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I didn't talk about my process of getting a drivers license in a while and it's because... I failed the exam!! Twice!!! At my big age! And since I hate talking about failures and being perceived as a LOSER I just couldn't write about my struggles in my public diary. Well, frankly, I don't have troubles admitting my faults and failures most of the time. However, when it comes to something as basic and widespread as driving, I simply felt like an absolute idiot for failing twice, but I'll get to that later. To add to my failures, the wait time for exams is brutal in my country, so I pretty much spent over 3 months in total waiting. Well after a very long wait, I passed yesterday, and I didn't make a single mistake. I drank two shots of rakija prior to the exam to calm my nerves, but if I'm being honest the alcohol wore off in the 2 hours I spent waiting for my turn. I guess the placebo effect stayed though, because I was pretty cool. The examiner was actually very nice and personable which also helped my nerves.
Right after passing I went to get my temporary license, so I already drove my car today. I think I wrote about it in June, but it's a 15 year old Peugeot 307. 307 is not a very great Peugeot from what I've heard, but I'm its second owner and we got it from my moms best friend, so we know the whole history. It was a safe first purchase and honestly, I'm happy with it. It passed the yearly vehicle inspection too in January so that's great.
So about my failures... the first time I didn't stop for pedestrians, I just slowed down and since they seemed to be walking away from the crossing with no intent of passing I just... continued driving and then one person from the group of 6 (a 7 year old child lmfao) crossed after I passed, I failed! I'll be honest, I thought that fail was total bullshit... My second fail though, I was really nervous. I was almost at the end of the 35 min exam like on my first attempt, and I... passed through a yellow light........... and I failed. Honestly, I could have fought with the examiner about that one, but my self confidence as a driver was pretty low at that point, and I basically let him steamroll me and take my money. I didn't stand up for myself and disputed the claim, which I had the right to, because I was too much of a pussy and I didn't want gossip spreading about a mean spirited candidate. Oh well. 200 euros later, and I finally passed. Wait that sounds like I bribed them lmao. No that's just the unfortunate cost of 3 mandatory classes you have to retake if you fail + paying my instructor for the exam class and paying for the exam itself. A lot of people here pass under dubious circumstances if they manage to argue with the examiners, or if the examiners like them, or if the instructor manages to chat up the examiners so they stop paying attention to your driving, or if the stars align. My instructor told me crazily insane, hilarious or straight up creepy stories of how people managed to pass, and well, I don't think I could've pulled off most of that.
Anyway, in the past 3 mandatory classes I drove really well, so well in fact that I was pissed off that I failed last time. I guess the spiteful feeling helped me pass. Oh and, there was a moment during the exam where an old lady jumped on a pedestrian crossing and I didn't take any chances so I stopped like, pretty harshly. So after the exam, my examiner told me "you didn't have to stop for that lady, she really did come out of nowhere and looked like she had 0 intent of crossing", and yeah! But that's why I failed the first time! So when me and my instructor explained ourselves (never saw a person stand up for me so passionately like my instructor did at that moment lmfao), he laughed and said, yeah, some examiners are just assholes.... So at the very least I got validated for my first failure.
I'm writing this on the 18th but too lazy for a separate entry, I drove three times after passing already! I drove yesterday at NIGHT for the first time, which, woo. And today I drove a lot in the morning and gave my sister's friend a lift in the evening. Yeah, I think I won't have many issues with driving, it feels good to finally get on the road in my own car...
I forgot to publish my last two entries, which aren't anything worth reading anyway. I wasn't super active online throughout January, except in my wonderful chinese dressup game where I have a legion of devoted fans. Well, that's an exaggaration, I have a single player that always compliments my outfits. But her everlasting devotion is at least a hundred fans worth lmao. Some day I'll put up the php version of the site, and that day is coming... soon. My husband and I were planning on making it together but he's been a bit busy with work, and then in his free time we play persona 5 so needless to say the site is on the backburner for now. My first bigger project will probably be about this gacha game, and maybe me reviewing persona 5 in depth too... It's so funny how I'm like what, 7 years late to p5 when I played p4 only 2 years after its release, and I already felt late to the party for that too... We're now in the final third of the game I would say, and while the story is pretty fun, better than p4 imo, (how did I manage to not get spoiled for 7 years is beyond me), the game is so eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasy. I hate this, I legitimately do. Persona 3 onwards battle system was always memed on and for good reason, but this is so much more casual it's kind of disgusting. It kills the fun frankly. This is probably why I won't play persona 3 reload, as much as I loved p3. Shame, shame....
Other than that I hung out with my friends a couple of times this month. I spontaneously stayed in a pub with my friend, her boyfriend, and her cousin and we ended up at her brothers (sounds like a family gathering I'm intruding on lmao) place playing a card game her brother learned in Portugal during erasmus. It's called... I think, "dutch", but I can't find anything about it online. The rules were very simple though, and the game is really fun. Ok wait, I found it, it's a mix of cabo and golf card games. Anyway I had a blast, ate some great kebab, and then went to sleep at my sisters. Spontaneous drinking with friends is always extra fun but it doesn't happen often when I live so far away lmao.
Lastly.. hm.... well nothing much else really. I'm thinking of mayhaps starting to look for a job soon, the guilt is catching up to me slowly.