This past week, Max and I began to get settled in at Carraighill, and I started feeling more confident in the role. The content of the work is mostly new to me, but I’ve enjoyed learning new skills and getting to contribute to our project. Our coworkers have been incredibly kind, and I already feel more at ease in the office environment. I also think I’ve been able to contribute in meaningful ways this week. While working on the European asset management report, I spotted a few places in the report where the numbers just didn’t make much sense to me. I brought them up hoping to learn why I was wrong and they were correct, only to be told that there had been an oversight and I was correct, they didn’t make any sense, which felt good. The town of Dun Laoghaire (pronounced ‘done leery’) is also growing on me, and the weather has been phenomenal. Most days this week, Max and I have been eating down by the harbor along with Lucy, another Connect-123 intern from Rhodes College in Memphis. A photo of the harbor is below.
Outside of work, Dublin is starting to feel familiar, and our group activity this weekend was a trip to the Wicklow Mountains. Our first stop was Kilkenny Castle, which felt like stepping back in time. I was especially struck by the massive ice age Irish Elk antlers mounted inside and the beautifully maintained castle gardens. The art gallery room was also a highlight, and below is a picture I took of the photo of the room from when the Castle was being auctioned back in the 1930s. The tigerskin rug on the floor is straight out of a cartoon, which I found very funny.
I also explored the town itself with a group of guys, and we stopped at Kyteler’s Inn for lunch. On the bus, our tour guide told us the story of Alice Kyteler, who became very wealthy after a series of marriages ended when her husbands died under mysterious circumstances, and the local townspeople accused her of witchcraft. Due to her wealth, she escaped prosecution, and her impoverished maid took her place and was burned at the stake after being tortured into confessing to have seen Alice flying on her broom. Below is a photo of the statue of Alice inside the inn, complete with her broom.
Our next stop was heading deeper into the Wicklow mountains, where we toured the monastic site at Glendalough. The weather took a turn for the worse, but the light rain and fog made for some beautiful photos, and I felt compelled to climb up the base of a cliff to see where a small waterfall fed into a stream and eventually the lake. On the drive back to UCD I took one of my best photos ever out the bus window. It is also below.
Back in Dublin, we visited the National Museum of Archaeology, which (as a history major) has been on my bucket list since I first knew I was coming to Ireland. The bog bodies were fantastically well preserved, as was the bog butter! I’ve seen photos of both of these before, but nothing compares to seeing them in person. Being as Celtic Europe is one of my favorite periods in history, I also loved the displays of Celtic artifacts and torques. Because the museum is near Trinity College, I also took a quick stroll through the campus to complete the day.
