Sunday, March 13, 2011

Round 2 with the Dublin Airport Garda

I'm sad my weekend in Spain was so short, but it was still a great time. Sunday morning we got up early and walked to the bus stop. Surprisingly, we were early to the bus stop and early to the airport! Not very normal for us. But flights are a good thing to be on time for.
I slept on both my flights again! I love doing that! It is so nice to get on, fall asleep, and then wake up at a new airport. Que bueno! My first flight was from Sevilla to Madrid where I had less than an hour til my next flight took off. So I quickly found a screen showing flight info and headed toward my gate. On the way, these two college girls stop me, "Are you going to Ireland?" "Yeah!" Creepy, how did they know? I never did figure that out! "Great! Do you know where Gate H6 is?" "Um... I think it's this way. We can find it together." We head to the gate and learn they are just about to begin boarding so we hop in line. We continue our conversation and I learn they are from Brazil and are headed to Ireland to practice their English. The one who knew the most English was able to tell me she was interested in working in Europe someday. It was really fun meeting them! And I really enjoyed having someone ask me where something was! That means that I at least looked like I knew where I was and what I was doing!
During my flight from Madrid to Dublin, the 10 minutes I wasn't asleep, I tried not to think about immigration. After my first encounter, I was a little nervous. But I had my registration card, so I hoped that would help. At least cut down my time at the desk to under an hour! So I got off the plane and jumped in line. But then I realized I was in the line for EU passports only and had to switch lines... dumb mistake. But that was ok.. that line had a grumpy guy as the garda. The new line I was in was a friendly looking lady. I got up to the desk and handed her my passport and registration card. She looked down at it, then looked up at me... and smiled! "Hello, how are you!" "Good!" "Where did you go?" "Spain." "Did you enjoy your trip?" "Yes." *Stamps passport and hands it and my card back* "Great have a nice day!" YAY! I could have hugged her! I was so happy that was so easy!
I headed out of the airport and found the bus stop with ease. "Hello miss, can I help you?" "Yes, I would like to go to O'Connell Street." "Sure no problem." I handed him the money and he gave me my ticket. It was great! I felt like I actually belonged here! I knew where everything was and who to talk to! This was so much less stressful than my first encounter with the Dublin airport.
I took the bus and got off at O'Connell Street in downtown Dublin. We had a lady come speak to our class a couple weeks ago about human trafficking in Ireland. Apparently, today is an international day of awarness of human trafficking so they were holding an event in front of the General Post Office (a big important building here on O'Connell Street). They had asked us if we wanted to volunteer. I knew a few of my classmates had said they would, but I couldn't remember what time it was at. So I figured I would head there, and if I couldn't find them I would take the DART home.
But there they were! Right out in front, handing out balloons, and talking to people about human trafficking. (The whole point of the event is to bring awareness because it is something not frequently discussed in Ireland.) They all had on orange- the international color of... freedom? Something like that. So they weren't hard to spot. I immediately joined in and had a great time talking to people and handing out balloons! It was a great way to wrap up Spring Break 2011!

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