Car Wash Capades

“So after school today, I need to run a few errands. And then we need to go to the car wash, because this car is disgusting.”

Usually once a week I help my friend Zuzka teach English classes in the neighboring village, Liptovsky Hradok. She is an amazing teacher, and tackling around 25 English classes a week, for the Electronic Engineering School (550 boys and 30 girls). Her English is amazing, she’s so sharp, and she is the perfect person to teach in an almost all boy high school. She has a great sense of humor, is patient, and isn’t afraid to sass them and whip them into shape (not to mention whack them in the back of the head when they joke around too much. Love it! And the boys do too).

Anyways, one Friday after classes we went into town and ran some errands, stopped at the ATM, went to the Christian bookstore, went to the grocery shop. Our last stop was the gas station out by the school, so we could go through the car wash.

“Ok, I’ll be back. I’m going to go pay for this, and hopefully he’ll give me directions on what to do.” And then she made the “yikes” face (the one we make together, you know Mom what I’m talking about…). I then realized that she’d never done this before, and was a bit uneasy about the whole process. (She later told me that car washes were a pretty new thing in Slovakia, and that they’d only been around for 5 or 6 years.) I was a bit surprised it was her first time, because of the casualness in her voice before, “Oh yeah, we’re just going to run through the car wash, ok?”

She came back out, looking a bit nervous. We crept up to the big door and it opened its white SLOVNAFT door slowly.

“Ok. Ok. Do you think I can go??”
“Yeah I think so. The door’s all the way open. Go ahead.” Plus, the clerk guy was standing there, staring at us blankly.

We parked in the middle and the door growled loudly behind us as it sealed against the concrete. Silence.
“Ok, what now?”
I just chuckled a bit. And then suddenly we were in business! The wash started to go, rinsing us off first. And then….THEN…the giant blue sweeper brushes swallowed our car. And everything went dark. And Zuzka freaked out.

“AAH!!!” She let out a shriek and grabbed my arm. She continued to shriek/laugh for almost a minute after that. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was so fun and childlike, and it made my day. I’m pretty glad I able to be there with her to share her first car wash experience. Thinking about it now still makes me smile. Again, it's all about the small things.

“Do you think your boys would like this?” I asked. Her two sons, Marek and Radko, are 7 and 4.
Her eyes got popped open at the thought, and she started to giggle mischievously.

So, will I get to be there for Marek and Radko’s first car wash experiences? I hope so! :-) Stay tuned.