Northern Ireland Day Tour - Dark Hedges, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, and Giant's Causeway

My day started extremely early by waking up at 5:45am. We met at 6:15am to catch the first bus into town at 6:30am. We got to Paddy's Palace tour office 10 minutes early and checked in. The bus left at around 7:30am. Then we drove to Belfast, which took two hours. We stopped for a restroom/coffee break after an hour where I bought a chocolate chip croissant for breakfast. In Belfast, we picked up more people for the tour. Then we headed to the Dark Hedges, also recognized as King's Road in Game of Thrones. We stopped there for 15 minutes to take some pictures and then headed to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. It was a .62 mile walk to the bridge with hills and rock stairs. The bridge itself was shorter than I expected, but fun to cross if you aren't afraid of heights. Once we crossed the bridge, we hiked up more rocks to the top of the island. It was beautiful up there and very windy. We only had an hour at that stop, so we headed back, used the bathroom, and got back on the bus to go to the Giant's Causeway. 

"The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption.^[1][2] It is also known as Clochán an Aifir or Clochán na bhFomhórach in Irish^[3] and tha Giant's Causey in Ulster-Scots.^[4]

It is located in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a national nature reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.^[5] The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places."

When we got there, we had to walk about a half mile to the causeway from the Visitor's Center. They also had a bus you could take for 1.30 euros if you didn't want to walk. When we got there, we walked all around on the hexagonal stepping stones and took pictures. Afterwards, we headed back, got a small snack to hold us over until dinner, and walked around the gift shop. Then we got back on the bus and made a quick photo stop at the Dunluce Castle before heading to Belfast. It was about an hour drive to Belfast where we got dinner at a restaurant called Solo Kitchen. We were a little rushed since we only had an hour in Belfast, but we managed to get back on the bus with time to spare. It was another two hours back to Dublin, and when we got back, we stopped in Carroll's and then got the 39a Dublin bus back to campus. We got back around 10pm, and I just went to bed because I was exhausted. I had a great time doing the Northern Ireland day tour and can't wait to start planning next weekend's adventure!

 Dark Hedges/King's Road from Game of Thrones

 View heading to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

 Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

 On top of the Island across the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

 Giant's Causeway

Dunluce Castle

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Bloomberg Essentials

On Friday, I slept in and then headed to the business building to use the Deloitte Analytics Lab so I could complete the Bloomberg Essentials Training Program and officially get an Acknowledgement of Completion. My assignment was to complete the core exam and one market sector exam for my finance analytics class. I began by reading through the information for the core exam and took some notes. I passed that exam and completed the Equity market sector tutorial first. Afterwards, I decided to take the rest of the market sector tutorials (there were 4 in total), so I could get all the acknowledgements. The others were FX (foreign exchange), commodity, and fixed income. I spent most of my day completing that because I wanted to finish the program in one day. Afterwards, I went back to my apartment, ate some food, relaxed, and figured out what I was bringing and wearing for my big trip to Northern Ireland tomorrow. Then I made tortellini with tomato sauce for dinner, and the fire alarm went off in the building. There was no actual fire, so we just stood outside for a few minutes. After heading back inside, I showered, relaxed, and went to bed early because we were all meeting at 6:15am to catch the 6:30am bus into town because the tour bus was picking us up at 7:15am.

Internship Week 1

On Monday, I woke up very early, showered, and met the other students who were working at the Bank of Ireland to travel there together. We arrived a half hour early, so we waited by the river. Then it started to rain. When we walked in, we got our new security IDs that would open the doors throughout the building. Ariana and I headed up to the second floor where Padraig, our immediate supervisor gave each of us a binder with some information about the company and the department. We read through the binder, and then we were each put in a different department. I was put in the High Exposure Team that work with people who have mortgages in arrears of more than 750,000 euros or own multiple properties. Because it was the first day, I didn’t have a password set up with the computer yet, so they gave me a complaint file read over. After that, they gave me a binder of a case to read over. It was a pretty big binder, so it took me until after lunch to read through it. I went to lunch at 12:45pm with Ariana and had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, and apple juice for lunch. The food was really good, and we had an hour lunch break. After lunch, I continued reading through the file, and they let me leave at 4:30pm. The bus stop was further away, and I got back at around 5:30pm. Then I cooked a lot of food, ate dinner, showered, and went to bed early because I was tired.

On Tuesday, I woke up around 6:45am and got to work around 8:30am with Ariana and Lisa, so we could have breakfast there. For breakfast, I had a poached egg, a piece of bacon, a piece of sausage, a hash brown, and a bottle of water. Then we headed upstairs, and I got access to the computer today but no internet yet. I set up my new exchange email and read through some information. Then they asked me to make a copy of the huge binder I read through yesterday, so I had to take out all of the staples and copy about 1,000 pages. After I finished that, I went to lunch with Ariana and had chicken with gravy, potatoes, peas, cauliflower, and a bottle of water for lunch. When I got back from lunch, most people in the office were on their own lunch break, so it was very quiet compared to the mornings here. For the afternoon, I observed Aidan who was working through some files of people with low exposure mortgages in arrears who had proposals for the bank as to how they would pay the bank back. Again, they let me leave at 4:30pm. I got back around 5:40pm, and then did my laundry for the first time here. The numbers were a bit confusing on the washer, but I figured it out. Then I ate dinner, showered, relaxed, and went to bed early again.

On Wednesday, I woke up at 6:45am and got to work early again for breakfast. I had a croissant with ham and cheese inside, a piece of bacon, a piece of sausage, a hash brown, berry yogurt, and water for breakfast. My morning consisted of reading through another two huge files in red binders and copying them. I had lunch at 12:45pm with the other interns and had pasta with Bolognese sauce. After lunch, I made a quick copy of a financial statement for the another team that work in the department. Then I read through the operational procedures manual. ‘The High Exposure Team (‘HET’) sits within the Arrears Support Unit, Mortgage Arrears Resolution Strategy Division (MARS) of Bank of Ireland (BOI)’. There were a lot of acronyms. I am still working on getting access to the CACS (Computer Assisted Collections System) and AS400 system they use here. I left work at 4:30pm and went shopping at the Temple Bar gift shop. I got a few things and then went to Tesco and bought some food. I got on a bus around 5:40pm and got back to my apartment around 6:30pm. Then I decided to go to the gym and run on a treadmill, and while I was there, the Ireland vs. Italy soccer game started at 8pm. I watched the first half of the game while walking on the treadmill, but nothing happened. In the end, Ireland beat Italy 1-0. Afterwards, I went back to my apartment, ate some food, showered, and went to bed.

On Thursday, I woke up at 6:45am and got to work early for breakfast. I had a croissant with ham and cheese inside, a piece of bacon, a piece of sausage, a hash brown, berry yogurt, and water for breakfast again. My morning started off with a fire drill at 9:30am. Then I called IT to gain access to AS400 and waited for them to email me. I also used the CACS system to copy notes onto a word file for my co-worker and send them to her. I familiarized myself with the Excel dataset of over 8,000 accounts. Then I was given my first real assignment; I had to go through a file cabinet and match up the files with files in the dataset by using the CACS system to look up the account information. I got through about 75% of the files by 4:30pm when I left for the week. For lunch, I had a pastry with chicken and mushroom gravy sauce with carrots and mashed potatoes. They have at least one form of potato offered everyday for lunch. After work, I got on the bus at 4:50pm and was back by 5:40pm. I went to the gym at 6:00pm to run on the treadmill. Then I showered and three of my friends came over so we could book our tickets for the Paddywagon bus tour to Giant's Causeway and Belfast. Here's the link for the itinerary of my day: http://www.paddywagontours.com/GIANTS-CAUSEWAY-Day-Tour-From-DUBLIN. The tickets weren't too expensive considering the fact that we are going to so many places, and they include the admission to the Giant's Causeway. After we booked the tickets, I ate dinner, relaxed, and went to bed early because I was exhausted from waking up early, going to work, and the gym.

While this first week of my internship may have been a bit underwhelming, I’m eager to see how the next five weeks goes and what I’ll be doing. I feel that I did more each day this week as I got to know the department and the systems. I'm also very glad I get free breakfast and lunch at work and that the food is great!

Building I pass on my way to work

River Liffey

My First Day

A few of the other interns and me

Lunch I had on Tuesday

 Breakfast I had Wednesday & Thursday

Statue in City Centre

 Copies I made at work

Hard Rock Cafe Dublin

The First Weekend

Saturday morning was our last class until July 8th. Then we listened to TED Talks of UCD Business school alum that had either started their own company or were the CEO/manager of a company. They were all very inspiring and motivating. "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" was how the one speaker opened up her speech. After the talks were over, we explored the UCD Festival around campus and saw there were many UCD alumni with their kids enjoying the festival. They had a whole section of moon bounces, live music, a carousel, and other activities for kids, and international food tents with food for sale. We made our way to the free lunch of sandwiches for us and then a few of us went to the craft beer tasting event. There were five different types of beer: three lagers and two ales. I tried the first two and hated the first one so I gave it to my friend Chris. The second one was okay and had an interesting smell. Then Cassie and I ate some more sandwiches they had out, while the guys finished the beer tasting. After that ended, Cassie, Samantha, Kayla and I took the bus downtown to go to the National Leprechaun Museum and see a night tour. Unfortunately, when we got there, the tickets were sold out for the night, so we walked around and realized all the shops were already closed for the night at 7:30pm. We headed to O’Shea’s for some food and stopped at Carroll’s to look at souvenirs and a tourist desk for some brochures along the way. At O’Shea’s, Cassie and I had chicken doujon and chips. After we paid, we headed to Whelan’s for the live music. Whelan’s is a famous bar in Dublin because they shot scenes from the movie, P.S. I Love You there, and Ed Sheeran performed there in 2015. We watched a small band from Manchester perform a few songs and then took the bus back to campus.

On Sunday, I slept in and woke up around 9:30am. Then I went to the gym, showered, cooked, ate some food, and relaxed. At 5:15pm, Cassie, Samantha, and I headed downtown to go to Penney’s. Everything in the store was so cheap, and I ended up buying eyeliner and body spray for five euros. After checking out, we headed to Cassidy’s on Camden St. and walked through Temple Bar, which was very lively. We stopped in the Temple Bar gift shop, which had a ton of great souvenirs like Dublin sweatshirts, t-shirts, Aran sweaters upstairs, jewelry, etc. I’ll definitely stop back there to buy some. We walked along Grafton Street as well to look for a place we could get dessert. We ended up going to Captain America’s, splitting a pizza, and getting dessert. I also got another Kopparberg mixed berry. Since it was getting late, and we had our first day of the internship the next day, we decided to head back to campus and go to Cassidy’s some other time.

Ed Sheeran sings "Thinking Out Loud" in Whelan's, Dublin - YouTube link

The First Week

On Tuesday, I had a full day of class and spent the night preparing for my internship. After doing more research in retail/consumer banking, I realized why I was given this placement at the Bank of Ireland. Consumer banking is focused on banking for individuals and all that that encompasses: savings and checking accounts, mortgages, credit and debit cards, loans, etc. In my recommendation letter my professor/supervisor wrote for me, she mentions that I was an exceptional student in her "Mathematics of Money" course, which covers topics such as compound interest, annuities,
investments, retirement plans, taxes, credit cards, and mortgages.

On Wednesday, I had the internship academic class in the morning and then traveled to my interview with fourteen other students that were at the same location. We left at 1:00pm with plenty of time, and we arrived fifty minutes early. We decided to wait outside Insomnia for a half hour before heading inside. After checking in at the reception desk, they called us all into a conference room where there was coffee, croissants, and pastries. We signed a nondisclosure agreement, and then we were given a 10-15 minute presentation about the bank and its history. We were also told that we would be given a card for free breakfast and lunch in their cafeteria. Afterwards, we were called up by the person we were to meet with. Ariana and I met with two gentlemen that took us up one floor to the mortgage arrears resolution team. We met a few people, given a tour around the office, and they explained what their department does. Basically, their department deals with people who don't pay their mortgage. Once the tour was over, we went back down to the conference room and were told that work is 9am-5pm. Before we left, I got my picture taken for my new employee ID, and four of us headed to Stephen's Green Shopping Centre to go to the Laptop Shop. Afterwards, we went to a Tesco Metro in the Temple Bar, I bought some food, and we took the Dublin Bus back to campus. Then I ate dinner and relaxed because I was exhausted. At 9:45pm, Samantha and I went to the Clubhouse, the campus bar, to check it out. They had a few beers and a couple ciders on draft and some liquors. We each got a half pint of Orchard Thieves Apple Cider, and then I got a cranberry juice and Jameson whiskey.

On Thursday, I had another full day of class with the internship academic class in the morning, lunch, then the finance analytics class in the afternoon. In class, we discussed the projects that we will be working on throughout our program including the Bloomberg certificate. After class, I went to check out the gym on campus and ran on a treadmill for about 45 minutes. Then I cooked, ate dinner, showered, and relaxed for the night.

On Friday, I had my last full day of class. We worked more with Excel in my finance analytics course and discussed the final exhibition for my internship course that will be the last week of the program. After class, I took a nap, made dinner, showered, and relaxed. We have our last class tomorrow morning, and it is the UCD Festival.

My Internship Location

Bridge I Cross to Get to Work - River Liffey

Stephen's Green Shopping Centre

Orientation!

Today was my first official day of the UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business Summer Internship Programme. It started at 9:00am with a breakfast in the upstairs cafe of the business building. I had a scone, pastry, berry yogurt, and apple juice. After breakfast, we all went to a room downstairs where we were given a bag with a packet of information, our Leap Card for the Dublin Bus, a water bottle, and a phone cleaner. We had two orientations, one for the internship given by Madeline, the study abroad program manager, and one for our internship placement. Afterwards, we had a break for lunch, and I went to the bank to exchange money. They had a great rate, one dollar = 0.87 euro. Then I had lunch and went to my business analytics class then internship class. The business analytics class was very interesting, and we worked with Excel. There are about fifty students in that class. The internship class included everyone in the program, about one hundred students, and was more of a lecture-based class. After classes were over, we had a quick campus tour and headed to the welcome BBQ. We walked across the street from campus and down the road half a mile to the Radisson Blu St. Helen's Hotel. It was much nicer than any of us were expecting. As we walked in, we were given a glass of mimosa and sat down. Then we took a few group photos for the program. For dinner, there was a buffet of hamburgers, baked potatoes, grilled chicken, salad, and corn, and for dessert, there were chocolate cake/brownies and strawberry cheesecake. After dinner, we walked back to campus, and I spent the night studying for my business analytics quiz and doing my homework for the internship class.

Grocery Shopping

I slept in until about 10:30am and had a quick microwavable meal of chicken, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. I went with a group of eight girls to the Jervis Shopping Center downtown, so we could go to Tesco, a grocery store, and Penney's, a huge clothing store. We met up at 1:00pm, but the bus took awhile, and it was a long bus ride. I bought a lot of cheap food at Tesco, so I'm hoping I won't need to go back for two weeks. Then some of us went to Penney's to buy bath towels, but they only had beach towels. I also realized Penney's is Ireland's version of Primark, a UK store that has a few in the U.S. now. We also walked around the shopping center to Dunnes and T.K. Maxx, Ireland's version of T.J. Maxx, where we bought the bath towels. Afterwards, we met up with everyone else, took the bus back to campus, and got back around 5:30pm. Then I made penne pasta with tomato sauce for dinner and realized the kitchen doesn't have an a dishwasher, oven, or garbage disposal. It's more like a kitchenette with the tiny refrigerator and freezer compared to American standards. After I finished washing the dishes, I showered and relaxed for the night because orientation starts tomorrow morning at 9:00am in the business building. Overall, it was a good experience going grocery shopping for the first time, but I'll probably go to the closer Tesco next time to save some time.

*It also stays light out here for a really long time. The last picture is the view from my bedroom at 9:00pm

I Made It!

I'm officially in my new apartment in the Belgrove Residence of UCD! It sure was a journey to get here. I started with an hour and half car ride to Newark airport but checked my bag and got through security all within thirty minutes, so I had over two hours to wait by the gate to board. My luggage weighed exactly 45lbs, so I'll definitely have to be careful not to exceed the 50lb limit on my way back. I had a great flight with an aisle seat and no one sitting next to me for the first time ever. For dinner, I had cheese ravioli, bread with butter, apple juice, and vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. I watched How to be Single and an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Then I took a two hour nap and had a croissant with butter and apple juice for breakfast. Once I landed in Glasgow, I had to go through customs and then security again, which took no time at all. The layover in Glasgow wasn't too bad. I enjoyed looking at all the stores and Scottish souvenirs such as the plaid kilts and scarves, books about the Loch Ness monster and various items with the Scottish flag imprinted on them. The flight to Dublin went by fast, and I sat in the second row in another aisle seat. Once we landed, I went through customs and got my bag. I quickly found the Aircoach bus, and it pulled up right as I got to the stop. Once I got to the UCD campus, I had to walk awhile to find the reception desk to check in and then proceeded to get lost trying to find the Belgrove Residence. Once I found building 31, I realized my apartment is on the second floor. After getting settled in, I went to the Centra store on campus to buy a little food and other necessities. Then I showered and got some much needed sleep. However, I couldn't deeply fall asleep because of the new environment and the fact that it was only 4pm. I met my one roommate, Liam who goes to Indiana University. We talked for awhile, and he made us chicken and asparagus for dinner. Then we took the bus to go out for some drinks downtown. We met up with his friend Seth who also attends Indiana University. First, we walked around the Temple Bar area and along Grafton Street, a very popular street to shop. Our first bar was Captain America's on Grafton Street where I got a Swedish hard cider called Kopparberg, mixed berry flavor. Next, we went to The Duke, which was a really nice quiet bar with an older crowd, and I just had a glass of water. Afterwards, we took a taxi back to campus and got back around 12:30am. I'd say it was a very successful first day in Dublin after a long journey to the apartment.

Updates!

Lots of exciting things have happened since I last posted! First, I've paid for my program and accommodations. I cannot thank the College of the Liberal Arts and the donors enough for the Career Enrichment Funding I received to help cover the cost of the program. It has truly helped so much in paying for this experience. Second, I booked my Aircoach bus to get from the airport to the UCD campus and back, so I am all set once I land in Dublin. Third, I have been given my first assignments for my two modules and am working on them this week. Lastly, I have been given internship placement in the Bank of Ireland for six weeks from June 20th to July 28th. 

COMPANY NAME:
Bank of Ireland

COMPANY OVERVIEW:
Bank of Ireland is a diversified Financial Services Group established in 1783 by Royal Charter. A traditional, relationship-driven retail and commercial bank with a conservative business philosophy, we have a clear and compelling strategy to:

• Support our customers
• Strengthen our capital
• Continue to fund our balance sheet effectively
• Actively manage our credit risks
• Rigorously manage our cost

Bank of Ireland has established core businesses with strong market share positions supported by an extensive distribution network and a strong direct offering. Interns will be placed across some of the following areas: Finance, Strategy, Marketing, Risk, Business Banking, Business Supports, Digital & Innovation. 

COMPANY WEBSITE:
http://www.bankofireland.com/
Further Information - http://www.top1000.ie/bank-of-ireland