Change Is In the Airformerly "Lydia's Latvian Blog."

Chris and I are studying (yes, still) for the Latvian driving test. We need to get a Latvian license… actually, should have about 3+ years ago, but now it’s imperative, at least for him. We’ve been studying like mad, which hasn’t been easy. We have a book of laws in English, a rough translation of said book, but 1-2 versions older, and a website of practice tests, all in Latvian. But, we can still take the test in English. Odd how it seems they don’t want you to since they give no help to study in English. (The rough translation we have was done by… someone and has been making it’s rounds through the English-speaking community. We’ll pass it on when we’re done.) We plan to take the test for the first time tomorrow, if for no other reason than to see what the English is like on there.

There are all kind of fun things in here, and we’re regularly told, by Ieva, when we’re taking the practice tests & she’s translating on the fly for us, “Remember, this isn’t America. The rules are not the same.” It usually means to choose the answer opposite of my gut reaction.

Some people have been surprised we’ve been stressed out about this. Well, after we pass, I hope to get some of the questions up here so you can test yourself, then you’ll understand. :) Here’s some laws I’m coming across…
60. The number of lanes designed for vehicles not requiring a railway are indicated by the corresponding pavement markings or road signs; if there are no such indicators, the number of lanes is determined by the individual drivers, considering the width of the roadway, dimension of the vehicles and necessary space between lanes of traffic. (read: if there’s no road markings to tell you how many lanes there are, decide for yourself. Confused yet?)

Continued a few days later:

Ieva and I are translating and writing down the 400 or so questions in our practice book that have no pictures to them. That was so we can study without her. Here’s my favorite of the evening:

What should the driver do in case of force stopping during the dark time of the day, outside of the built up area if you’re not able to drive off the drive way and one of your front or back parking lights don’t work? 

Why do I want to add “…when the moon is full, you’re wearing a blue sweater and there is a cow following you, but with no bell…” or something like that? This is nuts.