For the last month I was working at MLI headquarters doing office stuff. Boring.
For the most part, being in the office was fine; nothing special. The last couple of weeks really got to me though. The projects that they had be doing were driving me insane. It wasn't the fact that they were hard, but rather they were detail oriented. I had to read numbers to my boss. These numbers were on a grid in which the font was too small to read. It gave me a headache.
The next day I had to look for places to stay in London for 30 students. Liz gave me other requirements that needed to be met. I worked on it all day and even stayed overtime to no avail. I felt horrible.
A project I had been working on for a couple of weeks was editing trip schedules. Oh the Irish have the worst grammar! I kept asking my boss when this needed to be done by and she never gave me a deadline. Then she comes in and says that it has to be done by tomorrow. What!? They kept giving me other projects to do, so I never finished the editing and I couldn't help Paul with projects that he needed.
Needless to say, I was ready to be out of the office.
But today was a good day because it was my first day working at DCU (Dublin City University). I am now an activity leader, which means that I take the students on field trips. Finally! This is what I came to Ireland to do!
What I am so happy about is that I don't have to take the bus to get to work! The bus system in Dublin is very poor. Now I just have a 20 minute walk!
Kate, a person who works in the office, lives nearby to me and told me how to walk to DCU. I left an hour early to make sure that I would find the place. That was way too much time. So, I turned around and went to the Omni Shopping Center. I went into a bookstore and started to look at all the books. Why are books so expensive!?
I left to make the journey again to the school. I then became stress about the time. Maybe I shouldn't have walked back. See, the first time I didn't actually get to the college. I got to the street right by the college. I never found the building or the room I was suppose to go to. What if that takes me a while to find?
I kept walking. What entrance should I take? Why don't I have these things clarified for me? When people tell me how to get there, they make it seem like it is very obvious where I am going, so I have confidence that I will find it. I missed orientation because I thought I could find it because everyone said it was obvious. It wasn't obvious. Now the same thing was going to happen.
I saw what looked like a main entrance and decided to enter through that way. I saw a building on my left and it was the building I was looking for! I entered and saw the markers that my boss, Liz, told me to look out for. This was my lucky day.
I eventually found the classroom for the students of the program. Now I needed to find the office. I kept looking but didn't see any offices. I then checked my phone and my new boss, Aoife (pronounced Epha), had text me. I text her that I was in the building, but lost. Just then, she came out of the office to find me. I was so close!
I went into the office and met Ewa. She was from Poland and was a new activity leader as well. Aoife gave us an orientation about how the days are like over here and what to expect. I was really excited. Anything to get out of that office!
She told us that we were going to St. Patrick's Cathedral today. I was so happy! Yes, I finally get to see more of Dublin!
Nina, an intern from Germany, came in and took Ewa and I on a tour of the campus. The campus is very nice. The buildings are mostly of brick. From what I saw, the campus looked new.
Nina showed us The Hub, where every day we would meet the students to begin the activities. She then showed us the cafeteria, where the students and staff ate their meals.
We met up with other activity leaders to have lunch. This brought back memories of college in the cafeteria. I am too old for this.
The other activity leaders that I met seemed very nice. One guy, named Liam, knew my name before I even said it! He claimed that he was in the room when I said it. But I didn't see him at all..... I later learned that he was good friends with Paul, the guy I use to work in the office with.
SallyAnne, who I was going to St. Patrick's with, was very outgoing and talkative. I liked her.
We finished lunch and had time to kill, so we went back to the lounge area. This was an area where all the activity leaders that lived on campus could hang out. I kind of wish that I was living on campus. I could get to know the activity leaders and have a community of people that I knew. I really want to meet more Irish people!
Here, I met Mona and Ros. Again, both seemed very nice. Mona told me that she had to do the Rock 'N Roll walking tour and how that was the worst tour. It was the worst because none of the students know any of the artists. They only know U2. Ros agreed with Mona's opinion.
Soon it was time to go and meet the students. We headed over to The Hub and it was crazy! All groups meet there, so it was filled with many, many students and we had to find our group.
We eventually found our group and we headed to the bus stop. It was a short walk, but it was funny to see all the students in a line following SallyAnne to the bus stop. Ewa and I were in the back to make sure we had everyone. We had 40 Spanish students to keep track of. This was going to be interesting. How was I suppose to keep track of 40 students?
At the bus stop, we had to wait in line for a bus. All groups leave at the same time, so there was a large group in front of us. Our program was taking over the sidewalk!
We all piled onto the bus and headed to town. SallyAnne told me that sometimes we have to split the groups if they are too big and take different buses. Luckily, we all got on one bus. The students sat upstairs and the leaders downstairs. Ewa went up to check on the students.
We eventually came to our stop and SallyAnne told me to go up stairs and tell the students to get ready to come down. I ran up the stairs and announced that the next stop was ours and we needed to go. No one moved. Everyone looked at me like they didn't understand me. Could they not hear me? That had to be impossible because I have a very loud voice.
Finally Ewa said that we needed to go. She was in the back, so they must have heard me. Maybe there English is not so good.
We got everyone off the bus and started the long walk to St. Patrick's Cathedral. This was extremely stressful because we had to cross busy streets and the students just don't pay attention to their surroundings. A lot of the time our group got separated and that was very stressful because I didn't know how to get to the church! And the students kept taking pictures of everything and that slowed us up even more. Ewa and I tried to encourage them to hurry up, but they didn't listen.
We made it to the church all safe and sound. We gave them an hour to explore, which means I had an hour to explore. The church was amazing!
I was also able to talk to some of the students. They were very interesting to talk to and were passionate about improving their English. They spoke very well.
After exploring the church, we went outside to the garden and hung out there for a while. SallyAnne was really flirting with one of the Spanish leaders and it was awkward to be around.
Eventually, we walked back to our bus stop and made it safely back to campus.
Now it was time for dinner. I went to the cafeteria with the other leaders to eat. This is when I learned that everyone but Nina and I were getting paid. Not only were they getting paid, they also had housing and food taken care of on campus. So not fair!
I was able to leave after dinner and Aoife told me that I didn't have to come in until 2 pm the next day! What a nice surprise.
The day was very good but stressful! Sometimes it is very hard to communicate with the students.
What I am the most stressed about it actually finding the places that we need to go to! How does everyone know where exactly to go? They know what bus to take and where to walk to. I don't have a clue! But it is my first day and the other leaders have been doing it for longer. With time I will be able to find where everything is.
Again, I am just so happy to get out of the office! And I am really excited to explore the city more... for free :)
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