Another New Experience

Romania, specifically Bucharest, has offered a large number of new experience opportunities. On Friday, I not only had the opportunity, but also the reality, of taking part in my first car accident. It should be noted I had a clean record, 10 years worth, without a ticket or collision before my most recent learning experience.

Allow me to first set the scene: I was wearing gym clothes after attempting to maintain some small degree of health by sweating for a few minutes at my gym club. I had dropped off friends and was driving the usual path home. As I was in the car alone, I started the music and was enjoying the classic Time After Time.

I arrived at a chaotic square about called Piata Dorobanti. This square has three incoming traffic roads and two outgoing paths. I had stopped, at my yield sign and allowed about five cars to go. It was at this time I noticed the green lights ahead of me as well as the cars going forward. I decided this was my chance to venture on...I was only about three mintues from home! Unfortunately as I ventured forward, so did a black Mitsubishi which was driving perpendicular to me. As you have probably predicted, I smushed her driver's side door.

God's amazing grace was with me and my friend, Johnathon, happened to walk by. He immediately hopped into the car and accompanied for the remainder of the journey!

This incident was really the least painful of all. After a winding trip, about thirty minutes long, we finally arrived at a police station. It was then I realized I couldn't find my driver's license and urgently took a taxi home to retrieve it. I returned to the station to find my poor counterparts sitting at a table, with two forms awaiting completion, and a number 165. It was then they told me we were on number 133. "Oh my" was my only thought!

After a four and a half hour wait, which by Romanian standards is quite short, we were called into a separate room. By this time my friends, Lyndsey and Simon, had arrived. Simon, a native of Romania, acted as translator which was needed for all paperwork and police communication.

In the end, I was fined 60 American dollars and received a two month license suspension. Apparently license suspension, especially with foreigners, is not uncommon. They granted me a fifteen day driving permit until the suspension takes place. The suspension included the physical possession of my license which I will be able to pick up in two months from another unknown building.

As my mother said, "This is just another Romanian experience!"