DRIVER'S LICENSE:

As American residents, we can drive for about 30 days in Germany before we are required to have a German Driver’s License. There is an agreement between the German government and the US which allows us to procure a US FORCES German License. License procurement involves : 1- having a valid US license, 2-taking a Driver’s Ed Class (about 3 hours) and 3- taking a written test (in ENGLISH!) of about 100 questions.

Now, Hubbalicious has been the only driver of our rental car here in Germany. This was not our original plan (Avis, our go-to company, allows me equal permission to drive the car as a spouse without even being there to flash my license at the time of check-in). However, when we arrived, weary and ready for the freedom of the open road, the counter person at the German Avis counter informed us that, yes, of course I could drive…for the added cost of 17 EURO PER DAY. I smiled sweetly at my husband and said “Call me Miss Daisy”. BUT – this arrangement has given Hubbz a distinct advantage in the driver’s test arena. He’s been assimilating some of the signs and behaviors of German drivers, as I punch in GPS coordinates and try to find the German street sign we’re looking for to make the next turn. So when we started to read the study guide, answers came so naturally for him – and I was a series of shrugs and wrong answers…whoops!

How hard can it be, you might ask? Like the US, they drive on the right side of the road in Germany. The cars are built like US cars, save the speedometer being in Kilometers per Hour instead of Miles per Hour. All of this is true!! The driving itself, is not THAT different. The driver’s TEST, however, is another animal. It all boils down to three little words: Right of Way. Yep. There are some real strict rules about Right of Way – and the test really requires that you knuckle down and learn them. The test includes diagrams of three cars at four way stops, sometimes with horse drawn carriages, sometimes with traffic cops. And asks you… “In what order should these cars proceed?” Um…..huh?

The test included 75 questions about how many meters you can park from a cross walk (5), about the minimum speed on an Autobahn (60 kph) and how long your license will be suspended if anyone in your car doesn’t fasten their seat belt on base (one week for the first offense). It included about 7-10 diagrams (gulp) and 25 road signs that you match to their definition from a list they provide. (Sidebar, the road sign thing was harder than it sounds….consider the fact that in the US you’ve been looking at those signs for 16 years before you’re tested on them….).

Anyways – I was STRESSED about this test. No amount of studying seemed to help me try to cement these diagrams correctly in my brain. No amount of self-talk seemed to relieve the feelings of anxiety I had about taking this bloody test!! The fact that failure (which happened to about 25% of first time testers) meant only you had to re-take the test was somehow no comfort at all!! This demonstrated to me that I was letting anxiety triumph over logic – a bad sign in the world that exists in my head. I studied that practice test for a pretty solid 24 hours – but soon realized that I knew the answers due more to the fact that the question itself was familiar, than because I could confidently understand the scenarios in the diagrams. What ultimately saved my bacon was that 90% of the test questions were taken directly from the practice test. Hubbz passed with a 99/100 and I with a 97/100.

Apparently I was visibly anxious enough about the test that Hubbz skipped a prime gloating opportunity and refrained from celebrating his 2 point victory over me. He just smiled and hugged me and said “Good job Babe!!”. Yeah, he’s a keeper :)