Everybody Do the Driver's License Dance

So, guess who got a driver's license? Me. It wasn't all that hard, but I had to wander around to a variety of service desks staffed by more-than-unenthusiastic traffic department employees for an hour and a half this morning. The good part is that I got to do it on work time, not my own time.

There was recently a change in the procedure for getting a driver's license in this town. The public awareness campaign went something like this: Do Nothing, and Wait Until People Show Up At Your Counter to Tell Them. You see, for a very long time, the good people of Dubai could obtain a driver's license without getting the express written consent of their employer. Now, they have to come with that particular document in hand. As if some kind of grand, twisted social experiment were in play, this new requirement is conspicuously absent from all official documents, websites, and application forms pertaining to license acquisition. Maybe they're just trying to save paper, and will start printing the requirement when they run out of old forms.

Anyway, I obviously came unprepared, but was able to finagle a workaround by having the consent letter e-mailed to Mr. Hassan Abam (Thank you Hassan!), who printed it out for me from his office printer on site.  I should note that there seems to be a generally strange distribution of what is required and what is not required to obtain a driver's license in Dubai. Although I was required to provide a letter of consent from my employer, a valid copy of my visa and passport, an eyesight test, three photographs and a hundred and ten dirhams, I was remarkably not required to provide any kind of proof that I know how to drive. A simple copy of a piece of plastic with my name on it that I cross-my-heart is a valid license in the USA seemed to do the trick. 

Now I just have to decide whether I'll consent to Dan getting a license. Hrmmm......