The worst day ever
Posted by: Fidji SIMO in American way of life, Expatriation, Internet/Technology
I should have stayed in bed this morning. Being awfully sick and taking a day off would have been better than that. This morning, on our way to take the bus, we met a really nice drug addict who didn’t want to let us pass; Remy asked the guy really nicely “can you please let us go?” and in exchange, received a punch in the shoulder and in the back. Who said San Jose was the safest city in the US? I’m amazed how quick my brain is in this kind of situation: I pushed the guy away from Remy, and we just ran as fast as we could! Then I called 911; the cop didn’t seem at all impressed by what I was telling and asked me “did you see the guy punching other people? Did he have a gun?”. Since my answer was NO to the 2 questions, she told me nicely “we’ll keep you posted”, meaning “as if we moved our ass for a guy without a gun…”
That wasn’t the end of the bad day, no no no, it would have been too easy! I took my driving test today, of course, as you might guess by the title of this post, I failed, and my driving instructor told me that I chose the worst DMV to take the test, the worst time (lunch time) and that I had the meanest examiner! She told me to turn left, and I couldn’t go on the left lane because there were too many cars, so I stayed on the middle lane to go straight and simply said “sorry, I couldn’t go to the left lane, so where do I go next?” and she replied “if you are asking questions it means that you should learn how to drive before taking the test, now the test is over, go back to the DMV”… Really nice lady, isn’t she?
Hopefully, work was here to entertain me a bit today: with the Yahoo-Google-AOL-Microsoft-Myspace entanglement and all the rumors going around the Valley about this (these) deal(s), it is definitely fun to work in the strategic department of a big Internet company at the moment!
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I found your mistake:”asked the guy really nicely”
You should adopt the parisian style: Walk quickly, see nothing, hear nothing
Ahahah I missed your cynical comments Rom! By the way, when are you coming to see us now that you know that we are in a really safe area?
I am not sure I want to come. Apparently you live in the ghettos. I prefer my incredible alive city.
And I watched your appartment video but I did not see neither my room nor las vegas.
I can promise you that Vegas is not that far away
About your room… didn’t you see the sofa? 
What a day! I am sorry for you both and totally amazed by the reaction of the cop! Nevertheless, one day, I called the French police for something which was very urgent and I had a cop later 5mn of wait! Imagine it would have been for my safety…
).
Otherwise, try to get your carrying of firearms licence, I am sure you will get it more easily than the driving licence in this state (joke
Actually, this is not even a joke, it is entirely true!
It seems that you went to the Santa Clara DMV .. I have already heard this story with the driving test !! The American way to have this exam is wonderful !
I went to the San Jose DMV, which is apparently even worse than the Santa Clara one because the streets are narrower…
By the way I really like your blog David, I’d love to have a drink with and your wife some day if you have time!