What a week. Well let's start with the biggie - the driving test. OMG. I'd arranged to have a lesson on Monday morning at the driving school next to Lucas's daycare. There I was at 8am waiting for the instructor, 8.15 came and went, bit cold out here so went to stand inside the local hair salon (nice lady!), by 8.40 I gave up and went to work. Later that morning they rang me to say the instructor had been outside my house all that time - miscommunication. Great. The only time I could fit in another lesson was the 2 hours before the test - nothing like the last minute. That afternoon I had a meeting til 1, the instructor was going to collect me from work at 1.15, and the test was at 3. Tight but manageable. Then the daycare rang me at 11.30 saying Lucas had developed a weird rash and they would let me know in the next 2 hours if I needed to pick him up. At that point I almost felt another 'cry in the loo' episode coming up but I managed to grit my teeth and fortunately Lucas' rash turned out harmless.
The test. On my UK one 20-odd years ago the tester said "walk me to your car" and I had no memory of where I'd parked it. Not a good start. On this test the guy says "Who drove you here today?" so I explained that I am a big girl and can drive myself. Wrong. Turns out that as soon as you get a US instruction permit (like a learner's licence) you are no longer allowed to drive on another licence. So I had been breaking the law for over a week. (sorry Dad). Hum ho. We get to the car and he says "do you have any questions?" and I almost burst into tears and said "YES! If I fail how am I going to get home??". Speaking of pressure. His helpful reply was that it would be best if I didn't fail. That really settled my nerves :-). He was full of helpful comments. 1. "The speed limit here is 30" (as I am toddling along at around 16). 2. "This driving on the right is a bit hard for you yes?" 3. "Boy you don't like intersections do you?". In the parallel parking test I was so far away from the curb it was unclear what side of the road I was trying to park on, and it did occur to me that as I had clearly failed anyway I could wrap the car around a tree (on the passenger side) and have some fun with it. We get back to the test centre and score: 96%. He deducted 4 points for 'hesitant driving' and that was it. What a tease. But a merciful one! It is such a relief to have that out of the way.
On Tuesday evening I had joined an old friend and now colleague for drinks in celebration of her partner's birthday. We met in the bar of the very grand "Kennedy Manor" where they live. There were 2 other Dutch people there (oh we get around) and also a 4-year old boy named Lucas. My Lucas was with his aunt Jane as his "what can I break, what can I break?" attitude to new places doesn't make him the best party guest.
Yesterday evening we visited Lucas's grandmother after school/work. Apart from wanting to see her I had to ask her a favour - I am organising a brainstorming session for our faculty and rather than using the same old same old places on campus I thought the local golf club would provide much nicer surroundings. I had rung them and although they were amenable to the idea of providing brunch for a bunch of badly-dressed academics, they said I did have to have a member sponsoring me. I had anticipated that and had figured (correctly) that Lucas' grandmother who has been going to the club for a looooong time was happy to be a reference. So I look forward to announcing that we will be going somewhere a bit different this year.
This evening the University housing has a Family Party, food, games and music I believe, sounds like a good recipe for toddler entertainment so we will be going along to that. No pictures this week but everything looks pretty much the same - we had a real downpour on Thursday, oh my, how people complained. They wouldn't last a day in the UK that's for sure. Then yesterday it was icy cold again and so all the puddles froze over turning all of Madison into a giant ice rink. It was seriously treacherous out there yesterday, and today looks the same. I think I am ready for spring now.
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3 comments:
Well done on the driving test my dear. Try not to think too deeply about this stuff in the future. A bit of "how hard can this be, because xxxxxx can do it" thinking might not go amiss. By the sound of it even Mlle. Jamois could pass it. No, only kidding.
It's all very sociable over there isn't it. Nice one. More via email.
Hi Pierre :-) been meaning to email you for ages and will get round to it too! I did have that 'how hard can this be cause all those morons have done it' approach but then in the moment it all gets rather scary again! Bit like labour really :-)
LOL... Easy for me to say I know. Simple when you don't have to do it yourself and mea culpa regarding emails.
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