There is only one week left in Ireland, and I have so many mixed emotions. I am excited to see everyone back home and return to my routine, however, I am going to miss so many things here. I absolutely love my roommates and the friends I have made, and I will really miss being in Europe, especially Dublin. My internship has also been a wonderful experience, and I hope the next internship that I have will live up to this one. I am going to try and take advantage of this last week as much as I can, just as I have been doing throughout this entire trip.

This past weekend, some friends and I went to Edinburgh, Scotland. Without a doubt, it has been my favorite place that we have visited so far. The architecture, food, people, and scenic views were incredible. We started the trip on Friday by hiking up Arthur’s Seat and visiting Edinburgh Castle. Even though reaching the top of Arthur’s Seat was quite challenging, the view was well worth the effort. You could see the entire city, and it was a great place to take pictures. After that, we stopped for some ice cream at Mary’s Milk Bar. I tried the hazelnut flavor, and it was absolutely delicious. Our next stop was Edinburgh Castle, which involved climbing a lot of stairs. I quickly realized it was quite a hilly city that required a lot of exercise. At the castle, we learned a lot about Edinburgh’s history and saw some amazing sights. That concluded the day for us, and we headed back to our Airbnb to get ready for dinner and a night out. We ate at an Italian place where I got the gnocchi, and then we went to a few pubs to end the night.

On Saturday, our group did a 12-hour tour of several popular places in Scotland, including the Highlands, Glencoe, and Loch Ness. We saw their infamous Highland cows, where one of them didn’t like me for some strange reason and hit me in the head with its horns. It hurt for a bit, but it was worth it because it became a hilarious memory to look back on. On Sunday, we went to a nice park and visited the University of Edinburgh, enjoying a serene day with great weather. After that, we hopped on a flight home, and I got ready for the week ahead.

This past week at my internship went by unbelievably fast. I am saddened that I will be leaving RCSI soon because I feel like I am creating lasting bonds with my coworkers and having such a positive experience overall. I am learning so much from this internship, and I am grateful for the opportunity to meet new people and develop my skills. Communication around the office has been a mix of positive and negative experiences. On the positive side, everyone is great at staying on top of emails and communicating quickly. However, sometimes my supervisors give me tasks with very little direction, making it tough to know exactly what they want. I’m hesitant to ask too many questions because I don’t want to be annoying, but it’s not always easy to figure out their instructions. I try to work around this by preparing ahead of time, figuring things out before asking for help, and coming up with a few questions to ask all at once to get immediate clarity. I want to make sure I understand their instructions so that I can do it correctly because I want to excel at this internship and improve as much as I can. It also helps that my coworkers are really kind and helpful, so it isn’t too difficult to ask for assistance when I need it. Additionally, there are times when the Irish use different vocabulary than we do in America, so I don’t always understand what they mean. But this isn’t always a bad thing, because it’s been interesting to learn more about Irish culture through these differences.

I genuinely cannot believe that I only have one more week left of both my internship and my time here in Dublin. These past seven weeks have flown by so fast, and I am incredibly grateful to be working at RCSI, exploring so many different places around Europe, and meeting so many great people. I know that I will be able to look back on this incredible experience and have zero regrets. I am planning to make the most of this last week by exploring as much as I can after work and hanging out with my friends before we all have to go our separate ways. I hope that you all have an amazing week!