Back to the car topic.
As I mentioned before, on August 1st we finally got our long-awaited license plates, ceremoniously screwed them on, and started cruising around the island in our car. Of course, we drove without plates before, but it was sketchy. The cops pulled us over a few times, but we were always lucky. Not a single ticket in a month. We always managed to talk our way out of it. My brother had an international Ukrainian driver's license, while I had nothing. Naturally, when the cops stopped us and my brother was driving, everything was fine, but when I was behind the wheel, I would hand them either my ISIC or my brother's Ukrainian student ID, which didn't have a single word of English on it. At first, this trick worked. We still had to explain why the car had no plates, but we always came up with something. I thought all our troubles would end once we got the plates. There was this myth that in America, cops can't pull you over for no reason, and if you don't break any laws, nobody will bother you. That's what I was hoping for, since by the time we got the plates, I had already learned to drive a little bit.
So, we got the plates and started living a full life. Driving wherever we wanted, picking up girls, etc.
By that time, the car already belonged to my brother and me, since the two girls I mentioned earlier, who lived with us initially, ran away and moved to another house. Apparently, because we started setting off firecrackers in the house. :)
So, the myth that if you drive and don't break any laws, the police won't bother you, was debunked almost immediately. And the cops started pulling us over systematically. For no reason. Just because they felt like it. Once, I was driving back from my job at the go-kart track to pick up my brother from the restaurant. And I was brazenly pulled over by 4 police cars. They started shining flashlights into the car and asking if I had been drinking. I said no, I hadn't. Because I really hadn't been drinking that day yet. The cops started lecturing me about my red eyes and how I had been smoking marijuana, to which I replied that I work 10 hours a day and naturally get a little tired. The cop says to me, "You're feeding me lines, I work 14 hours and my eyes aren't that red." I thought to myself, "Wow, what a tough job you have, eating donuts with coffee and reading newspapers." Actually, there is no crime on that island at all, and the Outer Banks are called the safest place in the United States of America. So, I tell those cops, "Well, if you say I was drinking, let me blow into the breathalyzer." They say, "Go ahead, blow." I blew, and naturally, their device showed nothing. Then they say, "You probably have weed in the car." I say, "Go ahead, search it." They checked the whole car, found nothing, gave me back my brother's student ID (I told them it was a license), and let me go. They didn't even question the "license." They gave me the mouthpiece I blew into as a souvenir. It's still sitting on my shelf at home along with a hospital bracelet – souvenirs to remember America 2010.
The next day, when my brother and I were driving home from work (from the restaurant), a car started tailing us again, this time a sheriff's cruiser. I was driving, and for some reason, I got a little scared, so I decided to drive slowly. Seeing the parking lot of my track where I worked, I decided to turn in there just to be safe. The cop apparently didn't like that, so he turned on his lights and pulled us over in the parking lot. He got out of the car, said hello, and immediately asked me why I was driving so slowly and if I was drunk. I said I was driving that way because there was a SPEED LIMIT sign for 45 mph. He says, "Okay, the sign was 45, but you were doing 25, give me your license." I handed him my brother's student ID and my own ID. He went to his car, checked something for a long time, then came out to me with a piece of paper. He asked me to get out of the car and explained that it was a $200 ticket for driving without a North Carolina license and that if I wanted to keep driving, I had to get a license. The ticket had a court date set for September 15th. But the sheriff said that if I got a license and showed it in court earlier, I wouldn't have to pay anything. We left the car in the parking lot and walked home. That was our first ticket in America.
