New Friends in Ireland

Throughout my trip, I have been lucky to meet many new people, both American and Irish. When I first came to Ireland, I felt really welcomed because Irish people are extremely friendly and willing to help. There were many times where I was confused, like how to take the bus, for example, but there was always someone around willing to help.

Although Irish people are very willing to have a conversation, I wouldn’t necessarily say I became friends with any local Irish people. That might have just been because of the fact that there was no one else my age at my internship so I wasn’t in a setting where I was readily able to meet new friends. Also, my internship was very small, as there were only a total of three people working there. Also, I was staying at UCD, and so all the Irish students went home for the summer, so although I met a lot of friends at UCD, they were all American. For that reason, I never went to any Irish people’s home but I would assume that they would not be hesitant to invite their friends into their homes especially considering the emphasis their culture has on spending time with family and friends.

On the whole, this experience has been extremely beneficial to me in terms of learning to communicate more effectively with others. As someone who is rather shy, being in a new environment allowed me to become more comfortable meeting and talking to new people, especially those from a different culture than mine. Also, through my marketing internship, although it was good practical experience, I realised that marketing isn’t necessarily what I want do, so I benefitted in the sense that I now have more clarity on what I want to pursue as a career. Being in a new country in general allowed me to put myself in uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations and I definitely think this helped to become more confident in myself.