This reaffirms my desire to marry super rich and have a chauffeur drive me around.
I, or more accurately my parents, paid good money for today's 2 hour lesson with Nova Driving School. Marcelo, my instructor was quite prompt in picking me up from my house...so prompt that I was still in my PJs with black pepper in my teeth from wolfing down the pasta I just cooked. My dad studied Marcelo and then the car from our window while I was trying to brush several stubborn knots from my hair. "Ok, it's a big car, good!" Dad said. Oh goodie, I thought, wouldn't it be cool to learn how to drive with a huge SUV or one of those small trucks.
Swift as lightning, I grabbed my permit and purse, put on some Grandma shoes and ran out the door only to find a Kia Soul, probably the ugliest car ever made, inconveniently shaped, and awkwardly sized, parked behind Marcelo. Marcelo looks like how his name sounds, a short hispanic man cleanly dressed in argyle sweater, concealing a little bit of a plump belly. After a few pleasantries, and a quick mental status exam, I decided it's a go.
The lesson went more or less how I expected. We sat in a parking lot above Home Depot and practiced how to hold a steering wheel, how to rotate it using the "hand over hand" technique, adjusting mirrors, making turns, and how to brake without jolting the both of us out of the front window.
And, it was time to take the road. I am less nervous than I expected. Leaving the parking lot through a steep ramp, which according to Marcelo I handled well, I am immediately presented to the large multi-laned Roosevelt road. Things were going well until I was stuck at a red light in a middle lane with a large SUV poised to make a left turn on my left and a giant bus, swelling out of its own lane one my right. I looked at the bus driver. Could he see my face? Does he know I am only 24 and haven't traveled to Europe yet? Can he tell that I'm a medical student who can be a good doctor in the future and maybe save a few lives? Please give me some room and don't squish me! As soon as the light turned green, I perhaps over-zealously stepped on the gas peddle and our Kia Sour roared forward. A short lived spark of exhilaration rang through my veins only to be smothered by Marcelo's brake peddle on the passenger side. I am scolded and told to be easier on the gas and to stay in my own lane. Apparently, I tried to cut off the bus so it has no way of driving in parallel with me...
The rest of the lesson was uneventful. I disliked having to step on the brake peddle at the right light for so long, I felt unsatisfied with the moderation my calf muscles had to exercise when pressing the gas peddle, and I was impatient with pedestrians sauntering slowly across a crosswalk when I am waiting at the stop sign. Driving probably isn't going to be an enjoyable activity for me but I'll hold that judgment for later.
No more lessons for now. I will study for the road tests how I study for my other tests: find out what's going to be tested and cram beforehand, then pass the exam and learn it later.
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