La Autoescuela

As I explained in one ‘pre-departure’ blog post, at 21 I still don’t know how to drive. I initially put off learning but recently I have realised how necessary it is and how incredibly useful it would be. With a break from studying and spare time on my hands, getting my license during my year abroad didn’t seem like a bad idea. It would probably be cheaper in Spain, the roads would be easier than back home in Holland and it would no doubt help my Spanish a lot.

I returned after Christmas determined to start and it wasn’t long before I had signed up to my local driving school. This was going to happen. The first step was passing the theory test. I was given a book and was told that the school had free evening classes I could attend to get quizzed up. A few days in and it hit me what I had committed myself to. I presumed wrongly that the Spanish would make the theory easier than the Dutch/English. The reality was that it was just as (or even more) challenging. Getting your driving theory is hard enough as it is, it is twice as hard when you try and do it in another language. The book was long and full of tricky phrases and driving related vocab, I spent hours trying to get my head around the rules of the road in Spanish.

The lessons were another story. The first day I registered I was advised to go along; if I wanted to get my licence fast I needed to be extra committed. I arrived keen and serious; ready to learn as much as I could. Here however, you can’t have that kind of attitude in a classroom. They said the class started on the hour but it wasn’t until 20 minutes in that the teacher eventually showed up. At this point there was an exchange of jokes and laughter, funny driving anecdotes were told and people chatted about their day. I soon realised, as I have already done many times here, that being uptight and anxious doesn’t get you anywhere in Spain. I would have to lose the stiffness and take a more relaxed approach to this driving business.

The teacher, Nando, was quite a character and took the classes in a very particular style. There was lots of shouting and banging on the white board as well and endless swear words and sexual references which had the class clapping and howling with laughter. Moreover, the speed at which he talked was quite something. To get us to remember the facts, he would fire questions at a million miles an hour, repeating them over and over so the answers would stick in people’s heads. This was too much to cope with at first and I sat at the back totally lost; clueless as to what had just been said and what was so funny.

A few weeks in however, and I was getting the hang of it. Nando’s technique was actually effective and the constant repetition of facts and figures meant they were sticking. I was even laughing at his vulgar jokes. Even so, I can’t say he was the most honest of teachers. It was soon evident that he wasn’t there to teach us the road rules but the tricks to the exam. Each week he claimed he had ‘seen the questions’ on the test and did everything he could to get us to pass. This even went as far as making stickers that he advised everyone to stick on their arm when they went into the exam! Only in Spain.

After saturating myself in driving theory for one month, I decided to go for the exam. This was an experience in itself. The morning after a sleepless night with road signs running through my head, I got to the driving school early, and very nervous. A group of us were driven to the exam centre on the island. The exam was scheduled to start at 9:30 am but of course, they don’t really mean 9:30. The invigilators finally decided to turn up at 10 and started to call names even later. All this waiting wasn’t doing me any good at all. Then, after half the group had entered the exam hall they announced that not all of us were going to fit and the rest would have to wait another half an hour to do the test. By this time I was giving up hope. I eventually sat the exam and it was finally all over. Stressful doesn’t even cover it. And it doesn’t end there. You were then made to wait the whole weekend until Monday morning to get your results. Fortunately, after all I’d experienced, I MANGED TO PASS!! The relief was immense. I am pretty proud that I did it in Spanish and I’d definitely say that a month of intense studying has done good things to my Spanish language. Bring on the practical lessons!