Immigration and Transportation

Had a little mini adventure today. It was...interesting. I had my immigration appointment, which was next to the Henry Street Garda (police) station in Limerick City. We had to get there ourselves, but we didn't get to choose what time/day we were scheduled for, so it was kind of a pain. First of all, I had to leave one of my classes early to make it to my appointment, and when classes don't start until about 10 minutes after they are supposed to (they aren't big sticklers on being on time here in Ireland), that meant I sat in class for a total of 10 minutes. On the plus side, it was Traditional Irish Music and Dance, so I learned the difference between a reel, a jig, and a hornpipe, then took off. 

The fruits of my labor

Anyways, we took a city bus to get there, and we were given some directions by the international office. These directions were not very helpful/inaccurate, so we had to walk a few blocks to get to where we were supposed to be. The weather, as it is frequently, was strangely temperamental. It was sunny when we got off of the bus but started to rain about a block into it. With the sun still out, it began hailing after a while. It was only little pieces of hail, but they pelted us in the face and eyes. We eventually found the immigration office, but by that time we were soaking wet. Obviously we needed to have our photos taken for our international registration cards, we looked fabulous. We sat in the office waiting with other study abroad students, and eventually gave them all the necessary papers, had our pictures taken, passports stamped, and fingerprints filed. The whole process took about half an hour, along with another half hour of waiting. 




Once completed, we started to head back. I stopped briefly at a music store to pick up a tin whistle for my music class, and then we had to find a bus stop to take a bus back to campus. As a public transportation failure, we got on a bus that was the correct route number, but one that took nearly twice as long, went in the opposite direction, and then doubled back and was a complete waste of time. We got on the bus at about 4:30, and got back to campus at 6. This meant I had missed one of my classes. So it was an interesting trip, but I am now legally able to stay in Ireland as a student without any problems!