The last week of my time in Ireland was definitely the best time there. Knowing that we only had one week left encouraged us to go somewhere every night and soak up every second. On Monday I went to Doheny and Nesbitt with my friend and played cards all night. We also went to the oldest bar in Ireland which I forget the name but ti was really cool. There was good live music and overall just a really great night.
On Tuesday I started to pack up my room and realized I had so much stuff! It was difficult to fit everything I had bought including the merchandise and souvenirs but I was able to get a good start on packing. On Wednesday my school had a goodbye ceremony with great food, drinks, traditional music, and Irish dancing. It was a great time celebrating the end of the program and it was cool to see people from my program again. Even though we all lived on the same campus, having to work 9-5 five days a week made it difficult to even see people. There were also plenty of other international students on campus that it honestly was quite packed. After the ceremony ended we went out for a couple more drinks and went to the Hairy Lemon. We ended the night with Bambinos pizza and a trip to the Molly Malone Statue.
On Thursday we went out to a couple different pubs and did a pub crawl, which was one of the best nights yet. It was bittersweet that we only had like two days left and I was trying to soak up every second. I went back to my favorite coffee places and went to my favorite park one last time for a stroll.
On Friday I had my final meeting with my supervisors and it was a bittersweet goodbye. We exchanged our final messages, and I gave them each a thank you gift. They gave me a beautiful perfume and a painting of Blackrock, a town in Dublin. I am so grateful to have had them as supervisors because they were so incredibly kind, wise, and made me feel so comfortable in my internship. I learned so much from the both of them and hop to stay in contact moving forward.
That night we went back to our favorite bar Mother Reillys for a bittersweet goodbye. We got great food, drinks, and stayed until they kicked us out! the live music was great and we spent the whole night reminiscing and playing cards. I will definitely think about how great our last night was in our favorite place which was also the first bar we ever went to. We went there like twice a week every week and cant believe I do not get to go back.
Saturday was an early wakeup at 5am for a trip to the airport. I got through the airport smoothly and fell asleep for the entire flight. It was so nice to see my family and go to sleep in my own bed, but it was also an emotionally draining day leaving Ireland and spending 12 hours in airports and airplanes.
I would say that my bosses define “success” as the culmination of hard work and tedious critique. My supervisors have great attention to detail and work diligently on every project they face. While deadlines are important, I think that there is more value in the quality of work over getting things done quickly. I think being a good employee in Ireland means bringing a good attitude to the table, making good connections with your coworkers and being open to change and uncertainties. People were more relaxed here in going about assigning work and projects, and I had to be comfortable with quickly adapting to different projects thrown at me instead of having a set schedule of assignments. I feel like back in the Untied States there is so much more value placed on getting as much work done as possible in a day, that the valuable soft skills found in team socializing and thoughtful collaboration often get lost in the process. It was a nice adjustment working an environment where people are not trying to beat the clock. I felt more confident in my work, created stronger relationships with my supervisors, and was definitely way less anxious on the day to day. I think that both work environments have pros and cons, but I liked experiencing the European work environment a lot and felt I improved my work skills a lot.