Feel free to skip. I just need to vent.
I can't wait to be done with driving lessons!! I really dislike my instructor, but because of corona, they can't switch me because they are booked full, as are all the other driving schools, so I'm stuck. I had filled out my health thing and had to wait to get approval so they could schedule the road test, and I got that and immediately sent it to my instructor....and then crickets. He didn't even acknowledge getting it. So I asked him on Monday during my lesson if he got it and without even answering, he tells me I needed to send it to the driving school. Um....you work for the driving school....you couldn't hand it to the person who deals with that? Or send me an email with the address to send it to? You don't respond at all and then I ask you 2 weeks later and NOW you tell me it was supposed to go somewhere else? I didn't say anything, just asked him which address to send it to....then he starts lecturing me about how it's too bad I didn't do that earlier because now we're 2 weeks further and they still can't schedule my road test without that, and now it will probably be December before there's an open slot, etc. I'm thinking...YOU'VE HAD IT FOR 2 WEEKS! It's not MY fault you didn't forward it to the correct office or tell me where to send it! And you're blaming ME, like I'M the one who wasn't on the ball??
Then he had asked me if there was anything I felt like I needed more practice with. I said yes, driving in reverse and following the GPS system. So we were practicing the GPS on Monday, and I was looking at the map as we got on the round about because he was talking and I didn't hear which exit I needed. Well, I didn't know there's a slight delay (my husband told me later, not my instructor), so I didn't think I was as far as I was and I thought I needed to go one further, only that was closed off, so I couldn't take it. AFTER I miss it, my instructor tells me that was the wrong one...what a shame that I wasn't paying attention and missed the correct exit. If I did that in an exam, I'd fail because it comes across as not being confident. WHAT?? It's a round about!! You miss the exit, you go around again and hit it the next time.....you lose all of 10 seconds! And how is that not confident? If I already knew the way, I wouldn't need the GPS! That's kind of the point of the GPS. My husband says it's complete bull that I'd fail because of that. It has nothing to do with your driving skills. I'm just so DONE with it. And he keeps saying "FUN, huh? Driving?" And I keep telling him "No, I don't think it's fun at all. I really don't like driving." And then he says "Well then why are you taking driving lessons?!" I finally told him this time (this is the 5th time he's asked and the 5th time I've told him why) "Because I NEED to know how to drive if anything happens to my husband. I need to be able to, I don't have to like it!!" Then he asks why I don't like it. I say it's too stressful. There are too many things that can go wrong and they are all considered my fault in the Netherlands, even if I was following all the rules and someone else wasn't. If a cyclist suddenly darts in front of me to turn left without signaling or looking, and I don't have time to stop and I hit him, it's my fault even though HE was in the wrong....that's just too much pressure. So he says "But would that really happen? Is some cyclist going to dart out in front of you without signaling or looking?" I told him I watched it happen and the woman died....I literally watched a woman die in that exact scenario. And it was the driver of the car who could lose his license because he killed her, even though SHE was the one who caused the accident. I watched it happen. YES, it absolutely CAN happen. Cyclists don't often signal, and everyone passes in intersections, and changes lanes in intersections, and all manner of things that are illegal in the US, but perfectly fine here. Whatever....I'll get my license and be done and never have to deal with him again. And if I miss the right exit from a round about, I'll just go around one more time and there won't be anyone there to shame me for making such an abominable mistake.
