My first drive in USA

After I had scheduled for my driving lessons one month ago, my first lesson was changed from Feb 6 (Tue) to today since my instructor got a new car.

On Feb 5, I called to remind him and that was when he said he had to postpone them. I was indignant as I had to re-scheduled my experiments and he should at least had called me instead of the other way round.

Anyway, we went to Clifton High School which had a huge car park with no parked car. My instructor explained how I should check the exterior of the car as one of the driving test requirements. Things to look out for include inflated tires, sharp debris that could puncture the tires, obstacles that could blocked the tires, all headlights were not broken, no leak under the engine etc.

After checking the exterior, upon entering the car, I had to lock the doors first, before inserting the key. Next, I made adjustments to the seat and mirrors. I had a briefings on all the buttons available on the dashboard.

I practised left and right turns, going forward and backing up before going on the road. Thank God the traffic was not heavy then. I was more relaxed and aware of what I was doing compared to driving in Singapore! The ease was partially because I was driving an automatic car. I just had to step on the accelerator or the brake. Surprisingly, left-hand drive was not as bad as I had been brought up on right-hand drive. Finally, maturity accounted for the rest since I am calmer nowadays and learnt to take things at an easy pace. I was a "gan jiong" king (Singlish for a nervous wreck) in my younger days.

A funny thing was I drove like a tortoise (less than 20 miles per hour) since this was my first time. The speed limit was 25. This Wednesday, I hope to keep to the speed limit as slow driving can cause accident too!

After completing six hours of driving, I have to practise at least 60 hours of driving with different conditions (dusk, dawn, highway, 3-point turn etc). Delores had volunteered to take me to the highway today after I told her about my driving. I jokingly said she had to make peace with God first, then we could go ahead.