More on Getting Around
In preparation for the day I start driving here, I have been paying very close attention any time we go anywhere. The mental exercize is exhausting.
Imagine a small highway, but none of the exits are marked. Every so often you come upon roundabouts or go through tunnels. There are some signs, but they do not make much sense to me at the moment, and in any case the place we are going is never on the signs until we are very close. M keeps drilling me: “okay, we are at the roundabout with the palm trees, where do we go from here?” I think hard and look around and shyly point… that way. Then, “we are going through the square tunnels, what comes next?” I sit there puzzled, the square tunnels come after the round tunnels… but before the other round tunnels? Or are those the *other* round tunnels.
Pretty soon my brain feels like it has just spent an hour at the gym. It gasps for air and cannot see clearly. Invariably, I lose concentration at some point and frantically ask, “Have we left the main road? Did we go through any roundabouts? Did I miss something??!!??”
And so I quietly dread the day that I have to take the wheel on my own, and navigate the tunnels and roundabouts, highways and side streets, concentrating intently so I will find my way. And did I mention that in Malta you drive on the left? I get nervous just thinking about it all.
I look forward to the day when I look back and laugh, and say that I cannot believe I was ever nervous about driving in Malta. Let us call that a happy goal.
