Architecture Internship & "Great Craic" in Dublin

I spent 5 months in Dublin, from September 2016 to January 2017, and the experience was everything that I expected it to be, and more!

My first emails/skype call with the Stint team confirmed that it was the program for me : they were very friendly, understanding and reassuring (I wasn’t particularly afraid of living abroad, but being a non-native English speaker, I wasn’t 100% confident that my English was good enough). They found the perfect work placement for me in an architecture firm, and made sure that I was happy with it before, during and after the internship. My colleagues turned out to be amazing and I learned a lot!

I was a bit anxious about the housing before I left : the rent was REALLY expensive (Dublin being on of the most expensive cities in Europe, rent-wise) and I had never lived with 7 people before. The rent was (and is), indeed, expensive, but : the location couldn’t be much more better (15-20 minutes walk from the city centre) ; a cleaning lady came weekly and everything we needed was provided (fast internet, washing machine/dryer, kitchen utensils…).

A few of my housemates and I still had to face three stressful situations with our housing : somebody broke into our first house and stole a laptop that had been left on the kitchen table ; we had to move house in the middle of my stay because the landlady decided to sell, with a short notice ; we struggled with the heating/hot water for a few weeks in the new house in November (the hot water cylinder was apparently not big enough for 8 people). Even if it wasn’t Stint’s fault, we wished that they solved the heating problem faster, and that they offered us some kind of compensation (it was cold in November) (and again, the rent is very expensive).

Apart from this unfortunate events, I had a wonderful time with my housemates, and this is also what I was expecting with this program : a sens of community/family away from home. The minute you step into your new house, you know you will be surrounded by people that want the same thing as you : explore the city, go out, go on a day tour/weekend trip, talk about your day while cooking dinner, etc.

Stint was very helpful at every step of the way, even though I’m fairly independent/self-sufficient. I really liked going to the Stint office, because the team is lovely, truly concerned about your well-being and passionate about what they do.
Thank you Melanie, Jeffrey, Philip, and especially Seana and Aoife!