Immigration and Customs

It is T-minus one week and counting, so I am running around getting all my paperwork together. The last time I was in Ireland, I am not making this up, the line through Immigration and Customs was really long for the "non-EU" people, so the "EU Only" line opened up to everybody. The Immigration and Customs Officier was clearly on auto-pilot because I walked up to him (this is in Dublin airport), showed him my passport, he looked at it, and then waved me through. No stamp, no questions, nothing.

However, this time I will have some kind of institutional affiliation and will have some kind of "official" residency, so it is much more complicated than wafting through the wrong line at the airport. I need a letter from the Study Abroad Program here in the US (I put myself down as my advisor), a letter from the University of Limerick saying I was accepted, a statement from my bank saying I have money, and proof of medical insurance. Already, technology is proving challening. I am all over the two letters, but the proof of money and insurance is a bit more complex. My bank only gives out electronic statements. I offered to send the university the PDF file of my statement for their "proof" but they wanted a "real paper statement." I politely emailed them back asking if "real" modified "paper" or "statement" because I then offered to print the PDF for them and mail them that, also pointing out that they could print it, too. They emailed me back that they needed a letter from the bank that states my account number and the balance (both of which, I am pressed to point out, are clearly indicated on the PDF statement). So I went to the bank and explained what I needed. The teller pulled out a poorly photocopied form (black streaks and blots), looked up the PDF file on his computer, and handwrote the information on the streakily photocopied form. Then he signed it. THIIS is what I will be providing as proof of my financial ability. I have printed the PDF file to supplement the dubious bank form.

As for the proof of insurance, I have my insurance cards and printout of my MyHumana account page. We'll see if they take that. I am putting all of this information in a really well organized, clearly labeled and easily accessed file folder so they can be dazzled by my efficiency and so figure all is well even if they don't recognize the forms as "proof" of whatever. See, the design classes I took from Stefanie, John, and Julie are paying off already.

As for my pillow and sheet I mentioned in my last posting, they arrived today, and I am thrilled to bits. They compress very nicely into little packages, the pillow expands into a lovely big soft comfy zone, and the sheet is soft soft soft. Yay.

Today it is 101 F in Cincinnati and 72 F in Limerick.

Getting Ready to Go

As a student, getting ready to go on a Study Abroad program is full of following other people's directions. I get periodic emails from the Center for International Study which are helpful, and today they sent out an "online orientation" which had three parts. The first part was on Culture Shock, the second part was on Health and Safety, and the third part was specific information about Ireland. It is all very general, but the little quizzes and one screen pages made it easy to navigate and quasi-interactive. I thought the online orientation was quite a good idea, especially for students who might not know about culture shock and who don't know (!?) that having sex with strangers while drunk is not a good idea. I have much more specific information that I would like to know like how do classes work, will I get the classes I want, and who will I be living with, but it would appear that these more specific issues are covered in the orientation once one gets there. As a confirmed Control Freak and Obsessive Planner, I'm annoyed at the level of Mystery surrounding certain specifics, but I also understand how Chillin' is a good quality to cultivate at this point. I soothed my planning OCD by reading that the dorms give a person a duvet but no pillows or linens and promptly going online to Campmor to order a lovely Egyptian cotton sleeping bag liner and large compressible Slumberjack pillow, both under 16 ounces, mind you. So I can deal with the requisite ambiguity if I know I have soft cozy sheets and a comfy pillow.