And then of course I got a job, and so I have to drive by myself every day. Thankfully, the route to work is not complicated and only takes about 15 minutes. And I'm happy to report that I'm actually settling in quite nicely. I no longer freak out every time I have to drive and I'm not nearly as nervous behind the wheel as I was just a few months ago. That being said, there a few things in particular that I find difficult/crazy/bizarre, so I thought I'd share them with you :)
First of all, here's a little clip from the movie The Holiday (if you haven't seen the film, btw, it's one of my favorites - I highly recommend it). I think it perfectly illustrates how I feel about driving in the UK:
(PS: If you have any trouble watching the video, you can also view it here.)
And now on to my personal list of the difficult/crazy/bizarre aspects of driving in the UK...
1. Roundabouts.
They are everywhere. Like, seriously, everywhere. They don't believe in four-way-stops...in fact, I've never seen a single stop sign - I'm not sure they even exist here. So pretty much every intersection has a roundabout of some size. They range from dinky little ones (I call them baby roundabouts) that consist only of a white circle painted on the ground to the large multi-lane ones, to the grand-daddy of them all: the "magic roundabout" (yes, that's actually what it's called). What's the magic roundabout, you say? Why it's only the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen - one large roundabout with five mini-roundabouts around it - see the photo below. I refuse to drive near it. Refuse. Oh? And did I mention the inner roundabout goes in the opposite direction? Yup. Insane. Never, I tell you. Never.
The scariest thing for me about roundabouts isn't that I don't know how to use them (it's not the hard) but that the fundamental idea behind it is that everyone has to follow the rule of giving way to the right - as long as everyone does that, it works great. But I don't trust people to give way (this would not work in America, right?) so I'm terrified the whole time that someone is going to hit me. Not fun.
2. Cars and Road are TINY.
Cars here are small. I thought it was just because they like to be eco-friendly or something, but now I have another explanation - the roads here are crazy narrow. There are several roads near us that are two-way but to me seem only big enough for one car. When I have to drive by a car coming the opposite way, I often "think small" and make my body as small as possible in hopes that this will somehow help my car to magically shrink and not hit the oncoming car. This is a daily struggle. Even though I've never actually hit an oncoming car, I don't think I will ever shake the anxiety these stupid, narrow roads invoke.
The parking spaces are similarly small. Here's a truck (small according to US standards) parked at our local supermarket. Notice how it doesn't even come close to fitting in the space. We have a normal sized car (it would be considered relatively small in America - 4 doors but compact) and we JUST fit in parking spaces, which does not make parking easy. I'm not a fan.
3. The Wrong Side
To be honest, I thought being on the wrong side of the car and the road would be crazy difficult. But it's actually not that bad. Because everyone else is doing it, you just kinda follow along. And being on the opposite side of the car actually makes being on the wrong side of the road feel normal in some weird way. But I recently found one big issue this causes - I can't reverse correctly. In the states, I would look over my right shoulder to see out the back window when I reversed. Now when I do this, all I see is my head rest - not ideal. So just turn the other way, right? Not as easy as it sounds. First of all, my body doesn't like it - it's so used to turning to the right and never turning to the left that my neck is actually not as flexible that way so I still can't see properly. (Weird, I know). So I was just making do with my mirrors and looking to the right and around my head rest when Jay suggested using my arm on the passenger seat to more easily turn to the left. The first time I tried this, I nearly crashed - turning the opposite way somehow messes up my left/right awareness and I can't control the car properly in reverse. It actually goes the opposite way of what I'm intending. It's a disaster. I'm going to have to retrain my mind how to reverse...I feel like I'm 17 and learning to drive all over again. So annoying.
Next steps...
Legally, I'm allowed to drive on my American license for one year (kinda shocking, isn't it?), but after that it's illegal to do so and I'll have to apply for a British one. Which means I'll actually have to take the written and practical tests. And apparently the driving test here is super hard. Oh joy. So within the next 5 months I'm going to have to embrace these differences, or at least learn to live with them, and somehow figure out how to reverse. Fingers crossed!
Until next time, cheerio!
Meg
