Well, the event I mentioned in my last post has come to pass, and, if you were in or around QUB today, you've no doubt figured out what it was. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting QUB for a summit on industry in Northern Ireland and the relationship between the US and Northern Ireland, particularly with regard to the technology sector. She also had meetings at Stormont Parliament on the remaining terrorist (sectarian) violence in Belfast. Note: Before anyone starts freaking out about me being in a terrorist zone, I should point out that Northern Ireland actually has the lowest crime and violence rates in all of Europe. Now.

I was told I had to be through security by 10:30am. At every point, I was told, "Students are not attending this event." And, each time, I would reply, "My name's on the list. I'm to attend." They would check their lists and, amazingly, my name would be there! I found out later that only five students were invited -- the student union president and vice president, the two Mitchell Scholars at QUB, and myself. We were left to mingle with various business folk, which didn't work out so well. Many of them, it turned out, were being asked to speak in the summit and were nervous and practicing what they had to say on their fellows.

When it was time for the summit to begin, those participating were shuffled into the meeting room, and the Mitchell Scholars and I were positioned on the side of the room. Among others, I got to meet Lieutenant General Paul Selva, who was incredibly kind and seemed genuinely interested in my research and volunteer ambitions. Next, Secretary Clinton came in, briefly shook hands, and moved into the meeting room. At this point, we decided that we should head down to the Great Hall, where her speech would later take place, in order to actually have a seat.

The speech she gave was good. She discussed the strides that have been made in the past 15 years in the Northern Irish industry. Technology has boomed here, and NI corporations have actually supplied jobs to Americans. There are issues yet to be resolved, but the process is positive on the whole.

After the speech, Secretary Clinton gave us a few minutes of her time. She was pleased to see three students at QUB on two of the most prestigious scholarships from the US. She said it illustrates the positive growth NI has shown -- Mitchell Scholars can choose anywhere in Ireland to study, and I could have chosen anywhere in the UK.

In other news, it looks like I may be moving. My experiences with QUB accommodation have pushed me to my limits, and I delivered a long letter today requesting to be let out of my contract. I argued a bit with the accommodation manager, who first wanted to move me to another building. If I had only had one problem, I might would have gone with this option. However, I had a list of four big reasons I didn't want to stay, the worst of which was that I do not have electricity (again). I calmly explained that I am at the end of my rope. She is going to confirm that a student can be brought up from the waiting list tomorrow morning, but we have tentatively set Friday as my last day here. Hooray for greener pastures!

I'm trying to do a bit of a front-heavy approach to the Postgraduate Skills Training Programme (PSTP), where we take personal and professional development training courses. My logic is that, if I get many of them out of the way now, I don't have to worry about fulfilling the requirements when I'm hardcore writing. I have completed 1.5 days so far (out of the requisite 30 over the 3 years), am negotiating some of my Fulbright events counting toward the practical hours (10 of the 30), and will have 6.25 days completed by the end of this semester. Those numbers don't even consider any department events that may count, and I know I'm doing a bit in the School of English in November.

After the initial confusion and running about, I told myself I would wait to post about arriving to Belfast until it felt like Belfast. By that, I mean, when the weather felt like Belfast weather. I arrived on 10 September, and it is now 30 September. It has just now rained. 20 days of unseasonably dry and rather warm weather; it has varied considerably between wool-coat-and-scarf weather and short-sleeved weather.

As I said, I arrived on the 10th, and everything has been rather crazy from then on out. My mother and Aunt Deb in tow, we checked into our hotel and set off to explore Belfast. Unfortunately, the hotel was nowhere near the QUB campus, so much of that exploring isn't worth anything for me now.

However, we did go see Giant's Causeway, the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, Dunluce Castle, Carrickfergus Castle, the Bushmill's Distillery, the reservoir in the Mourne Mountains, and a bit of Dublin for the fun of it. I managed to get some good pictures of the fun.

I checked into my room at QUB on the 14th and actually moved into it on the 16th, when Mum and Deb left to go back to the States. It's small, and I don't really care for the people I've met who live in the hall. It'll do until December/January. At least I have my own bathroom.

I've also met my Fulbright mentor, who is absolutely fabulous. I have since learned that I was the only Fulbrighter who even knew we had mentors, let alone had spoken to and met mine. He took us out to dinner one night after a walk by the water. He also took us out to the Mourne Mountains, which is where some of those great pictures were taken.

I did the international orientation for QUB and officially enrolled in my program. Like I assumed, I am not taking any classes. I do have to participate in something called the Postgraduate Skills Training Programme, which has courses in honing skills such as networking, academic assertiveness, personal marketing, and even Powerpoint. There are also some interesting ones like "Doing it All: Academic Careers for Women (Being a Woman in a Male Environment)". We have to log 30 hours (10 of which have to be practical use) over the three year program. Not too bad at all.

I met two members of my cohort during international orientation. After returning from London (which gets its own entry, lest you think I've ignored my Fulbright orientation all together), we had a department meet and greet. I got to meet the rest of my cohort, as well as the staff/faculty, the MA cohort, and the research fellows.

My UK bank account is set up, and I have received all the information about it. However, I have come to the realization that there is no Citibank nor any of its affiliates here in Belfast, which makes actually banking rather difficult. I think I'm going to open another account with Ulster Bank since there is a branch just by campus. I don't know what to do with the Citibank account, though; I already told QUB they could take my tuition out of there. I might could get that changed, but I'll have to wait until I actually have another account and all the details before I could follow through with it.

I've ventured out in the town a bit, but not too much on my own. When I got back from London, I discovered that I have shingles. It makes me really tired, and so does the medicine I've been given. I'm trying not to let it get to me too much, but it is really depressing that I have to come down with something when I finally am here and settled.

On the upside, I'm pretty sure I'm buying a TV and the whole set-up for me to watch shows and movies and play my games. I also bought an adaptor for my Wii because the little blips in the video and audio were freaking me out a little. Besides the fact that I definitely need to tidy up the room a little (everyone gives me paperwork!), Belfast is starting to feel a bit like home.

Who am I kidding? That makes it exactly like home.

Several relatively big things have happened since my last entry.  For one, my visa was approved and my visa-bearing passport has been returned to me.  It takes up a full page of my passport and has all the official stamps and notarizations of the British Consulate.  The picture is much better than the one on my passport.  The visa is valid through January of 2013, so I don't have to reapply at any point during my stay in Belfast.

The next big thing that happened was that I have accepted a housing agreement at QUB.  I now have a place to stay through January 24, 2010.  By then, I should know if I will be able to bring my dog, Zoe, over to stay with me.  Either way, I'll likely be looking for an apartment/family that wouldn't mind taking in a quiet, respectful, studious American 20-something.  If this sounds like an advertisement, it's because it is.

I had a problem with the first housing contract sent to me by QUB.  There was a miscommunication somewhere along the line (ahem), and I was offered a contract for 50 weeks. Given that I'm still not entirely sure if I'll be able to stay on at QUB after my grant period is up, I could not accept a contract of that length without fear I might have to break it. Luckily, I contacted the accommodation folks, who are still very kind no matter how many times I bother them by email, and they were able to adjust the contract.  I may not have a large room, but it is an en suite!  I decided I would spoil myself as a hurrah for getting the Fulbright.

I got the paperwork back from the vet from Zoe's titre test, as well.  These papers are part of the requirement for pet immigration to the UK.  Two things worried me when I got the forms: 1, the papers list my mother as the owner of my dog, which she has never been; 2, it has the destination as "Ireland".  I am more afraid that the last one is more of a problem than the first.  I can always say that she was my mother's dog and was given to me, but I'm hoping "Ireland" will work for the whole island and is not meant as a designation for the Republic of Ireland.  After all, I am going to Northern Ireland, but I think it should say "United Kingdom" instead.  I don't know who to talk to except my vet, and she's the one that filled out the papers.

We were matched with our Fulbright Twins this week.  The Fulbright Twins Program is something I didn't even know we were doing; they match each of us will someone going in the opposite direction.  I don't know what they do about the fact that there are far more of the UK-US folks than the US-UK ones.  My Twin is a woman named Mary who is from Belfast.  She is heading for UC Berkeley . . . which means she can probably offer me much more helpful information than I can her.  I've never been to Berkeley before, and California is so different than Georgia that I can't imagine what kind of advice I could give her that any other American couldn't.  She also seems way more accomplished than I am working my way to my goals, and the Fulbright is a major step in the process, whereas it appears it is just another in her litany of personal achievements.

I also received an email from my Fulbright mentor this week. I'm not sure of the circumstances that brought him to be my mentor, but he seems genuinely eager to help me.  He is a businessman in Belfast and wants to meet with me soon after my arrival.  It's going to be nice to have a friendly contact in town.

Meanwhile, I have been spending all my time (well, it feels like it) at the middle school.  On Tuesday of this week, I was there for almost 14 hours; we had open house, and there wasn't enough time to go home before it.  It's amazing how little time is actually spent teaching and learning in the 8th grade.  On Wednesday, there is literally no class time: I take them to the media center and to the computer lab.  It takes up the whole class period, and I just repeat the same thing three more times.  I don't understand middle schoolers, and I kind of hope I never do.  Two weeks down, one to go.

I have yet to really think about packing.  I need to find out a few things, like if the DVD zoning is different there and what I need to do about electrical adaptors.  When I was in Germany, I had some issues with the adaptors; namely, one somehow failed me and destroyed something I had plugged into it.  Last year, when packing for Ireland, I grabbed the wrong adaptor set and had to borrow one any time I wanted to plug in anything.  Any advice on these subjects, or any other little thing I might not consider on my own, would be greatly appreciated.

When I first thought about writing this post, this was how it was going to begin:

"Applying for my visa was so quick and easy, I thought, for sure, I must have done something wrong."

Little did I know.

The application itself was incredibly simple.  The hardest question to answer was how long my address has been my address.  This issue was mainly due to the fact that I have never resided in this house until this July, but it has served as my permanent address (my parents' residence) for several years.  Getting a straight answer out of my mother was fun ("I don't know.  Between two and eight years, I'd guess."); luckily, my father had a much better sense of time ("Four years and eight months -- is that close enough?").

I signed up for my biometrics appointment in Atlanta, had to change it once, and went through the process without issue. I got together what I thought was the necessary paperwork -- the visa application, the stamped and scanned biometrics appointment sheet, the sponsor letter from Fulbright, the passport-sized photograph, the visa letter from Queen's.  I read through the requirements over and over.

When confirmation that my visa application is being processed comes via email, I learn that it was a requirement to send my passport along with the application.  I did not realize, at the time, that the visa is actually attached to a page of the passport.  I was thinking they just needed to prove that I have a valid passport, and I presented it for examination several times during the biometrics appointment.  My passport number and issuing and expiry dates were on the application in many places.

To say that I was freaking out would be an understatement. Thankfully, I had a new good friend who was willing to listen and convince me everything would be fine and someone who allowed me to use a Skype account to call Ms. Elizabeth Hizer, the coordinator for the US side of the Fulbright.  She gave me the name of a contact at the Chicago British Consulate, and my passport was sent off by registered overnight delivery.  It arrived safely the next morning, and my fears were abated.

This is the point where my second post on the visa application was going to end.  You have no doubt noticed, it does not.

My passport arrived in Chicago on Thursday, August 16.  On Friday, August 17, I received a voicemail on my phone informing me that my passport and transcript acknowledging the awarding of my BA degree were needed for further processing of my application, and these things were needed in four days.  I'm hoping that my passport had just not made it into the proper hands at that point because I have nothing else to offer them on that front.  As far as my transcript, I cannot fathom why they would need this piece of paperwork, nor am I aware how I would know they needed it, in order to have sent it in the first place.  

I rushed to the post office Saturday morning and sent off my transcript by registered overnight delivery.  Given the four day requirement, I wasn't going to risk it arriving in five.  I have now spent $35 more than anticipated on the mailing of my visa application.  Regardless, I immediately felt relieved.

The sense of relief lasted until tonight (Sunday night).  In the voicemail I received, I was informed that I would be getting an email, which would basically repeat what was said in the voicemail.  I received that email tonight, and it was mostly what was promised.  However, it also included a code to be written on the outside of the envelope when I sent the additional requirements.  There is a little warning after the code that warns my application may be denied if the code is not present.  Considering I did not receive the email in time, I don't know how I could be expected to give them everything they wanted in the time required.  Hopefully, what I've done is sufficient.

I'm not feeling overly confident at the moment.