Onto week four of this experience and it continues to get even better and better every week. This past week my dad, younger sister, and older brother were in town visiting me for the week which was such a special experience! I am so glad they got to get a taste of where I am residing and experiencing as well, especially considering they have never been to Ireland… or out of the country at all for that matter! They had a lot of tourist experiences while I was at my internship during the day but after work, I would always go over to their hotel and have dinner and show them around the city of Dublin, I got to be their personal tour guide (even though I still do not know where I am going around here quite yet). We had great food and drinks and shared some experiences as well! This past week we went to Belfast which is in Northern Ireland, we took a day trip on a tour bus and it was fascinating. Considering Belfast is a part of the United Kingdom and their ways are very different from Southern Ireland, it was interesting to see the different dynamic of the location even with it being on the same island. We took a black cab taxi tour which brought us around the city a bit and shared a lot of the history and ongoing religious matters between the Protestants and Catholics. We saw the peace wall that is still up and I was shocked at how high it is, and the fact that the gates between the walls still get closed every single night to this day. It is still very divided there which is unfortunate and made the entire location not seem so welcoming and bright. We saw many murals on the walls and a new large mural for the current Palestine matters. After this tour, we went to the Titanic museum but not for long, it was still very cool to see. Next, we went to Dunce Castle which was in The Game of Thrones and it was absolutely beautiful, it was the ruins and right on the water. Afterwards, we were brought to the Giant’s Causeway which was easily the prettiest place I have ever seen. The views were amazing and we took the long trail to get the full experience! The weather was also awesome which was really lucky and nice to have for that long day. A couple of days later we took a Viking splash boat tour as well which is a bus that drives around the city to tour and then has a propeller to go into the water as well for a view from the water. This tour was super cool and we learned about the Vikings who had originally touched down on the Irish lands. Unfortunately, Saturday morning my family left but we had a great time together and I am so glad they were able to come visit me! 

On Sunday, me and some of the Pitt people went to the Poolbeg lighthouse which was also beautiful and we got to see the beaches, which I haven’t seen until now! This was such a nice Sunday afternoon experience and definitely something I would do again, there is so much sightseeing to be done and a lot more places to go than I thought here, Ireland has so much to offer with it being an island!

This past week at work I went on numerous appointments with the owner of my company, Ronan Crinion. We go on photoshoots together to houses he has for sale and is putting up on the market. I help with staging and marketing the houses and apartments for the social media pages to bring attention to them. I also worked on some other files and contracts and edited things for the company to send to solicitors and buyers of the houses and apartments which was interesting to do as I haven’t before. Sometimes I experience uncertainty in my internship when I am not given direct instruction, I typically have to ask for something to do which can be uncomfortable and not something I always want to do! Also, sometimes when I am given contracts to edit, the instructions are unclear on how to do so and I am always nervous I am going to mess up something important, especially something being sent to a vendor or purchaser that is an official and binding document which makes its correctness very important. When I have uncertainty, I realize all I have to do is ask. They know I have little to no prior experience in this field and therefore, they are very willing to help me every step of the way. Asking questions will always get me the information I need to complete a task and is therefore the best way to navigate the uncertainty!