I think the one thing I have found them most like America is Singapore is the DMV. Stupid rules, government bureaucracy, humorless desk clerks and a random alpha-numeric system of calling on customers designed primarily, from what I can see, to aggravate everyone to the point of complete distraction. I went to the DMV last February with the desperate hope that I could convert my US drivers license to a Singaporean license before it expired on my birthday. My strategy was gleefully upended by the Singaporean DMV Help Desk. I signed up to take the test anyway - once I get my meathooks in hope I find it difficult to let go - and decided that once I passed it I could appeal to the Singaporean sense of decency.
Ha ha. Surely I jest. I got a test date for late April. I studied for the damn thing; it turned out to be the most difficult exam I have taken since my physics final in college. I passed - with or without flying colors - didn't know, didn't care - and strode purposefully up to the counter when my number was called. The woman took my particulars, made copies, looked at my US license, paused, gave me a fish-eyed stare and said...
"Madam. You are expired."
I squared my shoulders, looked her straight in the eye and said; "That's funny. Because I feel ok..."
Needless to say she did not appreciate my humor. There was nothing to be done. Cannot. Lah. I was expired and that was that. I cajoled and begged and pleaded and I think finally, in a desperate attempt to clear her area of the Pesky American and get to lunch, she date stamped all my stuff and told me to come back with my non-expired license and see if they would convert it when I return in August.
She told me that by then, I will have passed my one-year mark for conversion, so if they do not honor my test date I can still get a license, but I will have to take a behind the wheel test, another written test and assuming I pass both, I will have a probationary license. I will be allowed to drive with a special Student Plate alerting other drivers of my pathetic inexperience. The good news is, with the "Student Plate" when people see me driving down the road, they can say; "Look at that S Car go!"
She didn't think that was funny either....
No comments:
Post a Comment