Maybe it's because yesterday was a remarkably good day; maybe it's because my boss's advice about how to live in Belgium (be wildly happy when anything goes right and accept things going wrong as the status quo) has finally sank in. But I feel like I'm making some progress in terms of not trying to think of a way to make this shithole sink into the sea.
The driving theory test: 44/50. First go, in French. Rock! I'd forgotten how much I love acing tests, which I'm starting to think is my real motive for having got so much education. Rampant, insecure self-regard. I love when strangers tell me I did good. Makes me blush all over, like when you give an attractive man a hard-on. And then I hoped I could get my provisional license right away but I could not - have to do 20 hours of lessons at a car school first. And then I hoped I could do those 20 hours in the next month, but I could not - all the schoolkids back from holiday had the same idea, I suppose, and my lessons will stretch into early November. Once they're finished, it is a further three months until I can take my final exam and get the full license.
Good thing I revised my goal to getting the permit before I turn 31. Neither wrench in the works killed my mood. It's not like I have anywhere to drive at the moment so six months is about as good as three months. And six months, though twice three months, is a mere fourth of how long this process would take in Canada or Australia. And here I'll be learning on stickshift, and in, if not an urban jungle, and urban dodg'em course; that means I'll be able to drive anywhere. See? Two stings-in-the-tail and not wishing Belgium would sink into the sea at all.
Work: Also got a full body blush from being recognized for a job well done. Got an email from my big big boss, which was a forward from my big big big boss, who had written it to both my big big boss and my big big big big boss about how he thought my first editorial, published a couple of weeks ago, was remarkably good. Now all three of these men are bosses so big I have no idea who the hell they are, though I'm meeting the big big boss next week when he comes to Brussels and we have a series of meetings with him and my boss and my big boss, and somehow that just makes the positive feedback nicer. It's not the Pulitzer but hopefully it will make up for the way I never brush my hair at my performance review.
2 commenti:
hooray on the hot score! now just 20 more hrs of practice driving? followed by a Final Exam? And let me guess -- yearly renewals thereafter?
-20 hours of lessons
-3 months of practice driving
-final exam
And in the end I'm about eleven hundred euros poorer and slightly more employable. No yearly renewals though.
But I have to do the exam with a stickshift - if I did it with an automatic I'd have to take it a second time with a stickshift if I wanted to be allowed to drive a stickshift. Wheeeee!
Posta un commento