7/6 | Sunday

Sunday was a fun and sort of slow travel day. All we had planned was walking around the Donegal town center, doing some shopping at the craft stores, and Donegal Castle. What we didn’t plan was that we would be done at the shops by midday and the castle would take 45 minutes, yet our bus was not until 7:00. We sat in the town square for a little, but because our AirBnb host was so kind, she allowed us to stay in the room past checkout. Because we were tired from the weekend and had a weird block of time, we decided to just relax and watch Girls. The bus ride home was uneventful and we got to back to our dorms tired but ready for our week.

7/7 | Monday

Starting off rough, I lost my ride to Omeath, as my supervisor hurt her back and could not drive. This would not be an issue besides the fact that Omeath is 3 hours away by public transport. A large portion of the commute time is due to the fact the bus that takes you the final hour only leaves every two hours. I hurriedly made train ticket reservations, ran to the stop, hopped on the DART then commuter rail, and prayed I would make the bus on time. Unfortunately, my train was 5 minutes late, which was just enough to cause me to miss the bus by 3 minutes. Frustrated and stuck in Dundalk, I called my supervisor and she told me to taxi. The taxi was rather expensive, which is why I hadn’t considered it. I got the Irish Ocean Literacy Network Regional Meeting & Pop-up Showcase a bit flustered, but I settled in quickly. The meeting went very well, I learned so much and a met a ton of new people. They brought together a bunch of people form all over the island to meet and talk about ocean conservation, citizen science, and to encourage networking. I was able to network with a couple people for our seagrass campaign, which was very rewarding.

7/8 | Tuesday

Work started off a bit quieter today, just doing some writing and organizing from home. Around midday I went into the city to meet with my boss and wrap up a few things, including the seagrass map! It was finally coming to its last form, which was super exciting as we have been working on it for so long. After work, I met up with my friend for an early dinner and then we went out to the pub with my roommates family. Overall, a nice quiet and low stakes day.

7/9 | Wednesday

Honestly, Wednesday was ina. way a copy of Tuesday, just with different locations. I started work from home, which was good because when I went into the kitchen, I found my milk had spoiled and exploded because our fridge was left open. Because I was working from home, I had enough time to clean it up. After that disaster, I left home and headed to Dun Laoghaire to meet with my boss. We did some work in a gorgeous library, and I did some drawing for the informational diagrams on the trifold. Then we headed to do a quick site visit to check on some invasive seaweed. My supervisor had to leave but I stayed at the beach to finish my work and then go swimming. The life guards at Sandycove beach are so grand and they let me hang around the hut to finish my work since I had met with them a couple time earlier for work. After that I went to the Forty Foot with my roommate and we swam and sunbathed. The water was so cold but it was worth it, the Forty Foot is amazing. After than we went to Mother Reilly’s as a farewell to my roommates parents. We played card games and listened to live music and it was good craic.

7/10 | Thursday

7/11 | Friday

7/12 | Saturday

Internship reflection |Low vs High Context Communication

My supervisor is definitely low context. Sometimes in ways that I am not sure are common or if she specifically is just very low context. It’s sometimes confusing, as I cannot help but feel like the amount I am told is just not enough for anyone, no matter where they are from. I wrote about my main miscommunication and the computer incident, but that is a prime example of low context, in the which the term “seagrass things” meant to her working on the map while to me meant a site visit. Overall, it seems less efficient, as you waste a lot of time editing and doing over work that could have just been done right the first time if better instructions were given.