D Day: First Day of Work

Catherine and Lisa waiting at the bus stop for their first day of work!

Catherine and I waiting to go to work!

I SURVIVED MY FIRST DAY OF WORK!

Even with all the excitement and nerves, I was able to sleep last night!

I tried waking up early to take a walk, but that was a major fail.

What was also a fail was getting ready for work. I decided to wear black knitted stockings; a black and white dress with a black jacket. Problem is that everything was wrinkled and covered in lent. Guess who doesn't have a lent roller or really an iron? I really know how to make a great first impression....

Another problem that I had to think about was what shoes to wear. I had to do a lot of walking, but I had to wear work appropriate shoes. I had seen a lot of women on the streets dressed ready for work, but with walking shoes. They must take a change of shoes with them. Did I want to do that? I decided not to and just to wear flats.

Since Colleen, Lisa and I were heading in the same direction and getting off at the same stop, we decided to go together. We all met up around 8:15 am to make sure we got to our internships at 10 am.

We got into the City Centre around 9 am, so we had an hour to kill. We walked across O'Connell Bridge and went into Q's for some coffee.

Q's was a really nice place and I wasn't in the mood for this nice of a place this early in the morning.

We ordered coffee and a muffin. The thing I am also realizing about Irish service is that it is really slow! Why did we sit down!?

Not only was the service long, finding the bathroom turned out to be almost impossible. I had to ask four people on my way to the bathroom where it was!

I was so nervous I barely drank my coffee or ate my muffin. I was dreading walking into the office.

Colleen was the first to leave because she had a very long walk ahead of her. She decided to be brave and changed her shoes to her heels so she didn't have to do it at work. She later told me that after a block she changed her shoes! haha!

The time had come and Lisa and I left to finish our journey to our work. When we had to split up, it was the dreaded moment because that meant that the beginning was getting closer.

We simply said goodbye and good luck and went our separate ways. I was hoping that I was going the right way.

The walk seemed a lot longer then what I had remembered. I was really worried that I was not going the right way!

I continued to walk on Baggot Street and turned left onto Fitzwilliam Street. I was so close to my work! The nerves continued to grow... I was also stressed because I was cutting the time close! I was going to be a view minutes late. Great, really not making a great first impression....

As I walked I saw a sign for Colliers International and thought of my dad who works for the company back home. The company is truly an international one. It seems like no matter where I go, I also see a sign for it.

A couple doors past the sign was the door to my work. The time was here. I approached the door and it had a huge door knob. Was I suppose to turn the door knob? It couldn't be real at that size.

Luckily, the door was open, so I just had to push the door open. The door opened into a little hall way with a waiting area, if you will.

The next step was now to find the actual floor that my internship was on. I saw something that said that MLI was on the third floor. I remembered that Europeans count floors differently then Americans. Europeans count a ground floor and then floors 1,2,3 and so forth. To Americans, the ground floor would be the first floor and then 2,3,4 and so forth. So, I guess MLI was on the fourth floor?

I just went for it and started to climb the stairs. At every landing point I was looking for a sign that I was in the right place. It felt like I was walking forever.....

Finally, I came to a landing point that had a MLI sign over the door. The time was now.

I pushed the white door open which lead to a small room. There was seven people hard at work in the room when I entered. I just stood there and everyone looked at me. I had to say something. A girl, semi in front of me, who I later learned was named Kate, asked how she could help me. I said that I was Caroline and that I was to start an internship today. She said that I could take a seat on the red coach to my right. Liz, my boss, was in a meeting. Awkward thing was that I could see Liz. Like I said, the room was very small, so I could see Liz and the gentleman she was talking with.

I sat down on the couch and ended up sitting for half an hour. I felt so awkward and out of place.

I continued to sit and Liz told Kate to set me up at a computer so I could read the website and learn about the company. I had already done this before the interview for the internship, but it had been a couple months since the last time I read about the company, so I thought it was good to freshen my memory.

For another half an hour I read the website. I must have read the website through twice. I read every little detail I could.

I was sitting at a desk in the back corner. Next to me was this girl, who seem very busy. Right in front of me was this young guy. He was cute. Even when I walked into the room he didn't make eye contact with me and with me sitting right in front of him, he still didn't look at me. I just thought that this was weird because back home people would introduce themselves to someone who was new and was close by to them.

After another half an hour looking at the company website, Liz called me over. I was very nervous!

She talked to me a little bit about what I wanted to do this summer and about the company. We established my schedule as working from 10 am- 4 pm. I told her that 10 am was a good start time because of the bus schedule. I still had to figure the bus system out and it would take me a while to get to work.

Then she gave me my first assignment: run an errand. She wanted me to go to a printing company, kind of like a Kinko's, and have some documents printed. Now, of course the correct answer when a boss asks you if you can do something is to say yes. I did say yes. I wanted to say yes with the up most confidence so my boss knew that I had faith in myself, but how I said it wasn't that reassuring. It was more like, "oh shoot. I am foreign; I don't know what I am doing; I barely got to work on time; I have to cross streets and I don't know which direction to look!"

Liz gave me a map and marked out my route. It looked simple enough. She gave me 50 Euros and sent me on my way.

"Eff my life" is all I could think.

Thankfully, I made it there. To be honest, I was really impress with myself. It wasn't far from my place of work and all the way I passed a couple of cool places, like the National Museum and Library. I took a mental note that I needed to visit there while I was in Dublin.

The printing place was called Read's. It wasn't right on the street; it was set back a little ways from the side walk. I walked in and remembered that Liz said I had to go to the back to get the documents printed.

I went to the back and took a number and waited my turn. I didn't have to wait too long and soon my number was called. However, there was this lady before me with number 6 and she was never called. I told the gentleman that she was there before me and he could help her. She was very thankful.

While I waited for my turn, I began to think that I was in freakin' Dublin, a foreign city, at a printing place for my internship. Who goes to another country to work? Only a crazy person.

Eventually it was my turn to be helped. Paul, the young guy who sat across from me earlier, gave me requirements that he needed from the documents. I got everything that I needed and went to pay. It turned out to be only 2.86 Euro. With Liz giving me a 50, I thought that it was going to be very expensive and I was surprised how cheap it was. Why did she give me a 50?

I walked back to work, but stopped by Spar, a convenient store, first. I was seriously debating whether to or not, but I had to. I had to get water because I was so thirsty! I went in quick, as to not waste my boss' time.

I returned and apologized for taking a while. Liz said that it was fine and that it was quicker then she expected.

I gave her the documents and the change. I had counted a million times to make sure that I had all the money. She took the receipt and the change and counted it. She looked at me and asked if she had given me a 50. I said yes and then I started to panic. Don't tell me that I was missing money! I had checked a million times! She said that there was more then 50 and that she should send me to the store more often. I told her that as long as there wasn't less money than it was fine. She tried to give me some change, but I told her that there was money on the table before and that it might be from that. She checked and ended up giving me 2 Euro.

She told me that I could take a lunch break. My break was to be for an hour. I was so shocked by this! I actually get a lunch?! For an hour!? At the museum, I was lucky if I got a 15 minute lunch and I never got any of my other breaks.

Where to go for an hour? I decided to walk back to Grafton Street. They had many different shops, I was bound to find something.

I was too excited and nervous to really eat. At the beginning of Grafton Street is St. Stephen's Green. I decided just to sit in the park and eat the muffin from this morning and some crackers that I had brought with me.

I sat in the park for a while. It was so nice to be outside and people watching.

I wasn't able to sit long because it was a 20 minute walk back to my place of work.

I went back to work and ended up reading a lot of different activities and workshops they had. Liz wanted me to come up with some new ideas for activities. I made a list and talked about Senet, the Ancient Egyptian board game. She really liked the idea and wanted me to give some sort of presentation or talk about it the next day. I was excited that I would bring Ancient Egypt to my new work! I do miss working at the museum at times.

Liz let me leave early at 3:45 pm. Now, I had to remember how to get home. I did remember. I had to get the bus from around Trinity College.

It took me almost an hour to get back home. I am not going to be looking forward to this every day....

I was the first one home from my internship. I wonder when everyone else was going to get back. I decided to go to Tesco's to kill some time and to get some food.

Every one else got back around 6 pm. Colleen, Lisa and I went to The Comet, a local pub, to get some food and to talk about our day. Colleen said that there was a lot of interns, from all over the world, working at her place. She had a good amount of people to eat with every day and they had started to fill her in on work drama.

I was very interested in learning about Lisa's day. I had interviewed with the company, but had declined the position in favor of MLI. Lisa said that her boss was crazy. It was basically her and her boss that were the only ones working at the company. The company was called Steeple Sessions and it has been working closely with another company in Galway as a branch in Dublin, however, some drama had happen and both branches had split. Now Steeple Sessions was its own thing and it had no one working there. 4 interns had quit and the boss had put in 10,000 Euros of her own money into the company. Lisa said that she had an intense schedule and I was so glad that I didn't take that internship.....

After we talked, we went back to the apartment and stopped by Emily's and Allie's place to talk to them. Allie's day had been okay; just boring trying to figure stuff out. Emily made it sound like she had the best job in the world. She even said that she didn't want to make us jealous. We told her just to tell us. She said that she had booked a hotel room for a former president of Ireland. I thought that was cool, but still thought that my internship, with the promise of traveling, was way better! Even at orientation, when David and I were talking about my schedule in front of everyone and we started to talk about me traveling, people were jealous. I believe that I do have the best internship.

I am so glad that my first day of my internship is over! It was not as bad as I had thought and I am thankful for that!

I am looking forward to my second day :)