To get a license for 50cc, you only need to take a written test, but mine is a 150cc, so I needed to take a written plus a driving test. Antony and I had been "studying" online for a few days by taking a mock exam online. He wanted to be able to rent a scooter too. Seriously, some of these questions are just crazy. And others I can't even being to guess at what they mean.
Example A:
If you fell down on a patch of oily road riding a motorcycle, you
( 1) should just blame it to yourself and leave.
( 2) need not to report it to the local police.
( 3) mark the oily spot with branches or other signs to alert other riders.
Really? I should just go find some huge branches and drag them out into traffic?
Example B:
Oh.. yea, you know? Actually I DO know now that the 1st one means no parking, and the other is something about stopping and waiting for inspection.
This was my favorite though.
TRUE or FALSE: Bicycles prohibited.
So Anthony and I studied up for the test, went to the DMV (conveniently located only a short walk from my home) and told them we wanted to get licenses. A lady said we would first need to go down the street to the hospital to get an exam done. She handed us a form, allll Chinese, no English to help. Clearly we couldn't even fill this out! Luckily the people at the hospital were kind and filled it all out for us. The lady giving the exam, spoke 0 English. We had no idea what she was saying half the time, I just guessed at what I should do when she was ringing some bell in my hear to check my hearing. Then we got some measurements taken and she wanted to check out eyes. It's not the normal reading letter boards, biggest to smallest, it's ALL E's. Every single letter is "E" some the right way, some upside down, a whole variety. What is she saying to me?! I don't know how to do this. She had me cover one eye and wanted me to tell her. HOW DO I READ UPSIDE DOWN E?!?! Anthony had the smart idea to just make the E with my 3 fingers and position it the way I saw it on the board. It worked, and showed her that my eyesight is terrible, even with my contacts. I have no idea what the scoring standards are.. but I got a 0.8, Anthony got a 1.5. I passed though!
Back to the DMV and we had to "fill out" another form which meant the receptionist doing it for us as we were annoying foreigners and held up the line. Man I hate myself sometimes. They asked for our Chinese names.. I should have told them Pangshi! But we said we didn't have any, so they just asked how to pronounce our names, and now apparently that's our Chinese names just with a twisted accent. My 3rd Chinese name now is Ah-Knee-Kuh, Anthony is Ann-Doh-Knee.
Now it was time for the written exam. Anthony and I were called in to a room (by our new names!) along with about 10 others. As they all sat down at little desks with pencil and paper, they put us at computers. We took it electronically and needed an 85 to pass. Poor Anthony didn't study quite enough and got a lot of new questions thrown his way and got a 70, I got a 90 though! So I was on to the next round- driving.
The only lady who spoke English sent me downstairs and out back to the driving "course." Good thing no one out there spoke English. So I stood around for a while with my paper as some guy tried to tell things to me in Chinese and I asked questions and he just smiled. Finally I got out my phone and called Helen from work to have her translate, and just then the English speaking lady from upstairs showed up. By this time there were quite a few people driving around and practicing. The "course" consisted of a straight path with sensors on both sides, it wasn't very long, but you needed to drive slow enough to stay on it for 7 seconds to show you have good balance without falling or putting your feet down or touching the sides. The second part was a curve with a bunch of different signals or signs that would go off as you approached and you must react accordingly and use your blinkers and everything.
By this time I was in a bit of a time crunch as I needed to get to work, but also needed to finish the testing. I asked the lady how long it would take and she goes "Oh? You want to take test right now? Ok." She told the man in charge and he yelled something at everyone. Oh great, I hadn't even gotten my scooter yet, so I guess I didn't get to practice because I didn't know what was going on. He probably told the people "Oh the foreigner's in a hurry so now you can't practice anymore." I would have felt pretty silly if I had failed because everyone was around watching. A few people went before me, and one lady didn't make it. She couldn't do the straight line and I think stopped over the white lines, a bunch of beeps kept going off. When it was my turn I was very nervous! But I made it though, 100 percent! It was wonderful.
Then I only needed to go back upstairs, wait to get my license, and I was done. And I still made it to work with about 10 minutes before class started!
My license, which is really just some thick paper and a picture I had left over from my visa to enter Taiwan.
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