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My second first driving lesson
Mar. 18th, 2011 09:02 pmI was quite curious about part of the driving lesson procedure that had been detailed to me when I was at the office last week. They said to me specifically that the instructor would "arrive outside the house, he won't leave the vehicle, won't phone or come to the door to alert you, and will wait ten minutes for you to appear." Approach wearing a blue lapel pin and ask if you once had a barber called Dominique. I still don't know why they were so discreet about it or apparently scared of the outside world - I had pictured someone coming to the house in an armoured vehicle and nervously peeking out of the hatch at the front. But at five to noon, I saw a very normal driving school vehicle had sidled up at the end of the front path.
I couldn't remember or pronounce his name, but my instructor was from Puerto Rico, though I thought he had an Italian accent at first. He set me off driving with occasional directions, just to see how I did at first, and was obviously quite comfortable because he had pulled out his phone and was talking to someone else as we went along after the first five minutes. It was instantly one of the most relaxed first driving lessons you've ever seen - we talked about being foreign in America, his family, where I'd come from before moving to Boston, and so on, in between him telling me where to go and offering observations like "You see, that was a woman" when someone pulled out in front of us without looking.
The manoeuvres took a couple of goes because I'm not used to doing them from the left-hand side of the car, but after re-learning parallel parking, I found his own technique rather better than the one that I had learned previously (mirror to mirror, one right turn, reverse until the right mirror blocks the left brake-light of the car in front, then turn hard left until you see both your headlights reflected in its back). Three-point turns are also different because the roads are about two or three metres wider, so much that you might as well not bother with the three points at all in most places.
I've asked some people for their thoughts on the test, as well - people seem to generally say that if I passed in Britain I'll have no problem here, but I'm just very aware of all the little things that can go wrong. I have another lesson at the same time next week, and then the test soon after that.
I couldn't remember or pronounce his name, but my instructor was from Puerto Rico, though I thought he had an Italian accent at first. He set me off driving with occasional directions, just to see how I did at first, and was obviously quite comfortable because he had pulled out his phone and was talking to someone else as we went along after the first five minutes. It was instantly one of the most relaxed first driving lessons you've ever seen - we talked about being foreign in America, his family, where I'd come from before moving to Boston, and so on, in between him telling me where to go and offering observations like "You see, that was a woman" when someone pulled out in front of us without looking.
The manoeuvres took a couple of goes because I'm not used to doing them from the left-hand side of the car, but after re-learning parallel parking, I found his own technique rather better than the one that I had learned previously (mirror to mirror, one right turn, reverse until the right mirror blocks the left brake-light of the car in front, then turn hard left until you see both your headlights reflected in its back). Three-point turns are also different because the roads are about two or three metres wider, so much that you might as well not bother with the three points at all in most places.
I've asked some people for their thoughts on the test, as well - people seem to generally say that if I passed in Britain I'll have no problem here, but I'm just very aware of all the little things that can go wrong. I have another lesson at the same time next week, and then the test soon after that.
