Today has been a day of mixed emotions.
It started off badly, at 1:30 this morning when the telephone rang. That is never GOOD news. It was my sister's significant other, telling me that he had rushed her to the emergency room earlier yesterday. Apparently, she has a gallstone lodged in one of her bile ducts and they are doing emergency surgery, probably even as I write this entry. Normally, I wouldn't be overly worried, but she has a bad history with anesthesia and has severe asthma and other health problems. I'm on pins and needles, waiting to hear that all is well.
Indeed, the phone call itself wasn't entirely responsible for what turned out to be one of those nights of very little decent sleep. Something that I'd eaten yesterday had not hit right and I had major stomach pains keeping me awake. I had visions of it being the nasty gastrointestinal bug that seems to be making the rounds not only here, but in the U.S. and other countries as well. Luckily, I was able to take something to make it stop.
Just as I finally fell asleep, the phone call. After that, pretty much tossing and turning until I finally got up a bit after 6:00. Under normal circumstances, it would have just meant a messed up day. But, today was the BIG day: the third time I took the test on the Code de la Route in Limoux. I worried that sleeplessness would negate all the hours of studying I've been doing.
Rather than rush through breakfast here getting more and more panicky, JM and Maggie came with me (very sweet, because it meant they had to wait in a café for several hours!) and we had breakfast around the corner from the examination center. Turned out to be a terrific breakfast. The café made their own madeleines, which were really more like U.S. muffins, and simply delicious. I need to go back there and see if I can get them to part with their recipe. Also, a rarity in my opinion, their coffee was really, really good. The only drawback is that the café is across from a big high school and was loaded with teenagers who smoked like chimneys. Besides it being not a thrill for us, it made us both feel bad to see such young kids puffing away.
I left JM and Maggie and toddled off to take my test. Lots of standing around in the cold and waiting. Luckily, one of the driving school instructors got there and opened the door to a waiting room, so we were able to stand inside for a bit while we waited for the registration process.
It was the same monitor as the last time that I went. He's a very, very nice man. They always take the driving school students first, but he makes sure to leave a good seat up front for me so that I can have a good view of the screen. I think that's extremely kind of him.
There were at least four or five of us old fogies there this month. The others were all French, so I'm not really sure why they were taking the test. Possibly, because they had lost all the points on their existing licenses and thus actually lost their license. Otherwise, I think if you want to graduate to another class of vehicle, like a truck or bus, and you haven't taken the code in a certain amount of time, you have to go through it. It made me feel better to not be alone though.
The woman next to me was on her fourth try, one more than me. Some of the kids seem to have taken it even more than that! Something is wrong with a system that works this way. Even accounting for getting the "yips" when it comes to test taking, no one should fail that often. I'm not convinced this makes anyone a safer driver.
At any rate, I figured I was as ready as I would ever be. I only hoped there weren't too many "trick" questions, something that has gotten me the last two times. I'd tried to prepare, but I think there's only so much you can do.
As the test rolled on, I felt pretty good and confident about the whole thing. There was only one question that I felt was a bit sneaky. Luckily, I had trained myself to really "see" the slides and I changed my answer before moving on to the next question. I'll never know if I got it right though, because there's really no way to find out.
The bad thing about being the last person to be registered, is that you're also the last person to get your results. I had to sit there for about 20 minutes, waiting for everyone else to go up and find out if they'd made it. About a third of them did. Not great odds. I'm sorry to say that my neighbor did not pass and will have to go back for a fifth try. I felt heartbroken for her, because she looked like she was going to cry.
By this point, my fingers were frozen and white. The stress had totally shut down my circulation and I was trying desperately to not pass out! Finally, it was my turn. I MADE IT!!!! I PASSED!!!! I don't have to study for hours and hours and hours anymore. Just as I found out the news, JM and Maggie walked in to join me. They looked as happy as I felt.
Of course, I still have to take the practical driving test, but I'm less worried about that, somehow. Which may be foolish of me, but there you have it. I need to feel good about my chances for at least a little while.
Ciao for now!
R
(see pictures on my personal site.)
It started off badly, at 1:30 this morning when the telephone rang. That is never GOOD news. It was my sister's significant other, telling me that he had rushed her to the emergency room earlier yesterday. Apparently, she has a gallstone lodged in one of her bile ducts and they are doing emergency surgery, probably even as I write this entry. Normally, I wouldn't be overly worried, but she has a bad history with anesthesia and has severe asthma and other health problems. I'm on pins and needles, waiting to hear that all is well.
Indeed, the phone call itself wasn't entirely responsible for what turned out to be one of those nights of very little decent sleep. Something that I'd eaten yesterday had not hit right and I had major stomach pains keeping me awake. I had visions of it being the nasty gastrointestinal bug that seems to be making the rounds not only here, but in the U.S. and other countries as well. Luckily, I was able to take something to make it stop.
Just as I finally fell asleep, the phone call. After that, pretty much tossing and turning until I finally got up a bit after 6:00. Under normal circumstances, it would have just meant a messed up day. But, today was the BIG day: the third time I took the test on the Code de la Route in Limoux. I worried that sleeplessness would negate all the hours of studying I've been doing.
Rather than rush through breakfast here getting more and more panicky, JM and Maggie came with me (very sweet, because it meant they had to wait in a café for several hours!) and we had breakfast around the corner from the examination center. Turned out to be a terrific breakfast. The café made their own madeleines, which were really more like U.S. muffins, and simply delicious. I need to go back there and see if I can get them to part with their recipe. Also, a rarity in my opinion, their coffee was really, really good. The only drawback is that the café is across from a big high school and was loaded with teenagers who smoked like chimneys. Besides it being not a thrill for us, it made us both feel bad to see such young kids puffing away.
I left JM and Maggie and toddled off to take my test. Lots of standing around in the cold and waiting. Luckily, one of the driving school instructors got there and opened the door to a waiting room, so we were able to stand inside for a bit while we waited for the registration process.
It was the same monitor as the last time that I went. He's a very, very nice man. They always take the driving school students first, but he makes sure to leave a good seat up front for me so that I can have a good view of the screen. I think that's extremely kind of him.
There were at least four or five of us old fogies there this month. The others were all French, so I'm not really sure why they were taking the test. Possibly, because they had lost all the points on their existing licenses and thus actually lost their license. Otherwise, I think if you want to graduate to another class of vehicle, like a truck or bus, and you haven't taken the code in a certain amount of time, you have to go through it. It made me feel better to not be alone though.
The woman next to me was on her fourth try, one more than me. Some of the kids seem to have taken it even more than that! Something is wrong with a system that works this way. Even accounting for getting the "yips" when it comes to test taking, no one should fail that often. I'm not convinced this makes anyone a safer driver.
At any rate, I figured I was as ready as I would ever be. I only hoped there weren't too many "trick" questions, something that has gotten me the last two times. I'd tried to prepare, but I think there's only so much you can do.
As the test rolled on, I felt pretty good and confident about the whole thing. There was only one question that I felt was a bit sneaky. Luckily, I had trained myself to really "see" the slides and I changed my answer before moving on to the next question. I'll never know if I got it right though, because there's really no way to find out.
The bad thing about being the last person to be registered, is that you're also the last person to get your results. I had to sit there for about 20 minutes, waiting for everyone else to go up and find out if they'd made it. About a third of them did. Not great odds. I'm sorry to say that my neighbor did not pass and will have to go back for a fifth try. I felt heartbroken for her, because she looked like she was going to cry.
By this point, my fingers were frozen and white. The stress had totally shut down my circulation and I was trying desperately to not pass out! Finally, it was my turn. I MADE IT!!!! I PASSED!!!! I don't have to study for hours and hours and hours anymore. Just as I found out the news, JM and Maggie walked in to join me. They looked as happy as I felt.
Of course, I still have to take the practical driving test, but I'm less worried about that, somehow. Which may be foolish of me, but there you have it. I need to feel good about my chances for at least a little while.
Ciao for now!
R
(see pictures on my personal site.)
