Times are a changin

Following my new French driver's license, I am going to receive French nationality. I have to go to Lyon on Tuesday to pick up the document that says I am French. Oh, and you might have noticed that I said "going to Lyon". I no longer live in Lyon. Well, technically. I started a new job in Geneva Switzerland about 1 month ago and things are going pretty good, except for the fact that I have lost 1 month of French holidays. In France I had 2 months, now I only have 1 month:(

Val is still in Lyon working for the time being. But, oops, I don't think I have mentioned that she is pregnant! Yep, number 2 is on the way. So much too talk about and so little time to talk. Val be moving here after we sell the apt in Lyon and she goes on maternity leave. All will hopefully occur around December. That way she will have plenty of time to work out the details since she will benefit from a good portion of her salary without having to work for a couple of years. Gotta love France!

Anyway, at the moment I am staying at Val's father's place in the upstairs apt. He is also allowing me to borrow a car for the moment until I buy a new one which is hopefully soon. His car is 20 years old and has already broken down twice, once crossing through the border check and a second time right after passing through a toll booth. Both were really shitty timing but what can you do.

So to sum it up for the first half of 2010. French driver's license, check. French Nationality, most likely complete on Tuesday, check. Pregnant, check. New job in Geneva, check and hopefully towards the end of the year an apt in Lyon sold and a new house near Geneva.

By the way the photo is from today. We went hiking at Les Houches. I definitely recommend it. The view on top is incredible. The Mt Blanc and 3 seperate glaciers. In addition, the mule made life easy for me.

I also added some new photos on the left in the Photos on Picasa section.

DINGGGGGG

Well the driver's license test didn't go well. Looks like I will be retaking it in February. I am definitely pissed about that but there is nothing I can do and I need to stop stressing about it.

Anyway, there are some new pics available on the left from December.

Driver’s License Update

It’s not over yet. Just to give a little update on the agony of my work to get a driver’s license in France. Yesterday, I took the actual driver part of the test. Of course, they don’t tell you right away if you passed or not. The only way you would know if you failed is if the inspector hits the extra brake in the car. The good news is that he didn’t have to use his extra brake.

I did do something that didn’t make him happy. There was a “roundabout” type of intersection that I kind of hesitated when exiting. The problem with this intersection was that it wasn’t a normal exit. The inspectors like to use this type of intersection to trick you. Luckily I had already done this type of intersection a couple of times before so I knew what to expect but when I exited I hesitated a little too long and a car arrived behind me and I kind of slowed him down. It wasn’t really bad but the inspector told me that I had caused the driver to slow down and that I shouldn’t have hesitated so long.

Besides that issue, at one point the inspector told me I was going to slow and should drive normally. Otherwise, I successfully answered all the questions he asked me and I successfully navigated the “French right-hand priorities”. So now I am awaiting the results. Unfortunately, even though these were not big errors it could cause me to fail the test. Obviously, I am a bit stressed out about it. I should receive the results in a couple of days and then I will know whether I have to take the test again in a couple of months or I am officially a French driver.

New Photos Available

Check the photos albums on picassa section on the left. Mathieu just had his 2nd birthday and his first pumpkin carving experience, even thought the neighbor's kid did most of the work (it was his first pumpkin carving as well).

Otherwise, Mathieu is really starting to come into his own. He is starting to say a lot of things even if we don't understand him half of the time.

On my side, I am still working on the drivers license. Apparently, my bad habits will make me fail the test since they are very strict. I don't necessarily agree with all the things they say I am doing wrong. Most of my issues center around the fact that I don't look around enough and that I use the clutch too much. Because of these things I will fail the test so the monitor says I need to continue taking course until I have fixed them. Of course, each course is 62 Euros which means more money in the school's pocket. I am definitely going to spend more than I planned.

I can't believe that they aren't more lenient for people who have driven for 20 years! Pathetic.

French Drivers License

Well, after 4 years of driving in France, it is time to get a real French drivers license. Unfortunately, that means devoting a lot of time and money to the cause. Getting a drivers license in France is not easy. First off, the success rate for the test is below 70% and we are talking about French people taking the test. Second, the test comes in one language, FRENCH; meaning foreigners are at a disadvantage with the language barrier. The test is 40 questions in which you can only miss 5 and to make matters worse they place trick questions on the test. You really have to pay attention to every little detail in the picture to answer the question. On top of that each question may have 2 parts and there maybe more than one correct answer but never all correct answers. So tell me this doesn’t sound stressful. Well, if not I haven’t even begun to discuss the cost which is a bit cheaper for me since I already have an American drivers license. The minimum cost is around 600 Euros and each time you fail a test you have to pay an additional 80 Euros and wait a month before you can take it again! Well, with a success rate of less than 70% imagine how many people are paying additional costs. I have talked to many French people who paid over 1000 Euros for their drivers license.

A little note: Valerie renewed her California drivers license in May. She failed 2 times on the same day and passed the 3^rd time all at a cost of $20???? Why can’t it be that easy here?

So, when I first started taking practice tests I was missing 20 on each test. As of a few weeks back I was hovering right around 5 mistakes. Some days I would miss 2 other days I would miss 8 or 9. I decided it was time to take the real test so I signed up to take the test last Monday. Anyway, last Wednesday I took a practice test at the school and missed 11. CRAP, this got me really stressed out. The thought of failing and having to pay another 80 Euros was killing me. So every night I came home and took practice tests on a software program I downloaded. It got better until Saturday when I took 5 practice tests in a row and failed all of them. Once again, more stress. Really has to do with my state of mind. So Sunday, I spent another couple of hours taking tests with better results.

Come Monday morning, I was really stressed out. I had to meet at the school at 9am and a bus transported us to the testing center. No one said a word on the way over. The driver tried to assure us that it would be ok but nobody was buying it. At the center we waited almost an hour. Of course, this only compounded my stress. Once we were checked in and seated they handed us a remote control to answer each question that flashed up on the movie screen. The test took about 20 minutes. Overall, I felt it there were some difficult questions but most I had seen before on one practice test or another. Finally, the moment of reckoning came. They called my name I went up to the front of the room "in front of everyone" and they handed me a piece of paper. I took the paper and walked out the backdoor. The Driver immediately asked, well? I said I don’t know I haven’t looked. He took the paper and looked and said, YOU PASSED!!They only tell you how many you missed if you fail so I have no idea how close I was.

Out of the 9 students who went 6 of us passed. HAPPINESS, I never have to take the stupid test again, unless they take my license away…

At this point, I have spent 450 Euros with no additional costs needed but I still have to take the actual driving test. I took a course recently with an instructor and they said I have a lot of bad habits that need to be fixed before taking the test. Hopefully, I can fix them soon so I don’t have to continue shelling out 60 Euros per driving course.