I have a habit of talking to myself. Not constantly, not usually in public, and not in a crazy way. I mean, it's not like I'm expecting anyone to answer me. Other than myself of course.

I just find I have an easier time working through a thought process if I actually verbalize it. It's the same with trying to memorize things...I stand a better chance if I say them out loud. So before my driving test I spent a lot of time in coffee shops around town quietly reciting the 5 kinds of pedestrian crossings or the speed limit for various types of vehicles on a non-divided road. So, possibly annoying, but not crazy.

I'll also talk to myself in situations where I'm nervous, and this has come up most often lately when I'm driving. The roads here are narrow. Either they are roads in town which aren't that wide to begin with and become far too narrow when they are lined with parked cars on either side and buses trying to get down them, or they are country roads that are just wide enough to begin with and get too narrow in the summer when the surrounding foliage is overgrown. The roads are just narrow.

This has been the hardest thing about learning to drive here. Not the roundabouts or driving on the wrong side of the road, but figuring out where the edge of my car really is and believing that yes, there is room for me and that truck to go past each other and no, he isn't going to hit me. It's a hard process, and I'll admit, I'm still not nearly there.

So, when I go out driving by myself, I spend a decent amount of time saying things like "it's ok" or "you have plenty of room" or "that car ahead of you fit, so you'll fit too." I also find myself telling myself to "slow down" or "calm down" or "take it easy." And, when pulling into parking lots (which I was bad with even in the States), I'll often tell myself not to hit the surrounding cars.

Which is how last week, over the course of a day, I had to tell myself not once but twice, "don't hit that Bentley." And it's not just that I really thought I was going to hit the Bentley so I said it twice, I came across two different Bentleys in two different parking lots. One of them at the dump. I'll admit, I've never lived in a town where this would have been a viable concern before, but at least it makes sure I maintain concentration while trying to park.