Nailed It.

I'm shocked and happy to say that I got my German driver's license on the first attempt. This notorious test has an appalling failure rate for first-time test takers, especially for non-Germans. Part of this has to do with the atrocious translation; another part has to do with most of this translation being in "British" English, so you get terms like "kerb," "boot," "alighting," "lorry," and "tyre" (that's curb, car trunk, getting off/leaving, truck, and tire for us Yankees-- all those years listening to Brit new wave bands and obsessively reading the album liner notes finally paid off) and so forth. But mainly, the questions are very difficult, deliberately vague (there is what's written in the manual, and there is the spirit or intent of the rule, and the correct answer could be either interpretation), and there may be multiple correct answers for each question-- but no partial credit given. So if you checked off one box for the correct answer instead of required two, you get the entire question wrong-- very tough. Driving tests are also something of a racket here: Yes, the Germans take the subject very seriously (not a bad thing necessarily)-- the average 16-year old will have to enroll in a special school, and it will cost their family thousands of Euros, and taking each test costs 70 Euros whether you pass it or not. Thanks to my underemployment situation, I busted my tail studying-- I took about 55 mock tests/dry runs, and read the 306(!) page manual cover to cover multiple times. Americans from different states moving to Germany will have different experiences-- because each state has its own agreement with the German government for driver license reciprocity. In practical terms, for this blog's west coast readers this means that Washington driver's licenses can be handed over and you will receive a German license on the spot-- no testing whatsoever. Oregon drivers must take the written test, but no physical driving test is needed; Californians on the other hand have to take both the written AND road tests. Very strange indeed.

With driver's license in hand, I can at least entertain the wholly impractical, wildly optimistic, and suicidally expensive pipe dream I have: Buy a rare Saab 90 model (produced for only for 3 years, sold in Europe exclusively), and export it back to the States when it hits 25 years and is exempted from the more draconian import tarriffs and EPA laws. That's the 90 in the pic above-- it looks ungainly as hell, but I think it's neato. Now, all I need is to find one, get some money, find a parking place... did I mention this was a pipe dream?