The foreigner went to the foreign affairs section of the china DMV in order to take his driver’s test for the second time. The first time he took it was four years ago and he scored 92 out of a hundred with the passing score being 90. The foreigner needed to take the test again because he did a bad thing and that bad thing coincided with his having let a friend borrow points. The retest was part of the reeducation for the foreigner since he exceeded 12 points (after lending six) in one calendar year.

The DMV building is southeast beijing, just onto the south section of the 4th ring road. The foreigner got their early enough and waited for the test to begin. He waited by drinking a nestle coffer and endlessly playing bubble breaker on his phone. The waiting area started to fill up with other foreigners and their helpers. Most people were studying for the test while waiting so the foreigner pawed his book as well. Then it was time to go upstairs and take the test. The room was the same as four years ago but the testing stations were in the complete opposite direction. The foreigner listed to the instructions which were in chinese and selected English for the test. An aide came by and provided a numeric code which the foreigner entered into the computer. With a click, the test began. The format of the test was different as well and this threw the foreigner a bit and he felt a bit nervous. He had 45 minutes to answer 100 questions. The questions seemed simple enough but the foreigner new he was missing some as he went. Or at least guessing at some. He sure hoped he would pass but started to worry he would not.

After question 100 the foreigner pressed “hand in you test” and then the double confirm. He noticed the word “sorry” on the screen first and then his final score of 77. He got up, walked to the aide who was walking towards him, and the aid wrote 77 on his registration form. Then the foreigner walked downstairs and waiting in line to register to take the test again next week. Turned out he waited in the wrong line – one of those days. Once in the right line he arranged to return in eight days. Surely enough time to study this time.

Then the foreigner got in his car and drove home.