My First Car Accident!! EVER!!

It finally happened. I was in my first car accident Saturday night (remember, I work Sunday mornings!).

The evening started off nice. I had plans to meet up with friends and watch a movie at the mall - yes, they have malls with movie theaters, and they're quite nice! We went to Seef Mall, which has two movie complexes. This is also the same mall Michael Jackson used to go to when he lived in Bahrain. Apparently he lived here for quite a long time. The mall is quite nice and they have some of my favorite stores: Mango, H&M, Mac - and a number of European stores. I'm sure I'll return to the States decked out in Euro-trash... I just can't help myself.

To the left is the outside of the mall, while to the right you can see the inside. Not much different than what you would see in the States - somewhere like Phoenix. The only strange part is the clothing everyone is wearing - most women are in their black robes, heads covered (but not full face), men are in their white robes. It's just one of those things it takes time to get used to.

Back to the story - I was meeting friends for a movie and had decided to bring a date. A nice guy I'll call... er... Tim. Tim and I met during our tour of the city - that portion of the blog where I went to the Grand Mosque. I picked up Tim and we met a coworker for dinner at a sushi restaurant in the mall. The sushi was good; Tim, being from the deep south, had never had sushi, but was willing to try anything to impress me... so, I ordered, he stomached it. I don't think he's a fan of miso soup.

We watched District 9, which I enjoyed (Tim thought more action was needed), and, as it was late, we decided to head home - it was a school night afterall. As we left the mall parking lot and yielded at the on-ramp to the "freeway," I waited a bit and then saw a gap in on-coming cars. It was definately enough space for me to merge without any incident... or so I thought. Apparently I offended the driver coming up, because I was taking "his" spot in the line of cars, and (quite a bit after I had been driving in the lane, making my way across the ramp), he came blaring out from behind me, then moved in front to swerve and cut me off. Well, there wasn't much I could do. I tried to avoid it, and probably succeeded in making it only a minor accident (thanks to my training in defensive/offensive driving); but we still bumped. As is customary, we pulled over to the side of the ramp and got out. He proceeded to yell at me about not stopping at the stop sign and I just pretty much smiled and played dumb - out here, if you're in the rear, you're most likely the one at fault. So, I went to grab my insurance info and get ready to call the police for a traffic report (at which time they would have instantly declared who was guilty or innocent) - the little man walked around his car, concerned about the damage. We both had very minor problems a $50 repair at most for me, but he seemed very concered about his 2 inch scrape, when suddenly my date, Tim, gets out of the car to make sure everything is alright.

Tim is a sweet guy and I don't think he'd hurt a fly on the wall - but he's 6'3'' and has two full sleeves of tattoos. He comes out "is everything ok?" and the little man I bumped into takes one look at Tim, suddenly says "everything is fine, it's ok" and then gets in his car and drives away.

Thus, my accident was over. Tim saved the day and earned himself another date next week. I, in the meantime, will find a cheap repair man and pay for the damage myself. I consider it a cultural lesson: when it doubt, wait it out.