Immigrating

On Monday, I woke up at 6am to go to a class at the gym with Katelyn.  It was the class from hell.  First of all, we had to wake up early.  Second of all, it was one of the hardest workouts that I've been through since two-a-day's during field hockey preseason.  It was the start of an interesting week to say the least.

After the workout, I went back to bed because I didn't have class that day.  I woke up a little after 1:30 to find a little love note from Eileen on my computer.  My first thoughts were, "Aw....what a sweetheart."  My thoughts after reading it were, "OH NOOOO!"  The note contained the fact that I had my registration appointment with the Guarda at 2pm.  (Eileen and I had to switch times because my appointment was during the English Seminar registration.) I had no idea where the Guarda building was.  I needed to get a paper from the reception in my apartment complex.  I needed to organize my papers and make sure that I had everything that I needed to become a little immigrant in Ireland.  Basically,  I knew that I was screwed and I wouldn't make my appointment. 

I collected literally every paper that I had ever received from Arcadia, NUIG and all of the papers that I brought with me from the States and I headed over to reception.  The door was locked and they were at lunch.  I took a chance and knocked on the door.  A woman answered the door and I had to beg her to give me the paper that I needed to register and she gave it to me, bitterly.  I then asked her for directions to the Guarda building and with a huff, she gave me very quick directions which I didn't understand.

I knew that the station was close to Centre Point, an apartment complex where a few of my friends live, but I was still a little confused on how to get there.  I started speed walking in the direction that I knew it was in and I had to stop to ask directions to two more people.  Both of the people took a long time to give me awful directions and I began to run down the sidewalk in hopefully the direction of the Guarda station.  I eventually flagged a taxi because I knew that I would never find the station on my own and I was running out of time.  Thank God that I got a taxi because the station was in a random location and it didn't even have a sign on the front.

When I got into the station(with barely two minutes until 2pm), I saw my friend Jeff and he told me that I needed to fill out a paper before my appointment.  A little bit after 2pm, the Guarda called Eileen's name.  This is roughly how my immigration experience went:

Guarda: Mary Eileen McGinley
Me:  Hi!  I'm Ellen Gilroy.  Eileen and I switched times, I hope that's ok. 
Guarda:  No, it's not ok.
Me:  Really?  She is coming on Wednesday at 11:30...we had to switch because of a conflict at NUIG.  Is that ok?
Guarda:  No.  That is against the law.
Me:  Are you kidding me?
Guarda:  No, I am not.  You can sit down and maybe we will get to you today.
In my head:  Oh no...Eileen is gonna kill me.  I'm gonna have to wait here all day long and they might not even have time to immigrate me. And Eileen missed her appointment and she is going to be so mad at me because now she's gonna have to sit in this office all day and wait...what do I do?!?!
Jeff:  Did you really just say, "Are you kidding me?" to a Guarda officer?
Me:  I'm going to cry right now!  This sucks.
I sit down and look very pouty and annoyed.
Guarda:  I'm just kidding!  Come on, I'll register you.

Turns out that the officer is a very nice man and we are probably distant relatives.  His last name is McIlroy which he says is one of the original versions of the last name Gilroy.  Pretty cool dude but he almost made me cry.  In the end, I am a legal immigrant of this fine country for the next five months and my immigration I.D picture is quite frightening.