Immigrations Day

We went to bed early, knowing we had to be up very early today. Of course, I am not used to going to bed early and I was worried about what unpleasant surprises they would have for us today.
We were bringing every single thing they ever required plus the papers that said we were Permanent.. what more could they ask for ?
So I could not fall asleep.
We were up at around 6 am. Pup was concerned but rolled over and went back to sleep. He is definitely related to me.
We were ready to leave in an hour ... grabbing a taxi quickly  and arrived before the doors were supposed to be open.
Did I mention it was just getting light and damp and freezing cold?
Thank goodness, the doors were open !
The guard at the door was a lady and all smiles and laughs ... hmmm... something is going on here.
We got our number .. # 16 and sat down to wait. 
There were a few people ahead of us but nothing like in the past.

Every time someone came in or went out that door, ice cold wind blasted us. I soon lost all feeling in my legs.
Quickly ( for them) they called our number. My husband handed the girl our papers, she immediately, with a smile ( I am telling you, something is going on ..) she started typing our information into the computer.
She did a lot of typing, never looked upset nor did she give us one of those  "I am Sorry but you have to Leave the country now "  looks. But then she gathered everything, handed it to us, took a piece of paper with her and left .. went upstairs where we could not stare at her and will her to do things Our Way.


So we had a seat again and waited. A nice lady was sitting next to us. She works for one of the companies that does all the work for the people who come to be residents.. we did it ourselves, but you can hire people to help you. We feel very smug ( well, I do, I am also most proud of my husband who really did it all .. I just tagged along behind him and reaped the benefits).. so she was sort of chatty and we spoke of the cold and the wait and our Español ... she was very kind and sweet.
(she pretended she understood me when I spoke Spanish)


Then our girl came back .. everything is fine, they just don't have the papers there, the papers are somewhere else, we should come back in 15 days to get them.
We repeated it after her to be sure we knew what we were to do, which prompted the lady to pop over and stand and interpret for us.. I thanked her, I thanked the girl and a young man came up and asked if we needed someone to interpret.
Where were all these people the first time we were there and could barely understand when they called our number ???
So we left, knowing everything is OK, we are Permanent Residents but we still don't have that Stamp.


Grabbing a taxi home, we happily had a gallon of hot coffee, I took the hottest shower possible and we ran errands. The sun had come out and it was actually warm .. well, warmish.
So we grabbed Pup and went back out .. through the parks... to one of our favorite cafes on the Avenue Libertador where we can have anything from coffee and cake to pizza to wine and dinner... we had pizza.
The sun was so bright, they have glass shields around the sidewalk tables, I actually took my coat off and basked in the warm sun, cool breeze and hot pizza with plans to sleep like a baby tonight and not have to go back to Immigrations for 15 more days.

So that was the day. A sort of non-event but important nonetheless.