At long last!!! I have a license!!! Since my car accident, I had had in my possession a cursed can of black coffee. This can had been in my car, ready for me to drink whenever I felt too sleepy on the road. I neglected to drink that coffee, and crashed as a result of sleepiness! Irony! So the coffee survived the crash and sat in my fridge, and it was suggested that only when that coffee was drunk would I be rid of my curse. So I drank it. AND EVERYTHING WORKED OUT! Almost miraculously, I might add!
1) The letter my boss wrote must have been enough. They didn't even ask us about it. They just accepted all the paperwork as it was.
2) The paper test was no problem. (It's usually not, but knowing my luck, I was worried nonetheless). It was 10 true/false questions, with picture illustrations, and translated into only slightly awkward English.
3) I passed the practical driving test on the 2nd try! Most foreigners I've talked to who have taken the test have had to take it 3 times. Sometimes even 5 times. I did it in two! Came in Wednesday, had license on Friday.
4) My boss was thankful to have a relaxing day away from the office. She took me out to lunch both days, telling me to just worry about the cost of the test.
5) The VERY NEXT DAY it started raining (tail end of a typhoon). If I hadn't gotten my license, I would have been biking to my elementary schools for their Sports Days. The next Tuesday was rainy as well, when I might have had to bike to work again. The whole 3 weeks that I biked to school, the weather was perfect! Maybe a little hot, but fortunately dry.
How lucky was that?! That coffee really was cursed, I guess.
While the car accident was a rather unfortunate event in and of itself, it just so happened to lead to a number of happier things. For one thing, my social life didn't disappear. Rather, asking for help and favors from others led to some happy times. I asked a fellow teacher for some help gift-shopping, and she ended up taking me out with her family for the day!
But perhaps the biggest plus to come out of it was Yusuke. My appointment with the license center was about one week after my accident, on a Thursday. It just so happened that he was off work that day, so I asked him for a ride. I could have asked my boss - it would have been considered part of her work day, but I didn't want to bother her so much, since she'd been handling my car accident paperwork. Besides, Yusuke was a good friend, and I felt I needed a friend to help me face trying to get a license one week after totaling my car.
So he went with me, and witnessed the first stage of the License Fiasco. He did his best to translate for me, then he listened patiently while I ranted for half an hour. We grabbed lunch, and the next day he called to offer to give me a ride to the license center again if I needed it, offering to take a day off work if necessary. That was the sign of affection I needed. The next time I saw him, about two weeks later, I asked him out, and we've been together since.
You've probably guessed by now that Yusuke is Japanese. He is 26. He drives a motorcycle. He works with pigs (big agricultural area around here). He smokes and dyes his hair. He plays the guitar. He loves karaoke. And every day that he spends with me, he becomes less Japanese. His English is quite good, due to his hanging out with foreigners the past 3 years. But like me, he understands far more than he is comfortable speaking, so I often speak in English and he in Japanese, but it works out just fine.
Are you surprised? Yea, me too. On paper, he doesn't sound like my type. But everyone who knows him well agrees: his outer appearance does not match his personality. Suffice to say that we get along really well and that I'm lucky to have him.
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