Yet Another Driving Test

The stress of driving lessons and submitting to a written and road test took their toll on me earlier this year. It was with the greatest relief that I handed over my U.S. driver's license in exchange for my hard-fought-for German one. David's light-hearted jabs along the way, since he was exempt from the lessons and tests, did little to lighten my mood about the whole thing.

At least he thought he was exempt. We initially went back and forth several times about whether or not we would need to take the tests at all. We were relieved to hear that our state of Hessen had an exemption to the "Americans from Georgia must take the tests" rule. Then, it became "Only Americans working in Hessen were exempt." That's when I began taking driving lessons (which were required) and the gentle teasing remarks from my dear husband began.

All this while, paperwork work requesting an exemption for David was shuffled from one government desk to another, with several people signing off on it. At the desk of the last official, though, David's luck ran out. He was not exempt after all. The exemption was only for "Americans working for American companies in Hessen."

It was rather gratifying to see my husband scratching his head over the vaguely-worded English translation of the driver's manual and then coming home from lessons remarking that there was something strange about the German road signs. He swore they were at a different height than American ones. What other reason could there be for often missing seeing important ones? And explaining some of the questions on the practice tests? There were no light-hearted jabs from me, just satisfied smirks.

David passed the written test a few weeks ago with a perfect score (a better score than mine), and then this morning took the driving test. Thankfully, the official administering the test did not ask why he was almost a year late taking the test.

In Germany during a road test, your instructor sits next to you and the official sits in the back and just tells you what to do. My instructor had assured me that by the time you take the test, the officials are expecting and hoping that you pass. "He has your license in his pocket and he wants to give it to you!" It's true that when I passed, the official was very happy for me and seemed a bit puzzled that I just sighed with relief instead of jumping for joy.

David wasn't that stressed about taking the test this morning. The only pressure he felt was the need to match my performance of passing the test on the first try. He had no need to worry, he did just fine. For some reason, he was able to keep his American license, whereas I had to surrender mine (after several discussions justifying why I should be able to keep it were rejected). We think it just depended on which government official you talked to that day.