Adventures with Isoms: Well knowledge of traffic signs save you of road surprise

Well the correct wheels have been greased because we got our licenses- the american teachers were taken over to the beautiful yellow and brown El Rayan traffic school compound for our 2 part driving test. As we sat waiting in the lobby we could study the huge poster of Doha traffic signs to as they say "save you of road surprise". Every so often it must have become too noisy because a large man sitting at the "info" desk would hammer his shoe until it became quiet. The test involved a man at a counter with a laminated sign of signs- he would point to 4 of them and then... back to the chairs to wait. Then we all got up and went to counter to pay... then back to the chairs to wait. When the test time finally began we all barreled out and got into 1 of 3 waiting cars. Car #1 was the test car, Car # 2 was the ladies car, Car # 3 was for the homies.... and then he arrived. By he I am speaking of the driving tester- I would have taken a picture but he had the aura about him that if you made him mad you might just not drive for many months- kind of like the Seinfeld soup nazi. He wore an ill fitting military jumpsuit that would have been impressive on its own but when he added the beret and thick chinbeard- it was... magical. Lisa was first and became the first to hear the instructors vocabulary: "DRIVE!", "LEFT!", "RIGHT!", "PARK!" Then a type of chinese fire drill would take place as the driver would jump out and the rest of us would sort of rotate up to the next position. I was getting a bit nervous thinking about the fact that I had not driven in over a month, but then realized that I had have been doing this since I was 14. (Big thanks to my sister Caryn for teaching me to drive freshman year- MOM- DAD- ignore that part)

It all went well in the end and after a bit more waiting we received our temporary licenses- I've been told that changing a temp into a real license is easy... but I'm thinking I'll be waiting in the lobby with the man and his shoe for at least a few more minutes.