Daily life in the USA: the driver license

The last important thing we had to do to become semi-Americans was getting an American driver license. It depends on the state that you live in, but here you can only use your 'out of state' license, international or American, for 90 days. After that you will need an Arizona license. And were the Americans do not have to test to get it, we did. So there we went, on a weekday as early as possible to the Department of Motor Vehicles: the DMV.

First of all you have to face the lady of the information desk to apply for a license.

Then she will test your eyes (the lens is so big I couldn't see a thing, so I cheated by semi closing my eyes...) and checks your vehicle registration. And strange to us was that you have to bring your own car to the road test. So a driving school does not necessarily has to be involved. As long as the applicant had 30 hours of (supervised) driving hours and is over 16, he/she can test for the license. And in most cases this involves the parents' car...

When 'information lady' decides you can see and that the vehicle you drive in is not stolen, you are directed to go to window 1 to have your picture taken. Without a warning, by the way, so I look like an inmate in shock. You sit and wait to go to window 2 to register and pay the 10 dollar fee, which gives you three turns to pass the tests (we couldn't believe how cheap it was, knowing that in our home country we paid a couple of hundred dollars for just one try...!).

After paying you go to window 3 to register for the written test, which takes place in a small room next to it. You get 30 questions and need to have 24 right. You are tested your knowledge about road regulations and signs (small DMV booklet you will have to read once). Most important: 'do not overrun a pedestrian and 'Stop' means stop...No one bothers to oversee you doing the test. Not that it was hard, but I could've googled everything if I wanted to.

You go to window 3 again and when you passed the written test you get a date and time for your road test. When you are lucky this is the same day, but most of the time you need to return on a later date.

The road test consists of a parking maneuver and five minutes of actual driving, you know on an actual road. I have to admit that the parking (three point parking, like you ever have to do something like that in this country where parking spots are as big as a truck!) was not as easy as I had expected. You are not allowed to hit a cone (fair enough), nor one of the side lines. If you do, it means instant fail (like, seriously?!). The five minutes on the road afterwards are ridiculously pointless. The whole way you were only allowed a speed limit of 25 miles per hour and turning right three times was apparently enough to show them you could drive...

And so one becomes part of the American roads, which especially in town are not always so very safe.

Now I actually now why: getting a license doesn't mean you can drive. Not here anyway.