One more week in Dublin has passed. Since last weekend, a big milestone in my life has passed – I turned 21. This was the highlight of my weekend, as I spent Sunday hiking to a sheep farm where I was able to hold lambs! It was a chaotic journey to get to them, but so worth it. First, we took a 45 minute bus, then waited 30 minutes before taking another bus for an hour. During the second ride we realized that the bus didn’t stop where we had signaled, so we ended up further away from the farm than we had planned. This is what resulted in the 40 minute hike to the sheep. Some of my friends were not entirely pleased with the walk, but I thought the hike was extremely enjoyable. As the trees cleared, we stepped onto the farm and saw sheep in the distance. We were the only people there, and 30 minutes early, and the owner’s son Mark was kind enough to begin the tour early. We got a sheepdog demonstration where his dog, Rex, guided the herd all around a fenced area. During this Mark answered any and all questions that I had about raising sheep. This was honestly the best birthday experience. Afterwards we walked into town and got some lunch. While we were eating, we decided to look into getting a taxi back since the bus flew by the stop. That is when things started to go a little downhill. We quickly realized that any and all Ubers and taxis would not drive to our location. We asked the restaurant staff for help and had another amazing encounter. One of the women called her personal friend to drive us to the correct bus stop. Within five minutes Dave had arrived with a full van. He drove with determination but also safely. The whole time we all chatted about Ireland and the United States. It was honestly a great time. He got us to the bus with five minutes to spare. From there we took the bus and hour back to campus. While everyone else had been very stressed about getting home, I was just happy that the journey didn’t involve a two hour walk to the bus stop. Despite all the difficulties, it really was a great birthday.

This week work was pretty good. On Monday the team met at a local library and planned out new projects and such. It was a little stressful though as my supervisor tends to talk in circles and leave you unsure of what she actually wants done. The rest of my week was mainly doing school visits, which I have really grown to love. It is so fun to doing little outdoor activities with them while talking about cultural differences. For instance this week I had a great time talking to some pre-teen girls about tv shows. Funnily enough me and one girl were rewatching the same show, The Vampire Diaries, so we spent some time debating which couples were our favorites. Every time I feel disconnected from home here, something like that reminds me that our countries are not so different. During those visits I am also being exposed to the Irish language, which I am loving. It is so much fun to ask these children to try and teach me phrases and words. Another interesting part of my work week was a staff day. The entire team gathered together to do team building exercises and even a group craft. This was unlike anything I have done at work before, so it was fun but also sort of funny. The silliest part was how many people I just did not know at my job. I enjoyed meeting everyone and getting to talk about my work with them while also learning what they did.

Throughout my time here I have been developing many skills. One of my main soft skills is communication. Since their communication style is so different here, I am really learning how to make my needs clearly expressed. This skill is completely transferable to any job that I will have in my future. As for specific hard skills, I am definitely developing educational skills related to children. Before this internship I had never really worked with kids, so it was not something that I felt super comfortable doing. But now I have learned how best to engage with them. I am not sure if this is something that I will need in my future career, but it is definitely a skill that I am currently honing. My global competencies have allowed me to talk to these children in an appropriate way. They often ask me about politics, and I answer their questions in an age appropriate way, then lead the conversation towards something less intense, such as their favorite Irish vs. US foods. When talking to adults however I think that I have learned a tasteful way to discuss American politics. Most people here are very vocal about their opinions, so I have figured out that there really isn’t much that I could say to offend. I generally spend most of my time with kids, so this issues doesn’t arise too often. I look forward to the weeks ahead at work where I will spend more time planning future programs for these same, great kids!