The (im)permanence of direction conventions
One of my biggest worries when moving here was learning how to drive on the right-hand side of the car and the left-hand side of the road. That idea was both alien and disconcerting. I envisioned myself just barely staving off head-on collisions at every turn.
We got here and almost immediately rented a car to facilitate our apartment-hunting, shopping for furnishings, etc. And it's true I did almost immediately scrape some paint off the rental car trying to park it in our extremely tight apartment parking garage, where our assigned space is helpfully next to a giant concrete column. But we had paid for the full insurance coverage, so it turned out fine.
I mostly avoided mishaps with looking the wrong direction when crossing the road, and successfully remapped my brain to understand that right turns are now the difficult ones, the turn signal should be operated with my right hand, the gear shifter with my left.
Weirdly, watching movies where Americans are driving cars from the left side of the car and the right side of the road look weird to me now, and I have to stifle momentary disorientation. Meanwhile, I still drift to the right-hand side of staircases, hallways, and grocery store aisles, and I have to think especially hard about which direction the bus will be coming from, to take me in the correct direction.
I guess my point is that arbitrary directional conventions are important and aren't. It's astounding to me how fast I remapped my brain, and how often it lapses back to its old ways.
We got here and almost immediately rented a car to facilitate our apartment-hunting, shopping for furnishings, etc. And it's true I did almost immediately scrape some paint off the rental car trying to park it in our extremely tight apartment parking garage, where our assigned space is helpfully next to a giant concrete column. But we had paid for the full insurance coverage, so it turned out fine.
I mostly avoided mishaps with looking the wrong direction when crossing the road, and successfully remapped my brain to understand that right turns are now the difficult ones, the turn signal should be operated with my right hand, the gear shifter with my left.
Weirdly, watching movies where Americans are driving cars from the left side of the car and the right side of the road look weird to me now, and I have to stifle momentary disorientation. Meanwhile, I still drift to the right-hand side of staircases, hallways, and grocery store aisles, and I have to think especially hard about which direction the bus will be coming from, to take me in the correct direction.
I guess my point is that arbitrary directional conventions are important and aren't. It's astounding to me how fast I remapped my brain, and how often it lapses back to its old ways.
Comments
Post a Comment