Shamey, shamey, shamey on me! I didn’t even get into double digits in June’s postings, and I’m over two weeks behind in catching up. I’m horrible at this! To be fair, it seems like I’ve been busier at school lately and therefore haven’t had as much time to write. Once I’m at home I have no motivation to write……..so this is my dilemma. Anyway, I’m going to start with events from this past weekend while they’re still quasi-fresh on my mind.
Friday was a day of mixed emotions. I stayed Thursday night at Melissa’s, and together we went to the Menkyo Center to attempt the license test once again. That was my fourth time, Melissa’s second. Even though I felt nervous, I felt much better about it. I had been practicing the stupid Japanese moves (like mirror, signal, look, over every time you turn). I didn’t want to jinx myself, but I thought that there could be a definite chance of passing that time. The sun was even shining! 
We took that to be a good omen. We got there around 10:30AM, paid our 2,200 “rental fee” for the test car, looked at the course, and waited in the lobby while studying. I closed my eyes, visualizing the course and every move. Melissa said that I looked like a goober with my eyes closed while putting on an imaginary seatbelt, twisting my head to look at an imaginary blind spot, or pumping my imaginary brakes around the final curve like the proctor wants. We joked and said that they would probably fail us anyway for three reasons:
1) We’re not Japanese. Automatic ten point deduction.
2) We’re women. Automatic ten point deduction.
3) We’re both Melissa Marie. We said they’d probably get confused and just fail us both.
A few other ALTs showed up, and we discussed how many times each of us had taken the test. One guy from the islands won. Friday was his sixth time. The others were in the two-four range. They said that they were there yesterday. There was a total of six people there attempting to get their license, other ALTs and one really, really old Japanese guy who probably didn’t have any right to be driving anyway. However, out of all of them, guess who got the license? Yep, the old Japanese guy! Hurray for racism in Japan! 
We all walked the course together once it opened to pedestrians at noon, mentally nothing when to put on the blinker, where to turn, which lane to be in at each step of the process, etc. Surprise of all surprises, Melissa and I were put in the same car. Melissa told me that we had gotten the proctor who was a jerk to her earlier in the week. He actually closed the book and stopped grading her test halfway through before making the “tsk, tsk, tsk” sound. I was the last person to take it in the car, so I watched the first two people take it while trying not to have a mild panic attack. I was able to be in the car when Melissa went, and I knew that she had failed. The guy seemed to be pleased with himself as he angrily scrawled all over the paper. As Melissa went around the obstacle, he actually sighed in a manner that said “I’m bored with this.” Jerk! 
I was next. I did all of the proper procedures for entering the car: check the front, back, look both ways before crossing the street, open the door properly, adjust seat and mirror, fasten seatbelt, the whole nine yards. The first half of the course was amazing. He didn’t mark ONE THING wrong on my paper. Not one! However, then going into the crank (they want you to HUG the left side of the road) I ran up on the curb. According to the rules, you don’t fail for doing this as long as you stop and back off of it. Last time I ran over the curb completely, which is why I failed. This time, however, I caught myself. I stopped, looked behind me, and backed off of the curb. However, it didn’t matter. Once my tire was up on that curb, the proctor pretty much considered it to be game over. After that, he marked things right and left, nit-picking EVERY little thing I did wrong. I was hopeful that maybe, just maybe, I had passed, but after we went back to the cubicle space, he told me that I didn’t. 
ANGER. FRUSTRATION. DESPAIR. These are all emotions that I felt. Out of the six of us that took it that day, only one passed, and it was his sixth time taking the test.
It was an especially hard hit for me because I knew that was my last chance to pass. I didn’t have any more vacation days and would be stuck without the ability to drive once I come back in August since my International Driver’s Permit expires one year from the date I arrived in Japan. Melissa and I tucked our tails between our legs and headed home. I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to be in a little bubble and be angry at the world. However, Melissa is in a perpetually good mood, and it’s hard not to laugh when the person beside you is making turkey noises and stupid faces.
Once we got back to Hitoyoshi, we went to the super market to buy supplies for girls’ night on Friday night. We went to the store and bought anything that could be dipped in chocolate. 
Once we got back to Melissa’s house, I started writing an email to my supervisor telling her that I didn’t pass. I told her that I knew that I didn’t have any more vacation days, but was there any possible way that I could try again before I go to America mid-July? I would be willing to go in early and stay later if necessary. I was completely surprised when she replied back that yes, I could do that. As of now, I’m heading back to the Menkyo Center on July 6th (my birthday ) and making up the hours in August.
Melissa and I went over to Mary’s before the party because she had a horrible day and wasn’t feeling well at all. She had a doctor’s appointment that day, and the doctor told her that as a side effect from her Crohn’s Disease, she has some other disease that is making her joints and muscles ache. She emailed us and told us that she wasn’t going to be able to make it to girls’ night, so we went to see her and ended up staying there until we needed to go back to Melissa’s and prep for the party. Even though she didn’t feel like it, we managed to convince Mary to come with us to girls’ night, and she did!
We had SUCH a good time at girls’ night. Most of the girls from our gun were there. We ate fondue until we were stuffed full, drank Coke, played Twister, put our souls out on the table during a friendly game of Truth or Dare, and laughed until the early morning ours of Saturday. I didn’t want to be the first one to leave, but I was surprised at how late everyone stayed! My favorite parts of the night were playing Twister and Truth or Dare. Rebeca and Ana are ridiculously flexible and were almost always the winners at Twister. I was really surprised at some of the answers during Truth or Dare. Without posting confidential information on here, I’ll just say that I learned a lot about some of my friends….in a good way. It blew me away how honest we were being with one another. Since Ian was landing in the States around 11 PM our time, he was supposed to Skype me, but he never did. Melissa was saying how she kept getting a strange number on her phone, and I asked if it happened to be a 270 number, and she said yes. Ian had been trying to call both of our phones, but it wasn’t working with either!
I didn’t get home until 3 AM that morning, and instead of being drop dead tired, I was wide awake. I called Mommy and talked for a bit before trying to get ahold of Ian. It didn’t work again, and even though I was still wide awake, I forced myself to go to sleep around 4AM.
No comments:
Post a Comment