now go backwards

Date: December 28th, 2009

My uncle took me out driving Sunday morning.  Yep… wow… I don’t know where to begin except to say I didn’t realize just how intuitive I am until I had to try and fight to ignore every instinct in me.  Driving on the right side, staying to the left, thinking the left side is the slow side… all weird.  But by far the hardest part was remembering that I didn’t know the length of the car, which meant I had to pay close attention to everything outside to the left of the car.  My uncle got pretty scared a few times, I must admit, having been sitting on the left side with a clear view of just how close I was cutting it. He was a good sport :o)  But it’s hard to think, “You’re close to the right, so you probably won’t hit anything on your right.  It’s the left side that you can’t see Rebecca.. the left side! watch out you almost took the mirror out!”  Haha, no no, I don’t think I got that close.

Other things I had to remember, which I don’t have to think about at home: potholes.  massive ones, the kind that can take your car OUT. There aren’t very many 4-stops even though there are hundreds of intersections… yeah, that was fun.  Drivers here like to pass a LOT.  and that means you can be in your lane then all the sudden have a car 10 feet in front of you, coming your way in your lane. Yep, your lane.  that’s fun, too.

The best analogy I can think of to explain how weird it is to drive on the other side is trying to ride a bike backwards.  I felt like I moved to a completely different planet.  And here they ride all their bikes backwards, with little tiny mirrors to help you out.  It felt like someone said “welcome! we don’t ride our bikes the way you do.  You know how to ride, right? Okay, good.  Now go backwards.”