If you thought my first couple of days in Ireland were eventful, wait until you read about my first full week.
How I almost got scammed:
On Wednesday, my second day in the office at my internship, we had a team meeting where we discussed forming a WhatsApp group chat to stay in contact.
At 11 p.m. on Wednesday night I received an email from my boss asking me to reconfirm my phone number. I assumed this was a follow up email to our previous discussion, and they were double checking that they had the correct information. So, I sent my number.
The next day I received a text asking if I was in the office, which was strange because I had already informed my boss that I would be working remotely. However, I also remembered my boss was not in the office that day either, so I chalked it up to a bad memory and replied.
Then things got weird. My boss made a questionable request of an international intern…
I had been tasked with purchasing two $500 Apple Gift Cards for an employee benefit program called Apple Matching Gifts. When I asked how I was supposed to pay for the cards, I was told I would “be reimbursed immediately after the purchase.”
I asked myself, what kind of internship program stuck me with a company that would ask an intern with two days of experience to march around an unfamiliar city with $1000 worth of gift cards?
I would like to make it very clear that I did not purchase the gift cards. However, I was so stunned by the request that I eventually decided to request to become a fully remote intern. Because there was no way in hell I was going back into that office.
After explaining what had happened to several people, including my internship coordinator, something still seemed strange about the delivery of the request. So, I conducted my own little investigation. My parents suggested that I look at the full email address that sent me the initial request for my phone number. Low and behold the “hotman87” email address was definitely not my boss.
For context, the first and last name attached to the “’hotman87″ email was my boss, which is why I believed it was coming from them.
So, I spent about four full days convinced my boss wanted me to spend $1000 of my own money for an employee benefit program…only to discover I had (almost) fallen for the classic gift card scam. Brought to you by an individual fully impersonating my boss.
Everything at my internship has been resolved, but I will admit it is extremely embarrassing to accuse your new place of employment of scamming you after just your first week of work.
Leave it to me to nearly be scammed during my first week on my own in a foreign country.
If you thought that was a good story, imagine my boss’s reaction to it on Monday morning.
Cocktails:
This week Jenna and I went out for drinks at The Well and The ClubHouse Bar.
The ClubHouse is the UCD campus bar. The bar hosts karaoke nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week, and it caters to UCD students. We visited the bar last Thursday night with our fellow interns.
There are several different groups of interns, sports teams and students studying abroad who are staying at UCD right now. So, the bar was packed on Thursday, and the karaoke did not disappoint.
I have never seen such enthusiastic participation at a karaoke night, from both the crowd and the performers. Jenna’s performance gets a 10/10 in my book. She was engaging, made full use of the stage and interacted with all her adoring fans. She debuted with our intern coordinator, Rachel, and together they sang Dancing Queen by Abba.
Several groups took over the stage with groups of eight or more people, and some even planned choreography. There was no shortage of laughter or boozy covers of the best karaoke songs.
The Well is a pizza, bar and coffee house combo. If pizza and cocktails don’t sell the location to you, the atmosphere should. Good music, great decorations and friendly service make The Well the perfect weekend stop.
By day you can order a latte and enjoy free WiFi. By night most people order pizza and enjoy the variety of cocktails.
“Something Pink” is by far the best cocktail I have ever had. This drink is made up of vodka, and creme de peche, with cranberry, vanilla, lemon and hibiscus flavors. It is the perfect drink for someone who doesn’t love the harsh taste of alcohol.
Overall, this restaurant has become one of our favorite dinner spots.
Rugby:
Last night I was invited to play tag-rugby with my co-workers from my internship. So luckily I didn’t scare them off with my internet scammer accusations.
Their team is in a beginners league and games take place at UCD.
I will preface this by saying I have not played Rugby in three years, and even when I “played” rugby in high school I mostly stood on the sidelines and invented a game with my friends that consisted of throwing small rocks at each other.
But, I managed to actually catch the ball, and I only fell once, which is an accomplishment for me. I lost five glue-on nails in the process but our team won!
It’s a bird, it’s a plane…nope it’s a bird:
As if my luck wasn’t bad enough this week, I was terrorized my a pigeon. While I was walking alone down a busy street a pigeon flew at me and slapped me in the face with its wing.
I did a very embarrassing and uncoordinated run away from the pigeon, and then continued walking like nothing happened.
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