After two exhausting days of traveling around Dublin, first coping with the time difference while walking around Howth, then the second learning more about the history of Dublin and Ireland in general, I am surprised by how different my expectations were of Dublin, Ireland, and Europe in general. I never been to Europe entirely, so all I imagined Dublin having the architecture of a small European city you see in films, with history seemingly seeping out of its walls, and having pubs everywhere. I was right about the pubs being everywhere, but what I did not was the history that was deeply imbedded not just in certain areas or districts, but throughout the entire city of Dublin. To be completely honest, most of Dublin feels more American, or more familiar, than I thought. There is a different feeling to the city as a whole, but in general, it is not something that I am completely unfamiliar with. It’s a city with apartments, office buildings, crossroads, and jaywalkers. Language is not a problem either, so I didn’t feel completely out of place. The region with the tourist traps felt more like the Irish I imagined. Instead, I was greeted with a rather modern city, infusing different aspects of Irish history throughout the years. If there are medieval-age city walls and buildings with centuries of history, there are more recent brick buildings during the industrial age and even modern buildings, housing many international companies with cutting edge technology. From our residency in a modern hotel, we can easily walk a block to a city wall centuries old, and only a few feet away from that is a cathedral, rich with Ireland’s religious history. Thinking about the country as a whole, it is amazingly green and filled with flowers everywhere. It is biased coming from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, two major cities, but the green and its luster felt like the untouched countryside of Japan, but with a lot more color and variety. The different flowers and their bright colors painted a beautiful painting, complemented with the bright green of the grasses, blue of the sky and sea, and the brown and grey rocky cliffs. Thankfully, the first two days did not rain heavily, so our view of Howth and Dublin were in its full glory. In my days to come, I am excited to explore more of the short, historic, and bustling city of Ireland and the flourishing, cliff-filled, and green landscape of Ireland, all hopefully without rain.

Walking and riding a bus throughout Dublin on our second day while hearing from local historians talk about the history of Ireland, I was reaffirmed with how important history is to general knowledge and my career as an internationally-oriented business student. I love history, planning to take it as a minor, so for me, I already understand how important history is. Everything that we know of today has past roots, and to trace and understand those roots is important to knowing more about everything, whether that is politics, economics, business, or anything else. The attitudes that many countries, and subsequently people, have today take are based off of where they grew up, their ancestry, their environment, and many other factors. While many are unique, one thing that does not change from person to person is the country that they were born, and the general culture within that country. This “general culture,” to me, is what is most important about understanding business internationally. It is usually impossible to understand and connect with your business clients, since that can sometimes take years living in a country that you have never been or had any experience with. However, what we can try to understand, is the small things in a culture that have a big impact on our treatment to them. For example, the US’s business lunches might be a short meal to a deli, talking mostly about work, but in Europe, lunches are long sessions to know someone personally outside of their work. Without a general knowledge of a region or country’s customs and culture, we do not gain a better foothold of understanding, and to the clients or customers, they would rather do business with someone who is willing to adapt and get accustomed to their culture, rather than someone who is ethnocentric. While I have extensive history and background with Asia, I am excited in the coming weeks to explore Ireland and Europe’s culture and customs to gain a better connection and understanding of the people and the country, and use that knowledge with future friends, business partners, and clients.