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The Final Days

Sadly the program is coming to an end. It's amazing how fast two weeks have gone by. On Friday, we had our last site visit. We visited Phoenix Care Center (PCC); a public sector mental health facility. With seeing this facility, we really had come full circle because at the beginning of the trip we saw a private sector center and now we had the chance to see a public sector center. It was interesting to see the differences in a public and a private facility. There were many things that were very similar and things that were different. They are similar in the fact that it is patients first, but they differ in their set ups. In St. Pats hospital, they had wings with all the beds together with only a few private rooms, but in PCC, all of the rooms we saw were private. They are similar in the fact that they have grounds that the service users can help maintain. They differ in the fact that St. Pats doesn’t use restraints at all, while PCC uses them only emergencies. Another way they differ is when it comes to security. St. Pats was very open, and locks weren’t really used, while at PCC all doors are locked at all times.

After PCC, we went to the Guinness Storehouse. It was such a neat experience to see.
So much work goes into each pint of Guinness, from the roasting of the barley, to the making of the barrels, to the advertisement, and to pouring a pint. And while I don’t like Guinness all that much, it was still an amazing tour to go on and to learn more about how it came to be such a large Irish thing.
Saturday was very bittersweet. We had the morning free to do some last minute shopping and packing, and then in the afternoon we went to Glendalough.

We were able to visit St. Kevin's monastic settlement, and then we hiked to the upper lake. It was such an amazing view, situated in a valley. It's no wonder why the monks chose this site to settle at! After hiking, we went to the highest pub in Ireland; Johnny Fox's. Johnny Fox's is special as a pub because in addition to dinner, there is also a show of traditional Irish dancing afterwards. It was a great ending to a great trip.

Thank you Ireland for a great trip, hopefully I'll be back one day!

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