as part of the requirements for a new driving licence, the state of Connecticut asks anyone unregarding of their experience to take an 8 hours course of theory of safe driving. Thus I spent yesterday and today, saturday and sunday 9 am to 1 pm sitting in this driving school in the nearby small town of Plainville to get this certificate. We were six "pupils" all male, starting from the back rows these were : 2 teenagers brought by their mothers, one round and with acne wearing a black sweater with stars and skulls, the other long and fair-skinned had a sort of pine-nut face, a 19th years old guy looking older and very crossed, The a guy in his late forties, a second hand car dealer,who had lost his licence because of drunkness at the wheel, and had then taken another two years because of being found driving, then a 26 years old, latino looking guy with his entire body -as we learned- covered in tattoes and who in the past stole cars, lastly in the second row, your affectionate friend. The school itself was unpretentious to say the least, like the guy running it, who started the first class with a daring statement, "you wouldn't want to be here, I would not want to be here, thus let's take this easy". What followed was a mix of videos, tips about the test and lots of casual conversation about cars and cops. The instructor was really taking it easy, for instance the same second he distributed one test he would start a casual conversation affecting everybody's attention. In terms of road regulations, difference are of course scarses, some however are worth a note. Pedestrians have always the right of way. Not just on crosswalk but always. What is the rationale? I speculate that this comes from two things, first not many people walk , second those who walk are mostly adoloscents old enough to go on their own and not old enough to have access to a car. The second difference is again about children, schoolbuses have lights to signal you to stop.
The two adolescents at coffee break would reappear with a obscene quantity of crisps and pop corn to be consumed in the second haf of class. The best line of the weekend however belongs to the tatooed car thief! On the second daywhen the instructor said that in Febraury there is not much queueing and that we all could be all driving next week, he commented
"oh, my Mum will be so happy"!!!!
isn't life wonderful?
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so, i take it that the converted ex-car thief casually confessed his past sins, just chatting... yes, life is wondeful, and i bet his (Latin?...) MAMMA must be very proud
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly how it went! So stereotypical I know, maybe he was not that converted, after all.
ReplyDeleteother than that, you seem to be having a great time over there - so much for "European" "stereotypes" (-: about BAD BAD BAD America
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