Scooter License...Check!

One more thing checked off my list of to-do's. My scooter test was scheduled for this morning at 8:45. The plan was to go to the Transport Control Department parking lot yesterday (on my day off) and practice since I'd only been on a scooter once before. Unfortunately, it rained and rained and poured all day yesterday, making it impossible for me to go practice. So I'm freaking out all night yesterday and this morning because I'm so scared of the test. Laugh all you want, but it's a frickin hard test. You have to slalom between cones and do all these funky turns that no normal person would need to do on the street. It's basically 5 different obstacles that you do and you can't put your foot down, hit any cones or go outside the lines or you immediately fail.

I wake up this morning and it's raining again. Great, now I have to take my test in the rain. Get on the ferry to go to work and it stops raining. Walk to the office, looks like it's clearing up...yay for me. Get into the office, it starts pouring buckets. The kind where if you walk outside for 1 second, you'll be soaked like you just jumped into a shower. At this point, I'm contemplating if I should even go. My relocation assistant tells me I should because they still test in this weather. We pull into the TCD parking lot....the whole thing is flooded. I'm talking like 6 inches of rain. Now I have to do all these crazy obstacles in the flood, perfect. Especially perfect for someone like me who has been on a scooter like once.

I wait inside until the examiner calls me. He calls my name and I give him a big smile and ask him how he is today. He's starting to warm up to me and I tell him how awesome I think the island is so far. Now, in case you don't know, the first rule of taking a scooter test: you need to have a scooter. We walk outside and there's no scooter there for me. The scooter shop was supposed to bring one for me to use for the test, I even specifically called this morning to check. Great, I'm going to fail immediately I think. But lucky me, someone else is there to take the test. That's gotta kill some time. It's the guy's second time taking it. So he starts. He goes to slalom between the cones and puts his foot down on his way back. The examiner says "okay, come back. You failed." Crap, so much for killing time!!! Still no scooter for me. The examiner turns to the guy that just failed and asks if I can borrow his bike. The guy's like "sure, I just got new brakes." Crap, now I have to take the test in the flood on a bike I've never ridden that might or might not be too heavy for me to even hold up. Things are just getting better by the second. So he starts me on the opposite side that I'm used to cause of the flood and I go to do the first obstacle. It's basically big circle, turn, big circle, come back. On the second big circle, I put my foot down. I look over at the examiner and he doesn't say anything. I come back and he says "now try that again, but you can't put your foot down this time." So I do it again. I actually do the slalom between the cones pretty darn good. The 3rd obstacle I went outside the line so he let me do it again. The fourth one I didn't turn my indicator lights on so he let's me try that one again. Fifth obstacle is good. At this point I have no idea if I passed or not. Did I mention that the guy who I borrowed the bike from has to watch me take my test the whole time on his bike after he's just failed the test in 1 second? Totally awkward. So we go inside together (me and the guy who failed) and we have to stand there awkwardly while the examiner goes to do his paperwork. Meanwhile, my coworkers come up and ask me if I've passed. I tell them I don't know and the guy who failed is like "yeah you did. I failed though, and it's my second time." Examiner comes back maybe 15 minutes later, gives the guy his big fail notice. Then he gives me my pass slip and walks me to the counter where I can get my license. Woohoo! I passed! Now it's scooter shopping time!