true story about how i got my driver license

here i am, finally in new york. i did it, i made it here. eventually i will need a job, but for now for the first few months i am going to attend english school for free. this is my first week here. my father is overly neurotic. my father says i need to get a driver license. my father says i need to do it right away because a) i have time now, and b) a driver license is the most important form of id, and i should get one. i have never driven a car in my life. i have never paid any attention to others driving. obtaining the license process consists of two steps – answering multiple choice questioner and the actual driving test.

i need to focus on the written test right now. i can do it. i just need to study questions and answers. they allow you to take the test in russian, so it should make it easy. i study for few hours. next day i go to the motor vehicle department. i am not sure how to get there, my cousin goes with me. they ask for my choice of language. i ask for the russian version of the test. i go to the room. i circle the answers. i give the test back. they tell me to wait. they come back. they say i failed. they say i can try again if i want. i do. i get another russian test. i go to the room. i circle the answers. i give the test back. they tell me to wait. they come back. they say i failed. they say i need to come back if i want to test again. only two trial attempts per day are allowed. my english is pretty bad. i tell them in my broken english there must be a mistake. there must be a problem with the russian translation of the questions. they ask me if i want to test in english. i tell them my english is not good enough. i ask for the test in hebrew. they tell me they don’t have one. i yell at them. i ask how can it be possible, how can israeli people be discriminated like that. they apologize. i tell them they need to give me a third chance with the russian test because they don’t have one in hebrew. they agree. they give me another test. i circle the answers. i give the test back. they tell me to wait. they come back right away. they congratulate me. they tell me i passed. they tell me to expect my learning permit in the mail.

i take driving lessons. i am pretty bad. i have no sense of directions in a vehicle. i don’t feel the vehicle i am driving. i can’t parallel park to the death of me. still my teacher thinks i am ready for the test. we go to the test location. my examiner turns out to be an old lady. my instructor tells me she hates when people drive slowly with her. i drive fast. i forget to stop on the stop sign, i am driving so fast. she tells me to stop and parallel park. i can’t do it quite right. she tells me i failed. i take one more lesson. we schedule another test. i get middle aged talkative hispanic male. i smile at him throughout the test. i talk to him. i look at him. i don’t pay much attention to the road. i don’t look to my left, i don’t look to my right. he tells me to stop and parallel park. i can’t do it quite right. the guy smiles at me and congratulates me. he tells me i passed. he tells me to expect my driver license in the mail.