I thought I had out maneuvered "Awkward American Day." Pretty much every time I go out into our German community I have awkward situations arise. Mostly dealing with trying to park and unload my giant American SUV. Jane and I went shopping in Amberg with Sawyer today, while the girls were in school. My Honda was in the shop getting the belt replaced so we took the BMW. All the way there I kept reminding myself to turn off the headlights when I parked. We got to Amberg, zipped into a little parking spot with plenty of room on either side, got out the umbrella, put on the front pack and went off to shop. It was pouring rain as we walked to the Markplatz, which was unfortunate because all the vendors were pulling their stuff inside and one of our missions had been to find a scarf with a German motif to send to Mike as a gift for his interpreter's fiance. I didn't want to duck in and out of shops in the pouring rain (note- it was not raining when we left) so we went on to the second part of our mission- a little trip to H&M. So Jane and I shopped, Sawyer was very good, we found a good sale on sweaters for the little girls for next school year, we checked out, and headed back to the car in plenty of time. Guess what!?! Yes, I had left the lights on and the battery was dead as a door nell. We had 10 extra minutes before we would need to leave for home and be back for Ellyn's little bus, I said a prayer, tried again, not even a click this time. All of the friends that I have their numbers memorized are out of town. That would be a total of three numbers. I said another prayer and got out of the car and looked around. A few cars down I saw a man opening his car door. I used my most handy German phrase and asked if he spoke English, he said a little. I asked if he had time to jump start my car. Of course this is not part of the English he knew- who would? I get out the jumper cables from the floor of the back seat (luckily they were still there from jumping the car when Mike got home) and gesture. He says okay and then we start looking around. I look over at his car and it is a porsche. There is one car between us and a blank spot across the street but there is also a driveway next to his car and a huge patch of cobblestone sidewalk in front of me. So... he did what I was thinking and pulled up onto the sidewalk. Did you know in a porsche the battery is right below the windshield in a little covered box, while the rest of that area is the trunk? After he pulled his car up the man got out his owner's manual. I didn't want to just take over so I let him do it until he told me to go start my car and he hadn't started his yet, then I made a teansy suggestion. Luckily it started right away and I will forever be indebted to the man with the porsche. So Jane and I were racing home, praying that we would get back in time. As we came around a bend in the road there was a policeman waving cars onto a side road (it was by our favorite German restaurant on the hill). Up ahead we could see police cars and a couple of ambulances. We took the little detour and made it home with minutes to spare. It made us wonder though, was it all supposed to happen that way? Were we protected from an accident or was it just me being a total airhead? The timing did really look just about right. Jane and I decided that we should say a little prayer thanking Heavenly Father either way.
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