OH!!!!

IO!!!!! That was a hell of a game last night. It was billed as the "game of the century" and lived up to all of the hype. It really made me feel homesick, that's for damn sure. Nothing like being 8000 miles away watching the OSU-Michigan game. It would have been fun as hell running down High Street after the game, seeing all the cops, the dumpsters on fire, the high fives with strangers, all of it. However, I'm eternally grateful to Janet for letting me have today off, because it would have been near impossible to go to school. The game didn't come on here till 11:30 at night, and I didn't get to bed until after 4am. Thank god we have 15 personal days a year, although this will probably be the only day I use.

Anyway, if you watched that YouTube video I posted, you would have noticed that I said I bought a car. WHOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!! I've been looking at cars for quite some time, but haven't been able to buy one. I finally got my CPR so I was hell bent on getting a car yesterday. Having Josh cart me around everywhere gets old, and you really feel pigeonholed without a vehicle. For some people that isn't a problem, but to me it is. At first I was looking at the used car market, but quickly discovered what I had been told by people that have been here for many years. Arab people abuse the hell out of their vehicles. They drive them hard, don't EVER do oil changes, basically run them solidly into the ground. So even if you find a vehicle that's only a few years old, chances are it has something major wrong with it. So, I went looking to the new car market. I had a few priorities that my new car had to satisfy. The first was that it had to be a car that you can't get in the states, so that way if I want to take it home I can and it will forever hold its resale value. That was an easy one to satisfy. There are shitloads of cars here than you can't get back home. Renault, Ssangyoung (which is a car company owned 90% by the Chinese government), Pugeot, and even models by Ford and Chevy are found here that are not available in the states. The second demand I had was that the car be a manual. Holy shit, stop the presses on that one! I would walk into dealerships and tell them I was looking for a manual, and at every place I went I got the same response--"WHY? With this traffic?" Apparently it is next to impossible to find a stick shift in this country. These lazy Arab drivers just won't buy them. Remember, these are the same people who put their car into neutral at stop lights so they don't have to have a foot on the break. On top of being shitty drivers they are also extremely lazy. My response to the sales guys every time was that the more I get to push in the clutch the happier I am. Get this-- I was told by the Honda dealership that they only ordered 9 manual units ALL of last year. Amazing. The only manuals I seemed to find were trucks--work trucks. Just when I was getting ready to give in we walked into the Renault dealership. As we were looking around, I saw a base model cheaper car in the back of the showroom and asked the sales dude about it. His response? "You don't want that car. It's a manual." I hadn't told him up until then that THAT was EXACTLY what I wanted. So I ended up buying the thing. It's a 2006 Renault Clio. That's a pic above of what it looks like, although mine is silver. I'll post pics when I actually pick it up. Anyway, before I decided to buy it I asked to take it for a test drive--obviously. Well, this car as been sitting in this showroom all year with no one test driving it so the fucking battery was dead. Once they started it, I took it out and about, miles after miles. Not really, they don't have dealer plates here. So I took it around the dealership compound, but that was enough. That little 1.4 liter 4 banger has plenty of pep for me. Now this is a base model car because it's a stick, so it doesn't have the goodies like power windows or any of that shit, but I don't care. It's a fucking manual!!! Actually, that helps me because it was dirt cheap. It was one of the last 2006's they had left, basically a car that no one on the island wanted except for me. I got this thing for 3500 dinars, which is like 9200 dollars. That includes the insurance for a year AND the plates. Nothing down either. It was funny, he was so happy to get rid of this car that he called the guy at HSBC and had him drive from the bank to meet us at the dealership, something they don't normally do. I got a personal loan at 5% interest for 4 years at 77 dinars a month. I'll take it. Hopefully it should be ready for pick up on Thursday, when I'll post pictures of it for you all to see. It's only got 36 kilometers on it, which is freaking sweet. It comes with a 3 year bumper to bumper warranty with no mileage (kilometer) restrictions, free rustproofing, free 3 years of road side assist, and the first few mileage services are free. Not a bad buy. I'm finally free to go where I want! (Not that this island is exactly huge;) One more thing--my name for my car? The French clit. Why, you ask? Well, Renault is a French company (although this car was built in Turkey) and clio is one letter off of clit. :)