One down…

Today I passed the DMV behind-the-wheel driving test. FINALLY! Since coming to the US last November 2006 from the Philippines, earning my US driver’s license is one of the few on my first-things-to-do-list. I don’t drive back in the Philippines since one can survive there without driving on her own; There are more commuters than drivers. I’ve driven a few times before but only in our subdivision because my parents are too afraid to let me drive "out there." Driving in the Philippines is a whole lot different than driving here in the US. It’s almost as different as having a baby boy than having a baby girl. The only thing you need to know when driving in the Philippines is how the traffic light works. Aside from that, basically there are NO road rules; No speed limits! No such thing as how to make a lane change; No rule as to which lane to take in the first place. Anyone can honk their horn as much as they want and as much as it annoys other people, there’s nothing they can do about it because it is just not illegal. You have to figure out everything by yourself when you drive there. You don’t even have to take any driving exam to earn a license. Whether you’ve driven before or have not, just apply and tada, there’s you’re license!

It’s quite unbelievable to think that we’re still alive, just seeing how lousy and screwed up the driving world is in the Philippines. I guess what makes it safe anyway, is the fact that Filipino drivers, as much as they grab their chance of driving through a heavily-traffic highway like they’re on a rat race, can actually be able to give way. Well, not really everyone, but mostly. "Right of way rules" in driving doesn’t seem to exist in our vocabulary back at home like it exists here. We just drive as it is. How it works is beyond my capability to analyze. It’s really quite unbelievable to think when you’ve become accustomed to American driving, but I guess one just have to see it there in the Philippines to believe it.

And oh, there are no freeways there, except maybe in the capital city of Manila but as I see it, streets, highways, freeways, express ways, my way or the highway..whatever they call it there, are pretty much the same thing. And there are definitely less vehicles and we only drive in kilometers, instead of miles per hour.

I didn’t mean to blog much about the difference of driving itself in two very different countries though. I just want to take today’s date, the 19th of March 2007, to let it be known that I have FINALLY earned my US driver’s license. Finally in caps to indicate that I’ve pretty much earned it through blood, sweat and tears in nearly 2 months! Well, sans the blood. 🙂 OK, I’m going to admit it. As much as I want to run in hiding in total humiliation, I’ve taken the behind-the-wheel driving test 4 times. Yes, not 1, not 2, not 3, NOT 5, but 4!!! I’m one of those few who see DMV, out of frustration, as a torture chamber which I have no other choice but to keep coming back to until I’ve finally been tortured enough. Is there a Guinness world record for the most failed actual driving test? Maybe I’m in!

I’m telling ‘ya, I’ve never failed so much, so hardly, in any test before in my entire life, ever! Not meaning to be arrogant, but it looks to me now that my board exam was a lot easier than the actual driving exam. In the former, I succeeded in the first try but in the latter, MY OH MY, I had to take and fail, kinda wondered why, retake and fail, finally gave in to crying, retake and failed AGAIN, kinda not giving a damn about it anymore, had to retake the written exam all over again after the 3rd actual driving failure, my only consolation is that I’ve passed the written exams twice – in both my 1st tries (if only the actual driving is as easy as the written exam), retake for the 4th time and who knows how would I’ve been had I failed again for the 4th time in a row. For the benefit of humanity, I don’t have a chance to find that out. The fact that I was applying to be a legal driver in California makes it a little less thing to be shy and not to mention, be humiliated about. I can always lessen the humiliation by reasoning out that DMV is a lot stricter here in California than in other states because there are just about a gazillion of drivers and vehicles here that driving is not at all that easy. And the freakin’ DMV is very much stricter! OK, there’s my 10 seconds or whatever-it-is-lawyers-in-court-say-to-the-defendant!

As much as I’m whining about my failures, I know that it’s just God’s will and I accept it. It was just not time for me to drive (unlike now!). And in some ways, it’s better this way – that I had failed so many times because it definitely made me a more cautious driver and taught me more important things to know, not just how to be safe on the road but also never giving up and most importantly, patience, of which I’m definitely lacking.

As some sort of celebration for me, it was a dinner treat from my father. Together with my parents’ friends: Tito Dan (who’s been kindly teaching me how to drive), his wife Tita Haydee and daughter Kathy, went to The Cheesecake Factory in Old Pasadena and had a yummylicious meal, which we followed with a stroll along the upscale town.

Yey, I can FINALLY drive!!! After getting so frustrated and close to giving up, I finally did it!! Thank you, God!

*Tito and Tita in Filipino is the same as Uncle and Aunt, respectively.