Dec. 6, 2011 - 1st Trip to UCD and...oh... I SAW BONO!!!

First things first - TODAY I SAW BONO! I kid you not. I've been in Ireland for FOUR days and I "ran into" Bono on a dark little street in our neighborhood. We live in Dun Laoghaire (as you now well know) and he (Paul, as I like to call him now since we've walked past each other) lives in Killiney (Kill-EYE-NEEE). I was walking down the main drag in Dun Laoghaire, called Upper George's street. It's where all the sweet little stores are and also a shopping center. I was about 20 minutes from our apartment at the far other end of George's street (from us). So, from where i was compared to where he lives, I was probably about 15 minutes away. I had just been to Dunnes store which is somewhat like a JCPenney and maybe even more awful. I was on my way to this tiny baby store at the far end of the road and it was quite dark by this point (you know, because it was approaching 4:40 pm...). So, I'm walking on this tiny stretch of road, it's dark and starting to drizzle, no one else seems to be on that particular block and bam! I look up and there he is! He was about 3 feet in front of me when I saw him, maybe 1 foot from me when I realized it and then a million miles away by the time I processed what just happened. I was immediately on 'Cloud 9'. I wanted to scream and laugh out loud and call Wayne and stalk him, all at the same time. I literally just stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, turned around (and saw him go into an apartment building) and started walking toward where he had gone. Why?? I don't know. Because I'm a psycho.
So, of course, I looked like a huge idiot walking in circles but I turned back around and continued on my way. (the baby store which was my destination was closed, by the way, but MANNNN was the walk worth it)

But, on to the more realistic and important portion of our day (though it was WAY less exciting): We took our first bus trip, and visited UCD (University College Dublin) for the first time. It was great to see the campus and meet Wayne's supervisor, Dr. Geraldine Moane (Ger). She was delightful. We fell in love with her instantly! She was so kind and welcoming and brilliant. She honestly has one of the most interesting book collections I have ever seen. She specializes in Feminist Psychology and mostly social issues so she's fascinating to talk to. She took us around the Psychology department and introduced us to everyone. It has a very warm and small-school-feel despite it being such a large university. For a reference point, UCD is about the size of the University of Washington or Western Ontario University (around 35,000).
Everyone was so nice to us! We met a few of the other PhD students (there are 35 in all in the psychology department) and several staff members. We were invited to go to a pub this week with some of the PhD students and Mary, one of the staff, even offered to drive us to the pub because she has a carseat for her grandchild. We were welcomed with open arms...
The PhD students have a tradition of going out to pub on Thursdays every month (much like we did at Seattle U in our grad program...except that was Thursday, every week).
We met one grad student doing his PhD research on Multiple Sclerosis and its effects on cognition and heard about another student, Sinead, who is doing her research on Alcoholism in Ireland. We're excited to hear about all the other projects. Wayne's professor even went so far as to say that perhaps the 3 of us could write a paper together in the time that Wayne is here since we have the same background. Who knows....maybe they'll give us a "Two 'fer" on the PhD??
Oh and the most important news of all - Ger thinks that Wayne will most likely be done in 3 years! He starts this January 2012, but he only needs 30 credits (3, 10 credit courses) to be done with the "1 year" Master's portion of the PhD. We were told that would be one whole year but that he would be working on his PhD dissertation, from day 1. Today though, we were told that he can finish that in 3 quarters (about 6-9 months) and that perhaps that time ALSO counts toward the 3 year PhD. So, we're most likely looking at 3, MAX 3 1/2 years here. This is pretty exciting news for us. One, financially that takes a huge chunk out of the debt and two, that means we can get back to family sooner. We'll keep you posted as to what happens there.

 Newman Building at UCD - Psychology and Arts&Sciences Building

 The day I saw Bono. =) 

 Norah's 1st Dublin Bus ride (Wayne's havin' a great time)

 Wayne's first walk onto his new campus at UCD

Today was also our first trip into Downtown (city centre) Dublin. It was SO Beautiful and it was really the first time we felt like we were truly in Europe.