When In Doubt, Act Drunk

So I've been enjoying a rather leisurely week... until today. Of course, we had Monday off, which was great. And then a short week at work, which has been busy but has gone fast because of that. Wednesday night we went to Scottish Dancing practice for Saturday's event and had a good time. The event sounds like it will be fun.

But as I said, that was until today, or this morning to be precise. I got up to go to the gym and Stephanie came with me. We picked up a couple of our friends along the way. But when we got to the gym at 6:30, the front gate was locked. So we had to pick our way around to the back to see if there was another way in, and there was, sort of.

One of my friends had to climb over some sheet metal to get into the gym compound and then pound on the door to wake up the guard. But the point is, we got in. Afterwards, Stephanie took the car to get gas and run errands and my friend and I decided to take a marshrutka (think miniature mini-van too with up to 8 passengers).

Now, riding in a marshrutka is an adventure in itself, but this one was particularly interesting for two reasons. One was that my friend and I had to squeeze in with all our our gym stuff and his seat was the one that flips up to let people in and out of the back, so we were constantly moving to accommodate that little maneuver. The second was the guy in the front seat who was wearing a shiny black vinyl coat with a fur-lined hood. I have to admit I was a little jealous.

But what topped off the whole experience was our little accident. There we were, gliding along in our little sardine can, when out of nowhere comes this big ol' van squeezing us toward the side of the road and eventually crashing into us. No one was hurt, but it was a bit of a jolt. Then, as we're pulling over, we see the driver of the offending vehicle is laughing hysterically and from all appearances, was drunk (although my Russian teacher later assured me this wasn't the case - how she knows is a mystery).

And when our driver got out the other driver, still laughing, was putting his arm around him and acting like he hadn't just broken the guy's mirror and scratched up the car. I don't know what happened out there, but our driver was apparently appeased and got back in the car and drove on. The little old Tajik woman in the front seat was not appeased at all and went on and on at some length. Not speaking Tajik, I didn't understand a word, but I like to think she was cursing a blue streak.

In the end, we survived our first accident in Tajikistan and learned a valuable lesson... If you get in an accident, act drunk and chummy with the guy you hit and everything will be fine.

Glad tomorrow is Friday.