Halleluiah!  I passed my written exam!  Thank God.  I feel as though a huge weight has been lifted.  So let me recount my adventure because of course it didn't go without excitement.  My appointment was at 8 a.m., so I got there a few minutes early.  There were tons of nervous looking teenagers milling about, smoking cigarettes and talking on cellphones.  The doors were opened at 8 and we all swarmed into the waiting area where we waited.  At about 8:45 they started calling names.  Now there are two things to note here.  One is that people who work in the public sectors in Italy are notoriously grumpy cause they get paid whether they work or not and can't be fired, so postal workers, police officers and office bureaucrats alike are all bad-tempered and unhelpful.  Secondly, many of the people waiting to have there exam are like me, foreigners, except they are usually from some developing country and here to do the menial jobs that Italians refuse to do.  There's the set up, this is what happened.  There were two "officials", a man and a woman, who read ours names off a list, checked our documents and then sent us to a computer station for the test.  The woman came to the name of a man from some eastern country and she couldn't pronounce it so she spit out some sound and then yelled "or whatever the hell your name is!".  Then after we were seated she started to harass anyone who breathed wrong.  She yelled at a Muslim woman to uncover her ears which were under her headscarf, because she could have earphones on.  She told a kid from southern Italy with a very heavy accent that he'd better not pass because he'd be a menace on the road.  I kept my head down and tried not to make eye contact.  Then they gave us instructions as to how the exam worked.  The first thing we had to do was insert a card with our data on it into the correct slot.  On the screens it showed the slot to be a part of the computer itself and that the card should be inserted vertically, when in actuality, the slot was in a type of mouse attached by a cord to the computer and the card needed to be inserted horizontally.  The poor girl that pointed that out.  The test itself was fine except the Nazi lady kept weaving in and out of the aisles between our seats making everyone nervous.  When we had finished, we had to return our data cards and go back to the waiting room.  When one guy walked out with his card the official lady started to yell at him and tell him he'd be hunted down by the police and never given his license if he didn't return it.  I gave mine back asap!  After another 1/2 an hour we were called back again to get our results.  In my group alone there were about 50 people and in the meantime another 50 or so had arrived for the next round of tests.  So the tiny waiting room with hardly enough space for one bunch, now had two bunches of "testees" trying to figure out which doorway to go into, whose name was being called, what was being said.  It was utter chaos and so typical.  In the middle of all this we were trying to get our results and heaven forbid them from making that easy.  The results were an illegible scribble at the bottom of our paperwork.  The guy working there must have thought I was french with my name so I was lucky as he decided to practice his high school french on me and spoke slowly and clearly in "Fritalian".  But the kid in front of me got a mumble and made the mistake of asking him to repeat it and was called stupid and deaf.  These were not nice people.  I thought the kid was going to cry.  Let me tell you I was very glad to get out of there. 

Alas it is not over.  Next step is that I have to go back tt the motor vehicle department to pick up my "pink slip" which I have to take to a driving school so that I can have, (and pay an arm and a leg for), 6 hours of driving lessons so that they can tell me all the stuff that I'm doing wrong.  Then I'll have my practical driving test.  Hope I get this all done with before June!

Yesterday afternoon Grace and I had our hair cut by Mario, (a genius and ex-boxer), in the city and then came home for her to pack up for her trip.  We dropped her off this morning with the Germans and they are on their way to Bettmeralp, Switzerland.  An hour ago Dutch friends dropped their dog Belle off with us to doggy sit and so we traded a daughter for a dog for the week.  She's a small well behaved non barking French mutt.  Very cute.  Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, we're going out to lunch with my in-laws.  I'll miss our Easter Egg hunt at the Tibbitt's!  Happy Easter all!!  xxoo me