Fun!

We (a group from the foyer) are taking a trip down to the Bassin d'Arcachon (near Bordeaux) at the end of this month and we managed to get some association to lend us a mini-bus for free in exchange for us going to wash them on two Saturdays. So this morning we had to wake up nice and early to go wash minibuses.

It was a cloudy day so it wasn't really fun to be playing with water, but we still had a fun time. There were only 5 of us including Tessa and myself. We had to move the minibuses from one side of the lot to the area where we were washing 3 of them at a time. Of course I couldn't help them move the buses because I can't drive stick and they were all stick. Tessa got to help them even though this made one of the Frenchies "nervous." Just as I was thinking to myself how much I'd like to be able to drive stick Tessa yelled "Laura, I have an idea!!" She walked over to me and said that she should teach me how to drive when the boys weren't looking! I, of course, was quite fond of this idea.

So, we both got in an already cleaned minibus and she drove it to the other side of the lot to pick up another one. As she drove she explained to me how and when to shift gears and let me try. Now, I once tried to learn how to drive stick with my Dad and the car stalled at least 3 times before we even made it to the end of the street because I wasn't comfortable with releasing the clutch and accelerating quickly. But this time it was much better and I managed to move without the car shutting off (ok, so maybe it shut off once). I was really happy but since we were in a very narrow space surrounded by vans so I didn't want to push it too much.

Later on in the day when we were a little bored of washing cars and of being bossed around by one of the boys we decided to take one of the vans on a little test run around the lot. This time I was able to shift from first to second (and eventually third) gear without stalling the car! There were several hilarious cases of Laura pressing the brake instead of the accelerator, but nothing/no one was hurt. I even practiced going in reverse and backing up the van into a tight space to be washed. I did such a good job and it was SO MUCH FUN! Later on when the car was ready to go back I got to drive it and I even parallel parked it between two other vans! All with a stick shift minibus!

Can you tell that I had a good time?

Due to a minor dispute over us excessively beeping the horns on the vans, the Frenchie who had driven us there decided that we were going to walk home. Since he refused to get in the car until we got out we kind of had no choice but to walk home. It was only 3 kilometers (just under 2 miles) anyway and we're used to walking a lot these days. Luckily one of the other Frenchies came to our rescue and picked us up but not before we had walked 20 minutes and had the chance to take some fun pictures: