A bond formed in Queue

9/13/2012

I was so cold all night. My heater isn’t on but no one else seems to be having such a bad time with the room tempture. I had to wear my jacket to bed! In the morning I found that my window wasn’t all the way shut and it was letting all the cold air in.

Today I wasn’t feeling to well. My head hurt and I had a bad stomach ache that I just couldn’t shake.  Our morning lecture was on British culture in which I learned that to line cut or queue jump in very offensive, and that it is never acceptable to sit next someone on the bus if there is another seat available.

After a morning of learning how to live with British people I went to Elmsfield hall with a bunch of other people to verify our passports and visas. Outside was a huge queue but we figured it would go pretty quick so we jumped in line. 3 hours later we finally made it to the desk. Since there were quite a few of us together we got pretty rowdy. We were sitting in a waiting room for a bit and whenever someone new walked in we would all yell “welcome!!”  When I finally got to the front of the queue and handed the man my passport to check I was informed that, I was in fact,  technically in the country illegally. My visa was never stamped at the U.K border because I went through customs in Ireland, not in the UK. They told me it wasn’t a big deal and to come back Monday to meet with the immigration officer. But after 3 hours of waiting in the queue I almost cried in frustration.  But I feel a bond was formed between myself and the other orientation students forced to wait. We even are all going to the mall tomorrow!