New Car!

We have a new to us car at last! Avis was killing us with that rental- a gutless Nissan Sunny at $450 / month. Now we are driving an...SUV! (Sorry Ecology Club, I apologize. But I recycled it?) It is a 2005 Ford Escape. It is soooo nice. Gas is cheaper than milk here- it costs about $10 to fill up the tank. Roger said its the only time he's bought a car without a thought of gas mileage. It is nice to have a V6 in the stop and get up and go traffic here, to be higher up on round abouts and to have those safety features I have always taken for granted protecting my kids! And we found it at a good price. I feel like we are so blessed.
The first rule of buying a car here is to buy from another expat. This is because rumor has it Bahraini natives aren't very good at regular maintenance. As you can see from the Arabic on the back of the car, we broke this rule. But this car was a trade in and had had all of its regular maintenance done at the dealership. So that's okay. We asked at the dealership what the Arabic meant. Two salesmen had a 5 minute discussion and then said "It means 'service'." I decided that much debate needs a second opinion. My neighbor knows a little Arabic and said it means basically "when we drive we are in God's hands", but recommended we get a better translation from the Arabic teacher next door. That sentiment works for me- especially driving here- we might leave it up.
And get this...a tape deck! There is a cassette store here that sells new in package Boyz II Men and Linkin Park as well as Arabic and Indian music. Awesome. Totally getting a tape.