It's time to go get a driver's license.
I set up an appointment and I arrived 2 hours early. They have a certain circuit that they run the streets around the DMV, if you can call it that.
They actually call them "comuna" followed by a number. I looked up what the actual driving path was for that commune then when I got there, I actually drove the entire track that would be my test. I didn't drive in a car, I drove on my wheel. See @s22 for more information about my wheel.
Once I saw where I would be driving in order to take the test, I went inside and started the process. As I said last time, I expected a six-year process to get this little card of plastic.
I went inside on the ground floor and there was a greeter there punched my ID number into a touch screen at the entryway. She confirmed that I did have an appointment and sent me up to the second floor. That's where everything else happened except for the driving exam.
Second Floor
where all the magic happens
The first step was sitting down at the opposite end of a computer with a man who asked me my name, took my ID and looked at it, then confirmed my address, telephone number, email address, and the like, followed by taking my picture. I guess that's the one that would be on my license.
Then I sat in this room facing one of many screens that had people's names and numbers popping up along with which booth or office they should go to. that was about to start a conversation with someone when I was called again to a different booth. Here, they explained what would happen in the process of getting the license along with the rules of being a new driver, where you can and can't drive and they confirm your knowledge that you would not be allowed to have any blood alcohol level during the first two years after obtaining a license. This is the same booth I will go to when I pick up my license. See the surprise ending below.
I was told to sit back down next to my friend who was with me and before we could say two words I got called to another booth. This one had a series of pictures that I had to copy in size and shape, the psychological test. Luckily, I had looked up what this test was about and practiced making each of the drawings. It may seem silly to do that, but almost no one picks up a pen or pencil in today's world to do anything with it. I rarely write anything on paper so I would rather make sure that my hand and eye coordination as well as my dexterity for writing was all up to par.
The goal is to copy all of these in size, order, and location. I was told to copy them as closely as I could without counting any of the dots. . .
I finished copying all the drawings and as I was finishing the last one, the lady said, "You passed." And guess what she told me to do...
So I went back to sit in the same place next to my friend, and we started to say something when my name popped up again to send me to a different booth. this was the place where I sat across from another man in a computer who asked me if I was on any medication, if I had any surgeries, any health conditions, and the like. This was the jurado part, the one where you swear you're telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, on all the papers you had filled out earlier. And by papers, I mean everything you filled out when you went online to schedule the appointment.
You guessed it I went back to sit down, this time I was able to get a piece of gum in my mouth before my number came up again. This booth was the eye test, which I had practiced for as you might guess. No, I didn't practice for an eye test but I did go to the "eye doctor" the one who always makes my glasses, and I asked him if he could tell me if I would pass the eye test without glasses. He said that I probably would, but I actually bought a new pair of glasses just in case I were to fail the test. I really wanted to get this driver's license in one clean shot!
The eye test was a struggle because they only test one eye, then the other. I have astigmatism which means my eyes need to work together and they have trouble focusing. Long story short, I can't see shit with one eye, and I can't see shit with the other eye either, but with both eyes open I can see and read street signs before my children can read them, and they are 19 and 21. I had trouble reading the line that they told me to read and it was different for each eye so it wasn't something I could memorize, nor would I want to. The lady gave me several chances to keep trying to see the letters. It seemed like she wanted to give me a hint, but she didn't. In the end, I passed the eye test without glasses. It was really tempting to simply reach into my backpack and get out my glasses. But I'm glad that I resisted. I don't want a restriction on my driver's license.
My eyes have actually gotten quite a lot better over the last couple years, which is due to frequent breaks from the computer screen and focusing on things far away and things that are closer and then back to the computer screen. When I do that I feel some strain in my eye muscles but I do it everyday and it seems to have paid off.
Yes, I went and sat down again. I wonder if I could stop saying that by now. Anyway, all the booths and offices I mentioned are the doors on the right side of this photo. The ones for the written test are 19-22, just past the people seated in this photo.
"Teorica" was the next one up (the written test). This one I did study for quite a bit. There are over 800 questions and they all appear on various websites so you can scroll through them look at the pictures and choose the right answer for the situation, and what one would need to do in it. I had gone through those questions and separated them into groups, the ones that I answered correctly the first try because they just made sense, the ones that I understood but did not know the answer to, and the ones that I didn't know what they were asking because of the language barrier. Then I asked my kids or a friend to explain what those questions meant and what they were trying to ask. All of that helped a lot because I knew more about the questions I had not understood or did not know. Then I counted on my first instincts related to the ones I had passed without any help.
Here is the testing room - in full view of the lady who sent you there. Her job is to make sure you do not pull out a cheat-sheet or use your phone to check your notes.
See the sign back there? It says no using your cell phone.
There was no sitting down after this test. I went to the desk and the lady said that I had passed, and she asked me to put my hand out upon which she fixed a bracelet that would be needed for me to get in a car and drive it with an examiner next to me of course.
I'm in the home stretch now walking out past the signs that tell me where to go, I already knew where to go.
The cars are nearly brand new, about a year old, and they had all the features you want in a nice compact car. The examiner was about my age, you watched as I checked and adjusted the mirrors turned on my running lights, then told me to pull out and maintain 30 kilometers an hour or less...
That speed is 18.6 mph. Let that sink in I did not even have to touch the accelerator to do that. Wouldn't you know it, within the first two blocks I had exceeded 30 kilometers per hour. I got my first warning. The same thing happened one more time and he said, "I'm not going to tell you again." I kept way to the right with cars parked on both sides of the road...
Cars were flying up behind me, then flying past me through the whole test. And the examiner somehow kept a straight face.
I had seen the entire route, as I said earlier, because I drove the route and my electric wheel. We did not turn onto any avenues during the entire test, but we did cross them. The goal was not to go through any red lights or exceed the speed limit. At one point, there was a stop sign and the examiner actually told me there's a stop sign, and you should stop at it. Then I heard him say under his breath, probably the only time you will. He wasn't prejudging me or saying I was a bad person. It's just that.. I've never seen anyone stop for a stop sign and he knows that because he's probably never seen anyone stop for a stop sign other than the people in his exam-car. They may as well just be called stoptional signs. Anyone is interested I could probably go to any street that has one and make a compilation of all the reactions to them. I had thought about doing that, but it would just be a time lapse of cars driving by, because they don't even slow down.
We get the end of a test and the only thing left to do is parallel park. You have three tries, back in, go forward, go backwards. If you're not parked by that time, you fail the parking test. I got it in one shot and only inched forward to put the car in the center between the barriers.
I went through all of that and passed. I got upstairs and went to one final booth, the one right below the screen that kept calling me, and they asked me to check all the information on my driver's license which appeared on a large screen.
Then they informed me that the country had a shortage of plastic, so I wouldn't be getting my driver's license until sometime in the future. I asked if I could still drive and they said "No, you can't drive until you get your actual plastic driver's license."
Waiting is something that I do not do well. See my last post.
I mean, I kind of put the cart before the horse in 'renting' a car - and then getting a driver's license.
The whole process that I described above took an hour and thirteen minutes. I have to say...
That has to be some kind of record!
There was one other difference that I noticed here in this country that I wanted to mention. In the USA I have licensed and authorized to drive anything with wheels except for an 18-wheeler. I've also driven everything with wheels because I worked at an airport with some very strange vehicles of all sizes and I was driving them all because I used to work on them. Here, I'm only licensed to drive a car for personal use. Every different type of vehicle that you want to drive, or need to drive for work, requires its own driver's license. Each one would have its own test and its own qualification in order to be able to operate it legally. That would include bobcats, forklifts, taxis, limousines, moving vans, buses, end loaders, etc. my only response to that is, "I wonder how much my wallet would weigh if I were to obtain all the cards needed to drive everything I used to drive in The States.
