I have a driving license now!

Who said Germans couldn't be bribed...just kidding.

Actually, this is the main reason I haven't kept up with this blog (or much of anything else) in the past weeks. I have spent every possible bit of spare time studying for the driving test. Starting out I tried to learn the rules and a few weeks ago I went to Kiel (just after coming back from the US) to take the test. There was a lot of confusion at the get-go because the people taking the test were organized by driving school and I didn't have a driving school, so they had to consult and figure out if it was OK for me to take the test. First of all, the rules in the teaching book I used were badly translated, for example, "half of your speedo is a useful driving aid," which half? But in general I could understand what they meant. But the questions on the driving test were also badly translated and relied heavily on British English. "What must you consider at a zebra crossing?" I don't know, get your camera ready? or "What must you consider at a St. Andrew's Cross?" Religious pilgrims? Anyway, I didn't do too bad, I only got 10% of the questions wrong, including, for example, that there is a special sign I didn't know about that means you can park a trailer without a car for more than 2 weeks in the designated lot. I struggled trying to understand many of the questions and answers and finally was the last one to turn in my test and get it graded. The guy giving the test seemed to be very upset with me and said that I had to come back in two weeks (which ended up being three weeks) and take it again and that "You must learn our laws." The only thing he said to me in English.

For the second test I tried a different strategy. V found someone on the internet in Munich that not only had the teaching book but had copies of the official tests with all the possible test questions and an answer key. I made copies of the tests (32 of them, 4 pages each) cut the individual questions out, wrote the answers on the back, and used them as flash cards to memorize the answers to each question. The ones I had trouble with in each batch I saved out and went over them twice a day. Every few days I would go back over old ones and I worked my way through the 100s of possible questions--in writing this it sounds easy but it was a huge amount of work. At the end of three weeks of this I didn't even have to read the question. I recognized it from the pictures and could tick off the rights answers without even thinking about it. (Note, that I still don't have a clue what many of these questions and answers are actually referring to, the terms are bizarre and include the metric system which doesn't mean a lot to me intuitively, I just memorized which bizarre answers to check with which bizarre questions.) Yesterday I went back to take the driving test again. It was with the same guy administering the test. He handed mine out first because it was in "English" then proceeded to hand out the German version to the other people. I immediately flew through page one, check check check..., page two..., three..., four..., done! Clicked my pen closed, set my pen and test down on the table and looked up. He had just sat down from passing out the tests and was staring straight at me. I got the feeling I had finished it too fast, especially given my performance last time, and that everyone else seemed to still be on page one or two at the most (I know this is bragging, but honestly, this is what happened). So I picked my test and pen back up and pretended to thoughtfully study the questions some more. After a while I looked up and he was looking at me and motioned for me to come up. I handed him my test, he carefully went through each page with the key and checked it, then looked up and stared straight at me again (for the third time), then went back over the test again with the key trying to find a mistake (the only time I've seen him go over a test twice). Then he signed off on it and I had all of the questions right--in record time!

The next step in getting a German license is taking a first aid class, which I need to find one and make time to take it. I went to the county-house this morning to hand in the receipt that I had passed the driving test to the driving license office and to ask them where I could find a first aid class to take. Before I could ask the latter though they said they needed my US license. They took it and then handed me my German license!!! No first aid class??? This was the same person that had told me I needed to take one when I first started this process of getting a license last year. Either they forgot or the law has changed--at any rate I know when to not ask questions. I asked what they would do with my US license and they said they would destroy it, they have to take it from me because you're not allowed to have more than one license in Germany, or something like that, but obviously I will get a replacement the next time I am in my state of residence in the US. By the way, German drivers licenses don't expire, so this one is legal for me to use in the EU for life! OK, so now the next step to be able to drive the kids to school is to get car insurance, and then a car...