It has been over a week since I last wrote something on our website and I am currently wondering if something else happens last week, besides that what I wrote in as the subject of this post.. I can’t seem to recall it all at once… I might remember in a bit

Right, let me start at the Hawaiian driver license.. I went to the DMV today with Michelle, to do the roadtest for my driver license. The roadtest is basically the last test , just like in the Netherlands, that you have to take in order to receive your real license.

I had the appointment for the roadtest at 2.30pm (1.30am in Dutch time) and I was there ahead of schedule. The examiner chocked himself a bit when he called out my name (that seems to happen more often haha) and after I told him how to pronounce it, we walked towards the car to start the exam for the Hawaiian driver license.

You need your own car (or at least one from a friend or relative (rentals are only allowed under certain conditions)) to do the test, so they first check all papers and check if everything works ok, that means to see if the signal lights and brakelights work as they should, apparently anything else doesn’t really matter hehe. I went, as I told before, with the car of Michelle’s mother, quite a big Mercedes SUV. We did this because Michelle’s car (or actually ‘our’ car now that the registration and the insurance has now both our names) probably wouldn’t make the test since she has blinded windshields.

When everything was ok, we left the parkinglot and drove a bit around. I think the total test took about 20 minutes and I didn’t have to do much special things. The examiner said in the beginning he especially looks well at stopping at a stopsign or red light, the usage of signals and mirrors, and mainaining the maximum speed. I was surprised he told me all this since they don’t do this in the Netherlands at all, over there it is like you get in and they just tell you where to go.. I told the examiner this and he answered me that he basically wants everyone to have a good reason to pass the test haha, it sure looked like that

He took me in the vicinity of a school (reduced speeds), around stopsigns, right turns at a red light (this is allowed in the US unless stated different and holds the same judgement as a stopsign (we don’t have this in the Netherlands)), parallel parking (I could decide myself how to park and since there was enough space, I just drove forward into the parking haha.. the distance to the curb was ok and well within margins), and some other things.

I had no idea how I did and when we arrived back at the DMV, I decided to park back into the parking… something I did not have to do as I was free to park in any way as I liked it but I was like why not, it isn’t too hard and who knows it might help me. If it really helped is unknown to me but the car was at least parked really nice within all lines as it should be.

I asked the examiner after we parked if I could turn off the engine and he asked me to wait with it for a bit (I think because the airco might stop when you turn it off hehe) and he was writing something on a note, he gave me the note and told me that I should go to the first line and then could pay for my license. And then he said “congratulations, you have passed”.

You can imagine I am pretty happy now

This is also funny by the way, usually you need to turn in your Dutch driver license, or invalidate it. They asked me for my Dutch license, I even showed it to them, but nobody did anything with it.. with other words, I now have both my Dutch license as the Hawaiian driver license It is just as nice if you ask me as it eases up my life when I am in the Netherlands or in the US. I only have to keep in mind that I need to renew it every now and then.

Like I wrote in the beginning of this message, there are not much things in the past days that may have happened. Of course we went to town again and such but it would be getting a bit boring when I have to tell the same things over and over again haha. I can, however, that I got my ‘resident golf card’, a card which I can use to play golf with nice reduced prices (I am looking forward to do it again, I loved playing it while I was in China).

Also, my collection of plastic (the cards) is getting quite big now, as like all other people I am starting to get a big collection of membershipcards, shoppingcards, bankcards and go on haha. I am starting to become more naturalized this way haha.

We did, however, make a few photo’s from our trips to Honolulu, let me post a few so it doesn’t get too boring haha.

In the upcoming week I might have more to tell and have more pictures as one of the plans is to go the upcoming sunday to the palace (the building in the middle of the pictures above, the other two are taken from the former supreme court). And of course we have Michelle’s birthday a day later and a barbeque on wednesday and of course the cats who will be neutered in the upcoming week.

We received our certified marriage certificates yesterday. Multiple marriage certificates? Yep, we requested multiple copies since, for example, I need to send a copy including apostille to The Hague so our marriage will be legally registered in the Netherlands also (if we ever move there, at least they know we are legally married), I also need to send a copy to the USCIS for my adjustment of status (so I can get my greencard) and Michelle needed one for her name changes (since she carries my name now).

So today we were kind of busy to get Michelle’s name change into the systems. We went, for example, to one of the social security offices (where it was a bit more busy than last time when I had to be there) to get a new social security card for her and from there on we went to the DMV since Michelle also needed to do a name change on her driver license.

I told Michelle this morning that, if it would not be too busy at the DMV, that I would possibly take the eyetest and the written test (you don’t need an appointment as it is a walk in). I took my social security card with me because you cannot get your exams done without it. When we arrived we noticed that it was not very busy so both Michelle and I filled some forms out, Michelle for her name change and me for the Hawaii driver license.

When it was my turn (this was almost at the same time as Michelle had her turn, just at a different window), I asked what would happen to my current Dutch driver license. This one had to be invalidated according to the lady since you are not allowed to have more than 1 driver license (which makes sense) but it would be returned to me (they make a hole in it or something), which is nice since that makes it easier for me to request a new driver license in the Netherlands, if we ever move to the Netherlands (if I didn’t get it back, I could have requested a new one by just saying I would have lost my old one since, apparantly, that goes quite easy hehe, but ok, that is not needed ).

Ok, so it was my turn (I can talk sometimes, I know haha). First the lady was going to check my eyes… this is something which really frightened me as, some may know, I had to wear glasses until I was 15 years old since I got a really bad vision on my right eye, I can hardly see anything through that eye. And yes, with my luck, I had to read the sixth row with my right eye… all I saw was a white square, nothing else haha. I explained the situation to the lady behind the counter and she said that it was no problem and that I could try with my left eye and that went, as expected, without any problem at all. The left eye is completely ok, I can read small texts from quite some distance with that eye and I can see distances and calculate speeds with it and, fortunately, it was ok for the lady too as I heard that I passed my eye test

And then it was time for the written exam.. I got a sheet with 30 questions from which I needed to answer 24 correctly…. hahaha, I know, it is not much at all! Back in the Netherlands I had to answer 70 questions and was only allowed 7 wrong answers, that would be a bit heavier for a test I think but oh well. I thought that the questions itself were very simple too (and according to Michelle there are still lots of people who fail on it). They were all multiple choice questions and, yah, when there is an answer such as ‘this is done to harrass the driver’, then you will not pick that answer of course lol, oh well, there were still 3 other possible answers left haha.

Anyways, I gave my answers back to the lady after a while, I could take a seat and after a few minutes I heard the answer: Passed

I learned that I only had one error, according to the lady behind the counter this was pretty good.. I don’t know, it looked very simple to me, I have the feeling that almost every idiot should be able to get a license with these questions haha. I think I know the wrong answer also since it was a situation that I never experienced before and since it is not something that you would ever see in the Netherlands but oh well, just one wrong answer is doable hehe. The fun thing, at least in my opinion, is that I was not prepared for the exam, all I did this morning was trying a few questions which I could possible see at the exam (8 or something) and that was what made me decide to actually go for it or not haha.

So I got my “instruction permit” now, some kind of pass that almost looks identical to a Hawaiian driver license but with the exception that I am ‘only allowed to drive when there is an adult of minimal 21 years of age next to me with a valid driver license’. Basically it is the permit that allows you to go on the road and actually learn how to drive. To me it is a nice card but it does not have much value as of yet for me since my Dutch driver license is still valid (until I receive my Hawaii driver license). Ok, maybe it has some value tho… I don’t have to walk around with my passport since this is also a valid identification, and I can get “kama’aina” (locals) discounts on some things which are cheaper for locals, or even for free like some museums, since it is the proof that I actually live here (Michelle’s mom gave me, by the way, an American flag for this reason this afternoon, like I am already an American hahaha)

The next thing that I need to do in order to get the Hawaii driver license is the road test. From what I have heard of it, it shouldn’t be too hard, sometimes it is just a circle around the parkinglot but it usually does not take longer than 30 minutes (or so they say). I am curious what it will be… I could go tomorrow according to the people at the DMV since this is also just walk-in (in the morning that is)… I wont go tomorrow since I have to take the car of Michelle’s mother and something has to be done on that first (I can’t take ‘our’ (Michelle’s) car since it is not exactly totally legal with the tires and the dark foil on the windows lol).

Right, after this we went for some lunch, only to continue our excursion with the many banks that we had to visit. From the four banks that we visited we could only get Michelle’s name change done in 1 bank. Michelle has a joint account with her mother at the other banks and since they have to update their signature files, Michelle’s mother has to co-sign those signature files so after that we went home so Michelle could go to the other banks for her name change and after that, the day was almost over again hehe

One of these days I will request my adjustment of status, employment authorization and advance parole and such. Tomorrow we will make some passport pictures for this, and when I know more about all this, or something else, I will write it here again