“The difference between an adventure and an ordeal is your attitude.” This sentence came from our orientation to the program, on day two this week. At the time I kind of blew it off as one of the eye-rolling quotes that get handed out to students traveling abroad. Until, of course, potential adventure / ordeals started rolling in (adeals? ordentures? Name to come).
So many little things can go wrong when you are in a new city, a new country, for the first time, especially if you have a week to spare before your internship starts. A few of my favorites so far have been:
- Getting off at the wrong bus stop with arms full of groceries and taking the long way back to our accomidations
- Getting lost trying to find SIM cards, because no one had a working phone to use the GPS
- Being sold a faulty SIM-card and having to have a low-key fight with TESCO Mobile about getting a new one
- Getting seperated from my group of friends on a tour of the Powerscourt Gardens
- Spilling laundry detergent all over the laundrette, a place where there was no sink nor items to clean up the spill
- Missing the train because my payment card was not reloaded
Looking back on these events have made me realize how much has happened during my first week in Ireland. I also never realized how these happenings could have been ever misconstrued as negative before writing these posts. I am not sure if being in a new city has dulled my sense of worry about these events, or if I am…*gasp*…growing as a person? Whatever the real answer is, I am sure it will be discovered over the course of this program. Work has not even started yet! More to come.