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Ing. Karel Burian, UCT Prague,
ročník 5About the country
Location of the place
Overall city is not so big, at first it fells like it because of number of skyscrapers, but after some time it gets smaller after some trips.
City
Doha is really beautifull. Many things to see. Especially metro, build in 2019 makes it really easy to move around There are also lot of buses, but I used them only few times. More favourable is taxi transportation mainly Uber, which is pretty cheap there and works fast.
As main atraction there serve mainly malls at summer (which is from april to september), I really recommend to go here in october and later. Temperatures here above 40 degrees and even in nights it's not so favorable, because there's high humidity.
There is lot of things to see, but you can easily go thought it all in 1 free week.
Lot of parks, lot of museums, beatifull marines, nice beaches.
About tips what to see, there is lot of good guides about Doha, which I would only repeat. My favourite place was Souq Waqif, big traditional market and Lusail marina.
Also I belive that there's gonna be number of new things to see in next years. Doha is growing really fast, when you look on famous skyscraper wiew it's hard to relise that none of these were there 15 years ago in 2008.
As main atraction there serve mainly malls at summer (which is from april to september), I really recommend to go here in october and later. Temperatures here above 40 degrees and even in nights it's not so favorable, because there's high humidity.
There is lot of things to see, but you can easily go thought it all in 1 free week.
Lot of parks, lot of museums, beatifull marines, nice beaches.
About tips what to see, there is lot of good guides about Doha, which I would only repeat. My favourite place was Souq Waqif, big traditional market and Lusail marina.
Also I belive that there's gonna be number of new things to see in next years. Doha is growing really fast, when you look on famous skyscraper wiew it's hard to relise that none of these were there 15 years ago in 2008.
Surroundings (possible trips, ...)
I highly recommend going for desert safari, which takes you for an adrenalin trip by desert dunes.
Also a very nice experience was to go kayaking in mangroves.
These trips can be expensive so I recommend looking for more sites especially at qgrabs, which provides nice sales, or try to ask some locals.
There are a lot of places to see outside the city, but it is hard to get there without a car.
I recommend going to Al Wakra souq, Al Zabrah (old fortress), also beaches outside Doha like Maroona are not paid and are nicer, a lot of people go there to just do barbeque and chill with friends. You can take uber, for outside travel but if you are too far from Doha, there's a lower possibility of getting uber back.
If you have a driving license, you can arrange one here.
Also a very nice experience was to go kayaking in mangroves.
These trips can be expensive so I recommend looking for more sites especially at qgrabs, which provides nice sales, or try to ask some locals.
There are a lot of places to see outside the city, but it is hard to get there without a car.
I recommend going to Al Wakra souq, Al Zabrah (old fortress), also beaches outside Doha like Maroona are not paid and are nicer, a lot of people go there to just do barbeque and chill with friends. You can take uber, for outside travel but if you are too far from Doha, there's a lower possibility of getting uber back.
If you have a driving license, you can arrange one here.
Employer
Employer
I worked at the Qatar University at the research complex, more concretly group Gas processing center. Everyone there was very friendly and helpful.
Work description
At first, sadly anyone at the laboratory didn't knew about my arrival, so my internship was kinda improvised.
First three weeks I worked with a master student/research assistant, which worked at testing nanoemulsions, their viscoelastic properties with changing shear/temperatur, zeta potential, particle size, size distribution.
Remaining weeks I joined one PhD student, which worked on treatment of brine solutions from distillation plants. These brines were reacted with CO2 and hydroxide resulting in lower ion concentrations by creation of carbonates which are useful in industry.
Work was very interesting and I got the opportunity to work with a reactor on unique experiments, which can be published in future.
But after preparation of solution and launching of the reactor no other work was required from me except checking conditions and consultation of results. So I was more times bored, because not every time someone gave me another job.
First three weeks I worked with a master student/research assistant, which worked at testing nanoemulsions, their viscoelastic properties with changing shear/temperatur, zeta potential, particle size, size distribution.
Remaining weeks I joined one PhD student, which worked on treatment of brine solutions from distillation plants. These brines were reacted with CO2 and hydroxide resulting in lower ion concentrations by creation of carbonates which are useful in industry.
Work was very interesting and I got the opportunity to work with a reactor on unique experiments, which can be published in future.
But after preparation of solution and launching of the reactor no other work was required from me except checking conditions and consultation of results. So I was more times bored, because not every time someone gave me another job.
Salary (sufficient for local conditions?)
2000 qatarian rials was more than enought, mainly accommondation and food was already included.
But prices at Doha markets and restaurants were suprisingly good. Most of times better than in Czech Republic.
But prices at Doha markets and restaurants were suprisingly good. Most of times better than in Czech Republic.
Language requirements
I did use english during my whole time. Level of students/teachers was really good, even better than mine, because lot of lectures here is actually learned in english. Also most of people here speak arabic.
Accommodation (price, who provided it)
I lived at college at university campus. It was really well and modern equiped, I did have personal room with circa 15 square meters and personal bathroom. Accommodation was free samely as food. There was big gym, libraly, room with billiard and table tennis and room with big TV where was football ofted watched
Fun fact: accomodation is actually pretty new and it was place there Argentina football team was accommodated during FIFA 2023
Fun fact: accomodation is actually pretty new and it was place there Argentina football team was accommodated during FIFA 2023
Social life
Meeting IAESTE members (pick-up at the airport, organized events...)
IAESTE student picked me up at airport and took me by car to my accomodation. Only event that was prepared for us was quick show of engineering deparment and meeting with dean.
Meeting other foreign students
We were 7 IAESTE students, we did several trips together. Also at accommodation there was lot of exchange students. Everyone was really friendly and I really enjoyed meeting them.
Sport and culture
There was free gym inside accommodation. There were some stadiums inside campus for sports like voleyball or football, but not sure if it was possible to go there as intern without student ID.
Food, local specialties
Food was really good and prices suprised me, as it was at good prices (15-30 rials for lunch). Qatar is very multicultural city, which means that were was number of different restaurants. Arabs really like sweets and their tradional foods like Margooga are sour. Very popular desert is Kunafa which is baked from pastry and cheese which is soaked and then filled with pistachios or nuts.
Other information
Possibilites to communicate with the Czech Republic
Every social media works here. I used mainly whatsapp and messenger.
Recommendations for students who will go to the same place
It's good to buy some linen clothes for walks outside, clothes are not much more expensive than in the Czech Republic, so you can buy them in malls.
Look at prices of tariffs before buying a sim card. It seemed to me that Ooredoo was more expensive than Vodafone. But prices of tariffs are generally more affordable than in Czech.
Also you will need to buy a socket adapter as there are different sockets than in Europe for 250 V.
If you are here as intern/worker you can try to bargain free resident entry to some museums (National museum, Museum of Islamic arts, Olympionic sports museum).
You don't have to worry so much about clothing as male or female, people are really tolerant of the clothing of tourists.
Look at prices of tariffs before buying a sim card. It seemed to me that Ooredoo was more expensive than Vodafone. But prices of tariffs are generally more affordable than in Czech.
Also you will need to buy a socket adapter as there are different sockets than in Europe for 250 V.
If you are here as intern/worker you can try to bargain free resident entry to some museums (National museum, Museum of Islamic arts, Olympionic sports museum).
You don't have to worry so much about clothing as male or female, people are really tolerant of the clothing of tourists.
What not to forget with you
Dollars/Euros in cash as at least for Raiffeisen bank, exchange rates weren't so good and it cost me like 4-10% or money withdrawn. So I think that it is more convenient to bring money with you. Mainly dollars are a good option as there are no losses for their exchange to qatari rials.
But payment by card was possible in every shop, maybe it was only my bank, my German friend didn't have any problems.
But payment by card was possible in every shop, maybe it was only my bank, my German friend didn't have any problems.
Benefits of the internship
Good opportunity to train english and meet people all around the world. Living here is not hard, so it's good for first experience outside of Europe, great way to meet new culture.
Cooperation with IAESTE in the foreign country
I did recieve some informations about mine arrival in last week before my flight.
Overall experience with IAESTE
I really enjoyed my stay in Qatar, I would like to stay maybe few more weeks, but overall I did discover almost everything that is possible at Doha. You can discover most of places like in 5/6 full days.
Student's website
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karel-burian-iv26/
Employer's webiste
https://www.qu.edu.qa/sites/
Other useful links
https://www.iloveqatar.net/
Other comments
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