So somehow we have now entered the fourth week of living in Dublin, and I feel like the seemingly long time I have here is quickly fading away. I am having so much fun in Dublin experiencing all that it has to offer, and there is still so much I have to do. However, this weekend I have a very special experience to share that does not involve staying on the island.
A couple of weeks ago I reached out to my cousin about me doing a two month study abroad trip in Dublin, and how close I will be to him in London. To give a little background, the last time I met with my cousins, from my dad’s side was when I was only a couple months old, meaning that I had absolutely no memory of every meeting them. This past May I met my other cousin by visiting him with my brother in Switzerland for a week and a half. We explored all the beautiful towns that Switzerland had to offer with him as our tour guide. This experience was so valuable to me that I made it my goal to reconnect with my other cousin, and essentially meet him for the first time.
So after reaching out to him, we agreed to meet up on the weekend of June 13th. I did not know much about him other than some stories from my dad and grandparents. However, I was committed to making the journey out to him to try to form a new family connection. I ended up booking my Ryanair tickets way too late (unfortunately getting a little expensive) and booking the cheapest hostel in the city (which to no ones surprise ended up being a terrible idea). Nonetheless, I was determined to go forward with a positive attitude. I got to London very late Saturday night around 1 am, where I checked into my 9 bed shared bunk bed room. I made sure to lock up all of my stuff and was ready to go to sleep until I heard three other beds next to me snore loudly in synchrony. I was actually fine with this until I realized that all of my roommates loved to randomly in the middle of the night loudly get up and slam the door to our room. I ended up not getting the best night’s sleep, but regardless of that, I was super excited to go see London for the very first time. My cousin texted me saying that the baby was going to nap until later in the afternoon, so I decided to go on a longer walk throughout London to see all the famous sites I have heard about. I ended up doing a 3 and a half hour walk all throughout central London exploring all of the famous sites. This felt very accomplishing but also very tiring. So when around 1 pm my cousin texted me that he was ready to meet up for lunch I was thrilled.
Again, I did not know much about my cousin beforehand. All I really knew was that he had been living in London for a while with his wife and his newborn baby. We met up soon after in this beautiful shopping district called Canary Wharf where we had really good Indian food together for lunch. During this lunch I got to meet everyone, including my cousin, his wife, and their adorable little baby. They were very kind and welcoming, I felt really special spending time with them. After lunch, I had the rest of the day to be one-on-one with my cousin, where we walked around many parts of London. He shared a lot about his work, travels, and new experiences being a new father. I really appreciated his perspective and enjoyed getting to know him. I really hope he felt the same way. After spending the afternoon together, he had to go back home to the baby, so we parted ways. I went on exploring other parts of the city, but by that point I was so tired. I slept another night at the hostel, which was no better than the first night, and caught an early morning flight on Monday to make it to work. Overall, this experience was, despite the challenges, was very worthwhile and invaluable. I am so happy I was able to persevere through the difficulties and still have an amazing experience meeting some family.
Through my internship, there are many unique examples of being in uncertain situations with service users. As an example, many times service users unintentionally overstep boundaries that they don’t see, and being able to teach them a lesson about this can be very difficult. You must be firm with them, but at the same time gentle to make sure their feelings aren’t hurt. I find that consulting the other service providers is a great way to understand how to navigate through these situations as they are a lot more experienced.
Thank you for reading another week of blog posts! See you next week!