Like many other people, on last new year's eve thought about my new year's resolutions and one of them was to learn how to drive.
The first attempts
My first time trying to do it was around the end of January-beginning of February. My boyfriend took me to a car park that is empty on the weekends, although it was very far from where we live it was the perfect place to start.
I don't think I had ever seen my boyfriend so angry and frustrated before, and every time I drive he gets like that or worse so the next step was to hire a driving instructor.
My first driving instructor
He looked nice at the beginning, the first lesson he was patient, nice and funny, he could even speak Spanish since he lived for some time in Spain, so I decided to pay him for the first batch of ten lessons... not the best decision...
He changed, all of a sudden one day he picked me up and he was red and sweating, I asked him if there was something wrong, he said he was fine, but ohhh he wasn't, he was very angry for some reason, so I thought every one gets angry at times so I decided to be understanding and take it as a: drive under pressure practice.
The problem is that it kept happening, I was getting shout at and given out to by a neurotic angry man that I barely knew, it was scary to be in such a small enclosed space with a guy that looked like he was going to start beating me up, but I was stuck with him for ten lessons, of course as soon as the lessons were over I hired a new driving instructor.
Second driving instructor
This one seemed like he was done for the job, never got nervous or scared or even worried, never angry, we could be in the worse situation, stuck in the middle of the street blocking traffic of tree streets full of angry drivers beeping, and he was calm and relax, taking his time to explain to me what I had to do to get out of that mess I had just got my self into.
The problem with him was that I did not like his driving technique, the way to start moving the car that he taught me was using only the clutch and no gas at all, of course I had very little margin of error and kept cutting out very often, also the way for turning the wheel he taught me did not suit me at all. I tried to talk him into letting me use another technique but he insisted his was best and would not let me change it... time to change driving instructor...
Third driving instructor
I had seen driving by my house this driving school car that was a red mini Cooper, and since I have always liked those cars I thought it would be nice to learn how to drive in one of those. I looked for that driving school on Internet but I could not find it, so when we saw the car driving around we took note of the website, it was: www.howtodrive.ie
I looked online, called the number and booked a lesson. On the day of the lesson I was waiting for the guy, it was already 15 minutes past the time and there was no sign of the him, so I decided to give him a call. He said that he was close but could not find the place, so I went out to meet him, he was an old guy really nice and calm, that looked good.
I liked my lesson that day, he was perfect: patient, calm, nice, I liked his techniques and he was teaching me in a mini :-)
The only problem with him is that a few times he actually forgot our appointment and got there very late and many times he did not even show up (yes, he stud me up many times with out calling because he did not know how to find my number in his mobile) but he would always try to make up for the late arrivals and "stud ups" with free or extra long lessons, so it was ok.
I took many 10 lesson courses with him until the day of my driving test arrived. About a week before the driving test Jonathan sent his car to be serviced, since I was going to make the test on that one, but it turned out that there were some problems with the car that they would have to get fixed and they needed a few more days to do that, but we had time, so we did not worry too much... It turned out that the day before the day of the test we called the garage and they said the car would not be ready for the test, so the panic started.
That night I called my driving instructor to ask him if I could rent his car for the test, but he said his was booked for another test but he wold give me the name of someone else that could rent me his car. Latter he called and said he did not find anyone, and the panic got worse...
However, in the garage they had loaned a car to Jonathan while they were fixing his, so I thought of making the test in that one; Jonathan had changed his insurance policy to the borrowed car and I am included in it, so it would have been fine, the only thing was that the insurance disk in the car had a different car registration number, so I had to start my driving test explaining the tester why that was there, and the panic hummm, subsided a bit...
The day of the test
I woke up, it was still dark, looked at the clock, it was 1AM, I had to go back to sleep to be fresh for my test, so I closed my eyes, tried to calm down and waited... It did not help, I waited more... Again no help, I was getting less sleepy... Long story short: I did not sleep any more :-(
Around 6 am I got up and started getting ready for work, I had to work half day before my test, the day passed so slow, I just wanted to get it over with.
Around 11 my boyfriend called me, he had got a driving school to rent me a car but I had to take one lesson with them first, I said yes, I wanted to take a lesson just before the test to get into the driving mode anyway, so I cancelled my lesson with my old driving instructor and booked and waited for 12pm so I could get out of work and start preparing for my test...
I went home, put on comfortable clothes and did 30 mins of yoga, to relax the body, did 15 minutes of meditation, to relax the mind, took a shower and went for my lesson.
My fourth driving instructor
I met him close to the test centre at 1:45pm, he had a Toyota Yaris, that was going to be my test car, his name is Brian.
He was I think the best driving instructor I had, he corrected a lot of things that I was doing wrong, for example, my previous instructors had told me that going one or two km above the speed limit was good, but this guy told me that if you go above the speed limit, even by one km/hour you fail.
Also I was using a method for reversing around the corner that is easy but your mirrors have to be adjusted in a different position, lower so you can see the corner of the foot pat when you are close to it, also I was concentrating too much on looking at the rearview mirror and was not looking back out of the car enough, that is also a fail. Plus he said that method was a thing of the past and he taught me how to do it the correct way.
He also corrected another few things I was doing wrong and got me ready for the test. We went back to the test centre and I got into the office to wait for my tester to call me in.
The test
The tester was about 10 minutes late, plus I was 15 minutes early, that makes 25 minutes waiting, the longest of my life, tried to read some magazines they had there but it was impossible, I could not read, my eyes moved and read the words but they were not getting to my brain, I gave up on that. Then I remembered I had not had breakfast that day, nor lunch and it was almost 4 pm already, I had a granola bar in my bag, so I ate as much of it as I could.
Finally a tester came to the room and asked for a name I did not know and a girl behind me got up and went with him, another few eternal minutes passed and another tester came and said my name, I got up like a spring and bounced all the way to his office.
He seemed like a nice guy, not evil and scary like I had so many times pictured my tester, he was calm and smiled all the time, like if he was relaxing in his sitting room, this was good, he was obviously in a good mood.
He asked me a few questions about driving to which I answered correctly of course, then he took out a sheet with loads of traffic symbols, pointed a few of them and asked me to tell him what they meant, I did it correctly too, I had studied my theory.
Then, after I signed a document stating that I was ensured to drive that car we went outside and I took him to my rented car, asked me to lift the front to see the engine and asked me to tell him what some parts of the inside of a car were for, easy things like: where is the battery?, where do you put the liquid for the breaks? Etc, I did this correctly too.
Then he checked all my lights were working, got in the car with me and told me to drive as I would normally do (hehe) so we went.
The other me
Then I became someone different, it was not me driving, it was someone else, someone that had slept that night, that had eaten, and that was not nervous at all, someone that knew how to drive, during the test I saw him put marks on his sheet, this is bad since they only put marks when you do something wrong, but I just saw him and did not care, I was too busy driving well to worry about marks, then he put more marks and more marks, but I still did not care, did not even count them, just kept driving. What? That, how did I do that? I have no idea, some spirit that knew how to drive possessed me during the test, ask him...
Then the driving finished, I parked the car close to the test centre and we walked in, while we were walking I asked him how did I do, he said to wait until we were inside (ayayayayayayayyyyy). So we went inside, he took out some documents, asked me to sign something, I did, then he did some writing, I was being as patient as I could and then he said: "Libia, you passed your test" (yiaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!). He gave me the documents and then said something else that I did not hear, the voice in my head shouting of happiness was too loud and did not let me hear any of the things he said, I could not wait to get out of there and tell everybody: I passed!!
The glory!
Finally the tester stopped talking and I could get out, as soon as I came out I saw a pair of hands and heard: boo! It was the driving instructor asking how it was, and I told him I passed! Then he took the tester's document and counted the marks, the guy had given me 6 bad marks, you can only have 9, only then I realised how close I had been from failing.
Then I gave him his keys and went to look for Jonathan, he was going to be waiting for me in the car park, so I went there and when I saw him he was still far so I started walking faster, I wanted to tell him, but it was taking to long to get to him so I started running, and then I just could not resist anymore and before getting to him I shouted: I PASSED!
Telling the world
After that we went to the garage where Jonathan's car was since he had to get some stuff done there, and he was telling everyone there that I had passed my driving test, they would get excited and congratulate me for my great achievement.
The next days I told my friends from work, they were very happy for me and they congratulated me too, and then told anecdotes from their own driving test. Even my manager in a meeting mentioned it and everyone in the meeting congratulated me.
Then I started telling my friends from Mexico, I would be all happy and eager telling them:
- I passed my driving test!
And they would respond something like:
- ahh... and how is the weather there?
I guess since in Mexico it is not that difficult to pass your driving test (I heard you can just pay a couple of hundred pesos to "pass it"), passing your driving test is not that much of s big deal. I think the most difficult part of getting your driver's licence there is the queue you have to do to submit your form...
Anyway, although I was tired, hungry and stressed most of the day I think it was one of the best days I have had...
The stitch Witch
-- Desde Mi iPad
