First visit to the Doc

February 2, 2010 4:20 p.m.

I had my first doctor's visit today. I really did not want to go but after waking up with crusty gross red eyes and a nasty cough I decided I should suck it up and pay to go to the doctor. I don't want to be sick for London! My roomate is very acquainted with the doctor's office so she gave me directions on how to get there. It was kind of difficult due to extremely bad vision currently. I found it and got in pretty quickly. The doctor was very nice and after examining me decided that I have a sinus infection and an infection in both eyes. He thinks that I have something in my left eye, which would explain why it hurts and i can't see well out of it. If the blurriness doesn't go away after a few days he wants me to go to the hospital to the eye doctor in it. He instructed me not to talk so that they would think that I was European and treat me for free, fingers crossed I won't have to try that! He gave me some eye drops and penicillian for my sinus infection and sent me on my way. Oh sinuses why do you hate me.....

On a positive note, I am an official Irish immigrant as of yesterday. I went to the Garda (police) at 10:00 a.m. to register to be able to legally live in Ireland. It was SO confusing. There were over 300 people there, and I'm told that it is like that everyday. I found a girl who looked as confused as I was, she is a student at Trinity College, she was from New Mexico. We stuck together to try and help each other out with the confusing process. We had to first stand in a que (line) to get a number. That que took 45 minutes to get through. After a person checks your passport you get a number. I was number 162 and they were on number 92 so i thought it wouldn't take too long. I sat down and did some homework, ate my sandwich, when I looked up it was on 100. Wow..it was a long day. I finally got up there and had to give the woman all my paperwork, have my picture taken, then I was instructed to wait until my name was called. Finally my name was called, so I could go get my passport and my official Irish immigration card. Overall, the process took over 5 hours...but oh well that is over and done with and I am now a legal Irish citizen (until June!).