May 16th, 2018

During my time in Ireland, I encountered several challenges, successes, and setbacks while attempting to achieve my learning objectives. The first learning objective revolved around using my knowledge to answer questions and solve problems. The challenge with this goal was the fact that sometimes, I lacked the knowledge I needed in the situation. Being in a new country with new people, I struggled to always know what the best thing to do was. I was able to overcome these instances by using my peers and advisors as a resources. We were able to put our minds together to resolve issues and answer our own questions. Many locals were willing to help in times of need as well. It was a success for me to be able to demonstrate some sort of independence by answering my own questions, other people's questions, and be able to navigate my way around a foreign country. Of course, there were setbacks along the way such as having to convert euros to dollars, running out of foreign currency, not always having internet connection, and not always agreeing with other people's opinions and ideas. The next learning objective was familiarity with cultural text and their interpretations. My challenges with this learning objective revolved around me not knowing much if anything about Ireland, its history, or its culture before going abroad. As we explored the country, met and spoke to locals, toured museums and monuments, and taught in the schools, I learned so much about the country of Ireland and how passionate their people are about their history and culture. The success I encountered when it comes to this learning objective was being open minded and allowing myself to dive into the culture of Ireland. I took risks and spent a lot of time out of my comfort zone in order to really feel and live in the culture of the Irish people. The last learning objective I strived to achieve was about supporting appropriate interaction with the culture. Again, I struggled with this goal because I was not knowledgeable about Ireland before landing in Dublin. In Ireland, they have different sayings, words mean different things than I am used to, and their social manners are different. After a few days, I was able to adjust to the new culture and learned how to act and not how to act. I was successful when talking to locals and interacting with them after a few days of being abroad. Setbacks of course still occurred when trying to communicate, but overall became much easier with time.