ohhhh markus ….

so you need two things before you can go to the road test.

1. learners permit, enables you to practice
2. 5 hour theory course, aka “pre-licensing course completion certificate”

• there is no preferred lane (”driving on the most right lane”) if you drive on a multilane road
• but there is a preferred lane if you turn into another driveway on a crossing depending if you turn into a one way or two way street (this gave me the most headache so far) 
• there are many conditions when you can overtake on the right side of a car
• you can also turn right on a red light (but not in New York City, everywhere else you can)
• the highway speed limit is kinda ridiculous (55mph? wtf?!)
• you have to stop for a school bus on the other driving direction when his red lights are flashing, even when the bus is 6 or more lanes away and there is no way whatsoever that children would ever dare to cross that many lanes (people actually failed on that one during the road test)
• …

So it seems I will take a couple of driving lessons, to get the new rules “into my system”.

But the funny thing is, I guess its much harder the other way around. I can vividly imagine an american driving in austria, struggling with manual gear, always trying to turn right on a red light, using the most left lane on a highway and wondering why the cars behind him get so close ….

Since I plan to go to burning man this year (and my european driving license only is valid for a year here) I had to go through the struggle to get a learners permit from the DMV (and at some point in the future my drivers license. but first things first.)

The DMV (Department for Motor Vehicles, website is fugly, but excellent info and well structured) is around the corner so I went there during lunch break, not really expecting a long wait. Boy was I wrong. Huge line, probably 500/600 there. Fortunately the prettiest girl in the room was in front of me, wearing the shabby grunge supermodel look. Since I was right behind here in line, I started a little chitchat about this whole thing and we had quite some fun time. Talking about the Lifeball (since I am from Vienna) and this whole process and other stuff.

So the waiting time was (although long, about 1.5 hours) quite pleasant. Finally my pic was taken and I took the (easy) test. You only need to have 14 out of 20 questions right (my score was 20/20), but even so a guy in front of me managed to fail. And finally after another wait of about 30min I got my Learners Permit.

Now I am officially allowed to drive again (as long as there is another passenger with a driving license in the car)! yeah!

btw, later in the office I found out who I had this lovely chitchat with. It was Tiiu Kuik. (and yes, she has a boyfriend. big surprise.)

Internet Week started here for the first time, with an absolutely fabulous kick off party, hosted by Thrillist, music by Faux Punk, the best/worst/only Daft Punk cover band, visuals by VJ ValuJet and both were amazing! And after them only rock (&roll) music! fantastic! I was dancing like crazy, boy that was fun!

unfortunately the dance floor was covered in glass fragments from broken glasses, which made expressive dancing quite an adventure. I landed one jump exactly on a big piece, resulting in quite some pain, and I thought, ok, there goes my left shoe, but couldn’t see any hole to my surprise.

after arriving at home and removing my shoes, surprise surprise, the glass managing to stab me into the foot, causing quite a deep cut and some bleeding. What I don’t really get is, how can this happen without the slightest hole in the shoe afterwards (and its quite a massive leather sole). strange ….

what a lovely perfect sunny day. went to the queens pride 2008, gay parade/festival in Queens. totally low key and very relaxing. and fabulous (mexican) street food there (and free hepatitis a/b shots, good initiative!).

but ‘nough said, enjoy the pics