Pamela Louderback, Day 5

Today brought much joy as well as consternation.  It began with a visit from the local water testing officials.  Periodic testing is required to look for Legionella bacteria - whatever that is?  I'll have to Google it ; )
All seems to have checked out in that department --so I guess I'm clear, or should I say, the water is clear of Legionella bacteria! 

I was able to access the library with my staff card without a hitch.  Additionally, I was able to get wifi courtesy of Leona for both the netbook and the laptop.  Their tech support/help desk is phenomenal here at QUB - very helpful, patient, extremeley accomodating and they actually explain what they're doing and why as they work on your problem.  I was told it would work in the Institute of Governance building where my office resides, but, alas, it was not to be!  I'll have to check with the friendly staff at the library tomorrow to see how to troubleshoot.  My office has the desktop pc -- so I just have to figure out where to find a quiet out of the way spot to post vodcasts.  I had hoped I would be able to do so in the office with the laptop which has softward already loaded on it.  I may just have to schedule the use of one of the "group" study rooms in the library. 

Hit a bit of a snag regarding opening up a bank account.  Seems there's a huge money laundering problem in Northern Ireland - go figure - so, as a result, there are extremely stringent rules to follow.  The form letter that I had in hand from the Fulbright Commission did not suffice since it was a copy from an emailed PDF.  There's also a special letter template required!  So I sent that off to the Fulbright Commission requesting they post this new letter on the bank's special template before I could get my interview.  Yes, you actually have to go through an interview to open up a bank account.  It seems they would be happy to get your service and have access to your money - as banks in the U.S. do, but not so here in Northern Ireland.  So, I await the posted letter from the Fulbright Commission so that I can make an appointment for an interview and then wait 6-9 business days to access my money.  Still no dog fix today either.  Maybe that's why I'm a bit on edge, eh? 

There's currently a seminar taking place across the hall from my office so I think I'll take a peek and see what the topic of conversation is.   More later...