Good afternoon from Dublin, Ireland! We are currently in the midst of a massive heat wave! My whole life I’ve been privileged enough to say that I grew up with air conditioning and even though it may be hot in the summer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at least I can always find a place that’s cool. Ireland is not the same! Even though the summer normally gets up to seventy-five degrees and people just deal without it. It is almost ninety degrees currently and I am pretty deeply missing air conditioning! It is a motivator to dip into the freezing waters! Yesterday and on July eleventh right after I posted my blog post I went to a little town south of Dublin called Dún Laoghaire. And the first day I just took a quick dip in because the water is still only sixty-five degrees it is very brisk and refreshing! That’s a good way to put it. It is perfect for cooling you down when you need it! And yesterday I went to a place called the forty-foot bathhouse. One of the very first days I was here I heard about this place where college students go to this miniature cliff jump once they’re done with their final papers. It’s supposed to be a celebration and daredevil activity. I had quite a lot of fear going into this because I have Clift one jumped once before at Black rock Hawaii. The cliff is about twenty-five feet high which looking down felt like a mile. I can still remember my heart racing and the seconds it took for my body to hit the water. It was exhilarating but very scary. This whole time I thought the forty foot is forty feet down, as the name would imply. Realistically the jump is only about six feet high at most! It’s a little bit more my style. Three other friends and I did jump.  It was refreshing, cooling, and a bonding activity with the locals! We still didn’t stay in the water very long, but it was definitely worth the trip! I would highly recommend that to anybody escaping a warm summer day! Also, on the weekends they have beautiful farmers’ markets and wonderful summer drinks. I love the bustling aspect of the city, but it’s nice to get back to quaint small-town interactions.

This whole time I’ve been asking my coworkers about the forty-foot and they continuously told me it was not that big of a deal. I wish they told me it was not forty feet down but that’s something I’ll have to bring out myself! Off of my blog post last week, I realized some more communication differences and preferences in Dublin, Ireland. This is not a good or bad thing, just to preface, but my host country tends to be a little bit straightforward with what they mean versus America. When talking to my coworkers they don’t beat around the bush or contemplate how what they say will affect your feelings they just say what they think. The good thing is I know it’s not in a mean way but there have been conversations with her I hold back out of respect and they continue forward! Ever since I was young, I was brought up to consider how other people may feel and it’s just interesting and unique to see this cultural difference at play! On the flip side of this, they also get quite a lot done in a singular meeting. Because they’re usually not afraid to say what they mean their point gets across a lot faster. Comparing this to the United States where sometimes nothing gets done in a single meeting it is kind of nice and productive. I’m not sure I will integrate this into my life back home but it’s worth keeping in mind for when I do business abroad. 

It is very strange going from being in Dublin for a week or two, to being in Dublin for eight weeks! At the very beginning you feel very touristy and everything is new and exciting. You want to go see things like the book of Kells, kiss the Blarney Stone, and the cliffs of Mohr! These are staples of Ireland and I wanted to say that I had been there. Now that I’m eight weeks in, my perspective has changed a little bit. Don’t get me wrong I am not a local in anyway, but I look at the obvious tourists going by and can appreciate how much extra time I have versus the regular traveler. I don’t know if I would’ve had the opportunity to go to the forty-foot bathhouse, or fun little farmers market that pop up if I was only here for two weeks or even three weeks! It’s nice to start to see the tourist aspect from a very tiny bit of a native aspect.