Not Sad to Say "Goodbye"

Yesterday, I completely finished driver's education. I can say without a doubt I was not sorry to complete this necessary evil. I finished the classroom part of driver's ed in May. I have very fond memories of this class. It was so wonderful that I, in fact, nicknamed it "Drawing Exercise" Class because of the hundreds of doodles found on my notes. In my opinion there were three things that class was good for:

1. Getting a chance to sit down (and almost fall asleep) and think through everything in life.

2. A chance to once again realize that I will never be a famous artist.

3. And I guess there were a few things I learned in the class. BUT not enough to warrant 30 hours in a classroom for 2 weeks. And $375 down the drain.

A few notes about the teacher of the class:

She was very brash. Definitely not afraid to say what she was thinking.

Students were not allowed to use cell phones in class, but she probably received 5-20 calls per class session.

Our breaks were always long so that she could have her smoking break.

She was late at least 20 minutes 3 times, yet we were harshly scolded for being 5 minutes late.

One day she did not even show up for class-not entirely her fault. But it still was frustrating. Especially when you get off work early and drive 15 minutes just to go to this class. And don't forget about the 45 minutes we waited for her to show up. The problem-Her vehicle registration wasn't current so the military police would under no conditions let her on the base. Oh, and of course we were expected to make up this class on her time.

But moving on......

The behind-the-wheel sessions of this class were definitely more exciting, but still undesirable. To complete this class I had to have 3 2-hour sessions. I had one last Tuesday, another one this past Tuesday, and of course the one yesterday. My first instructor was about 10 minutes late. And then she had been busy all morning so she thought she ought to eat a quick lunch before we left. Fine with me....less driving time on my part. She was alright as an instructor, pretty lax, and she talked a lot and let me pick a radio station which made it more enjoyable and less awkward. If only, I could have had her as my second instructor.

My second instructor I have a less than favorable opinion of. For several reasons:

1. She fell asleep on me while I was practicing parallel parking. (I heard her snoring!)

2. She was the final straw that inspired that long vent of frustration posted earlier about homeschooling.

3. She was brash and extremely intimidating-and visibly proud of it!

4. Had to listen to her music-Umm...yeah.

5. She directly told me that I needed to be able to drive so that I could go out and get a job so that I could pay HER social security. Ok, I have a job and that is definitely not the reason I got a job. That might be more of a reason not to get a job. And just because you can't drive doesn't necessarily mean that you cannot work. This to me seemed like a very inappropriate comment.

And then towards the end of one of the longest 2 hours of my life, she repeatedly emphasized how she hoped I had enjoyed this session. Yeah, um....no.

Thankfully, my third instructor was much better. I again was allowed to listen to my choice of radio station. (Makes sense-since this is a paid session.) She was an excellent instructor. The only problem I had with her was that she was Korean. Not that I have anything against Koreans, it was just VERY difficult to understand her through her poor grammar and her heavy accent.

So anyways.....that is my review of my experience with CB services driving school. Not recommended, but they are one of the cheaper places around here. So I guess a lot of people might want to put up with all this stuff.

But the good news. I am that much closer to getting ready for my license!!!! I still need about 30 hours of recorded supervised driving. But all of my instructor pretty much told me that if needed to that we could overlook that. That's good in case I don't get it done before I leave for college. So anyways that is something I've been working on for the past 2 months and was very glad to be done with.