Driving Lessons

2 Fridays ago, Genna and I met with Angelina, one of The Helen Doron teachers. During our meeting, it came up that we didn’t know how to drive a manual. She decided to teach us. She was sure it would be simple and we would be able to drive around town to practice. Genna and I were not so sure.

Genna had practiced before so she started. She didn’t make it look too hard, but did stall a few times. Next, it was my turn. First challenge: shifting into reverse. I kept putting it in fourth. Finally, I got that down. Going into reverse wasn’t bad then I had to switch into first. OK. That was good too, but every time I hit the break it would stall. Ooops, you have to push down on the clutch and the break at the same time. I thought “Oh OK, now I’ll practice that again.” Nope. Angelina decided we were ready for the road! Are you Crazy?!?!

She drove us down the road a little way to parking lot that was almost empty. We each drove around a little. I drove us back to school and sped up to second gear. We nearly stalled and then it was time to switch back to first to slow down for the school. At last we made it back to school, but not without me stalling one more time in the school parking lot.  

A lot of people passing by got a good laugh seeing the car jerking back and forth and stalling. We are confident with about 10 more lessons we will be ready for the streets of Bielsko.