Apparently quite a few of us didn't pass our driving assessments. We're not getting another lesson until 10 days before our cars come in - - and that could be a while. We were told 5-8 weeks on that.

Today we had a session on adapting to British life. It was quite good actually. The instructor was not reluctant to talk about specifics of interacting with clients, colleagues and management. It turns out KCC brought social workers here a while back and want to do a better job this time, so they're trying really hard to prepare us. They're very well aware that coping with moving country is quite a big job, or rather series of jobs and emotional experiences, which is comforting. Gives me confidence that things will work out as we go along.

We did get a reminder of how rude and blunt our clients can be - - as if we needed it - - we've all been there, but this was in the context of talking about how most British people are not particularly direct and certainly not confrontational, and how even some of our American forthrightness can be misinterpreted as too "in your face." We discussed ways to handle such situations with clients though, so really it was quite helpful.

Gonna try to get an early night tonight as I'm being picked up at 7:45 to 8 a.m. for a ride into Ashford with a social worker who works there but lives in Maidstone. Not sure what I'm gonna do, but I should get to meet some people, so that will be nice.

Feeling much more sanguine and much less worried today than I did yesterday.