Babushka is Sick

Sooo let me tell you a story about how this picture came to be...

My friend Hannah and I were on the way to the airport on Friday afternoon to pick up my sister when my car broke down. Not cool. I figured a boost would get it going again, at least long enough for us to get my sister and get home, so we started looking for someone to help us. Right where we were parked on the side of a very busy thoroughfare through the city, we noticed an adorable elderly East Indian man out in front of his house doing a bit of gardening. Hannah went up to him and asked if he had a car to give us a boost. He said he did so he wandered (slowly) to the back of his house and came back a few minutes later with booster cables. He must've misunderstood because I already had booster cables... I needed a car. "Oh, you need car?" he said in his wonderful thick accent with a grin as he realized he misunderstood. He then said he had a car but pointed at his feet and said they were too dirty for him to get in his car, so he handed me the keys and led me to the back of his house (once again slowly) to show me his car. So cute. I got in his car, pulled around the house, performed an UGLY 180' turn on the very busy street and parked in front of my car. It took us a bit to get it boosted but we finally got it going.

As I was returning this nice man's car to the back of his house, Hannah was trying to keep the engine going. I thanked the wonderful man, to which he replied, "Oh, there are other good people out there. If I did not help you, somebody would have eventually." So cute. By the time I got back around to the front of the house however, the car had died again. So much for a boost doing the trick...

At this point I was very frustrated and was trying not to show it. Poor Hannah. She did a wonderful job of trying to keep me calm while I was trying to assure my sister (who was sitting at the airport still) that we would figure something out. Then my phone started to die, which is only natural considering anything technological or mechanical at this point in my day was completely untrustworthy. :)

I called Brian to ask him to come and rescue us with the YWAM van so we could at least get picked up and go and get my sister. He hurried out and we decided we would come back for my car later when it wasn't rush hour and try again. We finally picked up my sister Heidi who had been at the airport for over an hour by now.

Fast forward a few hours... Brian and I borrowed my roommate Kelly's car and headed out to try and boost it and see if that would work. We had a bit of trouble and finally got it started but it sputtered and shuddered and died again before I could even pull out of the parking spot. So, we boosted it again and this time as soon as it started, Brian pulled the cables out, slammed the hood down, and I gunned it out of there as fast as I could. It lurched and sputtered and gasped like a dying whale and I was only able to get a few blocks off of the main road before it died again. We tried boosting it again, but had no success. Dead.

Now, I wish I had more pictures for you, but please keep reading as it is about to get so much better...

By now it was 9:30 pm and I really just wanted to go and hang out with my sister and my friends. We decided that we should leave the car overnight and try to come back the next day with Kelly as she has BCAA (hooray!) and we could tow it home. But, the car had died facing uphill and blocking someone's driveway. So Brian and I decided to push it forward to an open parking stall in front of another car. I have no idea why we didn't try to roll it DOWN the hill to an open spot, rather than UP the hill. I guess we weren't thinking.

We had to push it uphill, to the left, up a lip onto the pavement, then to the right to park it in front of this other car. No easy task. Brian and I are both strong hockey players but we were struggling. At this point, an elderly Chinese couple was walking by on the sidewalk and they saw us struggling and grunting. So the old man stepped in to help. Then the old woman. So Brian was at the back of the car, with the man on his right and the woman on his left and I was at the front trying to steer and run around and push from the other side of the car to be more effective. It was a bit ridiculous. This Chinese couple did not have a word of English in their vocabulary so they are heaving and making noises, and Brian and I are too, and we're laughing a lot. Finally we get the car up into the parking spot and we stop.

I think the old Chinese couple thought we were taking a break, as the lady started to motion with her hands that we would keep pushing, while speaking Chinese. I then started motioning with my hands that no, the car would stay here. She nodded that she understood and we just laughed at how ridiculous it all was. Then the man started signing with his fingers that he was 67 (we think) and that his wife was 72!!! Thank God they didn't pass out on us during the whole fiasco. We shook their hands and thanked them in English and as they walked away nodding and smiling and waving, we were racking our brains to remember what the Chinese word for "thank you" was. We finally got it and shouted it at them and they waved and nodded their approval a little more exuberantly this time.

Brian and I spent the next few minutes marvelling at how awesome that was. Oh man.

The next day, Kelly and I called BCAA and had my car towed to my house. I rode in a tow truck for the first time ever! Haha. I will see what can be done for poor Babushka (that's my car) later this week.

So... morals of the story:

Old East Indian and Chinese people are rad.

My friends/roommate/sister are rad.

Don't have a car breakdown on the side of a major road during rush hour.

And... don't try to push cars uphill or you might give an old Chinese person a heart attack.