I got to drive to the store the other night.
That probably doesn’t mean much to you folks, but down here, I have no drivers license, therefore I shouldn’t drive. Not yet anyway.
It was about 9:40pm, and I was out of milk, eggs, and cottage cheese; all staples for our new way of life.
I got out of our parking area after driving forward, and backward about a half dozen times, all of the time Ivan was laughing at me; chuckling really. Why? Because he knows he has to do it that way as well.
Not to mention that one of the vecinos, neighbors, was giving a party, so all of the parking spaces around us, that are usually vacant, were full. Normally, we can be pull into them when trying to get out; not tonight.
Anyway, I managed to get out of the space, backed up, after another 4, or 5 times, into the neighbors space on the end, and drove up the ramp, and out of the garage. Yay. I haven’t forgotten how to drive, or how to park.
I told Ivan tonight that I wanted to start driving to Costco, or WalMart during the day once in a while. Mind you, driving here is not even like driving in Chicago. It’s worse.
I’m unable to drive around dusk. There’s not enough light for me to see the streets clearly, and not dark enough for the street lights to be on. There are speed bumps, called topes, TO-pess, about every 500 meters. If you don’t see them, you’ll feel them. They are rounded mounds of concrete that span the street from side to side. Some are marked with white, and yellow diagonal stripes, and some are not marked at all.
During the daytime, the shadows from the dashboard cause such a dark glare on the bottom of the windshield, again, making it almost impossible to see the topes that aren’t clearly marked. I have been observing, while Ivan is driving, that if you keep your fourth eye on the people in front of you, you can see when they slow down to go over a bump, so that is what I’ll do too.
Everyone here drives by their own rules. It’s hard to know what anyone is going to do at any moment. If there are 3 lanes of traffic, and the only way you can go is left, or right, frequently all 3 lanes go left!!! What???
In the States, there is more order; one has a certain ability to anticipate what one will do next. Here, just when you think you can safely pass a vehicle they pull out to pass the car in front of them.
NOOM is going well; I CAN DO THIS!!! The plants, the Aeonium, 4 of them left, appear to be surviving, though you wouldn’t know it to look at them. All of the new “petals” underneath, are bright green, and plump.
Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.