In which we take to the driving course… and repeatedly turn on the windshield wipers instead of the blinkers

Second day at the driving school. I met the teacher who will be in charge of me for most of the time. It’s been a while since I last operated a car, and it’s been never since I’ve operated one on the opposite side of the road. Everything is reversed in a Japanese car… except the pedals, thank bloody goodness. So while I did not mistake accelerator for break, I DID try to turn with the aid of my windshield wipers on a few occasions. It’d only happen when I got TOO comfortable with driving and let my guard down, so I guess the solution is to be uptight all the frigging time until I unlearn how to drive in my own home country.

Some things I noticed:

• I am too used to my old Camry with the shit breaking and acceleration. The instructor kept wondering why I took fricking forever to speed up and slow down… because my car at home had about 2 horsepowers and fingernails against a chalkboard for breaks.
• The “steering wheel” is called the “handle”… what the heck is up with that?
• Speaking of which, I have been using the steering wheel wrong for my entire life! …Okay, 6 months. I never thought about how I turned it, as long as I got around a corner without hitting anything, but now the guy is making me think about how I’m turning it and as a result, I am hitting more things.
• NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THERE WAS SUCH A HUGE BLIND SPOT IN FRONT OF THE CAR.
• Still can’t estimate meters for crap. Have to convert to yards and I’m not good with yards either.

On the bright side! One of the instructors did a little calculating for me… apparently, I could test for my license learner’s permit as early as November 9th, supposing I am Freaking Excellent at driving.

Thus, the old goal is revitalized: let’s frigging rock this shit.