equilibrium

I woke up so freakin' early this morning to get to the driving center "in time" for the road test. I got there, half an hour before the schedule, all groggy and zombie-like. 4 hours later, I'm still sitting in the exam room waiting for my turn. 20 or so dismayed faces have passed by my seat- failing after their nth attempt to get a UAE license. Wasn't really expecting to get mine myself. Rumor had it that getting a driving license is a business here. The fees for the first exam go to the RTA, then you fail, then you take a re-test and the fees for that go to the driving school. So you fail again. Then depending on how much they wanna squeeze all your dirhams out of your pockets, you take and re-take the exams and pay the corresponding fees until they decide you've had enough and mercifully hand you your golden (literally and figuratively) license. Anyway, after what felt like ages, the smug RTA girl in her big shades and spotless abaya finally lets me take her for a spin and in the end, gave me a list of why I failed. Bye bye dirhams. Crap.

Thank God for sympathetic officemates. They picked me up and took me to MOE where I got a latte to drown my rage and helplessness in. Thank God for Starbucks too.

An hour later, however, I got a text saying "M rebukd alredy. Hope ur feeling bettr love. Mwah!ü" One more week, yay! :))

Screw road tests. When you've got friends and lattes and love and time- a day couldn't be less than perfect.