Becoming Residents of Vigo

Last Monday Matt and I spent the day at the national police station. Well, not the entire day, but here is the story…We got up early on a cloudy Monday morning with the intentions of taking care of our trip to the police station. We were there a few weeks ago and were told to come back in ten days to confirm the acceptance of our paperwork for a residence card. We trekked down the hill to claim our spot in line but did not make it until 8:45 when the station opens at 9:00. We waited those few minutes and then found out that they had given out all the numbers for the morning by the time they reached us in line. So then, Matt and I really weren’t sure what to do because our next class at the university began at 1 and lasted until 3. However, we were advised to return to the station in the afternoon for the evening hours; numbers were to be handed out at 5:00. So we made up our mind and went to the university to work out and for the first hour of our class and then we got back on the bus back into the city. Guess what! This time we were in line at 3:30! I sat comfortably on the sidewalk and read a book and Matt did the same. Around 4:15 it started to drizzle and a light fog drifted through the city. Still we maintained our posts in line as more and more people joined us. By 5:00 I was miserably chilled and a bit frightened and even entertained by the people arguing around us about their proper place in line. In moments such as those, we don’t even try to speak Spanish! This time we thankfully got a number as the police officer walked around with his tickets and we then set about to wait until the station opened at 5:30. We were numbers 24 and 25 – not too bad! We were shown in at 6:30 and then we heard the happy news: Matt and I have been accepted as residents of Vigo! We are quite happy and pleased that our documents were correctly translated (Thanks Jorge!) and that the government is satisfied with our applications. Now we must wait only 45 more days until we go BACK to the police station to pick up the cards. Goodness gracious what a process this has proven to be!