An American tourist is welcome to come to Spain, rent a car, and drive around the country for the full three-month duration of a normal tourist visa without any documents other than a valid US driver's license and a passport. This is obvious if you want to encourage tourism, of course, but maybe not the wisest decision from a road-safety standpoint. Once you become a resident, however, you must obtain a Spanish driver's licence. If it weren't such a lucrative business, I wouldn't have been so resistant; but honestly, it seemed to me much more a matter of money than safety, and so I've held out fourteen years on principal. Some of you may think this was foolish, or risky and maybe it was. A licence doesn't protect you from traffic accidents, but I never fully researched the legal/judicial implications of having an accident without a Spanish licence. I have always had a valid US licence--even renewed it from here. But now, fourteen years, 500 euros and two tests later, I am on my way to being a Spanish driver.
This past Thursday was my practical driving test: the last hoop to jump through. I passed. :) I would say, with flying colors--my paralell parking has really improved!--but the examiner said I had the car in first gear too much and that at one point I failed to slow for an obstacle. Still, a pass is a pass; I'll take it. Now I've got to give two passport photos to the driving school for them to send in the paperwork to the "DMV" and then wait for my licence. I will be issued a temporary permit until my actual licence comes, but that takes about a week, too.
Everything has been very slow because of the pandemic. My theory exam was pushed back two weeks from the original date and when I passed that in August, I was told the first practical exam wouldn't be until mid-September, which extended itself to mid-October! Now I'll be sitting around waiting for paperwork.
In the meantime, I have begun working in Estepa and must necessarily drive into town every day. It is beginning to feel like I'm tempting fate (part of why I haven't posted about this before now!). I am not generally superstitious, but all the same I couldn't help feeling like I was going to jinx myself. At this point, I am feeling more confident (crosses fingers).
Work is going well. It is really nice not to bring anything home. When I'm home, I'm home--what a difference from these past two years. I am working in the afternoons, which does cut-back significantly on my time with Emily, but even so we have lunch every day together and I am with her for about an hour after we eat before needing to leave. I get home for bedtime. She's adjusted pretty well to the schedule. Everything is so much more relaxed compared to the frantic pace of our time in Granada. I am continually grateful we made this decision...even despite my scepticism regarding public school.
I'll save details of school for another post. Emily is also slowly adjusting to this as well. The 20/21 school-year is a huge change for everyone with all the new COVID protocol, but for Emily, of course, that's just magnifying her own difficulties transitioning into a new grade, new school, with new kids and new methodology. After a month an a half, she finally confessed to me the other night that she's "starting to like school a little bit". That's good enough for me at this point. There have been a lot of tears over these past weeks when I leave her in the mornings, and at home it's been a constant litany of "...but I don't want to go to school", "I don't like school", "I miss you", "but you can teach me!"... and the list goes on. This bedtime confession of hers is no small deal. We are finally beginning to see light at the end of this tunnel. ;)
