I am originally from Romania but never considered myself a “romanian”, but a human. More so now when I moved to Spain and my best friends are from all around the world.
I went to Romania a few years ago, and I was always stressed about going back even for a few weeks, because I know too well the toxic environment there. The competition, corruption, pollution and garbage that you can see everywhere. The stupid people and dangerous drivers. The fact that most of them are religious and superstitious. Everyone is for themself, there is no feeling of “community” there. Everyone talks about money, cars, and houses. Stuff, that’s all they know. At least that’s my experience of Romania, in the little town where I grew up.
Of course there are many wonderful people and organizations in Romania, like everywhere, but I am talking here about most of these people. And most are like I described them, from my own experience.
But now, a few years later, things are even worse. And quit
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Romania, a glimpse of dystopia?
I am originally from Romania but never considered myself a “romanian”, but a human. More so now when I moved to Spain and my best friends are from all around the world.
I went to Romania a few years ago, and I was always stressed about going back even for a few weeks, because I know too well the toxic environment there. The competition, corruption, pollution and garbage that you can see everywhere. The stupid people and dangerous drivers. The fact that most of them are religious and superstitious. Everyone is for themself, there is no feeling of “community” there. Everyone talks about money, cars, and houses. Stuff, that’s all they know. At least that’s my experience of Romania, in the little town where I grew up.
Of course there are many wonderful people and organizations in Romania, like everywhere, but I am talking here about most of these people. And most are like I described them, from my own experience.
But now, a few years later, things are even worse. And quite scary.
My parents worked in Spain since 2007 and retired this year. They moved back to Romania, a move that I think is terribly bad. Lack of money and integration made them unable to stay in Spain. They bought a car in Spain and had a lot of stuff to transport to Romania so I and Sasha agreed to drive 2.500 Km from Spain to Romania to deliver their car and stuff. We drove no more than 5 hours each a day and stopped for a few nights along the way. First thing I noticed is the infinite line of trucks. Absolute insanity of trucks after trucks on any highway in any tribe. A huge line of them almost like a train. Hm…trains…I wonder if people forgot about trains…is all about cars and trucks today, but if people and goods would be transported by trains, it would be far more efficient and safe.
But this train of trucks is a sign of an overconsumerist society. The trade society. And it is increasing at alarming rates.
Another thing I noticed straight away was when we arrived in Slovenia. I went to a gas station. I put gas in the car and went inside to pay. I asked in English if I can pay there. A young girl looked odd at me, she said something in Slovenian to another guy there. He came to me and said, with a very angry tone: “You put, you pay!”. Sure dude….I “put” but where do I pay? What the hell!? In Spain people are usually quite nice and relaxed but the more you get into the Eastern Europe the less friendly people are.
You put, you pay! became the slogan for what we would experience form there on.
Late that day we went to a restaurant in the same Slovenian tribe, in their capital. We almost never eat out but it was late, we were tired….we just wanted to eat something. We were surprised that they had no menu in English, the most international language on Earth. Also no one spoke English there. I really felt like a stranger on another planet in the way they kinda treated us. At least that’s how I felt…maybe I am wrong, but maybe something else is happening here and I am right after all.
Listen.
For me this is sad and predictable. Knowing an international language is a big advantage for a species that dominates a whole planet. We have common issues and common needs. But in the Language book I wrote a few years ago I realized that tribes are getting more and more tribal. They copy the american shows and make them in their own language. From news organizations to youtube videos, they are creating their own culture based on their own language, but again based on the american culture, the dominant one, in the end. Same retardation.
So now less and less people know English as a result. They do not have to watch the idiot Joe Rogan talking nonsense, every tribe has a few of their own idiot podcasters and influencers.
But now I suspect the enforcement of this disease called nationalism is mostly a result of politicians using it as a bait to get more votes and so more power. Since Trump, a simple minded billionaire TV personality, became the chief tribe of USA by promoting this nonsense “America First” with Tshirts and Hats made in China, everyone is copying the moron.
Politicians are screaming with a loud and angry voice that the “outsiders” are the problem and how we, the locals, the tribe members of this tribe, need to be put first. Our nation, language, customs. The evil comes from outside! They are killing our culture and nation!
They are doing it on TikTok, Facebook, or Youtube, platforms created and owned by other people from other tribes of course. Doing so while wearing clothes made in China, phones made in Taiwan, and eating imported food. Their cars, houses, their stuff, is made somewhere else or at least the materials are. And this will never change because even these “nationalists” understand that they must go for the lower price, regardless how much they “love” their tribe. Not to mention how all of these are complete hypocrites who steal from the same “country” they love, and will only give a shit about their own personal wealth.
In Slovenia I felt this “nationalism” somehow. Maybe a kind of distaste for the “outsiders”. Maybe it was just in my head, but that’s how I felt. Tho considering that this disease of nationalism is quite wide spread in Europe too, I won’t be surprised if I was right.
A tribe later and we arrived in Romania. We had to drive a few hundreds of km there too before reaching my town. I knew that the traffic in Romania is terrible. The roads, awful. Everyone knows that!
But I was wrong! Before getting my driving license in Spain (just last year), I only experienced the Romanian traffic as a passenger. But now that I got to drive in Romania I realized that are not the roads that are awful and dangerous, it is people!
The roads themselves were not too bad, but people driving there are absolute idiots. They drive as if they are jerking off watching Fast and Furious. If the speed limit is 50, for a reason since there’s a village you are crossing, then god forbid you go 60 or 70. That’s too slow!! And everyone behind you is peeking left and right to overtake you. They get so close to you and constantly searching for a spot to overtake.
This is just an example (not filmed by me) of what I mean. And this is very common in Romania:
As a driver this is a lot of stress to constantly watch your side mirrors for these idiots. At one point a huge truck was trying to overtake me on road with incoming traffic, a 70 Km speed limit, and I going with around 80. Since it was unable to accelerate that fast to overtake me, being a fucking small train, it was ending up in my left side on the opposite lane. If a car would come from the opposite direction it would have been a disaster. And what if the moron truck would have tried to go on my lane too soon, bumping into our car since trucks have many dead angles?
I also could not slow down since cars were coming fast from behind me trying to also overtake me. I had to speed up and not let the moron play deadly games with everyone.
Here’s another video from Romania speaking about trucks:
It is astonishing how everyone is so eager to overtake in Romania. They do not respect the speed limit at all. And not wear seatbelts. They don’t give a flying fuck.
I remember being a passenger in Romania how scary it was. I could not relax. Like a rollercoaster with cars coming from the opposite direction. Narrow curves? No biggie, the driver would overtake hoping that the Virgin Marry icon he had in the windshield will protect us all. No wonder everyone was of the opinion that driving in Romania is dangerous….since they all drove very dangerously. Romania ranked the highest in Europe in terms of car accidents and fatalities for many years. Only this year was overtaken by a single point by Bulgaria. (source) Therefore, this is not my impression that the traffic here is dangerous, it is a fact. What made me terribly depressed is to see how people in Romania react when I tell them about this. They have this attitude of like “Dude you are a pussy for driving so slooooow….”. When I ask them why the rush, their excuse is that “Well, you arrive 5-10 minutes earlier to the destination”. “But you also put yourself in danger no? Is that really worth it?”. “C’mon man you are a pussy.”. That’s kinda how it goes.
Someone even told me that it is me driving dangerously because I drive too slow. “But I drive 10 or more Km above the speed limit.”. “You drive too slow man!! And because of you there are many people behind trying to overtake, so you put everyone in danger.”
Imagine that. I’ve heard this argument several times. This is so fucked up I have no words…. I drive legally, even a bit over the speed limit, and it is MY fault that the morons behind me want to go super fast and I stay in their way….Unbelievable.
But anyway, we managed to arrive without getting into a car crash. Actually the drive in Romania was 938 times better and safer than anything I have experienced driving in Romania. And that’s because we both drove NORMALLY. LEGALLY. And not like idiots. So those curvy roads that everyone thinks are deadly and so dangerous, were actually beautiful and fine when driving with 30 when it says fucking 30, and not 80! Of course the stress of driving with so many idiots on the road makes driving in Romania really terrible.
Why this situation?
I think it is because Romania is a poor country where everyone is for themselves. You see a building that is fucked up, but 10 luxury apartments in it. Because those people are rich, not the rest. Who cares how the building is, you only care about your own flat. You see luxury restaurants but in front of them terrible roads and half built buildings. No proper infrastructure, no proper services, but who cares?!
And so the happiness in Romania comes a lot, if not only from STUFF. Since everything else is a mess. If you got a new TV, you show off with it. Brag about it. A new car, phone, whatever…everyone here is obsessed to tell you what stuff they have and how much they paid for it.
And so the car for a Romanian is not a vehicle to transport them from A to B, it is a HORSE. THEIR HORSE. Beautiful horse!!!
People here pay money to change their license plates to something that resembles them. Alex wants ALX, the guy owning the company Neci wants NCI, and the mafioso guy who sells drugs and tries to hook up with high-school girls wants CIA. And this is not a joke, people here may not know these other ones, but they know their cars by the car plates and car type. They put money into buying fancy headlights, cool steering-wheels, led lights and big displays, but never changed their distribution belt or tires, unless they buy cool tires.
Anyway we arrived.
Our apartment in Romania is very nice and cozy. Nothing fancy, just cozy. Warm, quite big, last floor so no neighbors basically. My mother waited for us with presents like she always does, and some nice food.
First days we went to visit some natural parks near by. Very nice nature in Romania. Still some left. Here is a big cave where only Sasha and Georgi adventured in. Romania is full of bears and I decided that I want to live longer so I didn’t go inside.
But we also saw the exploitation of these forests and mountains… And we did find a cool toy: Of course Sasha had to climb it: Saha had to leave. She was going to Russia to visit her family for a month. We drove her to the bus station, 40 minutes away. Left her. Said goodbye. Me and my parents should drive back now. I decided to let my father drive their car back. He struggles for the past year or so with this driving thing. Very insecure, rushed, he is not paying attention. We were always scared when driving with him.
But hey, it is their car, the way back I thought he will know the way. I was also hungry eating something in the back. They also wanted to stop nearby to see some of the holiday lights. Ok, do it.
The moment we left the parking lot, he went straight on the opposite side of the road. I was unsure then, but later I realized that. Then he drove very badly and I thought the moment we stop for that lights show thing that should be 5 minutes away, I will drive back.
Too late, we crashed. Less than a week after we drove thousands of km to bring to Romania…
It was of course his fault. He went left on an intersection and someone went straight into the back right side. I was in the back right side….I saw that car coming with a lot of speed, the romanian way. That woman did not press the break pedal. I was lucky. A bit earlier or speedier and would have crushed exactly into the right back door where I was. In that situation the seatbelt is useless, and the airbags are there to hopefully help you not die. But if she went straight into the door I would have at least broken some bones, if not my neck or maybe die?!
Was a very fucked up situation.
Of course the woman who hit us screamed at us, and all that. I stayed calm and managed the situation. We agreed not to call the police and the insurance for my parents’ car covered hers. I drove back with the car like that…
I came back home and said I will not go out anymore. Especially with the car. One month inside. It is warm, cozy, and safe.
There are 2 “events” or things that made me realize how much of a dystopia this place is.
1. The Pretenders
It is a big deal in Romania now with the recycling of plastic bottles. In short they put these recycling boxes and give people money if they bring there plastic bottles. At least some kind of them. It says “The future is being made today!” or something like that. Encouraging? Not so when in the right side you already see trash.
Wanna see how the trash disposal situation looks for the apartment building we live in? Wanna see how the hills (nature) nearby (20 minutes walk) look like? I got so depressed after that walk I didn’t want to know that this place exists.
And look how the main bridge in this town looks like, a bridge that is being crossed by many trucks every single day: BUT you can recycle your plastic bottles for a little cash!
And this is a sign of dystopia for me. The combination of fancy useless shit (you can order exotic foods in this town or have access to fancy services) and this pretend to do something (recycle, bioshit, whatever), combined with the reality that is in compete and utter mess. So it is a pretend game. We pretend to do something and care, while in reality we fuck everything up. All because of companies who push for these non-solutions to get away with producing more useless shit.
Romania is an extreme example of this, but the entire world does the same. They likely take that “recycled” trash and dump it in a filed somewhere. Plus instead of putting resources into making people recycle (like give them money if they recycle plastic bottles and such), why not make sure they have access to good drinkable water in their homes and make them get used to drink from there ha? At the same time ban the sell of plastic bottled water! Easy!
These are solutions, not to recycle those plastic bottles that are made in abundance. And I bet they don’t even recycle them anyway.
This is the world we live in, the play pretend. And this had muted the conversations about real solutions. This is indeed catastrophic.
2. The Truth has Died
I came across a high-school friend while I was out of my bunker to go buy some stuff. We exchanged phone numbers. He called me one day to meet up. I said sure, it was in the beginning of my Romanian experience for this winter. I was still a bit naive. I went. We met with yet another high school friend there and her cousin.
To keep it short, it is like I came across antimatter for the first time. Or imagine you end up in the Big Foot club and people talk seriously about seeing Big Foot, and how the government is covering up this big monkey story and all that.
A shock to the system.
Politics, war, astrology, conspiracies….I was truly overwhelmed and terribly depressed. So much bullshit I found no reason to try and push that much against it.
You know Russia had to defend against Ukraine and it is NATO’s fault for the war, Putin is a great leader, Trump is a tough and smart guy, the 7/11 attacks were a false flag, COVID was not real, God exists of course, and astrology (the stars) dictate your faith.
I know most people on this planet are crazy, but now I feel they have become very vocal. Like everywhere, politics in Romania is a tsunami of vomit. Again to keep it short it is this “new guy” who wants to become the president of Romania and most people voted for him.
He thinks the same crazy things that all of the crazies believe. Or vice versa?! hm…
Several media articles criticized Georgescu for his pro-Russian statements, describing him as a Russophile and demonstrating how he used his social media platforms to spread information sourced to Russian state media. He has also praised Russian president Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country” Georgescu does not believe in the human Moon landing.[37] In a podcast, he also mentioned that carbonated juices contain nanochips, which “enter you like into a laptop”, and considers climate change “a global scam”, which “has nothing to do with reality”.
If you don’t believe Wikipedia for some reason, here with English subtitles, the guy saying these stupid things:
This guy makes Trump look sane. Millions voted for him. Including these “friends” I met apparently.
My friend took me back home with his very expensive car while leaning in one side to not trigger the beeping sound the car was making since he was not wearing the seat-belt. Quite a struggle to avoid driving safe…. Don’t be a pussy!!!
Anyway.
Now the elections in Romania have been canceled because the previous leaders said Russia pushed this guy’s face and voice in the online world, illegally. Anyway, point is, there are millions who have voted for someone who thinks carbonated drinks contain chips to control you.
He pedals the same nationalism bullshit that so many have started to do for the past years. Maybe Trump inspired them all.
It is true this situation comes from the fact that people are sick of the “normal” politicians who lie, are fake, are corrupted. Couple with the fact that normal people have shitty lives, especially in Romania, and then you start to understand why they want to shake the politics with this “new guy” who says weird and new things, and brags about how he wants to put Romanians FIRST and take care of ROMANIANS, and all about ROMANIA ROMANIA ROMANIA. Just like Trump and his Make America Great Again bullshit.
But it is working….not for the people, but for these leaders. They become popular, rich, powerful. The people remain poor, confused and misinformed.
The problem is that this turmoil has degraded people’s relation with the truth. The aftermath is a big layer of humans who have no tools, time, and willingness to check what is true and what is not. Even worse, this layer thinks that they know what is true and what is not, despite all of that. And that’s the catastrophe.
And so, this society is going downhill at speeds I for one did not anticipate, even with my extremely pessimistic views.
Dystopia
Romania seems to me like a cartoonish version of reality in the sense that it showcases better the message, in a more simple to understand manner. It is like a drawing of our solar system:
You get the idea of how our solar system is without having to dig too deep to “get it”.
That’s what Romania is. A cartoon drawing of our global society. Romania shows you very clearly how and why the truth has died, and it shows you very clearly how we play pretend in this world about fixing our problems.
This is why I recorded this video some 2-3 years ago, and published last month…
In this video I explain why this entire situation is also a result of our trade-based society. And how, in theory, we could fix this, despite the fact that in reality it would be nearly impossible for such a big change to happen.
What now?
Life is short and we are very small.
In Romania we have this big balcony that I can access from my room’s window:
I made it nice there. Put a monitor, some candles, and Christmas lights. I would go there and watch documentaries. The ones made by real journalists and vetted by other independent journalistic organizations. Like, you know, how documentaries and information should be.
I would make some food, buy some sweets, and watch. Learn. Understand. Be angry or amazed. But be so due to real information. If I get angry, I want to get angry because of real things, not illusory nonsense some weirdos vomit online. That felt very cozy and I enjoyed it a lot. I had many interesting conversations with Georgi, my sister, the only sane human I know around here :)).
I want to keep myself sane in this insane world, and I want to enjoy doing that so to not feel like I “have” to do it.
Tomorrow I leave Romania. I go back to Spain. I cannot wait to meet with Sasha again. I am so lucky I have to share my life with her because it seems so rare to find sane humans in this world. Humans who understand what science is and how important it is, how journalism works, how to find what is true and what is not, but also curious about how this world works in general, or why this society is fucked up.
From there on we will start our adventures with our motorhome. I miss our motorhome! But I have started to make a lot of videos so follow us via – tromhome.com.
In February we go meet more of these sane humans in the South of Spain. I cannot believe these sort of people still exist in this boiling soup of crazies that this world has become.
I will continue to create saner projects, promote science, write articles/books, and do good things. All, despite the fact that hope for a better world, for me, is just a faint scent that I almost cannot detect anymore.
But it is fine, we are small, the world is big, and life is fast.
1.620 Euros, 30 hours of practice, 8 months in the making. Overall a lot of stress, a cult of driving, and many profit-driven attitudes.
Before I begin let me tell you that I filmed some stuff in these months, took notes, screenshots, and what-not, and all of these will result into a video about this situation but also about why tests in general may be a terrible idea. I’d suggest subscribing to our TROM Peertube channel because it will be posted there.
This is me in mid-december 2023, almost a year ago, with the driving manual trying to learn for my driving exam: I was clueless about what was awaiting me for the next months.
I am in my mid 30s and never had a driving license. When I was at the ripe age of getting one, my family had no money and I was also too depressed to care about it. Since then I never really needed a driving license but since we plan to buy a motorhome at the end of this year and live full time in-it, I need one.
I am originally from Romania but I’ve been living in Spain for more than a decade. Since I barely speak any Spanish, however I do understand quite a lot, I thought what if I can do the driving school in English here in Spain… My Reddit-Research told me that this is a terrible idea since the translations from Spanish to English are bollocks, and on top of that the driving school in Spain is an absolute pain.
Before that I was tempted to go for the exam without even going through a driving school. There are some companies that provide online materials and help. But of course it is nearly impossible to make an appointment for the real exam, and now I know way too well how you have no chances to get your driving license without getting “enrolled” in an “autoescuela” (driving school).
So autoescuela it is.
I went and asked a few driving schools if I can do it in English. All told me that in theory yes, but the translations are garbage and the practice lessons can only be done in Spanish. I said I wanted to give it a try. How bad can the English be!? I had to pay a few hundreds of euros to enroll. They gave me a bag with a manual in Spanish, a pen, and a calendar 🙂
They also gave me access to the online materials. They were all in Spanish but had a Google Translate widget to allow you to translate into English. Wow. I thought at least some human may have translated the books into English since they provide these courses in English, but no…Google-Fucking-Translator.
Laughable translations, insane amount of stuff to remember.
I have red the entire manual in this googlish english, trying to figure things out. Luckily there were many pictures and I also know a bit of Spanish, so I could decipher it. I also had a physical manual in Spanish that I could use from time to time.
But the amount of stuff in this manual was overwhelming regardless of the language. Many kinds of vehicles, many rules depending on the vehicles, depending on the road, on the circumstances. If on a narrow road that has no priority signs a car with a trailer meets a moped, who has priority? How about a motorhome and a truck? An animal driven carriage and a car? Two trucks? A donkey or a sheep? Fuck me, these people are mental! How about if this narrow road is inclined? These are things you really have to know! Ok except the donkey vs sheep, but the rest are real questions for the exam.
And since this B license in Spain also allows you to drive some kind of motorcycles, you get to learn all about motorcycles including how much a load can hang laterally on a motorcycle, what kind of helmets or gloves are recommended, when do you have to go with it for the technical inspection, how to lube the exhaust pipe :), and a fuck ton more.
You’ll have to know what kind of drugs give you what symptoms, and since I never used drugs I got to now learn about them. Made me curious indeed! The irony is that someone who uses drugs would do better at answering these questions that could fail me…get it!? You have to learn about a million signs that you’ll never get to see in reality… It is an absolute madness. It was clear to me that I can only remember some of these temporarily to pass the exam. No brain can do more than that. I’ve heard that there are around 12.000 questions for the Spanish language and some 4.000 in English. For the theory exam you’ll get 30 questions and you are not allowed to make more than 3 mistakes.
The theory questions. An absolute gem of a fuckery.
So now that we have a mountain of information, most of which absolutely irrelevant, imagine compiling questions out of that mountain in the most fucked up English possible. There is no way they have used automated translators for these, since they are so bad it looks intentional. Let me show you, and mind you these are the official practice tests I got from the driving school. Here are a few more: This was shockingly bad. Imagine trying to memorize these!
I was doing loads of these tests a day, and in the first month I felt like I cannot do it anymore. But I powered through it and after 2 months of daily tests, I felt ready to go for the exam.
The theory exam.
Not much to say about that. I simply went with the driving instructor and a few other students to whatever place you have to take the exam, you sit in front of a computer in a class with a lot of people, and start the exam. Basically do one of those retarded tests and hope to not fail more than 3 questions. Honestly I was quite confident that I will pass it since I prepared for 2 months.
To my surprise the exam test was not terribly translated into English, but then I got 3 questions about signs for buses and trams, and I was unsure if I answered them correctly.
I came home unconvinced that I passed. Around 6pm I could check the results online. I PASSED! Just 1 wrong answer! Wow I was so happy and I thought that the hardest part is gone!
I was dead wrong! Like, fucking wrong!
Practice tests….when?
19 of February I passed the theory exam. Now I am told the practice will start at the end of May…. So crazy. More than 3 months to wait…
I practiced driving with Sasha for quite a bit. Luckily it was off season and we have plenty of offroad nearby to practice. Sasha was a great instructor. She would even give me chocolate treats when I’ll drive well :). I got the hang of it pretty fast. Change gears, control the car, reverse, and all that. But let me say this: manual transmission in cars is one of the most stupid inventions. You have to learn how to press the pedals, which ones, the intensity, to then change the gears, learn the sounds of the engine, look at the RPMs, and all that. You can’t just accelerate or brake, you have to do a sequence of things in order to get that car to start or stop. Automatic car transmissions should be the norm worldwide by now….
But anyway, I got the hang of it. Or so I thought.
The cult business of driving.
Beginning of June. My first driving lesson. I got to learn that I am doing everything wrong. I got “schooled” by the instructor about controlling the car. It does not matter if you know how to drive it matters to do so in the way they ask you to. The first 10 lessons I got to realize that very intensively. You can park perfectly fine, but they won’t let you so unless you do it the exact way they teach you how.
If you dare to drive over the straight middle line, even for a few cm on narrow streets where it’s virtually impossible to avoid that, they will make you feel as if you have killed 18 baby kangaroos and 3 koalas. Don’t you dare to not stop at a stop sign, even if you see it clearly that it is safe to continue at very low speeds. More to that, when you stop wait 3 seconds before you start. I kid you not I was scorned one time because I only stopped for 2 seconds instead of 3. And did you know that in Spain they have the doble-stopado :)? The double stop. You stop for 3 seconds at the stop line, then if not enough visibility move forward a bit and stop again for 3 more seconds. Needless to say that they can fail you if you do or not do the double stop depending on the situation. Or if you move too much forward and do it.
Example in the image bellow. You come from the right side in this intersection (the way you look at the image). You can continue forward or left. There is a stop sign for you. You stop at the first red line I drew in the image. But there is no visibility to your right side where cars are coming from. In the summer that part that I circled with red is full of cars. Can’t see a thing. So the instructor wants me to do a second stop around the second red line then look through the cars’ windows for the upcoming traffic since that second stop is also sketchy! WTF Trust me you cannot see….a car coming from the side where you are supposed to look for cars can’t even see you stopped at the second stop. This is what they will see: Spain is full of these situations. You can so easily bump into another car. Plus they want you to not stop too much into the intersection to make the incoming vehicles change speed or direction.
Point is they want you to drive perfectly while you are faced with mostly imperfect situation like this. You never do anything right. You drive too slow, too fast, too much to the right, too much to the left, you change the gears too soon, too early, too fast, too slow….It seems like they are never satisfied. But I think it makes sense when they run a business and their incentive is for you to get more lessons. It is so obvious actually.
I kid you not she would force me to drive 2 km within the speed limit. Like if the speed limit is 50 drive between 48 and 52. If it is 90, drive 88 to 92. She was so keen about that I ended up looking at the speedometer too much for anyone’s safety.
30 years of driving, not enough!
One of the students was a 50 something years old from Cuba. I did 2 practice lessons with him. In our stupid society of papers it does not matter if you already know how to drive and have a driving license. If Spain does not recognize that piece of paper you have to do the entire ritual like any new driver. So if you come from USA, Cuba or so many other tribes, and wanna live in Spain, you have to do the practices and exams. Just like any new student. How insane!
So this guy had his driving license for 30 years. Drove a lot. And yet he “could not drive” according to the instructor. He struggled to unlearn how to drive and do it all the exact way the instructor dictates. He was so stressed…poor guy. Many like him come from poor countries to work in Spain and they probably need a driving license for their job. To treat them so badly, make them lose all confidence….it is terrible.
This is a video with him under the pressure of driving – (all english subtitles are auto-translated but I checked them and are mainly accurate):
The guy took several lessons and then never came back. I remember when he last left….he took his seat-belt off, got out of the car, slightly smashed the door, and left saying nothing. I was sure he won’t come back.
Everyone was under a tremendous amount of stress. This is a girl who eventually failed the exam. She too looked so lost while driving because of the pressure the instructor puts on you.
I was calling the instructor “the Bear” since she looked kinda rough and tough 🙂 and her voice always felt heavy on you somehow :D. The Bear would grab your steering wheel at times in a very aggressive manner, despite no one being in any danger. Just to “prove” a point. I caught a few on camera. This is another student:
See how she was screaming at students? It is a very uncomfortable situation since there isn’t much you can do. She was not always like that but for sure everyone was overly stressed because of her attitude.
I started to realize that the Bear won’t let me get away with just 10 lessons as I was hopping in the beginning. I thought in the worst case scenario I’ll do 20 hours. But I ended up with 30 hours of practice because it was never good in her pockets eyes the way I or anyone else was driving. All other students were clocking easily over 40-50 lessons already.
I also tried at times to poke at the Bear and say the obvious, in my almost non-existent spanish. Here I was trying to say that it is impossible to drive the way she asks us to:
But yah, at the end of the day it is a business. She jokingly mentioned at times about how bad other people drive and how no one respects the rules, including her past students that now have driving licenses. What sane human would continue to “teach” others how to drive when you know the day after they get the license they’ll never drive the way you taught them!? But when this is “your job”, you get the cash, go buy some stuff. What else matters!?
This is the trade-society we live in. We do stuff not for the sake of the stuff we are doing, but to trade for something else we need or are made to want. Terrible incentive and end result.
Anyway…
30 hours of practice, the lower end of the spectrum.
I settled for 30 hours of practice maximum. I explained to the Bear that I cannot afford more. She was not that happy. We practiced more, and most of the time I’d come home super tired and with big headaches. I was taking a stomach pill before the practice and a headache pill after. One to not shit myself, and one to be able to sleep :))).
Here’s me waiting for the Bear Practices: I can’t emphasize to you how stressful this entire thing was for me. I could barely sleep the night before the lessons, I thought nonstop about this fucking driving, and when driving I felt like doing an exam for 2 hours. We drove 2 hours, and 2 more hours sitting in the back observing the other student (I called the students rabbits). The Rabbits were terrified, the Bear furious and ready to eat you alive.
The Bear was a very bad teacher overall. If you read this, I am sorry but this is the truth. She would put you in sketchy situations to fail you, then tell you how bad you failed. “The signs are not visible here” I say. “You are right” she said, “but you need more practice to learn these routes, memorize them.”. She was spitting Euro signs while talking. At one point I directly told her that she is there to help me not to trick me. So, please, help me. She was a bit more helpful after I said that. Like wtf she should be there not to criticize you and fail you, but to actively teach you how to safely drive….
To be fair she taught me some good things too. And at times we could have sane and relaxed conversations. But overall the situation was super stressful and I consider her a bad teacher.
A language issue.Big one.
Spanish, English, Catalan!?
My theory exam was in english, but now the entire practice was in spanish. I understand some spanish, but not that well. Now imagine you are in traffic and she gives you a command saying “park in the left side behind the blue car”, but all you can understand is “park/stop in the left/right side behind/in front of the whatever the color she means car”. So I would not know what to do. By the time I tried to ask what she meant, and her to explain, I would fail the command. She did try to help a lot, I’ll give her that.
So for me it was way more difficult than it was for the others who spoke spanish. A lot lot lot more. Translating spanish “commands” while trying to control a car in traffic, is not an easy task at all for someone who never drove before.
What’sUpWithTheCatalans!? – WUWTC Speaking of spanish, in this region people also speak catalan which is quite different from spanish. For the past years we felt a lot of anger coming from the “catalan people” towards anyone who does not speak catalan. A turmoil, a blanket of anger, a way to force the catalan language into survival mode by treating the rest with a lot of disrespect. I am currently writing an article/book about this situation and culture in general, but I’d say this:
Most of the time I would be in the car with another Rabbit who would refuse to speak spanish. They only spoke catalan despite telling them I only understand spanish. Mind you they all speak spanish perfectly fine. Since I had to spend 2 hours every practice day in the back of the car paying attention to the other Rabbit and signs and all that as the Bear instructed me to, the conversation between the Rabbits and the Bear was important. So speaking a language that not all understand despite being able to speak one that everyone does, is a sign of disrespect at best. I’d call it douchebaggery. But we kinda got used to this attitude from the “catalans” so we try to ignore “them”. Sorry for the generalization I am sure there are many nice “catalans” out there and I understand there is a cultural frustration among them. But this is fucked up regardless.
So overall the language situation was very difficult for me. You wonder….everyone in Spain learns english in school for many years, how come no one knows english here!? Hm…is school that useless? I guess so.
The Business. The EXAM!
Speaking of school and how useless it is. A few days before the exam the Bear was informed about what routes we will take for the exam day. It is like in school when they give you 50 main subjects to learn from for the exam, only to tell you 3 days before the exam day what subject you’ll be examined from.
So we practiced those routes a few days before the exam. We were also told that the examiner would first ask us a question, like how to turn on the high beam, where are the car’s registration papers, what fruit are the tires tasting like? 🙂 So she explained us all of these a day before the exam and while we were driving to the exam, so to not forget them because she said that everyone forgets these so quickly that she has to tell the Rabbits shortly before the exam.
You wonder, again, what is this whole thing about? After all of those thousands of questions for the theory exam, after tens of hours of driving practice on so many different routes…and now this!
Who goes last?
We were 3 Rabbits that would go for the exam. One Rabbit failed 4 times already and had countless of driving practices under her belt. Less money under the same belt for sure. Probably she spent thousands considering an hour of practice is 40 Euros and the Bear wants you to do 40-50 hours before the exam. You do the math!
We had 3 possible routes. The failed Rabbit was asked to choose first. She wanted to be second in line. The other Rabbit wanted to be first to “get over with it”. I was last. Last for the day, last before the August summer break in Spain when all spaniards hibernate.
The day has come, I only slept some 3-4 hours. I was less nervous than I should have been. I was already 8 months into the torture, minus 1.600 Euros. It was time to give birth.
I knew that it is so easy to fail, for the smallest kind of mistake. We did several exam simulations with the Bear and we all failed them multiple times. I also asked the Bear if most students fail and she said yes, most fail on the first try. Something I’ve heard multiple times in Spain.
I also knew that if I fail I would have to wait 2-3 months before I can re-do the exam. Plus I would need more driving lessons. OF COURSE MISS EUROBEAR!
On top of this we would have to move at the end of November out of Spain or somewhere else in Spain.
So if I would fail, I would be totally fucked.
But I put in my mind that I will fail so to not be too destroyed if I do. I knew that statistically I am more likely yo fail. I already found a place in the south of Spain where Rabbits migrate to get the driving license with a saner “autoescela”. “Takes a week and costs 450 Euros” one of the Rabbit told me.
37 degrees outside and waiting for my turn. A bunch of Rabbits under the pale shade of some trees, waiting in heat and fear. Honestly I was not that scared. I accepted that I will fail. My turn came, the examiner seemed like a nice guy.
How do you turn on the high beam he asked me? I showed him!
And we went! But fuck! The route I practice was not the one he gave me. There was a slight 10% change that my exam route would be different, the Bear told me. Fuck! We were going towards the center of the town. Bad bad bad!
I will tell you now briefly the “bad” mistakes I made, as explained to me after the exam was over.
When I started I stopped twice at this stop sign to go to the left: I did that because I wanted to be sure… I was told it was not necessary…
Here is a badly marked intersection and I had to go to he left: I first stopped where I put that red block because of the stop sign, and I was told I stopped too early. I stopped again closer to the intersection to make sure no car is coming from the left. So 2 stops in a badly, or not at all marked intersection. I caused no inconvenience for anyone.
At a roundabout I entered from the left lane, totally legal, then switcher lanes in the roundabout to the right to then exit it. They said I did it a bit dangerously.
And in this situation I had to go to the left. There was a green light and I went: All good but I was told I didn’t look in the left and right sides to see if I am ok to turn in case anything comes from those sides. In the right they had red, in the left was no one. Whatever. In the end I did it ok.
Lastly I had to do this left turn: Someone was crossing the street so I stopped before the crosswalk. All good, but the examiner did not see the man crossing so he thought I just stopped for a bit… That’s on the examiner but it counts as a lost point.
After the exam the Bear was criticizing me a lot. She said she would not pass me. On the way back home she was insisting I get more driving lessons. I said let’s wait for the results and we talk after.
I had to wait till 6PM to see the results. I was checking the website every 10 minutes. Because of the Bear I thought I did not pass. Then I saw APTO! Meaning I passed!
I lost some 7 points out of 9. So I PASSED! Fuck you Bear! 🙂
That’s fucking it!
I was so happy that the torture is over and now I have this driving license for life. I also quickly got to realized that now I have to re-learn how to drive. Yah…. The car we used for the autoescela had all sorts of driving assist features, like if you are on a hill and want to start and drive, the car will help you out. Clutch in the middle, wait 3 seconds, and it starts. Try to do that with many other cars that have no such feature and you’ll slide backwards like a lubed turtle. That car also had no hand break…. So yah I had to re-learn how to drive now.
And in a typical spanish-slow-sloth manner they said I will get my driving license in 3 months :)). Hard to print a bloody plastic thing ha?! To my shock I have received it a few days ago, almost after 3 months of waiting. Shocking that it was not delayed further.
For the past months I was able to drive because I had a printed paper saying that I am waiting for the “real” license.
All in all this is a big bullshit ritual all because of money. In no sane society people would engage in this bullshit if they were to do it for the purpose of the work they do. Never.
Also, if we rely on cars for transportation, which is primitive, then at least all schools should teach children how to drive, for free.
Oh, and the first time I went out with the car after getting my license, I broke my middle finger while trying to Tarzan on a rope into a pool of water. I had to drive back with a hand and a half, for an hour. My driving experience now is been like that. But I dedicate this broken finger to the autoescuela business!
Now that the bullshit is done, I do not want to hear about the driving rules and nonsense. I forgot 90% of all I learned from the driving school. I also suspect not too many people complain about this ridiculous situations since most Rabbits are young ones, freshly produced by a mandatory school with nonsense rules that you have learn to respect. They are used with respecting bullshit, so autoescuela is for them yet another thing they need to pass and then move on.
After a few months of driving now, I realize even deeper how bullshit the driving school is. You learn to drive, and learn the signs, while you are driving.
Now I am eager to drive a motorhome and start a new kind of life….
