Hi, I'm Rebecca, 22, and thanks to Students Go Abroad I was in Dublin, Ireland from April - June'24 for a 3 month internship in a daycare center in Swords, near Dublin. I applied for Erasmus+ funding for the internship and received it. As the internships are unpaid and the internship and everything that goes with it are really not cheap, it was a real financial relief and I can only recommend applying for the funding.

My time in Ireland was really special. My host family was amazing and I learned so much about the country, culture and especially myself during the 3 months. 40-50 minutes by bus from Dublin City Center. It was a bit of a hassle to get into the city, but it was perfect for my work as it was only a 20 minute walk away. The work was a lot of fun, but also really exhausting at times. In any case, I was able to learn a lot from the children there. My colleagues were all nice and I was always happy to go to work. I always started at 10 a.m. and had to work until 4 p.m., including a 45-minute break. At the beginning I worked for 2 weeks in the group of 5-year-olds, i.e. all the children who are now moving into first grade after the summer vacation. That was very interesting and a great start. From then on, I worked with the senior toddlers, where the children were 2.5 to 3 years old. We also worked a lot with the Toddler group, so the groups were always mixing and I also helped a lot there. The Toddlers are all children who are about 2 years old. However, I also have to say that even though I was there for 3 months, there was still a clear separation between me, the intern, and my colleagues. I didn't take part in any meetings and I wasn't invited to any internal events or meetings at educational institutions. I personally thought that was a shame, but of course there could have been various reasons, but it made it more complicated to make connections. On a professional level, however, everything was fine.

But I did a lot of things, I went to Dublin many times, to Galway, Cork, Belfast and even made it over to London once. I was able to gather so many experiences for myself, it was really unique. Solo traveling and generally being completely alone was a big challenge for me at first, but after the first weekend that was forgotten and I am so grateful to have outgrown myself there to be able to take all these experiences with me. The second weekend I went on a tour with Paddywagon to Glendalough. It was wonderful, the nature is really indescribably beautiful. I met two wonderful girls who I visited two weeks later in Cork and we are still in contact today. I organized the trips to Belfast and Galway myself, but that was no problem either. I even spent three days in Galway. The city was endlessly beautiful, you have to have been there! I think it was one of my favorite places! In general, I was very lucky with the weather during the 3 months, there were only a few rainy days and I never had to deal with bad weather at the weekends.

As a young woman who was traveling alone the whole time, I felt super safe despite everything and never had the feeling that I needed to worry. I can only recommend Ireland in this respect. Despite everything, the whole time was an ongoing learning process for me, and most of all about myself. I'm grateful to have had the chance to do all this, even if it wasn't always easy for me, because you can only follow what's happening at home from a distance. Seems obvious, but when it really comes down to it, it can be really hard at a time like this.

So if you're up for adventure and personal challenges, whatever they may be, then I can only recommend something like this. You won't have that kind of time again in a hurry.

Incidentally, I was able to have the internship credited as a stay abroad for the subject English in my teacher training course (NRW)!

Written by Rebecca from Germany (Childcare intern in Dublin, Ireland with StudentsGoAbroad)