Roads of Germany

I never thought I'd be in my late-twenties, having to take a driver's test again. Yet, this morning, I found myself doing just that. Basically we have to get a military driver's license that allows us to drive here in Germany. The test was 100 questions long. My husband got his license about two weeks ago, but I kept procrastinating because I get horrible test anxiety, yet I'm usually one of the first done. My husband told me what building it was in, and I allowed myself 30 minutes to walk there. It was suppose to begin at 7:45, so I figured I'd be done by 8:30.

I arrive, and find out that I'm in the wrong building. So with 5 minutes to spare, I made a dash for three buildings away and a flight of stairs. Didn't help my anxiety one bit. Only to find out check-in is at 7:45 and the doors shut at 8. Only, they don't begin the test then. They begin a 35 minute video that basically goes over all the questions I studied. Again, having to wait another 35 minutes did not help my anxiety. Everyone said all the questions for the exam are in the back of the book, so I barely paid attention to the video. (Seriously, a video about driving at 8am? How is one suppose to stay awake??)

Test gets passed out and I begin, feeling pretty confident because I knew all the questions in the book. However, there were some other questions in it! Ones like the punishment of driving with a .86 blood alcohol level. That was gone over in the video, but I didn't catch the punishment because well, I won't ever be in that position. So I was really beginning to freak out as I made several guesses on these types of questions.

Then I stood to go turn my test in and realized, I was the first done. Ugh, I hate that feeling. But I have learned that when I go back and 'check' my answers I tend to not know what my first instinct was and change answers, resulting in more wrong answers. I turned it in and she began to grade it. I noticed I had many wrong and got scared. You must get at least an 85% to pass. I got... an 85%. I said I'll take it, and went to get my license and pay the small fee. No one else walked out before I left. The best part... (small brag because I NEVER do better), it took my husband twice to pass heehee. That did give me a small boost in confidence, even if it was an 85.

So I returned home, very late, making my husband late for work, and begged him to let me rent the car for just one more day, and set out with all three kids driving. Now, keep in mind, we have been in Germany 22 days and I have not driven that entire time. Also, since my husband came home, he drove almost everywhere. So, it's been about two months since I've driven. I will be honest, I was a wee-bit nervous. But it was fine. I even took the many roundabouts with complete ease.

I will say driving in Germany is a bit overwhelming. There are a LOT of signs (I think 168!), and I would not feel comfortable driving here without having studied for the test. Also, did you know the "autobahn" that everyone thinks is so awesome and has no speedlimit is not just one road? Autobahn means freeway. It's just like our highway system in the US. And it does have speedlimits. There are times when there is no posted speedlimit, but at those times, it is recommended to not exceed 130 kilometers (80 miles) and if you get in an accident when doing more, you could be charged, even if it wasn't your fault.

We first went the the base exchange. I'll be honest, not a huge fan of that place. Civilians think it's awesome, but they don't know the truth. Yes, there's no tax, but the government thinks we need the most expensive brands of everything- Nike, Addias, Coach, Vera Bradley, etc. It's EXPENSIVE! And there are vendors from around Germany, but they completely jack up the prices when selling in the BX. You can get a bottle of wine from a vendor there for $14... off base? $3. And the "less expensive" clothes they have are horrible quality.

Which is why we were stopping by there. I bought Abigayle two outfits the second day here, so 20 days ago. They have been washed AT MOST, three times and are very faded and shrunk so much she can't wear them anymore. So, I took them back. The lady at customer service wasn't happy that I didn't have tags or receipt, but I still got most of my money back. (One was on clearance already and since I didn't have a receipt, they couldn't give me the full amount, but $18 instead of $24 is still better than nothing. And yes, I paid $24 for an outfit for Abby because her winter stuff hadn't arrived at the PO yet! That's how expensive it is!)

Then I'd been really wanting to check out a store called "Toom" off base, so the kids and I did. Picture Ace Hardware tries to go Home Depot. Not as big as Home Depot, but a lot of the same stuff, just less selection. I was looking for crafting purposes, and I think they will meet my needs in the future :) There are a few other gardenmarkts that I want to check out as well.

Then we went next door to a place called "Kauflands". I had no clue what it was, so went in hehee. It's basically like a small walmart maybe? Groceries and household goods, mixed together. We bought some grapes, a calculator (I need one so bad without a cell phone and trying to convert Euro to dollars all the time!!), and two Kauflands frozen pizzas for lunch. I wanted to explore more, but I had children complaining they were soooo sleepy and hungry. So, we came home. Abby fell asleep on the way home and did not wake up. The other two didn't want pizza, but wanted PBJ and PB and bananas for lunch. Then they went to bed, and were asleep within 10 minutes of going to sleep.

So I'm taking this quiet time to eat my pizza and I have a small craft project to do when I'm finished eating. And today is a very special day, because my eldest turned FOUR today!! How has that happened already? Wow! Happy Birthday son! :)