It is that I don't need to. I am talking about driving. It is sort of strange to think about it...in my old job in the US, driving to a location was a big part of my day. It was not unusual to hop in the car and drive 2-2 1/2 hours to a location and then make the drive home at the end of the work day...heck, I even drove 4 hours to a location when absolutely necessary and then made that drive back the same night. That happened very rarely, and did involve a cross in time zone.....and boy, did I drag the next day!
Since we moved here last year, I have acquainted myself with the city's public transit system and embraced riding the trains, trams and buses to get where I need to go. At home, my parents are guarding my car and giving it the garage space that it only dreamed of while we lived in Atlanta.
We do have a car here.....it is part of our ex-pat deal. I suppose that we could have turned it down and taken a stipend instead, but having a car here has allowed us the opportunity to take fun road trips to Italy and France...and cart our visitors about when they come. The Hub drives to work everyday...and he uses his car time to take conference calls, have one-on-ones with his team and listen to his German language instruction lessons...these are things you just can't do on the commuter train, so he takes the car everyday.
I like the idea of living in a city with the option to take full advantage of the transit system. I have lived in biggish cities in the US (Detroit, Cincinnati, Atlanta), but none of them had a subway or a suburban rail system like we have here in Munich, and as a result, felt like a smaller big city, not a for-real city like Chicago or NY. Here, you definitely know that you are in the ranks of the city dwellers when you get to feel the crush of the other people on the train or feel the breeze that predicts the train's approach to the platform. Knowing whether or not your neighbor is a smoker or a daily bather is not necessarily a treat, but one of the things you get to do on mass transit. You get to see who is reading an English text book, hear what is leaking out of their earphones, and glance over their bags to see where they have been shopping. It is fun to observe what and who and where everyone is and where they have been that day.
When we moved, we were lucky to be able to turn in our US licenses for translation and come away several days later with a non-expiring German driver's license...no muss, no fuss, no test required. But with no test, that also meant no instruction...and no learning about the different signs, rules and awareness about the millions of pedestrians and bikers here in the city. Driving here doesn't scare me-I was raised in a Detroit suburb, where they want you in a car at 16, there is no mass transit to speak of and people do not carpool. In Atlanta, I navigated my way along 6 lane (one way) highways full of SUVs and driving speeds and traffic that legends are made of and also no public transit to speak of. So, no, driving doesn't scare me...it is just that I am enjoying living in a city where my monthly pass takes me from train to tram to bus...and seeing the city while someone else is at the wheel or controls suits me fine.
So, I have decided that unless one of these babies is in my future.....
I will be on the train or in the passenger seat of the Audi with the seat-warmers cranked high.....hey, a girl can dream, right?
