End of Program
The two things I have missed the absolute most about the United States are my dog and Macaroni and cheese (probably in that order). My dog is coming to the airport to pick me up with my family and my mom has sent me pictures of the cupboard lined with my favorite boxed mac and cheese.
Those things aside, I really have missed home. These past few weeks going from Thanksgiving (which is obviously not celebrated in Ireland) into the holiday season were really difficult for me as far as missing family and friends, so I’m excited to be home and celebrating family traditions and going on lots of coffee dates.
I don’t think I’m going to experience reverse culture shock too much because Dublin was an English speaking country, and I didn’t experience much culture shock going in.
I am going to miss so many things about my host country though. The people I’ve met are absolutely amazing and there were so many tears shed on our final school day. We have group chats set up and snapchat usernames exchanged – online communication is our best bet for now since most Irish citizens visit East coast states (because it’s MUCH closer to Ireland). I fully intend to go back one day.
I am also really going to miss walking everywhere. You can get everywhere you need to in Dublin within about half an hour by walking and everything is so much more spread out here. I’m going to see where I can incorporate more walking into my daily routine back at Western because I really enjoyed it – unfortunately though, I don’t get to walk along the Liffy river to school every morning.
I learned a lot about myself that is some of the most valuable stuff I could have learned as far as my career and I am so excited to carry that with me through my final quarter at Western! I loved learning about Ireland and getting to know more about the world outside of the bubble that is the US and I want to continue to stay updated and continue learning about all of that.
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