Progress!

Finally, I am resident of Dublin and no longer have anything to worry about! On Monday I spent 8 hours in line to register with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (or Biuro Naistunta Inimirca An Gharda Siochana in Gaelic). Here I received my certificate of registration, which means I am able to stay here in Ireland until October 31st of next year. That was a major stress and it is nice to get it out of the way! We showed up at 6:30 am when the doors don't even open until 8:00. There was already a huge line and then we got a number, I was the 199th person and stayed until 14:30 (getting used to the military time we use here - the Irish would say half past two).

Today I received my new AIB bank card. It has a Laser symbol, which is necessary to use at most stores here. I had been using my debit card for the few days, until I realized there was an international fee for using it... usually a couple of dollars for each transaction. Then I started to use my credit card, but this didn't work at all places and sometimes they would charge me. Whenever I needed cash there was a fee, usually around 8 dollars to withdrawal money. So now that I have a bank account here, I will have no extra charges and no problems using it!

I have a million new cards in my wallet! My AIB bank card, certificate of registration card, student travel card (gets me deals for bus passes) - I just bought a bus pass for 75 euros for 30 non-consecutive days. I did the math and I'm saving over 25 euros by buying this card. I wish I would have figured it out earlier! It's 1.60 euros one way... so most days I would spend 3.20 (to and from the city centre). With my bus pass I can travel as much as a want any day. This will be nice because we hadn't been wanting to spend more money, so we would get off the bus in the city centre at O'Connell street and then walk forever instead of taking another bus. Okay more cards... my bus pass, DCU card (which is a key to my apartment and room), and an E & S card which shows membership of the club I joined. We get deals for joining this club for only 4 euros. This includes cheaper entrance to clubs, drink specials (free shots at one club), and much more. Everyone joins this club and by the time you go to your first pub, the 4 euros already paid itself off.

I also got a phone my first week here. It's the cheapest phone there was an it's really ghetto. There is no camera, but when you put contacts in you get to choose a cartoon picture. haha. It's pay as you go and if you top off at 20 euros you get free text and calls to all other vodafone carriers. I'm hoping the 20 euros will last me a month, which I think it will be more than enough. I only call or text people to make plans or meet up, and its always short. The phone is also my source of time (something I was struggling with when I first arrived!)