Driving School

So no big surprise one of the biggest adjustments to make moving to the UK was the whole driving on the other side of the road deal. I was very nervous about it, and to make matters more stressful within 2 weeks of arriving you had to attend a driving school and pass a written exam, and possibly a driving one too! We were given a driving handbook to study the week before and I read that thing cover to cover, whereas Brandon opted for the skim it a little and watch t.v, course of action! By the time the class day rolled around I was confident about the written test, but terrified about the driving one. They seem so strict and I was freaking out! The class was about 2 hours long. Our instructor was...hmmm lets say interesting. He had as he called it a "British" sense of humor. Where you could never tell if he was joking because he seemed so serious, and what he said was so not funny! Anyways. He walked around reading off of a power point presentation, and periodically stopping to show a video. Now the videos they showed are nothing like the warning video's we see. These things were gruesome. They showed police footage of a child being hit by a car, then the most disturbing one was a re-enactment but still awful. It was showing what happens when someone doesn't wear a seat belt. There was blood flying everywhere...it made my stomach turn! So we spent 2 hours watching these videos that were just a little too gruesome for me. Then they went through the portion about tickets. Holy crap these folks don't kid around about tickets. For instance if you are in the right lane of the highway and someone in the lane to your left is going slower than you, you can not pass them by staying in your own lane. If you do it is a 1600pound (so well over $2000) fine, you have to slow down, get behind the slow car, they are supposed to move to your lane, then you cut back over in front of them. The list goes on and on, and the fines are typically well over $1000. It is crazy, also there aren't cops just sitting around shooting radar. No they have traffic cameras all over that shoot your speed and license plate number and you get a fine mailed to you. So you might not even know you did anything wrong and bam a week later a huge fine shows up in the mail! If you are in a work zone they may have 5 or more cameras on a few mile stretch of road. Each camera will issue a separate fine. So if you speed through that area you may end up with 5 tickets all close to $1000! Gee now I really don't want to drive here!

Well all too soon they handed out the test. By this point I was terrified about all of this and not feeling at all prepared. However I tend to test well so I took a deep breath and looked at the first question, and I had no clue the answer. I looked at the next one, no clue either. Luckily on the 3rd one I knew an answer! By that point I was starting to sweat I was so nervous. It didn't help that they went on and on about how easy the test was, and that no one would fail. However if you did you had to sit through the horrible class with the videos again, and then drive with the instructor! UGH I was in trouble. Brandon and I finished at about the same time and headed up to get graded. Brandon was first, and of course that Butt head only missed one question her got a 98%...and he didn't study near as much as me! I hand then my test, and the red marker went crazy! I felt like crying I just knew I hadn't passed. You had to get at least an 80% to pass...I almost didn't want to see my score! Luckily I eeked out an 84%!!!!!! YAY I passed and therefore didn't have to take the driving part of the test! Whew. However I did have to endure Brandon gloating over his great score! Also just to set the record straight several people failed so not everyone passes and it isn't that easy! Oh well it is over and I can drive, now I just have to get the nerve to actually do it!