Boy do I have a good one for you today. Let's just hope I can stay awake long enough to tell it.
So I went with all the other women who came the same time we did to take our driving test. We had to meet the bus at the clubhouse at 4:15am. So I got up at 3:45. But really the adventure for me starts before that. Miss A, who had slept through the night for the first time in months on Monday night decided that that was not fun and woke up twice before I had to get up. Then 5 minutes before I had to get up, Big E comes into our room wanting water. I sent him to his dad. So after the alarm goes off at such a horrible hour, I get up and get dressed and make myself a peanut butter and honey sandwich to eat when I got hungry. And then I walk over to the clubhouse. Though the sun does rise early, it was still dark, but it wasn't hot out. I'd say it as probably upper 80s, which for some of you might be hot, but for us it's quite pleasant.
The bus was actually waiting for us outside the clubhouse gate. That was surprising since last time we were waitng for the bus. But it didn't really matter that the bus was there waiting for us. Once everyone showed up (there were about 12 of us), the driver couldn't get the door to close. Lovely, but that's okay; we can handly a windy ride and we'll just hang onto our things. We didn't want this to take a long time. So the driver started to drive and turned the bus around to go to the driving school, but decided that the door really aught to be closed, and so pulled the bus over and tried again, and he was successful, though we were a bit nervous about being able to get off the bus after we saw how the door was. We soon saw that we didn't need to worry because during the first turn, the door popped open again. So the driver pulled over and one of the girls shut it again (it seemed to loosen up after the driver showed it who's the boss) and the locked it. But as the driver began to go on our way, the bus lurched a number of times and then died. The driver attempted to start it a few times and after the bus refused to start, the driver said to us "Wait, wait" and then began to walk away. So it's 4:30 in the morning and there was a bus full of women stuck on the side of the road. We really hadn't made it far. We were still within site of the clubhouse.
One of the girls called her husband. She's a stay at home mom as well and lives two doors down from me. Her little baby wasn't happy and since she has an international driving license, this test wasn't as important. So she had her husband pick her up. (He also has an international license and is borrowing a car). Meanwhile, other phone calls were made to the HR people that are the go to people. One of those people drove over to help out and a decision was that our neighbor's husband would drive as well as the person who had already come and one more who they called and was on his way. The driver also made his way back when the "go to" guy came. So 4 women went with the first "go to" guy that came in his car. I went with our neighbor and 3 others who live in my compound. The other waited until the other helper came. We were going to follow the first guy and the girl who sat in the front thought she could keep an eye on him, but within a short distance he was gone and we had no idea where to go. So again phone calls were made and the second guy found us at a gas station and let us follow him. (what would we have done without cell phones?)
We made it safely to the same driving school that we went to on Saturday. We stood in line for a few minutes with our paper work and then went one by one into a room where a man sat at a desk and pointed to a picture of a road sign and we had to tell him what it was. I was only asked about 4 signs, some had to identify 8. Then we waited for a short while until we were told to go to the bus (think tour bus size), where we sat for another 30 minutes. By now it's about 6am. Slowly the bus fills with women until there are no more seats. So the bus drives a whole 15 feet and then we are told to all get off. We stand there for a few minutes until the start handing out our papers, which we had to give to the sign test man. We are then divided into three groups and we get onto separate buses. The test car if in front of the bus. The instructor sat in the passanger seat and a woman sat in the back. I think she was there for ethical reasons, so that instructor, who was a man, would not be alone in a car with a woman.
The way the test worked was that the instructor told you what to do, and when you had finished, you parked the car, got out and someone on the bus got off and got into the driver's seat. We started driving around 6:30. When my turn came, I was in the car for a minute. I'm not even kidding. I made a left turn, a right turn, and then i was told to park.
After we got back we were told to wait in a waiting room. So we did, for an hour, because what else do we do here? We wait on everything. Nothing is done when we are told it will be. So we really didn't think much of it. But after an hour, and no one telling us what was going on, we decided we should probably find out. Well one person came during this hour and told us that we all passed! Yay! A phone call was made and the person on the other end wasn't sure what was going on either. Then a girl from the group went to find the man who told us we had all passed and asked him what was happening. He then took us to get a number, because that's how things work here, and we went to another (this time empty) room. When our number was called we went to the window gave the man our paper that showed him we passed, paid the unexpected fee (we had already paid for a number of things and no one told us that we'd also have to pay for the card and by the way they only accept card) and then we had temporary licenses.
I was the frist to get mine. But when I looked at when it was valid through, it only lasted 10 days! It's supposed to last 2 months. This license is just until we get our residency permits and then we can get the real one. So they had to reprint it. I'm so glad that I checked.
So after taking off at 4:10 from my house, any guesses as to when I got back?
10am. Yep that's right. I spent almost 6 hours trying to get a temporary license. (Steve stayed home with the kids and got a ride to work. And only worked for about 2 hours before he had to leave for his test) But now we can rent a car and have a little more freedom. The men went in the afternoon, but it only took 3 hours for them, but they didn't get their licenses because that part of the offices was closed already (it was 3:30 when Steve got home, so the office closed insanely early).
The day ended with our neighbor inviting all of us in our compound to the clubhouse pool and swimming and having dinner there. The restaurant has a grill outside and poolside service. It was awesome.
So I went with all the other women who came the same time we did to take our driving test. We had to meet the bus at the clubhouse at 4:15am. So I got up at 3:45. But really the adventure for me starts before that. Miss A, who had slept through the night for the first time in months on Monday night decided that that was not fun and woke up twice before I had to get up. Then 5 minutes before I had to get up, Big E comes into our room wanting water. I sent him to his dad. So after the alarm goes off at such a horrible hour, I get up and get dressed and make myself a peanut butter and honey sandwich to eat when I got hungry. And then I walk over to the clubhouse. Though the sun does rise early, it was still dark, but it wasn't hot out. I'd say it as probably upper 80s, which for some of you might be hot, but for us it's quite pleasant.
The bus was actually waiting for us outside the clubhouse gate. That was surprising since last time we were waitng for the bus. But it didn't really matter that the bus was there waiting for us. Once everyone showed up (there were about 12 of us), the driver couldn't get the door to close. Lovely, but that's okay; we can handly a windy ride and we'll just hang onto our things. We didn't want this to take a long time. So the driver started to drive and turned the bus around to go to the driving school, but decided that the door really aught to be closed, and so pulled the bus over and tried again, and he was successful, though we were a bit nervous about being able to get off the bus after we saw how the door was. We soon saw that we didn't need to worry because during the first turn, the door popped open again. So the driver pulled over and one of the girls shut it again (it seemed to loosen up after the driver showed it who's the boss) and the locked it. But as the driver began to go on our way, the bus lurched a number of times and then died. The driver attempted to start it a few times and after the bus refused to start, the driver said to us "Wait, wait" and then began to walk away. So it's 4:30 in the morning and there was a bus full of women stuck on the side of the road. We really hadn't made it far. We were still within site of the clubhouse.
One of the girls called her husband. She's a stay at home mom as well and lives two doors down from me. Her little baby wasn't happy and since she has an international driving license, this test wasn't as important. So she had her husband pick her up. (He also has an international license and is borrowing a car). Meanwhile, other phone calls were made to the HR people that are the go to people. One of those people drove over to help out and a decision was that our neighbor's husband would drive as well as the person who had already come and one more who they called and was on his way. The driver also made his way back when the "go to" guy came. So 4 women went with the first "go to" guy that came in his car. I went with our neighbor and 3 others who live in my compound. The other waited until the other helper came. We were going to follow the first guy and the girl who sat in the front thought she could keep an eye on him, but within a short distance he was gone and we had no idea where to go. So again phone calls were made and the second guy found us at a gas station and let us follow him. (what would we have done without cell phones?)
We made it safely to the same driving school that we went to on Saturday. We stood in line for a few minutes with our paper work and then went one by one into a room where a man sat at a desk and pointed to a picture of a road sign and we had to tell him what it was. I was only asked about 4 signs, some had to identify 8. Then we waited for a short while until we were told to go to the bus (think tour bus size), where we sat for another 30 minutes. By now it's about 6am. Slowly the bus fills with women until there are no more seats. So the bus drives a whole 15 feet and then we are told to all get off. We stand there for a few minutes until the start handing out our papers, which we had to give to the sign test man. We are then divided into three groups and we get onto separate buses. The test car if in front of the bus. The instructor sat in the passanger seat and a woman sat in the back. I think she was there for ethical reasons, so that instructor, who was a man, would not be alone in a car with a woman.
The way the test worked was that the instructor told you what to do, and when you had finished, you parked the car, got out and someone on the bus got off and got into the driver's seat. We started driving around 6:30. When my turn came, I was in the car for a minute. I'm not even kidding. I made a left turn, a right turn, and then i was told to park.
After we got back we were told to wait in a waiting room. So we did, for an hour, because what else do we do here? We wait on everything. Nothing is done when we are told it will be. So we really didn't think much of it. But after an hour, and no one telling us what was going on, we decided we should probably find out. Well one person came during this hour and told us that we all passed! Yay! A phone call was made and the person on the other end wasn't sure what was going on either. Then a girl from the group went to find the man who told us we had all passed and asked him what was happening. He then took us to get a number, because that's how things work here, and we went to another (this time empty) room. When our number was called we went to the window gave the man our paper that showed him we passed, paid the unexpected fee (we had already paid for a number of things and no one told us that we'd also have to pay for the card and by the way they only accept card) and then we had temporary licenses.
I was the frist to get mine. But when I looked at when it was valid through, it only lasted 10 days! It's supposed to last 2 months. This license is just until we get our residency permits and then we can get the real one. So they had to reprint it. I'm so glad that I checked.
So after taking off at 4:10 from my house, any guesses as to when I got back?
10am. Yep that's right. I spent almost 6 hours trying to get a temporary license. (Steve stayed home with the kids and got a ride to work. And only worked for about 2 hours before he had to leave for his test) But now we can rent a car and have a little more freedom. The men went in the afternoon, but it only took 3 hours for them, but they didn't get their licenses because that part of the offices was closed already (it was 3:30 when Steve got home, so the office closed insanely early).
The day ended with our neighbor inviting all of us in our compound to the clubhouse pool and swimming and having dinner there. The restaurant has a grill outside and poolside service. It was awesome.
2 comments:
Poolside service sounds like a fabulous way to end a very comical (though somewhat frustrating, I'm sure) day! Congrats on passing the test.
6hrs for a left turn, right turn, and park is incredible! Oh, and I love that the man just pointed to signs for you to identify. At least you got to know the other ladies better!
great story! Too bad it's true.
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