It is officially week three of my internship in Dublin, and I have been really enjoying my time here. I am starting to settle in greatly at my job, and I have been trying to take advantage of being abroad and all of the opportunities that it holds. Since my last blog post, I have been exploring more of Dublin with my friends, and I have traveled to another country. During the week, I have been using the location of my company wisely, which is in the city center, to go shopping all around my building. I often go to Grafton Street, which is a very popular street in Dublin, that has great food, great music performers, and so many shops to buy some new clothes. I often shop at a grocery store near me to get some food as well, because it is by the bus stop and very convenient, and the prices aren’t too bad either. I also tried out this new coffee shop right next to my building last week, and I have often been buying a latte there before I head into work at 9 am. Furthermore, I just got my new young adult leap card today, and I am very excited to use it for the rest of my time here and save some money on transportation.
As for my weekend, I decided to travel to Barcelona with some friends and spend the weekend there. My friends from Pitt have been studying in London and in Madrid, and we all planned to meet up together for a few days. I arrived there on Friday, and we spent the day taking in the sights of the city and visiting the infamous church named Sagrada Familia. The next day, we woke up really early on Saturday to watch the sunset on the beach. After going home and taking a nap, we went back to the beach for the rest of the day and swam in the ocean, ate some dinner on the boardwalk, and booked a private boat trip at sunset. It was very peaceful and a great time at first, but I was eager to get off the boat the last thirty minutes of the trip due to the choppiness of the waves and my oncoming seasickness. I got back during the day yesterday, and spent the rest of my afternoon getting ready for the week and for my internship.
As for an update on my internship this past week, everything went smoothly and I am becoming more comfortable there every day. I am starting to get along well with my coworkers and often taking my lunch break with them, and I am starting to figure out how to do my job and assignments without asking for any assistance. I work from 9-5, and I am often busy throughout the whole day. They always have an assignment for me to do, and I honestly prefer that so that the time goes faster and I do not have to sit there aimlessly. However, even though I have many tasks, there are times when they explain something that I have to do and I may not understand what is being asked of me. Even though this can lead me to be overwhelmed or stressed out, I have come up with a few ways to deal with the situation. When this becomes a problem, I first attempt to try and understand what they meant by giving it a try myself and piecing everything together. If I do think that I did my assignment correctly, I will ask them to check my work so that I can make sure that I will do the rest of it in the way that they want me to. If I really can’t figure it out after trying it for myself, then I approach my boss with prepared questions that I can ask all at once so that I don’t have to bother them constantly. I will sometimes even ask them to give me an example of what they mean so that I can base it off of that and go from there. These tactics have served me well every time, and I plan to use them whenever I get confused or when something is not explained well enough. Overall, my boss has been leading me in a good direction so far and I have not had too many scenarios where I did not understand her directions. I look forward to this upcoming week and I am hopeful that I will improve at my job even more.