Summer, working and parallel parking

How’s everyone’s summer coming along?
Mine has been pretty standard since arriving home from Arizona, as nothing can quite compete with that. However, one thing that many students do, including myself, is learn to drive over the summer and pass before term starts again in the Autumn.
When I was 17, I did begin to learn however after 3 hours I knew I wasn’t quite ready as quite frankly, I was a wuss. At the fine age of 21 ½, I finally felt as though I had the ability to control a car without running somebody over. Consequently, the past 3 weeks have been filled with 20 hours of driving lessons alongside working nearly full-time at my (part-time) job.
My instructor Alex had a personality and a half, and worked around my working hours which meant that many lessons either started at 7am or 10pm. As you can imagine I’ve had a hectic few weeks.
Due to studying abroad, my theory certificate expired which meant I couldn’t book a driving test. I knew I had the ability to pass and thus took a big risk. I relied heavily on other people cancelling their appointments in order to pass within the time frame I wanted (something I wouldn’t recommend as I racked up a heavy phone bill).
My theory test was booked for 6pm Tuesday evening in Nottingham (where I had learned to drive) and my driving test was booked for 9am in Loughborough on the Wednesday morning (somewhere I had never been before). I didn’t want to wait until October for my driving test as the test centres tend to be solidly booked over summer, so I went for it! If I failed, it was experience at the end of the day. I wanted to pass ASAP as since looking at career applications, they always ask if I have a driving license and I want to fulfil that skill before graduating.
Howard, my driving test examiner made me feel at ease, especially when he started talking about the Grand Canyon (my forte). He told me all about his road trip around Utah, California and Arizona. I was advised not to talk to my instructor as we both should be concentrating, however I’d recommend to let the examiner set the tone. The time flew by with our conversations about our experiences in the U.S. And hooray (!) I passed.
This links on nicely as my next blog will be all about my trip to the Grand Canyon in September last year whilst studying abroad.

Reblogged. Original post http://studentblogs.le.ac.uk/geology/2015/08/06/summer-working-and-parallel-parking/

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