Hello, hello! Week seven in Dublin has been pretty good. This week, I felt a bit like I was in a weird limbo between being done and having plenty of time. But I made sure to make the most of the time I had left regardless.
Last Friday after my internship, I met up with my friend Kai at the train station for our weekend trip to Galway. The train was really nice. We had picked our seats prior so we just had to go to our specific car of the train. My name was on a little display screen for my seat which I thought was really cool. The seats were very comfortable and there was decent leg room, in my opinion. The only thing I didn’t like about the train was that it’s set up two sets of two seats facing another set with a table between them, so you’re just stuck facing a stranger. It was fine, but just a little awkward, and I think I prefer the seats all facing the same way.
About two and half hours later, we arrived in Galway! The train station was very close to our hotel, so we went and checked in. The hotel was very nice. I was originally going to stay in a hostel, but when Kai decided they were going to come with me, their parents offered to pay for a hotel, so that was nice! We settled in for a bit and then found a place to go to for dinner. It was a cozy Italian restaurant. I got a seafood pasta since Galway is relatively known for its seafood. It was really delicious!
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning, we went down for the hotel breakfast, which was pretty good. We then left the hotel to wander around Galway before we had to meet for the Cliffs of Moher bus tour we booked. We saw several shops and also a market that we checked out a bit. There were so many people!
We met at the spot for the bus tour and got settled in for the one and a half hour journey to the Cliffs of Moher. The ride was very swervy because of the narrow, curved roads, which the bus driver warned us about. “Keep your mind on the journey,” he said. Unfortunately, one of our fellow passengers did not manage to do that and threw up on the bus. It smelled awful, and I felt bad for her, but also frustrated because there was a trash can and a bathroom she could have used. This made the rest of the ride a little difficult because I was already a bit queasy from the ride itself, let alone smelling someone else’s stinky vomit. But I made it!
The Cliffs of Moher were beautiful and so large! The weather had been dreary and foggy, and I was worried we weren’t going to be able to see the cliffs well, but it was lovely. Honestly, the fog added to the ambiance. We had two hours at the Cliffs of Moher, so we just wandered around and took pictures. There were some cute sheep nearby.
We got back on the bus (that smelled a little bit better after airing out) back to Galway. We went to dinner at this little seafood place, and I got raw oysters and chips. It was really good, even though I like fried oysters better than raw ones. From there, we went back to the hotel and decided to use the amenities the hotel offered. We were going to swim, but the pool they had was more of a sports, swimming laps kind of pool than a hangout and chill pool. There was a hot tub, though, so we got in there and relaxed. There was also a sauna. I had never been in one before, so I wanted to test it out. I learned that saunas are just kind of weird.
The next day, we went back to where the market was and checked some more stuff. We then got strawberries and ate them by the water. After, we walked around to the other side of Galway, where we found an aquarium. We checked that out and then walked further and found a little fair! We bought tokens and rode some rides before walking back to our original side of Galway. We got dinner from the market that was still going on and then got on the train back to Dublin!
This fun trip brought me into my work week, which was pretty good, although the mood in the office was a little off. Everyone just seemed to be tired, but we made it through. We also made the most of it. By the end of the week, everyone was a little bit silly, which made it more fun. On Thursday, the GCN manager decided to get everyone ice cream. He asked me what I wanted, and I said chocolate. He responded by asking me if I wanted these certain names, which I thought maybe were specific flavors I didn’t know. I at first just said plain chocolate was fine, but then he asked if I wanted the names again, so I had to say that I did not understand what he was talking about. My other coworker then told me to Google HB ice creams, and I found that it was different kinds of ice cream bars like you’d get from an ice cream truck. It was kind of funny because they were saying these names like I knew what they were talking about, but I was so lost.
On the topic of communication, I find it interesting that on the low context versus high context scale, Ireland is meant to be closer to the high context side than the US is. In my experience here, the directness of communication has been relatively similar, particularly when it comes to instruction. But that may be due to the nature of my internship being literally communication-based. The only true communication difference I have noticed is that when people here are joking or being sarcastic, they don’t really change the inflection of their voice for what they are saying the way I think people do in the US. So sometimes, it takes me a second to realize when one of my coworkers is joking, especially when it’s something that could in fact not be a joke. But other than that, I would say communication is relatively similar to US.
I cannot believe I am approaching my last week in this program. It boggles my mind, but I’m ready to make the most of my last week!