1. you can drive when you're 16
2. everybody has a car
Of course, while the latter is a slight exaggeration, it really isn't too off the mark. Which brings me to the 4th thing I forgot I missed until my return to the US last month - Driving.
I've always loved driving. So how, you may be wondering, does this count as something I forgot I missed? Shouldn't it fall under the category of something I remembered I missed? Well, I also love riding bikes and trains, which are both my only modes of transportation in Germany and rare modes transportation in the US. So when I first came in September, the loss of my beloved driving time was overshadowed by the excitement of bikes and trains.
Over the year the excitement wore off a little bit (like when I found out I couldn't ride a bike in the snow, or that trains are, on average, always about 15 minutes behind schedule), but for some reason, the idea of a car never came back into my head. Maybe it's because I don't know how to drive a stick shift (for shame, I know), or that the idea of driving on the Autobahn terrifies me, but over the past year, the closest I've gotten driving a car was sitting in an old BMW at the museum in Munich.
It wasn't until I hit the open road in Georgia, driving to Atlanta on my 4th day back, that I remembered just how much I loved driving. Windows down, music blasting, a sense of freedom that can't be provided by the limitations of bikes and trains (am I getting too poetic now?). And I was glad to find that even after 11 months, I had not lost my touch at parallel parking... regular parking, on the other hand, is still lacking.
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