Norah Wolff: Week 6 – Is Being a Tour Guide My Calling? « Management in a Global, Societal and Cultural Context

This week, I finally broke out of the routine I have prided myself on since Week 1 and it felt like a breath of fresh air. I had taken my first two days off of work for the summer and I was excited to be able to capitalize on a day where there wasn’t anything planned. This past week I also started a micro-internship through Parker Dewey, a program offered back at Bucknell through the Freeman College of Management. It was a quick turnover from submitting an application to meeting with the owner of a nonprofit company looking to aid in wellness and weight-loss programs. After meeting with her, the request consisted of building out a social media calendar and making posts for the brand’s LinkedIn. As I am already about halfway through this 10 hour commitment, she has already taught me so much about her knowledge as a epidemiologist and I am hopeful that I am doing the same for her in the marketing realm. After finishing up my work day on Wednesday, I met my boyfriend back at UCD who had landed earlier that morning for his visit!

For a change, I felt as if I was the one who knew my way around the area which was refreshing. At dinner, we each had our first real meal of the day, his being his first in Ireland. We left fulfilled and ready to check out the pubs! Thursday, we did some wandering… actually an extensive amount of wandering, but we both enjoyed it. It was so nice to have no destination in mind, but to actually fall upon many landmarks on our own. One experience we did plan for was Dublin Castle to revisit the alluring architecture, paintings, and history of the home that seemed frozen in time. The following day, we made our way to Blackrock through beautiful footpaths from UCD to the center of town. We reached just about 6 miles in total there and back! In our time, we fell upon an extremely authentic Italian restaurant. With our waiter explaining how to cut our margarita pizza not only with kitchen shears, but in a way to maintain the air pockets in the dough, we were convinced it would be worthy prior to even digging in. By no surprise. it sure was.

On Saturday, we visited Saint Patrick’s Cathedral which was highly anticipated by both of us. It was one of the landmarks that I had heard much about, but had yet to make time for in the last 5 weeks. The church has been maintained incredibly well and holds an immense amount of character and beauty in its age. What we enjoyed just as much was the beautiful gardens, greenery, and personal interactions we had outside. It was a beautiful day on Saturday which highlighted the grounds of the church well. People of all ages were reading a book, sharing food with a friend, doodling in a notebook, a little one was even practicing her skills with a soccer ball. It truly did encapsulate so much of the easy going culture as well as humanity in its purest form and I may have enjoyed this aspect of the experience the most.

On Sunday, we made our way back to Forty Foot except this time, there were more people than there were places to step on the rocks. The water remained cold as I mentioned in a past blog, but still was just as refreshing particularly from the heat exhaustion and long travel time that accumulated before reaching our destination. With some pictures to capture the moment and each a few jumps in, we moved along to walk the coast. I was distraught (yes, distraught) when I saw that the farmer’s market was closed online but decided to show the park anyways. Upon arrival, we were happily surprised to see many of the stands were still up and running as they closed out the day. We both got a quick bite to eat and gathered fresh fruits and vegetables from a farmer to bring home with us to close out our way. I used my zucchini to make breaded zucchini and, although I may be bias, I thought they were quite good.

On Monday, we were wrapping up the week with the prison tour at Kilmainham Jail. We found a place to eat and ended up catching up with my roommates that night because of the busy week we all had with visitors and travels amongst us. It was wonderful to hear about everyone’s weekends because truthfully, it was the longest we’ve been apart in over a month and we have grown very accustomed to our catch-ups, so it was well-needed and much anticipated! This week, my family is coming to Dublin. Once again, I will get to work on my tour guide skills! We will see what rating I get come the end of the week.