I honestly tried to keep track of all the topics discussed but I lost track after awhile and became a nodding listener as the night wore on. In fact, I didn't depart to bed until close to 4 AM!?
That wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have to get up and meet up with a couple of people at 8 AM to go to the immigration services and extend our stay until June.
We heard horror stories of waiting in there anywhere from 2 - 6 hours so it was extremely pivotal to get there as early as possible to avoid having to wait too long.
Fortunately, one of my friends woke me up numerous times this morning so that we could leave around 8 AM and print off some documents.
After doing so, we had a tough time actually finding the place. The map looked straightforward but ended up being a pain to deal with in terms of locating the facility.
Upon entering, we met up with another one of our friends that is working here from the United States for 6 months and proceeded to take a number in line. Unlike the United States, it was also a challenge to figure out where to get a number. There were no signs saying 'Take a number here' so we ended up navigating around the entire waiting room before standing in a brief line that apparently was for taking tickers from a person.
Long story short, the process went really quickly and we were out there within an hour and then we went to this place called Munchies.
I ordered this sandwich called the 'Munchie Brunchie' and it's really delicious. I really like the Irish relish that they put on sandwiches here.. it gives sandwiches a slightly sweeter and fruitier taste.
While at brunch, we compared passports and I soon realized that I was significantly the least traveled one of the bunch. Both of them had been all over Europe and had their passports nearly stamped completely.
As for me, I didn't have much in this one because my travels to Panama, Colombia, and other places were included in the previous passport. I have a lot of ground to cover here in Europe and I hope to be able to travel a bit before I head back to the States this summer.
It was also grand to listen to what really goes on inside the head of a Resident Director at a dorm. I couldn't imagine being in charge of 750 students, 16-20 resident assistants, the random events that occur on a weekly basis, and, somehow, finding a way to focus on my school work too.
The most disgusting bit though was definitely listening to stories about the bathrooms and the remarkable (or terrible) things kids would do when they are wasted or under the influence of drugs.
For the rest of today, I have finally decided to attack my suitcases and unpack everything! It took a couple of hours but it felt great unpacking and organizing things around the room. A couple of things that I found were: an LED flashlight, my survival kit, and this magicJack phone.
My mom thought it would be essential to have a survival kit because I would never know where I would be at any time. Maybe one day they will come in handy but, for now, I will look at it as a gag gift from my mom.
MagicJack is a phone service that allows me to call anywhere in the world for FREE simply by plugging the USB device into the computer, connecting it to a phone, and paying a yearly fee of $20-30.
After registering and playing around with it for a bit, I found a way to call my mom, grandma, and my grandma's patient, who has adopted me as one of her grandchildren too. No matter how far around the world I travel, I still see that it is important to at least attempt to remain in touch with the ones that you love you the most.
Hopefully, I will remember to plug this thing in more often so I can make calls to others but, knowing how terrible I am with keeping tabs on my cell phone, I find it doubtful at the moment.
Before I leave for my evening class, a couple of interesting Irish facts streamed through my head about the lecture yesterday.
Ireland is a place that was ruled for over 900 years by other countries with 800 of those years by Great Britain.
Also, the native language of Ireland, Gaelic, was the most prominent language used here until the early 1800s when jobs required Irish countrymen to speak English on the job.
In fact, the professor discussed about a scenario he was in and a movie that displayed a similar scenario where some fellow countrymen are quick to call people that speak Gaelic 'foreigners' now because of its ancient roots and little use in everyday life.
To imagine that in America, it would be like Spanish becoming the official language and us being told that English is no longer allowed to be spoken in general.
Finally, my professor told us that a lot of people would be surprised about how racist Irish people could truly be at others. As of now, I haven't encountered anything to that extent (or at least I haven't noticed it), but I will enjoy my experience here until such a thing occurs.
Alright then, I'm off to class and to relax some more this evening. Have a great day back in the States and to others that I met around the world. Now that I have everything set up, I plan on uploading pictures and posting them here so that there is more visualization to this blog. Cheers!
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