This last weekend I finally got to do a little exploring! It was such a beautiful day on Saturday that I took advantage of the somewhat sunny day and went to the beach. I went to Killiney beach and although it was not hot it was a clear day.

Clear day on Killiney beach!

I was amazed to see surfers in the water because I was barely warm bundled up let alone being in the freezing water in only a suit! I walked along the pebbled beach collecting stones and simply enjoying the scenery. It was a peaceful way to begin my day.

After I was ready to move on I went to a neighboring village (Sandycove) and explored the many shops. One shop in particular ended up being my favorite because it was full of interesting knick-knacks and local handmade jewelry. I also ate at a local café, which for the life of me I can’t remember the name of although it had the word moon in it. The food was delicious! The bread was homemade and fresh same with the soup. Definitely have to go to that café again!

On the way back home I made one more stop in Dun Laoghaire, which I had debated about all day. I had already been to Dun Laoghaire and at this point was getting tired so I almost didn’t stop, but I am sure glad that I did! Dun Laoghaire ended up being my favorite place that I went to that day. The reason being is a local musician had set up shop at a place called the Pavilion, which is right next to the water. He was playing the electrical guitar and was quite good!

The street musician doing what he does best…

Look at the puppet dance!

The atmosphere was relaxed and to top it off just before leaving the town I got to see another musician this one being a woman on the flute with a dancing puppet. It was the perfect ending to an amazing day.  The rest of the week went by mostly uneventfully. I have started to develop my schedule of waking up in the morning getting ready for work and so on. The days have started to go by relatively fast, especially now at work. I have started getting more work load and projects, which makes me busier allowing the time to past faster. I am starting to really enjoy my job and have already learned quite a bit. I did go out Wednesday night with a few people to a pub. It was an interesting experience, because the group consisted of several people from Spain, Brazil, and Italy.

What an amazingly diverse group!

It was fascinating to talk with all of them and just get a feel for each culture. If I had to choose one thing to take away from this week it would be embracing my emergence from my bubble. Tonight I was talking with my host mom and I was telling her before this trip I hadn’t travelled much and my ignorance of even the basic things were astounding. For example there being different plug-ins all around the world. It is not necessarily significant information, but what it represents is significant. My untraveled self has been living in a bubble where, I realized, I view the world from. Meaning I have assumed the rest of the world is similar to what I know. This has continuously been highlighted these last two weeks with each new piece of knowledge that becomes known. This became especially evident Wednesday night I found myself surrounded by several different cultures. I am forever thankful I choose to embark on this journey, because I want to shed my ignorance and hopefully grow in the process.

I have completed the first week of my internship. The first thing I had to learn was how to get to work! Last week I decided to do a trial run where I went to work to meet everyone, which had the added benefit of figuring out how to even get to the place. It was a good thing I did because I got lost. I needed to get to the DART, which I did after going a round-a-about way due to a missed turn.

Here comes the DART! I ride this to and from work everyday.

Once I got into Dalkey I couldn’t find Max Media. I ended up calling the number that was given to me and ironically I was only across the street. I just didn’t know it. You have to go through what is called the “Courtyard” then go up some stairs to get to the office. I couldn’t find it because it was set back out of the way.

The infamous “Courtyard”.

I met everyone and was able to make it back to the DART station without any mishaps.  Well unfortunately once I got off on my stop I realized I didn’t know how to get back. Normally I am pretty good at retracing my steps, but due to my round-about-way of getting to the DART originally it left me slightly confused. I ended up walking around searching for anything familiar for at least two hours. I later learned the walk should have only taken me ten minutes! I figured it out. You live and you learn. Thankfully, I did this before I started work so I was not on any time schedule. The first day of work I made it there no problem. The office was quiet all this week because two people are on vacation and one is out sick. This leaves only three people, besides myself, in the office! I really am enjoying what I am doing and was given a project to start on the first day. I am mostly handling social media projects with facebook and twitter. How many jobs do you get to spend on facebook all day? Not many! It is rewarding to work on a project that you get an immediate response to by the public. Especially, when people are sharing something they feel passionate about with you, it draws you into their interest. I have also had to do a lot of research for posts and I have found myself getting sucked into some of the research and this is on topics that don’t normally draw my attention. Overall, what I will take away from this week is getting lost is not a bad thing , in fact, sometimes you need to get lost to know where you are at. I am now able to navigate around Monkstown, due to my earlier escapade, fairly successfully.

Monkstown where I wondered for what seemed like forever!

I have learned that it is rewarding to draw people together that share an interest and watch them interact. The most important thing that I will be able to take away from this week is even when you are doing a task you don’t like put your all into it because it may surprise you how much you end up enjoying it.