Now I can drive on BOTH sides of the road!
So I finally got off my butt and went and got myself an Oregon Driver's License today. I just realised that there was no reason not to get it apart from procrastination. While procrastination can be fun, it was time to join the real world... so at 8am in the morning, Christine and I headed off to the grandly titled Portland Drive Test Center... really just a ginormous DMV.
For some reason, this is the only DMV office in the entire Portland metropolitan area where you can actually do the drive test... totally unlike Sydney, where every RTA (Roads and Traffic Authority) office does it.
Anyway, of all the hoops I've had to jump through in my quest to lead an American Life™, this was probably the easiest of all. Sign in, fill out some paperwork, show my Green Card, pay the test fee of $9 and then go for a drive. The tester was a pretty relaxed guy and I really didn't feel nervous at all. And drive tests don't really agree with me – I failed back in Australia five times before I got my license. I kept getting the same drive tester, and for some reason, he just didn't like me and failed me for more and more ridiculous reasons each time. On the sixth time, I got someone else, and – surprise, surprise – I passed!
So I made a couple of little mistakes in the test – I stopped too far into the intersection at a couple of stop signs (a matter of inches!), and turned into the middle lane when turning left into a multi-lane one way street (you have to turn into the left-most lane). Nowhere near enough to fail me, anyway! I was slightly annoyed that after diligently practicing reverse parks all week, I didn't actually need to perform one in the test – I just had to pull in to an empty curb as if parking, and then reverse two car lengths in a smooth manner. No other cars anywhere near me!
Back at the DMV, I paid my $59 for an eight-year license (showing my Green Card again), and then had my photo taken by another staff member for my license (third time for the Green Card!), which will be mailed to me in the next week or so.
Road trip, anyone?
Posted in: chaosboy, driving, portland on April 28, 2009 at at 9:58:00 PM
Road trip? How about you and Christine take a drive out here? I made the trek out that way last Thanksgiving and it was great. You'll see there's a lot to explore in America.