Uncertainties and Paperwork

Hi everyone,

Today is a "bit dicey" meaning that we could run into problems and are a bit insecure. I realize now that there are stages to this reinventing life business. The first phase is "Getting there" and this was our focus for the first 4 years. Now I would call the new stage, "living it" and this stage has its own set of issues - things that have to be endured - new talents and strengths that have to be developed.

Let me give you examples:

1. Today we have a list of things to do all of which feel very insecure because they put us smack into new systems. It is a bit like being 16 again and expected to figure a lot of things out for the first time. We are finishing our physicals (at least we know the doctor), getting our ID photos taken again (also we have this one down) and turning in the paperwork to apply for the next stage in getting a drivers liscense here. Its this last bit that is the part that makes us nervous. Do we have all the right forms? What do these forms mean when they ask.....? After all word use for the simplest things can take us astray. Where do we park when we go to the city hall? What will it be like and will we be successful. What used to be a mundane task, now is full of angst.
2. We are also going to the Garda (police) in Bandon (the central office for our area) to apply for new immigration standing. Why are we doing this on the same day? Convenience won out before I felt the fear associated with a double load of insecurities. Last year the Garda in Kinsale merely applied for an extension to a holiday visa - this year the person is probably doing it right - and seems to be writing and telling the real story that we intend to stay. If all goes well we probably will have an easy time of it in the future - but this time we have a ton of paperwork with us. We need to prove that we own the house (where is the deed to the house? we don't have a clue so then the solicitor is writing a letter). We need to show we pay taxes (this one is easy, although we don't pay anything yet we have filed for three years). We need to show that our income is generated outside of Ireland (fortunately both my university and the foundation I work for wrote letters and sent them Fed Ex). We will stay a little nervous on this one until we get the final cards that allow us to stay.

The bottom line in all this is that it is really a good thing we are still in our fifties. The older we get the less tolerance we have for feeling like we are 16 and don't know how to negotiate the systems that support and control our lives. If we run into snags we have folks here to help us sort them out, but the shere foreigness of our surroundings adds to the internal pressures. On the up side of the equation is my hope/belief that by tackling so much that is new we are regenerating almost lost cells - ultimately extending our physical and mental lives through the exercise.

Off we go, hope for the best, if all goes well we will be more legal, more safe and secure than we are as we start off,

all the best,
Alana

Post Script:
By 11am we had successfully: paid our car registration, gotten our learners permits for driving (the Irish would say "the first provisional") and applied to take a driving test (may happen sometime in the next six months). By 4pm we had also filled out the paperwork to update our immigration status so they know we are working in the State rather than living here as retired folks. This will be useful if the University College Cork and I can come to some arrangement for me to work as a visiting professor and to land research grants in their fiscal agency.