my little French car is in the shop- HOPEFULLY getting fixed this time. Thankfully I have a rental now so I can go to class and practice tomorrow, it was kind of strange having to get around without it this afternoon.