Contrasts

Why is it easier to adapt to driving on the left side of the road than using my high beams and horn?

Flickering your high beams is the common method of signaling someone to go ahead, turn in front of you, come through on a single track road, or to acknowledge another car's willingness to let you in. During the daylight, people wave in acknowledgement to another driver to thank them for yielding. At night, it is a quick toot of the horn.

It is polite. It is acknowledging kindness and considerate driving.

For as long as I can remember, I have considered the horn to be an aggressive, angry signal...maybe because it always seemed to be accompanied with some driver mouthing some unmistakably bad words and possibly, a shake of the fist (which to clarify...rarely happened to me...in case you were thinking...boy, she must be a pretty bad driver to have people honking at her all the time). As for flashing my lights at anyone, well, the first thing that would go through my mind is I don't know who is in the other car and I am not about to go provoking someone who might be bigger or possibly armed. Dramatic? Exaggeration? Maybe I have watched to much news. Still, I never deemed it worth risking.

It is taking a long time to embrace the usage here even though it is so positive!

And then there is my experience in Italy...some Mercedes flickering their high beams about a mile behind me on the autostrada to signal me not to move over to the fast lane because they were about to pass me at a very fast speed.