It was that kindof day

We went to meet my parents for lunch today, so we loaded in the car and headed off to Stephenville, TX the halfway point between us and them.  We are pulling into town and Nate looks up at us and spews, I mean spews, in a projectile kindof way, bright green vomit all over him, the carseat, and the floorboard.  Did we bring an extra set of clothes?  Of course not, because we never need them anymore!  So we headed to Wal-Mart to get him new clothes so we could take him in to eat. We had lunch and got back in the vomit-reaking car to drive home.

On the way home we pass by some bluebonnets, and yes we are THAT family and we got out to take pictures.  And seriously, Noah asked to.  It has been a rainy week, so we had to trapse through the mud to get up to the flowers and what happens?  Noah and Nate both flip out and won't take pictures.  Nate smells like throw up and the rest of us are covered in mud and all we have to show for our outing is this one picture of Noah.  Click here to see it.

Legal in Three Countries

Today I went down and picked up my third Drivers License! I am now officially a resident in three different countries and have three sets of IDs. I am thinking about changing my name to Jason Bourne.

Rules of Driving

Over the past week of driving here I've learned these rules on driving:

1. When at an intersection or entering a roundabout, he who hesitates the least has the right of way.

2. Always do what's best for yourself. If pulling a U-turn in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic works for you, it must work for everybody else.

3. Every car is equipped with "park anywhere lights" you just push this button and it causes your car's lights to blink in unison and that gives you the right to park where ever you want, whenever you want.

Freedom! Brought to us by Hyundai

Today I went down to the Driver's License Department and went through a variety of lines and paperwork and picked up my driver's license. That's right. Today I joined the class of the frazzled-nerved, white-knuckled, half-craved, horn-happy, cussing, screaming, and the all around impatient drivers of the Middle East.

*I had to take the eye exam in Arabic. A bit nerve-racking. I have a hard time telling which way the little "E" is pointing in English, much less saying it in Arabic.*

But because we aren't sure what we are doing after language school we are in no position to get a car, BUT we have several friends who are traveling back and forth from the States and they agreed to let us borrow their car these next couple weeks. So we are in a little Hyundai Accent today.

We were cruising down the road on a way to a picnic and I flipped the "squirt water on the windshield" lever and the back windshield wiper went crazy and wouldn't shut off! So we drove around for an hour with the back windshield wiper smearing the dirt on the back windshield and nothing happening on the front windshield. "oh, great. We've had the car for 10 minutes and I've already jacked it up!"

Fortunately we get home and I pull the fuse out and replace it and everything goes back to normal. I guess when a fuss blows, the front stops working and the back stops stopping.

Oh well. Who cares? For now, we are free......

Driver's License Update

We three went to the random office that we went to last week to apply for an exception to forgo all the tests to get a license and picked up my copy of approval to take to the Dept. of License across town and we dropped off B's papers to be processed....(whew...that was a long sentence).

The Dept. of Licenses closes at 3:30pm. We pull up to the gate at 2:15pm. The gate is closed and everything is locked up. Oh well. We'll try again on Saturday.

Its the Middle East. What can you do?

NO Test for MEEEE!!!!!!

I went to the driving place to take the written test, hopefully pass it, and sign up for a time for a driving test. Upon arrival at the desk, they ask where I was from and if I already had a license. I happen to have my handy, dandy Texas license with me and they told me that I didn't need to take any tests. I just needed to go over to a place "over there" (with that he pointed off behind him). Come to find out, "over there" is actually on the other side of the city by the University.

I headed over there with a buddy who had gone to "over there" before and knew it was. We find the building, head up the third floor without any signs, to an unmarked office and gave the guy a copy of my Residency Card, my passport, and my Texas DL. He said, "okay, come back in 10 days and we'll give you a letter to take back to the driving place and you can pick up your license!"

So no test for me! Praise the Lord!!

Written Test Tomorrow

Tomorrow I have my written part of my driving test to get my license here. Its been nine years since I've taken a written examination on the actual rules and laws of driving. If it was a test based on the way people actually drove here the answers would look like this:

A: honk your horn
B: cut the guy off
C: call his father a donkey
D: all of the above

One or all of these answers would be appropriate in every situation here. Now whether on not that is on the test who knows. It may be that I have to take it more than once to pass. We will see.